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@ -27,47 +27,47 @@ Rather than list every post in the series here, you can easily find them all on
This is probably *the* fan-favorite episode, so I guess we'll just jump in.
> MCCOY: Some heart flutter. Better risk a few drops of cordrazine.
> **MCCOY**: Some heart flutter. Better risk a few drops of cordrazine.
>
> KIRK: Tricky stuff. Are you sure you want to risk---
> **KIRK**: Tricky stuff. Are you sure you want to risk---
>
> MCCOY: You were about to make a medical comment, Jim?
> **MCCOY**: You were about to make a medical comment, Jim?
>
> KIRK: Who, me, Doctor?
> **KIRK**: Who, me, Doctor?
Notice the return to the theme of Kirk knowing everybody else's jobs as well as they do. In this case, McCoy bristles at it, but he turns out to be right.
> SPOCK: The hypo, Captain.
> **SPOCK**: The hypo, Captain.
>
> KIRK: It was set for cordrazine.
> **KIRK**: It was set for cordrazine.
The injection system contains a selection of drugs. Granted, that's more of a technological artifact than an aspect of the culture...except that it makes the device a reusable system to dispense drugs, which seems like it should raise sanitary concerns, absent some additional sterilization and valve technology.
Meanwhile, drugged-up McCoy is possibly the best fighter we've seen on this show, able to disable the transporter chief without any trouble.
> KIRK: Continue alert, decks four through eleven. The medical department knows as little as we do. In dosages approaching this, there's some record of wild paranoia.
> **KIRK**: Continue alert, decks four through eleven. The medical department knows as little as we do. In dosages approaching this, there's some record of wild paranoia.
>
> SPOCK: Confirmed by the library record tapes, Captain. Subjects failed to recognize acquaintances, became hysterically convinced that they were in mortal danger, and were seeking escape at any cost. Extremely dangerous to himself or to anyone else who might---
> **SPOCK**: Confirmed by the library record tapes, Captain. Subjects failed to recognize acquaintances, became hysterically convinced that they were in mortal danger, and were seeking escape at any cost. Extremely dangerous to himself or to anyone else who might---
This seems like exactly the sort of drug that you *don't* bring with your team on a long trip into space. I realize that it just saved Sulu's life---well, maybe, since there are probably also easier ways to treat a heart flutter---but this can't possibly be the first time something like this has happened and there's clearly no safeguard on the injection device, like a maximum possible dose, despite being able to dump out a variety of drugs.
> SPOCK: And of considerable age. On the order of ten thousand centuries old.
> **SPOCK**: And of considerable age. On the order of ten thousand centuries old.
For those of you moving zeroes around, that's one million years.
> UHURA: Landing party to Enterprise. No sign of Doctor McCoy. Search progressing.
> **UHURA**: Landing party to Enterprise. No sign of Doctor McCoy. Search progressing.
Having McCoy crouch behind a rock was too sneaky for the search party. Do they even want to find him...?
> GUARDIAN: As correct as possible for you. Your science knowledge is obviously primitive.
> **GUARDIAN**: As correct as possible for you. Your science knowledge is obviously primitive.
>
> SPOCK: Really.
> **SPOCK**: Really.
>
> KIRK: Annoyed, Spock?
> **KIRK**: Annoyed, Spock?
Spock's toxic masculinity shines through, even while they're dealing with an altered timeline and a friend who's a danger to himself and others.
> KIRK: Spock! If that is a doorway back through time, could we somehow take Bones back a day in time, then...
> **KIRK**: Spock! If that is a doorway back through time, could we somehow take Bones back a day in time, then...
Apparently, "don't change the time stream" isn't a rule. Neither is "watch the extremely paranoid person who is only briefly going to be unconscious."
@ -77,35 +77,35 @@ This would seem to indicate that the stardates are meant to be objective measure
Either that, or Kirk is just being snotty about everything.
> KIRK: I've seen old photographs of this period. An economic upheaval had occurred.
