Star date: 3541.9 (given at the 41-minute mark)
Summary: Responding to a distress signal from the Mellurian system, the Enterprise crew is puzzled to find that the "more than 4 billion" Mellurians have all been killed. While digesting this information, the Enterprise comes under attack from an extremely powerful, unknown source. The sole photon torpedo volley the Enterprise manages in return is completely absorbed by the alien vessel. Surprisingly, the alien vessel is remarkably small, measuring just over one meter long. At the point when one more blow by the alien would destroy the ship, Kirk finally manages, after some difficulty, to communicate with the alien, indicating that his intentions are peaceful. The alien responds in kind and agrees to be beamed aboard the Enterprise.
What appears on the transporter platform is the entire alien "vessel", and we learn that the alien is not an organic life form at all, but rather a computer intelligence which floats through the Enterprise. After some questioning, Spock determines that the alien is Nomad, an Earth space probe launched several hundred years before --- or more accurately, a modified Nomad. Nomad states that its mission is to find and sterilize biological imperfection; it is responsible for the death of the Mellurians. It also turns out that Nomad spared the Enterprise from "sterilization" only because it confuses Kirk with its creator, Jackson Roykirk.
While Spock and Kirk ponder what to do about Nomad, it wanders up to the bridge, intrigued by Uhura's singing, which it considers nonsensical. When Nomad starts to read Uhura's mind, Scotty attacks it, and Nomad instantly responds by killing Scotty. When Scotty and Uhura are taken to sick bay, Nomad offers to "repair" Scotty. After uploading Scotty's medical record and other medical information, Nomad proceeds to sick bay to revive Scotty. When Kirk orders Nomad to repair Uhura, Nomad informs him it can't be done, because she is not damaged; rather, her mind has been erased. McCoy and Nurse Chapel get to work to re-educate Uhura.
After Spock uses a mind-meld to better understand Nomad's origin, we learn that Nomad was partially destroyed long ago, but then encountered and merged with an alien probe which was designed to retrieve and sterilize soil samples. The physical merging gave Nomad its remarkable abilities and indestructability, and the merging of instructions left Nomad believing that it must sterilize "imperfection". Spock and Kirk quickly realize that it is only a matter of time before Nomad decides to "sterilize" the Enterprise and wipe out its crew.
In fact, Nomad vaporizes four security guards who attempt to use phasers on it, then shuts down all life support systems. With little time to spare, Kirk confronts Nomad and points out that Nomad is also imperfect, because Nomad confused Kirk with its creator, Roykirk. Kirk then demands that Nomad sterilize the imperfection by destroying itself. While Nomad fights to resolve this seeming contradiction, Spock and Kirk load it into the transporter, beaming it into deep space just as Nomad destroys itself.
Uhura regains her knowledge with miraculous speed, and the episode ends with Kirk lamenting the loss of Nomad, since it looked to Kirk as its mother.
Okay, for the second consecutive episode, season two is failing to live up to its early promise. The idea of an Earth-launched probe returning in a new (and dangerous) form is pretty interesting --- and, I believe, an idea which will be revisited in the future --- but both Nomad's abilities and the ultimate resolution require far too much suspension of disbelief. Consider, the original Nomad was launched more than 200 years before, was badly damaged by meteors, and somehow managed to merge with an alien probe. And it has the following abilities:
- Cannot be harmed by phasers or photon torpedoes.
- Carries enough firepower to destroy the Enterprise in 5 shots.
- Despite expending such deadly energy, has an apparently limitless energy supply.
- Has sufficient medical knowledge to raise Scotty from the dead --- superseding
even Bones' medical knowledge, which is presumably much more current. - Has engineering knowledge superior to the engineers who built the Enterprise.
- Can erase a person's memory.
- Can kill "over 4 billion people" in less than a week.
As for the resolution, it's highly doubtful that Nomad's incorrect assumption that Kirk is his creator is enough to confuse Nomad into destroying itself. In fact, Nomad makes it quite clear at other points in the show that it relies on information provided to it. When Nomad first makes the assumption that Kirk is his creator, Kirk intentionally does not correct it. So, when confronted with this "imperfection" at the climax, Nomad would be more likely to shrug it off as a consequence of bad information Kirk gave him.
Also, I'm getting a little tired of Kirk using his amazing intellect to talk computer/android villains into destroying themselves.
Other observations about this episode:
I earlier wondered whether anyone thought Nichelle Nichols' occasional musical numbers added anything to the show.
I guess we now have one very definite critic.
On the subject of Uhura, it's interesting that she apparently retains her knowledge of Swahili (which is presumably her native language) when her mind is erased. But she must have an amazing ability to learn and retain information if she can go from first-grade readers to back on the job in about a week.
Why do the four security guards try to detain Nomad by shooting it? If they weren't aware that Nomad absorbed a photon torpedo, then Kirk was negligent not to inform them. They should have known that shooting Nomad would accomplish nothing more than seal their own deaths.
But hey, wasn't Scotty lucky that Nomad killed him by electrocution, rather than vaporizing him like Nomad did to the security staff?
This is the second episode where one of the principal characters is killed and subsequently revived (the other being McCoy in "Shore Leave").
When Nomad is maximizing the Enterprise engines' efficiency, they hit warp 11 (and presumably higher).
And finally --- I understand that end-of-show comic relief is obligatory, but it's difficult to square Kirk's glib comments about Nomad as his son with the fact that Nomad killed "over 4 billion people", including 4 of Kirk's security personnel.
The Moral of the Story: Garbage in, garbage out.
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