The Changeling (2)

DVD, Star Trek S2 (The Changeling) (2)

I don't think the story of Nomad has a very close analogy with the mythical story of the fairy that replaces a human child, not unless the fairy had merged with the child to become a new entity. I suppose they were trying to add a bit of classical mythology to bulk out the story, which is really only a lot of waiting around until this probe from the 21st Century wises up to the fact it's been deceived. If it had only had some kind of interface with the Enterprise's computer then it would have learned everything it needed to know, wiped out the dirty biological infestation (hmm, now we know where V'ger got it's ideas from!), and went on its way back to Earth to sterilise the human vermin there. But what can you expect, even now we don't expect a Commodore Amiga from the early Nineties to connect to a MacBook of the now, so why would it be any different for computing devices centuries apart? Then again, Nomad could probably connect to a Mac since it was apparently launched in the early 2000s! I prefer to imagine when they said that they meant the early 21st Century, that way we have a little more wiggle room for it still to be launched. Unless… it really was launched already, but in secret. That's probably it. In any case it did interface with the Enterprise computer, but they had to sever the connection because it was taking data too quick for their computer to keep up, and we don't want Spock and Uhura to have to replace another communications circuit, do we!

It was very fortunate it didn't get data on Kirk's identity, but then that would probably be in a classified part of the databanks, not connected to the main library. What I love about the episode is how they assume it's some kind of ship full of tiny people. This was a great idea and I wish it had been true - it would have put an entirely different spin on the story, though I suspect they wouldn't have ever showed the microscopic aliens, merely had Nomad ferry them around as it did. So maybe it wouldn't have been so different after all. They wonder what could live in something as small as Nomad, but they must have forgotten Sylvia and Korob from 'Catspaw' whose true form was revealed at the end to be tiny little creatures. This could have been the sequel: their fellow Korobians or Sylvians had come looking for them at last! I really do like the design of Nomad, the flashing lights through tiny grilles, the shiny metal casing, the protruding sensor rods, all topped off with a deep voice that sounded suspiciously like 'Balok' ("We believe you have very little time left"). Nomad was actually voiced by Vic Perrin who is credited as 'Balok (Clint Howard's Voice)' in the 'Star Trek Encyclopedia' (as opposed to Ted Cassidy who voiced Balok's puppet), but isn't credited on Memory Alpha, where 'Walker Edmiston' is credited as the voice of Balok! I don't know what the truth of the matter is, but Nomad sure sounds like Balok! Perrin's tones would also be familiar for the voice of the Metrons and was finally seen as Tharn (and his Mirror counterpart), in 'Mirror, Mirror,' his first and only actual credited role on the series!

Having such a fruity voice coming from a small, hovering machine weirdly didn't make it seem ridiculous, it added some kind of depth of personality, a strong, authoritarian attitude to Nomad that is pleasingly held in check by the commands of Kirk. Otherwise it's extremely nosey, as you'd expect from a probe that was programmed to seek out new life and civilisations, to boldly go where Nomad has gone before! This causes some chaos to the ship, including the unfortunate loss of several Security Guards who hadn't been briefed that this little floaty mini-fridge which looks so harmless had almost taken out the entire ship with four shots! They might not have been so eager to pull a Phaser and start shooting if they had all the facts, I'm sure. There are a few mistakes that must be laid at Kirk's door in this episode: partly this, that his Security weren't very well informed and should have been warned not to stop Nomad leaving if it tried to, but to simply warn the Captain who could have stopped it with a simple instruction. But we had to see some people die otherwise we wouldn't have the sense of extreme threat from it - why did the Guards get vaporised yet Scotty, once again leaping in to save a fair maiden (sorry, neither!), where sensible men fear to tread, just as he did with Apollo, only gets flicked across the Bridge? In Scotty's case he was thrown back by touching Nomad's 'screens,' while the Guards were actually firing at Nomad, who responded in kind.