> **KIRK**: I've seen old photographs of this period. An economic upheaval had occurred.
>
> SPOCK: It was called a Depression, circa 1930. Quite barbaric.
> **SPOCK**: It was called a Depression, circa 1930. Quite barbaric.
It sounds like future economies don't have the sorts of widespread problems that marked the Great Depression. Of course, they seem to face quite a few more plagues, famines, and other disasters than we tend to worry about.
> KIRK: Well, Mister Spock, if we can't disguise you, we'll find some way of explaining you.
> **KIRK**: Well, Mister Spock, if we can't disguise you, we'll find some way of explaining you.
It seems like that issue should have come up before they jumped, no...?
> SPOCK: Theft, Captain?
> **SPOCK**: Theft, Captain?
>
> KIRK: Well, we'll steal from the rich and give back to the poor later. I think I'm going to like this century. Simple, easier to manage. We're not going to have any difficulty explaining...
> **KIRK**: Well, we'll steal from the rich and give back to the poor later. I think I'm going to like this century. Simple, easier to manage. We're not going to have any difficulty explaining...
At least elements of the Robin Hood legend have persisted into Kirk's time, given his loose adaptation of "steal from the rich and give to the poor."
However, notice how Kirk, a man with many interests and apparently few regrets in his life, yearns for a life in 1930, despite the Depression, primitive medical science, and two wars coming up that were so destructive that they're sufficiently important for everybody to be familiar with, even centuries later.
> KIRK: My friend is obviously Chinese. I see you've noticed the ears. They're actually easy to explain.
> **KIRK**: My friend is obviously Chinese. I see you've noticed the ears. They're actually easy to explain.
>
> SPOCK: Perhaps the unfortunate accident I had as a child.
> **SPOCK**: Perhaps the unfortunate accident I had as a child.
>
> KIRK: The unfortunate accident he had as a child. He caught his head in a mechanical rice picker. But fortunately, there was an American missionary living close by who was actually a skilled plastic surgeon in civilian life.
> **KIRK**: The unfortunate accident he had as a child. He caught his head in a mechanical rice picker. But fortunately, there was an American missionary living close by who was actually a skilled plastic surgeon in civilian life.
Thank goodness random acts of racism are rarely noticed, I guess.
> KIRK: Couldn't you build some form of computer aid here?
> **KIRK**: Couldn't you build some form of computer aid here?
>
> SPOCK: In this zinc-plated vacuum-tubed culture?
> **SPOCK**: In this zinc-plated vacuum-tubed culture?
This probably wouldn't have been common knowledge in 1967, but automated computing devices have existed since 1822, when Charles Babbage completed his first version of his [difference engine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Difference_engine). That's probably not useful, here, since Spock's goal is to read his recorded data.
@ -115,55 +115,55 @@ Possibly a better approach---I don't know, maybe you're reading this while stran
Of course, this assumes that the tricorders have an electrical output. If it uses some sort of quantum-level communication, that's a lot more difficult.
> SPOCK: At what rate of payment? I need radio tubes and so forth. My hobby.
> **SPOCK**: At what rate of payment? I need radio tubes and so forth. My hobby.
The use of radio tubes (vacuum tubes) confirms that the work is in processing electrical signals. But it also confirms that Spock understands how money works and the need to justify what he earns.
> MAN: Not that she's a bad-looking broad, but if she really wanted to help out a fella in need---
> **MAN**: Not that she's a bad-looking broad, but if she really wanted to help out a fella in need---
>
> KIRK: Shut up. Shut up. I want to hear what she has to say.
> **KIRK**: Shut up. Shut up. I want to hear what she has to say.
>
> SPOCK: Yes, of course, Captain.
> **SPOCK**: Yes, of course, Captain.
Kirk interrupts a misogynist comment, here, and Spock (painfully predictably) dismisses Kirk's progressive approach as having an ulterior motive.
> KIRK: Development of atomic power is years away, and space flight years after that.
> **KIRK**: Development of atomic power is years away, and space flight years after that.
