Scan by Marina,
The Flag Waver
Stardate: 3541.9
Episode: 37
Original US Airdate: 29 September 1967
Scan by Marina, The Flag Waver |
With a "mechanical beastie" as guest star… |
The destruction of the Malurian system and its 4 billion inhabitants prompts a visit from the Enterprise to investigate the cause of this catastrophe. The culprit turns out to be a powerful, computerized space probe, Nomad. After threatening the Enterprise, Nomad breaks off the attack and is beamed aboard the starship. When questioned, Nomad refers to Kirk as "the Creator" and "the Kirk", having mistaken the captain for the 21st-century scientist who originally designed Nomad, Jackson Roykirk; barring this confusion, Nomad probably would have destroyed the Enterprise as well. A hybrid of an Earth probe (sent to seek out alien life forms) and an alien mechanism designed to sterilize soil samples, Nomad now believes its mission is to destroy imperfect life forms.
The probe runs rampant on the Enterprise (erasing Uhura's "memory banks" because of her singing and "killing" Scotty, only to "repair" him later), tempered only by its reverence for its "creator", Kirk. Meanwhile, Spock attempts a Vulcan mind-meld to learn more about Nomad's origins. Kirk confronts Nomad and tells it its "creator" is also a biological unit. Nomad then breaks into sickbay to examine Kirk's medical records. Having reevaluated its "creator", Nomad shuts down the ship's life support systems in order to destroy the imperfect biological units infesting the ship; it had also previously announced its intention to return to "launch point" (Earth) to sterilize the billions of biological units there. While Spock and Scotty stand by with antigrav units, Kirk confronts Nomad in engineering. Kirk points out to the wayward probe that it is imperfect, since it has mistaken him for Jackson Roykirk and has neither discovered that mistake nor executed its prime function by eliminating itself (being imperfect). Confused by Kirk's logic and occupied examining its own errors, Nomad is beamed into deep space just before it explodes.
Spock's mind probe with Nomad—a gripping, hypnotic scene, very well-played
Nurse Chapel's being pressed into service as Uhura's tutor, using a 23rd-century version of the old "Dick and Jane" reader.
The "death" of Nomad ("Error…Error…Faulty!…Faulty!…Must sterilize!"); the scene's effectiveness enhanced by Nomad's tortured voice.
Kirk's "my son, the doctor" bit at the end of the episode ("You saw what it did for Scotty. What a doctor it would have made!")
McCoy (when Nomad is first beamed aboard): "What do we do now, go up and knock?"
Kirk (on Nomad): "It's…space-happy. It thinks I'm its mother."
Kirk: "Nomad, it's about time I told you who and what you are! I'm a biological unit and I created you."
Spock: "I do not believe there is much beyond Nomad's capabilities."
Spock (after Kirk's showdown with Nomad): "Your logic was impeccable, Captain. We are in grave danger."
Spock (after Nomad's demise): "My congratulations, Captain. A dazzling display of logic."
Kirk: "You didn't think I had it in me, did you, Spock?"
Spock: "No, sir."
The photo of Jackson Roykirk was actually a picture of "The Changeling"'s director, Marc Daniels (according to an interview with Daniels in The Star Trek Interview Book).
Scotty's resurrection via Nomad's restorative powers was the third in Trek history (after McCoy in "Shore Leave" and Kirk in "Amok Time" [of course, Kirk wasn't actually dead]).
Nomad (the prop) was cannibalized and used in the third-season episode "The Enterprise Incident" as part of the Romulan cloaking device.
Nomad was built with various lights, motors and a voice-activated circuit, allowing the lights to blink in synchronization with the voice coming from Nomad. In some scenes, Nomad was suspended overhead from a wire, and in other scenes (involving going through doors) a dolly (wheeled frame) was used.
"This message is a sort of binary—extremely sophisticated, compressed…" Sounds like a 56k modem, doesn't it?
Slow beginning—almost 10 minutes elapse before we hear from Nomad
Exactly how does Nomad "merge" with an alien machine?
If Uhura's "memory banks" were erased, how did she remember her native language (Swahili)?—never mind the incredulity of totally re-educating her in just a few weeks.
"The Changeling" features another of Kirk's patented jobs of talking a computer to death (as David Gerrold [author of "The Trouble with Tribbles" and The World of Star Trek] wrote, "How IBM must hate that man!" Of course, nowadays we'd substitute "Microsoft" for "IBM"). One might wonder about the apparent instability of 23rd-century computer systems that allows them to "crash" so easily.
(From the "The Changeling" DVD; click thumbnail to see full-sized picture)
 Title screen |
 Nomad beams aboard |
 Nomad speaks to Kirk and company |
 Kirk leads Nomad to the Enterprise's star charts |
 Kirk shows Nomad the way home |
 "You are the creator, the Kirk" |
 Mr. Singh and Nomad |
 Jackson Roykirk, Nomad's creator |
 Original diagram of Nomad |
 Nomad and Uhura |
 Nomad erases Uhura's memory banks |
 Nomad zaps Scotty |
 Nomad absorbing the knowledge to "repair" Scotty |
 McCoy leads Nomad to sick bay |
 Spock, Kirk, and Nomad |
 Chapel teaches Uhura how to read |
 Spock gets in touch with Nomad |
 Nomad zaps a couple of security guards |
 "Leave that alone!" |
 …and Nomad zaps two more guards |
 Nomad emerges from a Jeffries tube |
 Nomad ignores Kirk's order to stop |
 Showdown with Nomad |
 Nomad is "taken away" |
 On to the next journey |
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