Product Details

• Actors: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Nichelle Nichols, James Doohan
• Writers: Gene Roddenberry
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Studio: CBS Paramount International Television
• DVD Release Date: February 13, 2001
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000055Z4I
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #50,739 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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  Movies & TV > Television > Classic TV > Star Trek: The Original Series

• For more information about "Star Trek - The Original Series, Vol. 19, Episodes 37 & 38: The Changeling/ The Apple" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

• This is item 19 in The Star Trek: The Original Series Series.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

"The Changeling"
After destroying 4 billion people in the Malurian star system, a 21st-century NASA probe called Nomad--carrying friendly greetings to whatever unknown, extraterrestrial race might find it--has a violent encounter with the Enterprise, nearly blowing the starship out of the skies. Hoping to sidestep another attack, Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock invite the diminutive, computer-driven, impossibly powerful spacecraft aboard to learn how its peaceful mission was supplanted by a program to destroy life. Written by John Meredyth Lucas, who was intrigued by the idea of a sentient, almost godlike machine that turns against its creator, "The Changeling" transcends, fortunately, Star Trek's cash-strapped special effects department (let's just say Nomad looks like a cross between the Tin Man and a 1960s beach radio) to become a compelling drama. Particularly memorable is Spock's mind-melding scene with Nomad, in which the Vulcan is shaken by the probe's chaotic memories of being captured and given destructive impulses. Frequent Trek director Marc Daniels was particularly proud of the way his crew made Nomad appear capable of independent movement: there was one model for hanging from a wire, a second for standing on a floor, and a third for riding on a dolly (to get a sinister, point-of-view traveling shot). If "The Changeling" sounds vaguely familiar, it should: the script was rewritten as the basis for Star Trek: The Motion Picture. --Tom Keogh

"The Apple"
A landing party beams down to Gamma Trianguli VI, a lush planet that's just like paradise... or is it? This is not the episode to be caught wearing a red shirt in: dangers abound and crew members drop like flies. Soon the party discovers a seemingly unspoiled tribe of innocents who spend their lives serving the god Vaal. Can it be that it's time to disobey the prime directive? The natives are all beautiful people with loincloths and entertaining hairdos, and of course Mr. Scott has an engineering dilemma. Another highlight is the sequence in which the natives learn a few facts of life from a particularly randy Mr. Chekov. Skip this one at your peril. --Ali Davis

Product Description

"The Changeling," Ep. 37 - Nomad, a deadly robotic space probe, is on target for Earth. Can Captain Kirk outsmart the killer computer? "The Apple," Ep. 38 - Vaal, protector of Gamma Trianguli VI, tries everything is its power to destroy Kirk and the U.S.S. Enterprise during an ill-fated visit to the strange planet.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Breaking Computers and Killing God, March 2, 2001

By	Hank Drake (Cleveland, OH United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Paramount continues its release of the complete Original Series with these two typical episodes from Season Two.

The Changeling features Captain Kirk battling wits with a computer, and winning. This is not the first time this plot device was used (Season One episode The Return of the Archons springs to mind) nor would it be the last--parts of this plot were recycled for Star Trek The Motion Picture. The voice of Nomad is supplied by Vic Perrin (best known as the "we are in control" voice from The Outer Limits, Perrin also appeared in the Star Trek episode Mirror, Mirror, as the leader of the Halkan Counsel).

The Apple is an allegorical story touching on Adam & Eve's expulsion from the Garden of Eden. The writer laid on the biblical symbolism pretty thick here. Vaal, this primitive culture's "God," is a computer (another parallel with The Return of the Archons) festooned with a serpent's head. At the end of the episode, Kirk orders the Enterprise--which is trapped in a decaying orbit due to interference from Vaal--to destroy the machine. Spock's line, "Vaal is dead" is reminiscent of the "God is dead" philoshophy being perpetrated by college professors in the 1960s. David Soul, who would later be featured in the popular 1970s series Starsky & Hutch has a small guest role.

These two episodes are of middling quality and will probably be of interest to die-hard Trekkers. Aside from the original episode trailers, there are no extras. (The reason no bloopers have been released with the series is that a Star Trek cast member sued Roddenberry in the 1970s for showing the blooper reel at Star Trek conventions, and Paramount has agreed not to release them commercially.)

