#tos: the ultimate computer

[anghraine]

It's honestly kind of funny to me that catapulting into Kirk/Spock shipping has launched my usual "meh, not into jealousy as a metric of romantic love" shipping tendency out the window and instead I'm genuinely charmed by the extent to which they reflect the same unhealthy seething jealousy.

This is most obvious with Spock, but you'll get McCoy joking about Spock falling in love with a computer (not an android, a stationary computer) and McCoy being A Normal Guy Joking About His Friend Having a Hobby is immediately contrasted with Kirk's barely repressed jealousy (you can all but see him thinking "time to talk another computer to death" while McCoy just laughs at his own joke about it). Kirk gets more and more generally insecure until Spock publicly declares that, while he does like an efficient computer, Kirk is irreplaceable and he doesn't want to serve anyone or anything else, and Kirk looks like he's about to kiss him on the bridge.

(Kirk still talks the computer to death, btw, for plot reasons. But big "Edith Keeler must die" energy.)

I also enjoy Kirk's horror/outrage at Leila Kalomi and her obvious gloating over "taking" Spock from him in the docility sex pollen episode and Kirk's willingness to do or say anything to get Spock back vs Spock bleeding intensity throughout "Requiem for Methuselah" as Kirk falls in love with Rayna, then Spock numbly listening to McCoy's speech about how he can never understand the glories or agonies of romantic love triangles or passionate love before waiting for him to leave and then wiping Rayna from Kirk's mind. Just two bros who are totally normal about each other!

[starberry-cupcake]

'the ultimate computer' aka uncannily precise vision of the future in which starfleet wants to replace jim with ai but spock and bones are not having it

I am going feral at all the times ai is being a menace in this show and how accurate it is to the bs present we're living in

[departmentq]

Fans celebrate the casting of Nichelle Nichols as Uhura as a moment for actors of color, which they should be.

But I also wanted to spotlight the casting of these iconic guest starring characters, seen in episodes of TOS.

Percy Rodriguez was cast as flag officer Commodore Stone, who was Kirk's superior in the chain of command. Stone is one of the officers that presides over Kirk's court martial.

Booker Bradshaw was the original Dr. M'Benga, seen in two episodes of TOS. at the time, M'Benga was Starfleet's first and only medical specialist in Vulcan Physiology, having spent a year's residency on Vulcan.

One of the finest minds in computer technology in the 23rd century, and creator of the duotronic computer, Dr. Richard Daystrom, was played by William Marshall, whose work in Shakespeare, and his roles as Paul Robeson and Frederick Douglass, added to the gravitas of his portrayal.

A flag officer, a specialist in Vulcan medicine, and one of the finest minds in a field of technology, played by actors of color, during the turbulent 1960s.

[trek-tracks]

Come on, Spock, what mysterious relative is it this time?

[dmynte]

why have they got the people’s princess commanding the fucking starship

[buglvr24]

the ultimate computer is an excellent star trek episode and the obvious takeaway is that computers cannot replace humans

however it does make me giggle how upset kirk is when the m-5 gives its landing party recommendation and it doesn’t include kirk and bones. like buddy i have to agree with m-5 on this one. maybe we shouldn’t have the captain, first officer, and cmo on every single away mission

[spockeveryday]

[demiboy-dean-winchester]

captain james t kirk whenever he encounters a misbehaving computer

[electronickingdomfox]

Kirk thinks that McCoy is so shakeable:

Laughable?

But I think that McCoy has other things in mind here...

[lichqueenlibrarian]

Bitch

[borgcast]

Spock- "The M-5 itself has not behaved logically."

McCoy- "please, Spock, do me a favour and don't say it's fascinating."

S- "No... but it is... interesting."

[lilascribbles]

If I had a nickel for every time Kirk convinced an AI to kill itself I'd have four nickels. Which is kind of a lot when you consider the context of their peaceful mission of exploration

[mephistopheles]

thing is, the original star trek correctly predicted a lot of the technology we have today. cell phones, which probably exist because of star trek. automatic doors. synthesised female-voiced computers that you can ask questions to, and they'll collate information to give you a response. digital styluses. touch screen tablets. search engines. speech-to-text dictation software. skype. one episode, 'the ultimate computer,' even features a decision-making AI so advanced that certain people argue it can successfully replace a human. but star trek also predicted that by the time we had these technologies, we'd be better than we are. we'd be kinder, peaceful, a "united earth." i dont know, man. i dont know

[jim-kirks-bubble-butt]

boyfriends

[69mossytrashcat69]

McCoy in The Ultimate Computer

[self-made-purgatories]