>
> SPOCK: Speculation. Gifted insight.
> **SPOCK**: Speculation. Gifted insight.
Keeler's speech is worth reviewing on its own merits, but more important is how Spock overlooks what should be *extremely* obvious, at least to the writers: Keeler could easily be a fan of science-fiction, where her imagined future was already common, though not routine.
I've mentioned in previous posts---[*Mudd's Women*]({% post_url 2020-02-20-trek-m-women %}), most prominently---that I reject the idea that the *Star Trek* franchise is necessarily utopian. Our characters are always striving for a better world, but they never really reach it. The fact that Keeler isn't seen with a [Pulp magazine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulp_magazine), [Jules Verne](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_Verne), or even given a reference to a fake utopian author, the show seems to reject the idea, as well.
> EDITH: Yes. Seven o'clock in the morning. Do you have a flop for the night?
> **EDITH**: Yes. Seven o'clock in the morning. Do you have a flop for the night?
>
> KIRK: A what?
> **KIRK**: A what?
>
> ...
>
> KIRK: We have a flop.
> **KIRK**: We have a flop.
>
> SPOCK: We have a what, Captain?
> **SPOCK**: We have a what, Captain?
If you were planning to argue that Kirk and Spock understood "money" because they speak English and the word isn't yet forgotten...they don't understand the word "flop" from context.
> SPOCK: Captain, I must have some platinum. A small block would be sufficient, five or six pounds. By passing certain circuits through there to be used as a duodynetic field core...
> **SPOCK**: Captain, I must have some platinum. A small block would be sufficient, five or six pounds. By passing certain circuits through there to be used as a duodynetic field core...
To be clear, today, Spock would be asking for somewhere in the neighborhood of $75,000 worth of platinum; historical data seems hard to come by, but it's worth pointing out that the first minimum wage is still eight years in Keeler's future and was set at twenty-five cents per hour. Kirk and Spock are being paid substantially less than that (fifteen cents), so we can probably assume the equivalent would be the equivalent of four dollars and thirty-five cents per hour, today. Assuming the cited ten-hour days and no spending on other expenses (like housing and food), they have a chance of being able to afford their block of platinum in two years and a little more than four months.
A "duodynetic field" appears to be original to the episode, with the [dyne](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyne) (a small unit of force) being a possible etymology. There is a *company* called [Dynetics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynetics) that's sometimes associated with NASA, but they wouldn't be founded for another five years after this episode aired, so this is more likely the source of their name than the other way around.
> SPOCK: I am endeavoring, ma'am, to construct a mnemonic memory circuit using stone knives and bearskins.
> **SPOCK**: I am endeavoring, ma'am, to construct a mnemonic memory circuit using stone knives and bearskins.
You remember---at least I assume so, because it wasn't *that* long ago---the discussion of what technology was available in 1930 that could be used to build a computer. Based on comments Spock made, it was clear that he was building an electromechanical computer. If his primary need is memory---something that would make sense, if he's mostly trying to dig through the high-speed historical video he recorded and tease apart the two timelines---then there's a technology that isn't much more sophisticated than "stone knives and bearskins": [Relays](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relay), an electromechanical gadget that can remember its state. If you look at the Wikipedia page, you can see that they're not even difficult to make, though they take more electricity to set and read than using tubes would.
> SPOCK: Interesting. Where would you estimate we belong, Miss Keeler?
> **SPOCK**: Interesting. Where would you estimate we belong, Miss Keeler?
>
> EDITH: You? At his side, as if you've always been there and always will. And you? You belong in another place. I don't know where or how. I'll figure it out eventually.
> **EDITH**: You? At his side, as if you've always been there and always will. And you? You belong in another place. I don't know where or how. I'll figure it out eventually.
>
> SPOCK: I'll finish with the furnace.
> **SPOCK**: I'll finish with the furnace.
>
> EDITH: Captain. Even when he doesn't say it, he does.
> **EDITH**: Captain. Even when he doesn't say it, he does.