Picture and sound have been superbly restored.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Two super machines - Two different kinds of fun classic trek, August 6, 2002

By	Rottenberg's rotten book review (nyc) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

A great pair of episodes - exemplifying both the campy and the genuinely creepy aspects of sci-fi on classic trek. First, the creepy...

The Enterprise encounters a machine (small enough to be towed though the Enterprise's corridors with a virtually invisible wire, yet powerful enough to wipe out both whole civilizations and Lt. Uhuru's voice). Though unrecognizable and sentient beyond any human technology, the machine identifies itself as "Nomad" - a robot probe launched from Earth in the 21st century. Even stranger - the probe identifies Kirk as its creator. Thinking quickly, Spock convinces Kirk not to correct the machine's error (though since the mistake saves the ship from destruction, it was more instinct than inference) and, though unsure of the machine's true nature at first, Kirk keeps Nomad in the dark. We learn that Nomad, to some extent, is the same Nomad created in the 21st century - a unique experiment combining space exploration and artificial intelligence, and cooked up by an eccentric inventor whose name sounds like Kirk's. We also learn that Nomad had encountered and merged with an alien probe with a seemingly similar mission, but far greater powers. The mind-meld in which Spock learns the horrific truth adds a chill and also some depth to the machine, which is one of the most perfect examples of coldly calculating AI on any major science fiction program. Though Classic Trek repeatedly concocted alien superbeings based on computers that had evolved to the point where they thought themselves gods ("For the world is hollow"; "Return of the Archons"; "The Ultimate Computer" and "The Apple"), this episode rose from the pack, and remains conceptually indistinguishable from "Star Trek, The Motion Picture" despite the far superior FX of that film.

If "The Changeling" was creepy, then "The Apple" is a campy treat - we've got a primitive yet beautiful race on a wild and dangerous planet who are completely ignorant of matters of love (but not innocent enough to keep from laughing when first hearing Spock's name); we've got the Enterprise in peril and Scotty unsurprisingly predicting disaster; we've got Spock and Checkhov play acting to trap a suspicious spying alien ("what do you expect, wy-olins?") and we've got an army of starfleet personnel in red shirts dropping like flies. First finding a lush alien world when landing, the crew quickly realize that the planet is a death trap - full of flowers shooting poisonous spores and prone to storms that pepper the planet with precisely aimed lightning bolts. It's no surprise that the planet is "managed" by a huge and powerful computer which the natives worship as a god. When the god, Vol, commands annihilation of the intruders - an order issued via telepathy to the tribal leader played by Peter Graves - the crew fight back. In the end, phaser power settles the argument, though that's still more convincing than in other episodes where the all-powerful machine is blasted out of existence merely because somebody asked the ultimate question. On a side note, DC comics published monthly adventures of Star Trek, including a three-issue sequel to this episode which was fun but also reminded me how much fun the show was. Next Generation was never this enjoyable.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not the best Original Series episodes but stil enjoyable., June 12, 2001

By	Michael Hickerson (Augusta, GA) - See all my reviews

At this point, in the TOS run, the number of truly great episodes is starting to dwindle a bit and being replaced more and more by episodes that have good intentions but they aren't always realized on screen. Case in point is "The Apple" (or as I call it--"Spock's Really Bad Day") which is once again an examination of the theme that humanity wasn't intended for a paradise we don't work to achieve and the classic Trek theme of Kirk vs. Computers. Yes, this one has some great moments--Kirk firing Scotty, Spock getting repeatedly abused by plant spores/darts and lightning and Kirk using the Enterprise's phasers to destroy Baal. It's campy at times, but it's still always entertaining (a claim that certain modern Treks can't always claims--namely Voyager).

The other episode on this disc is The Changeling which is an interesting storyline. It's one of about three or four episodes that influenced the storyline of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. It's got nice performances and it works fairly well as a ship in the bottle type of story (done to save money as Trek was an expensive show). However, compared to other ship in the bottle classics such as the Doomsday Machine it falls a bit short.