Product Details

• Actors: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, William Marshall, James Doohan
• Directors: John Meredyth Lucas
• Writers: Gene Roddenberry, D.C. Fontana, Laurence N. Wolfe
• Producers: John Meredyth Lucas, Gene Roddenberry, Robert H. Justman
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: CBS Paramount International Television
• VHS Release Date: April 15, 1994
• Run Time: 46 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6300213579
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #254,897 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Kirk reluctantly agrees to play along with a Federation test of a new supercomputer, designed by the brilliant Dr. Daystrom (William Marshall, the booming baritone stage actor most famous for Blacula) to run a starship almost single-handedly. It does its job too well, locking the human crew out of ship operations and using deadly force during the Federation war games. Spock and McCoy continue their now-legendary banter about man versus machine while Kirk muses over the obsolescence of his own command. Marshall is excellent as a former-boy-wonder genius banking his reputation on this breakthrough, treating his creation like a son. That's not too far from the truth: designed after his brain pattern, this thinking, reasoning, learning machine carries with it the insecurities and desperation of its creator. The fears of the emerging digital revolution explored in The Ultimate Computer in 1968 remain today: what is the fate of man in the face of technological efficiency? Films from 2001: A Space Odyssey and Colossus: The Forbin Project to Demon Seed and The Matrix have echoed these themes, and this Trek episode--primitive special effects, zero-budget sets, and all--stands up to them quite nicely. --Sean Axmaker

From the Back Cover

Kirk stands by helplessly as his ship is used to test and advanced computer that turns out to be as flawed as its inventor. TREK TRIVIA
Barry Russo (Commodore Robert "Bob" Wesley) was previously seen in "The Devil in the Dark." Gene Roddenberry used Bob Wesley as a pseudonym early in his career (his middle name was Wesley and his brother's name is Bob).
William Marshall (Dr. Richard Daystrom) later gained film notoriety as Blacula.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars STAR TREK AT ITS FINEST, July 25, 2001

By 

givbatam3 "givbatam3" (REHOVOT Israel) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Trek - The Original Series, Episode 53: The Ultimate Computer [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I am writing this review from the possibly heretical viewpoint that holds that the original Star Trek TV series was one of the finest series ever shown on television whereas the subsequent motion pictures and follow-up series (e.g. The Next Generation) were very poor. Given that point of view, I believe that "The Ulitmate Computer" was one of the very finest episodes ever made because it contains the elements that made the original series so good, i.e. the psychology of military command, the conflict between pure logic as a basis for the proper organization of society vs. the need to also incorporate man's innately emotional character into the equation, the proper role of technology in society and its possible misuse or loss of control, the psychology of the intelligent, creative man as well as his weaknesses and the dynamics of a group of resourceful men working to get out of a crisis situation. Although the episode is only 48 minutes long, the script writers were able to get it all into a single episode! Unfortunately, these elements were sadly missing in the later versions of Star Trek which get lost in the fog of mysticism, artificial virtual reality and escapism. What also adds to the episode's magic is the brilliant guest starring performance of William Marshall, who plays the unstable genius, Dr Richard Daystrom. All in all, a must for all fans of this marvelous TV series.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A certain event, a computer with a survival instinct, July 17, 2004

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Star Trek - The Original Series, Episode 53: The Ultimate Computer [VHS] (VHS Tape)

In this episode, a supercomputer called the M-5 is placed on board the Enterprise. It is so sophisticated that nearly all of the crew disembarks so that it can run the ship. However, it has been constructed using a human mind as a template. The creator of the computer, the brilliant Dr. Daystrom, used the patterns of his mind to build the circuits of the M-5. Unfortunately, Daystrom is mentally unstable, so the M-5 is also unstable.
When the M-5 is subjected to a war games exercise, it does not understand that it is a mock attack, so it treats it as a real one and destroys a star ship, killing everyone on board. The remaining ships then form an attack force, but Kirk is able to disable the computer and regain control of the Enterprise in the nick of time.
The most significant point in this episode is that a black man is portrayed as a very intelligent man who strongly defends his invention. He stands up to Kirk, interacting with the people in power as an equal, if not as a superior. Another point is that Dr. Daystrom has the most memorable reaction to the Vulcan neck pinch in the entire series.
I enjoyed the episode, it is often portrayed as anti-technology, but that is not true. I consider it an example of the reality of bleeding edge technology. Whenever a dramatic leap of technology has been attempted, there have been mishaps and deaths. Steam ships and locomotives blew up, ships sank, space shuttles exploded, planes crashed etc. Artificial intelligence (AI) remains an elusive goal with success being difficult to measure. However, one of the consequences of successfully implementing AI will be a computer behaving in a manner similar to that of the M-5, exhibiting a strong survival instinct. This is one of the episodes that is a safe prediction of a future event.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Man vs. Computer, March 28, 2001

By 

jasenao (Dothan, Alabama, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Trek - The Original Series, Episode 53: The Ultimate Computer [VHS] (VHS Tape)

A famous inventor boards the Enterprise and brings his invention, a computer, onboard the ship with him. The M-5 computer is capable of running a starship by itself without the aid of human assistance. It is supposed to be going through an experiment by playing war games with other ships. However, trouble arises when Captain Kirk and his crew find out that the M-5 computer has taken over completely and there's nothing they can do, including control the Enterprise in any way. Everybody better watch out because if something goes wrong, the M-5 computer could possibly destroy innocent lives when it's not supposed to.

"The Ultimate Computer" is a good episode of Star Trek. It is interesting, or in Spock's words fascinating, and it has great acting. I recommend it to anybody who likes Star Trek - The Original Series.