There are different interpretations to how Keeler is describing their relationship, some good, some horrifying, so I'll withhold judgment.
@ -173,71 +173,71 @@ Presumably, they worked faster in **Star Trek**'s history.
If you can find copies of the episode distributed during the 1980s, you might hear original music, instead, where Paramount's home video arm didn't want to license the song for the release.
> EDITH: And you don't want to talk about it? Why? Did you do something wrong? Are you afraid of something? Whatever it is, let me help.
> **EDITH**: And you don't want to talk about it? Why? Did you do something wrong? Are you afraid of something? Whatever it is, let me help.
>
> KIRK: Let me help. A hundred years or so from now, I believe, a famous novelist will write a classic using that theme. He'll recommend those three words even over I love you.
> **KIRK**: Let me help. A hundred years or so from now, I believe, a famous novelist will write a classic using that theme. He'll recommend those three words even over I love you.
>
> EDITH: Centuries from now? Who is he? Where does he come from err, where will he come from?
> **EDITH**: Centuries from now? Who is he? Where does he come from err, where will he come from?
>
> KIRK: Silly question. Want to hear a silly answer?
> **KIRK**: Silly question. Want to hear a silly answer?
>
> EDITH: Yes.
> **EDITH**: Yes.
>
> KIRK: A planet circling that far left star in Orion's belt. See?
> **KIRK**: A planet circling that far left star in Orion's belt. See?
That would be [Alnitak](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alnitak), ζ Ori, over a thousand light years away. Somewhere around 2030, the "let me help" novel hits the shelves.
> KIRK: February 23rd, 1936. Six years from now. The President and Edith Keeler conferred for some time today...
> **KIRK**: February 23rd, 1936. Six years from now. The President and Edith Keeler conferred for some time today...
This isn't quite within the goals of this series of posts, but it's potentially worth noting that this universe had a moment where a relative nobody could become the leader of a pacifist movement and become powerful enough to sway the opinion of [Franklin Roosevelt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt) in his first term.
> EDITH: Why? What is so funny about man reaching for the moon?
> **EDITH**: Why? What is so funny about man reaching for the moon?
>
> KIRK: How do you know?
> **KIRK**: How do you know?
>
> EDITH: I just know, that's all. I feel it.
> **EDITH**: I just know, that's all. I feel it.
To reiterate the point on science-fiction, [Kepler](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somnium_(novel)), [Cyrano de Bergerac](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comical_History_of_the_States_and_Empires_of_the_Moon), and others show an interest in traveling to the Moon since the early 1600s. [Verne](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_the_Earth_to_the_Moon) and [H.G. Wells](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_First_Men_in_the_Moon) would be widely known to Keeler's contemporaries, as well.
> MCCOY: Where? Where are we? Earth? The constellations seem right, but. Explain! Explain this trick.
> **MCCOY**: Where? Where are we? Earth? The constellations seem right, but. Explain! Explain this trick.
I wasn't alive in the 1960s, but it seems like a stretch to imagine a random person being able to look at the night sky above the city and recognizing the constellations distinctly, so it's possible that space travelers are more attuned to such things.
> MCCOY: Biped. Small. Good cranial development. No doubt considerable human ancestry. Is that how you're able to fake all of this? Very good. Modern museum perfection. Right down to the cement beams. Very, very good. Oh, I'd give a lot to see the hospital. Probably needles and sutures. All the pain. They used to hand-cut and sew people like garments. Needles and sutures. Oh, the terrible pain!
> **MCCOY**: Biped. Small. Good cranial development. No doubt considerable human ancestry. Is that how you're able to fake all of this? Very good. Modern museum perfection. Right down to the cement beams. Very, very good. Oh, I'd give a lot to see the hospital. Probably needles and sutures. All the pain. They used to hand-cut and sew people like garments. Needles and sutures. Oh, the terrible pain!
This gives a sense of the range of creatures that are regularly encountered by Federation citizens, and also strongly suggests the kinds of advances in surgery and first aid that might have happened.
