Interminable.

It’s the only way to describe “The Changeling” – an episode that is, ironically, in error. The premise, that an all powerful machine thinks it has been programmed to “sterilize” biological life forms has the potential to create a story that is relentless in a Terminator sort of fashion. But this? This is an example of what happens when production values are incapable of realizing even the most basic of ideas. Admittedly, there are a handful of redeeming qualities to this episode but, for the most part, it’s a wreck of nearly catastrophic proportions.

Things begin well with the Enterprise discovering that a once densely populated system has been utterly destroyed – or, at the very least, its inhabitants are all gone. Before the crew has a chance to come to terms with this discovery, the Enterprise suddenly finds itself under attack by a far superior foe. But as compelling as this scene is, in terms of action, the episode’s problems begin to crop up anyway. Kirk orders the ship to fire Photon torpedoes, which have no effect. After the photons, Kirk then hails the vessel and gives the standard “we come in peace” speech. Yeah, sure. And after that he has a bridge back on Vulcan he wants to sell you.

As it turns out, all this fuss is over a probe which calls itself Nomad. Back in its early history, shortly after having been launched from Earth, it was struck by a meteor and had its circuits scrambled. A chance encounter with an alien probe allowed it to repair itself, but the new hybrid became the deadly monster which now stalks the galaxy, looking for imperfect life forms to eradicate.

The problem isn’t just that Nomad is clearly a metal box on strings, but rather that its characterizations are just as obviously fake as its design. In other words, poor design can be forgiven if the rest of the story and characters are compelling. Instead, Nomad is mind numbingly annoying. And it’s actions are so ridiculous that any sense of danger or horror that such a concept might otherwise evoke, simply become lost in all the pointless hubbub. As an example, Nomad kills Scotty. Then revives him. Nomad also wipes Uhura’s mind. But she’ll be okay because she’ll relearn a lifetime’s worth of information in a week.

And then there is Nomad erroneously thinking that Kirk is its mommy. This does serve as a central plot point to the episode, but the execution of this notion is … well, it’s as ludicrous as everything else, including Spock’s mind meld with a machine. And of course, Kirk does defeat Nomad, using a paradox to cause the machine’s overload. That such a plot device is already a Star Trek cliché doesn’t help this episode.

The finest moment comes during the episode’s denouement, after Spock compliment’s Kirk’s use of logic to overload Nomad’s circuits. Kirk quips, “Didn’t think I had it in me, did you?” to which Spock deadpans, “No.” It’s hilarious.

It’s also the first entertaining scene since the initial attack by Nomad.

“The Changeling” features a glacial pace, poor execution on a fairly esoteric concept, and almost no depth whatsoever. The result is simply one of the worst episode of the series thus far.

Filed under: Original Series