The other mistake, and one which the Captain acknowledges, is that he lets Nomad know that he is biological, too. I thought it was all part of the plan and this was when he planned to let rip with the finest display of logic this side of Mr. Spock, but it just came out in the heat of the moment. It's easy for us, sitting comfortably at home, and having seen this and many other similar episodes so many times, to almost be shouting at the screen, "Just confuse it by proving to it it's imperfect!" But Kirk hadn't used this tactic much before this time, it may even be the first time, though I'm not sure about that - was there a computer he talked down in 'A Taste of Armageddon,' and what about Landru in 'The Return of The Archons'? Either way, he didn't keep the logic card in his back pocket knowingly, he just had quick wits and the ability to seize on an opponent's weakness, only this time he was slow to do so. You'd expect Spock also to have thought of the logical solution in which to confuse it, but maybe he was still a little frazzled from mind-melding with the machine (another precursor to 'The Motion Picture'), where he couldn't actually pull his mind away and Kirk had to step in and order Nomad to release him. We don't usually see a mind meld backfire!

In the previous episode we'd been gifted some dates for the future chronology and now, thanks to mention of when Nomad launched we have another data point, so the history of the future was stacking up nicely, in spite of the series not yet really knowing when it was set. They were masters of giving out only little bits and pieces here and there so as not to write themselves into a corner, a practice that continued throughout the 'true' Trek period of '66-'05, but has sadly been one of the many conventions of Trek that has been chucked out with the current regime (things like saying the Federation and Klingons didn't have anything to do with each other since Captain Archer visited their homeworld, that sort of thing). It's said to be the first interstellar probe designed to seek out new lifeforms, although not having warp drive it's difficult to see how it managed this feat in the same way as I'm not sure why the Enterprise couldn't outrun it - sure, it can fire bolts of energy (which I mistakenly assumed was a ship, in the same style as some of the other alien vessels they presented), which travel as fast as Warp 15 (not forgetting they used a different scale at this time - do they use it in 'DSC'? Unclear since they rarely mention what speed they're travelling at, nor do they really need to use warp when they have instantaneous jumps), but could it travel that fast itself? Later, when Nomad's rootling around in Engineering, buzzing about like a curious bee, it does improve the engine capacity.

There is something of the magical fantasy tech that people sometimes complain about with the end of 'Voyager' and onward, since Nomad can fix both organic and mechanical problems simply by looking in their direction, seemingly - it carries out noninvasive surgery on Scotty to resurrect him, and again on the engines to improve them, without ever actually doing anything we can see. It does have its limits, however, as once it's wiped Uhura's memory it can't restore her 'hard drive.' If only this episode had taken place before the last couple of stories, then her absence in those would actually make a lot of sense and fit in neatly with the major misfortune she suffers here. Though it is said that she'll be back to normal by 'next week,' which sounds to me as if they were covering themselves so that when next week's episode came along and she was completely back to normal there would be no concern about it. The attack on her was one of the big missed opportunities on the series - it's good that something important happens to a background character, and there weren't ongoing consequences in those days in case the episodes needed to be shown in any order, but even in the space of this episode they could have dealt better with her reeducation. Instead, apart from the nice scene where Christine is teaching her to read, further suggesting a friendship there, it's played more for humour than tragedy. Did she only lose her ability to read and her learning, or did she lose all her memories and the sum of her life? In that case she could have become an entirely different person, and the whole episode could have been about this. It would have been absolutely tragic. There is a touch of hope, however, since she speaks a little Swahili (the only time she ever did?), her native tongue, which suggests she does retain her past memory in there somewhere.

If Uhura isn't used in the best way she could have been, at least she had a different role, Chekov didn't even get to appear - I do wonder why, since he was such a new character you'd think he'd be there every time. I can only assume they didn't have the budget to give every one of whom we think of as the main cast (the ones who went on to star in the films), a speaking role all the time, and perhaps with Chapel involved as well, Chekov got the boot this week - one of the Leslie boys sits in his seat, and in his colours too (which is how we know it can't be 'the' Mr. Leslie, since he wears red). Was that Lieutenant Palmer sitting in for Uhura at Communications? It's only that we see the back of this blonde lady, and the idea comes more easily since we see so much of the USS Constellation again from 'The Doomsday Machine,' the episode in which she appeared. Okay, so it isn't really that starship, we're given a cornucopia of sets to enjoy of our own Enterprise, but it was a bit disconcerting to see so many changes - perhaps there was some kind of upgrade between seasons because Engineering looks a lot different, and even the Transporter Room has an extra wall behind which is another science viewer - there are a lot of those, there's another one in Auxiliary Control where they show Nomad star charts of the Solar System. We even get the Brig, complete with glowing doorway to represent a forcefield, which Nomad easily pushes through. Had we seen the Brig before? I don't recall. But we see Nomad travelling up a maintenance shaft (I guess that's a Jefferies Tube, too), complete with Tri-ladder, and there's just a general great exposure to the various parts of the ship.