Thank goodness that the disintegrated homeless man or any of his descendants had absolutely no effect on history, though, I guess.
> SPOCK: This is how history went after McCoy changed it. Here, in the late 1930s. A growing pacifist movement whose influence delayed the United States' entry into the Second World War. While peace negotiations dragged on, Germany had time to complete its heavy-water experiments.
> **SPOCK**: This is how history went after McCoy changed it. Here, in the late 1930s. A growing pacifist movement whose influence delayed the United States' entry into the Second World War. While peace negotiations dragged on, Germany had time to complete its heavy-water experiments.
This is an odd choice of divergence. While the Nazis certainly drafted many scientists into a [nuclear weapons program](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_nuclear_weapons_program), the [sabotage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_heavy_water_sabotage) of their heavy water experiments doesn't seem to have significantly involved the United States.
It's possible that the intent is for the lack of United States involvement in the [Normandy landings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normandy_landings) let the war drag on for a few more years until the facility could be relocated or secured, though.
> KIRK: Germany. Fascism. Hitler. They won the Second World War.
> **KIRK**: Germany. Fascism. Hitler. They won the Second World War.
Thank goodness we're never going to need to see what the Federation would look like if it was run by fascists, right? We certainly wouldn't be covering such a thing during the first week of September...
> SPOCK: Because all this lets them develop the A-bomb first. There's no mistake, Captain. Let me run it again. Edith Keeler. Founder of the peace movement.
> **SPOCK**: Because all this lets them develop the A-bomb first. There's no mistake, Captain. Let me run it again. Edith Keeler. Founder of the peace movement.
>
> KIRK: But she was right. Peace was the way.
> **KIRK**: But she was right. Peace was the way.
>
> SPOCK: She was right, but at the wrong time. With the A-bomb, and with their V2 rockets to carry them, Germany captured the world.
> **SPOCK**: She was right, but at the wrong time. With the A-bomb, and with their V2 rockets to carry them, Germany captured the world.
It's hard to imagine a version of a peace movement capable of convincing a secular government to lay down arms, abandon treaties, and (apparently) accept an invasion by people who are clearly *not* peaceful. It's less than two weeks since I wrote about [the paradox of tolerance]({% post_url 2020-07-12-tolerance %}), and this is just a stronger version of that, when you scrub off the historical patina. Cultists are fine becoming martyrs as a large group, with early Christians being one of the examples people generally respect, but other organizations tend to realize that they're not solving a logic problem by choosing how to respond to the world.
> SPOCK: Jim, Edith Keeler must die.
> **SPOCK**: Jim, Edith Keeler must die.
It's worth comparing this to the situation in [*Tomorrow Is Yesterday*]({% post_url 2020-05-21-tmrw %}), where they were perfectly willing to take John Christopher into the future until they realized that they couldn't afford to remove him from history. There, they had concerns about whether the astronaut could retrain for a new career in the future, but the woman who has all but outlined the path to that future...her, they need to kill.
> EDITH: We can talk about that later. I have to go. My young man is taking me to a Clark Gable movie.
> **EDITH**: We can talk about that later. I have to go. My young man is taking me to a Clark Gable movie.
It's hard to imagine what movie this might be. Gable had bit parts in movies in the early- to mid-1920s, but wouldn't get into the main cast or a leading role until later in 1931.
I was hoping to find something thematically appropriate to the episode, but nothing looks worth pursuing.
> MCCOY: Well, I know what a movie is, but...
> **MCCOY**: Well, I know what a movie is, but...
This seems like an odd enough line to warrant attention, because McCoy has no reason to think that he would recognize the name of an actor any more than a doctor today would recognize [John Durang](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Durang).

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@ -0,0 +1,201 @@
---
layout: post
title: Real Life in Star Trek, The Changeling
date: 2020-08-27 17:07:02-0400
categories:
tags: [scifi, startrek, closereading]
summary: <i class="far fa-hand-spock"></i> The outside world in Star Trek
thumbnail: /blog/assets/Capstone-graphic-13feb20-0.png
---
![Not Nomad](/blog/assets/Capstone-graphic-13feb20-0.png "Not the Nomad Probe")
## Disclaimer
This is a discussion of a non-"Free as in Freedom" popular culture franchise property with references to a part of that franchise behind a paywall. My discussion and conclusions are free, but nothing about the discussion or conclusions implies any attack on the ownership of the properties. All the big names are trademarks of the owners and so forth and everything here should be well within the bounds of [Fair Use](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use).
## Previously...
The project was outlined [in this post]({% post_url 2020-01-02-trek-00 %}), for those falling into this from somewhere else. In short, this is an attempt to use the details presented in *Star Trek* to assemble a view of what life looks like in the Federation.
This is neither recap nor review: those have both been done to death over fifty-plus years. It *is* a catalog of information we learn from each episode, though, so expect everything to be a potential "spoiler," if that's an [irrational fear](https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2011/aug/17/spoilers-enhance-enjoyment-psychologists) you have.
Rather than list every post in the series here, you can easily find them all on [the *startrek* tag page](/blog/tag/startrek/).
## The Changeling
We'll just jump right in, here.
> **KIRK**: Any response from the Malurians, Lieutenant?
The only likely reference I can find, here, is [Malur](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malur) in Kolar, India, but with a population less than thirty thousand people, I don't see it likely that they went off to found their own colony.
The most obvious sound-alike, *malheur*---which is also the name of [an Oregon county](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malheur_County,_Oregon)---is the French word for "misfortune." The name certainly would apply, in this story.
> **SPOCK**: Captain. They will not answer. The long-range sensor sweep of this system reveals no sign of life.
This is technology rather than culture, but it's hard for me to imagine how they might detect living beings from any kind of range.
> **KIRK**: That can't be. The last census reported a total inhabitation of more than four billion people.
There's a later reference to "the Malurian race" being destroyed, suggesting that they're aliens who haven't left their home solar system, so it makes some sense that the writers would set their population to slightly greater than Earth's population at the time.
> **SPOCK**: We would have known in advance of any system-wide catastrophe, and in the event of an interplanetary war, there would be considerable radioactive residue. Our instruments show only normal background radiation.
>
> **KIRK**: Any other possibilities?
>
> **SPOCK**: Unknown, sir. Sensor readings would have revealed the presence of any disease organisms. They do not. In addition, we received the routine report from this system only a week ago. Even the Symbalene blood burn does not act that swiftly.
Add this to the list of things that can go wrong in space, including "Symbalene blood burn."
Also, I won't bother to quote it, since it's deep in the technology weeds, but if you're a science-fiction war-gaming person, this episode provides a maybe-interesting data point that shields being struck by the equivalent of ninety photon torpedoes reduces the shields by a fifth.
> **SPOCK**: Computing now, Captain. Weight, five hundred kilograms. Shape, roughly cylindrical. Length, a fraction over one meter.
Pike referred to a distance in miles in [*The Menagerie, Part 1*]({% post_url 2020-03-26-trek-menagerie-1 %}) and Spock also worked in meters in [*Balance of Terror*]({% post_url 2020-04-16-trek-balance %})...but Spock works in pounds in [*The City on the Edge of Tomorrow*]({% post_url 2020-07-23-edge %}), while using grams or kilograms in the adaptation of *City* and in the quoted line, suggesting that Americans (since it's obvious that the United States contributes the dominant cultural aspects) still haven't made up our minds how to measure things.
> **SCOTT**: What kind of intelligent creatures can exist in a thing that small?
>
> **SPOCK**: Intelligence does not necessarily require bulk, Mister Scott.
Nomad is probably a lower limit on intelligent life that most people have seen, if Scott is shocked by the idea of something riding comfortably inside.
> **UHURA**: It's mathematical. Yes, one symbol, the symbol "repeat." Sir, that isn't in the Starfleet code. It's an old-style interplanetary code.