When Kirk and Spock head in to McCoy's office next to Sickbay they almost bump into the door as it refuses to open, one of the only times that ever happened, I'm sure! They really sold the movement of this machine, the strings upon which it dangles are cunningly hidden so that even if you're looking out for them they aren't easy to spot - they film it so well, often just hiding the very top where the lines are attached, and because the bulbous shape on top is about head height and almost looks like a face, complete with the 'eyes' of the sensor probes, you're automatically drawn to look at it, not to mention the blinking lights that also hold a fascination. I love how they show it moving through doors, out of Turbolifts, that sort of thing, cutting to a different shot to disguise the fact that it couldn't really have done that, or close-ups of it following characters. Presumably there was someone below camera holding it steady as Spock does his mind meld - it's all so cleverly and realistically done, it doesn't even rotate as you'd expect something hanging from a line would do, so it must have had two lines to steady it. A great piece of design. I also enjoyed hearing some technical details during the attack, something we're so used to in later series', but not so much in the original when things weren't as clear or tied down: Sulu says the shields just snapped on, does that mean the computer has automatic control if it detects potential threat? Spock says a fourth blast would 'shatter' the shields, does that mean they aren't energy, but some kind of ablative armour (like the Defiant), or was it just poetic licence? And Scotty has to do the age-old tactic of transferring power from engines to shields - a classic!

There's talk of the Malurians, who had all been destroyed - apparently they were being studied by a Federation science team, which suggests they might have been pre-warp, except we saw them in 'Enterprise' meddling in another (actual pre-warp), planet in 'Civilisation.' Unless they weren't being studied undercover, but with their full cooperation, which would explain it. It's funny, they do sound like a more modern-sounding alien race, not as common on 'TOS,' and I like that. I also like other bits and pieces about the episode: that Uhura goes back to her singing again, even though it prompts Nomad to travel all the way up to the Bridge from Auxiliary Control just to wipe her mind because it's inefficient (everyone's a critic!). If only Mr. Singh (Blaisdell Makee, who also played Spinelli in 'Space Seed') had been paying more attention he might have alerted them sooner and saved Uhura the inconvenience of having to learn everything all over again, though it does show what an intelligent lady she was that she could get through all her education so quickly, leading me to have no real worries about her future career in Starfleet. Kirk asking Nomad if it needs any special requirements before beaming aboard, such as a specific atmosphere, adds reality to the situation as you wouldn't expect aliens, especially ones they assume are tiny, to be able to live in exactly the same atmosphere as humanoid species, though I wonder how that would have played out if they, like Tholians, say, had required corrosive gases! And then there were the antigrav units Kirk and Spock use to rush the head-spinning Nomad to the Transporter (couldn't it have been beamed out from where it was?).

Even Kirk's little gag at the end when he starts talking about Nomad as if it were his son, and what a great doctor it might have been, must have prefigured his real, biological son David by a few years, so there are some fun references in retrospect (Symbalene Blood Burn is another - we eventually saw what this nasty pathogen could do in 'Cold Station 12' from 'Enterprise'), although this is the first entirely to be set on the ship without even a minor excursion to round out the slight feeling of closeness in the environment. Of course it only really feels slightly claustrophobic in comparison to the vast, ridiculous use of space in 'DSC,' another reality of Trek that was ruined by people that had no care for the timeline - even 'Enterprise' made sure to be even more cramped and submarine-like to represent an earlier period. But it is a good episode, it may be a cliche for Kirk to talk down an errant machine, but it wasn't so much of one at this point if you watch it in the context of the time. It uses most of the characters well, and it's different to have Kirk make mistakes and have to respond to something so different. I wish we'd heard of Jackson Roykirk in other Treks, but who knows, maybe one day we'll actually meet him since we met Zefram Cochrane, even though he was a much greater historical figure.

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