It's likely that these are meant to sound like a familiar idea with respect to [Q-Codes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_code) and [control characters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_character), both something meant to be easy to transmit and recognize by either humans or computers to do something special. The [EBCDIC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBCDIC) character set would have been around for nearly a decade when the episode aired, so someone *might* have had some passing familiarity with the idea of a "control symbol."
> **KIRK**: We are from the United Federation of Planets.
Kirk says this like that's supposed to mean something to a creature or device that understands Earth communications from before there was alien life. While later versions of *Star Trek* disagree, that strongly suggests that the Federation existed significantly before humans left our home solar system.
> **KIRK**: Wasn't there a probe called Nomad launched in the early 2000s?
>
> **SPOCK**: Yes. It was reported destroyed. There were no more in the series. But if this is that probe...
This would have been in the aftermath of the Eugenics Wars---from [*Space Seed*]({% post_url 2020-06-11-seed %})---where there were interplanetary vessels (like what would be the *Botany Bay*) existed that could make the trip out of the solar system. So, this isn't out of the question, based on the history, nor would it be out of the question to abandon the project in that context.
> **SPOCK**: Chart 14A, sir?
>
> ...
>
> **KIRK**: This is our point of origin, the star we know as Sol.
They still refer to humans' home planet as a synonym for dirt, but chose to rename the home star from a synonym for star back to the Latin name, also a possible reference to the [Roman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol_(Roman_mythology)) and [Norse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%B3l_(Norse_mythology)) Sun deities. It seems like one would go with the other.
> **UHURA**: Holding. Where my heart is, Where my heart is. Somewhere beyond the stars. Beyond Antares.
>
> ...
>
> **UHURA**: Where my heart is, where a scented miracle...
>
> ...
>
> **UHURA**: Tomorrow the path along the way, There's where my love...
We get a few more lines of *Beyond Antares*, from way back in [*The Conscience of the King*]({% post_url 2020-04-09-trek-conscience %}), so it's a more persistent tune than just something Uhura threw together.
> **SPOCK**: This is the creator of Nomad, perhaps the most brilliant though erratic scientist of his time. His dream was to build a perfect thinking machine, capable of independent logic. You recall his name?
>
> **MCCOY**: Of course. Jackson Roykirk.
The fact that McCoy---someone who has been dismissive of people recounting information that might be useful, most recently last week in [*Who Mourns for Adonais?*]({% post_url 2020-08-20-mourn %})---is almost insulted by there being some confusion over the man's name means that he's extremely well-known, especially considering that this is hundreds of years ago. I'm trying to think of an equivalent historical figure and...maybe [Johannes Gutenberg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Gutenberg) has that status? Most famous inventors are either recent or you could easily forgive someone forgetting that their name is attached to the specific invention.
Maybe studying the history of Earth space travel is specific to Starfleet, but that seems like something that would have been easy to mention in McCoy's line.
> **NOMAD**: That unit is defective. Its thinking is chaotic. Absorbing it unsettled me.
>
> **SPOCK**: That unit is a woman.
>
> **NOMAD**: A mass of conflicting impulses.
Ah, the 1960s...
Sadly, this isn't the only story of that vintage where a computer has problems with lady-thoughts. I may post something about the others, someday, since it's a surprisingly good story except for that revelation.
> **MCCOY**: Well, he'll need tapes on general anatomy, the central nervous system, and then one on the physiological structure of the brain. We'd better give it all the neurological studies we have, as well as tracings of Scotty's hyperencephalogram.
McCoy is quick to trust Nomad with plenty of information with no reason to trust the potential benefit, and there's possibly some downside to educating it in how humans work.
> **NOMAD**: Show me Sickbay.
There isn't much societal content in this episode, so I want to digress a moment and point out the camera work having Nomad follow McCoy (and then again, later in the episode), framed like a horror movie. It's a surprisingly effective trick for the brief times it gets used.
> **SPOCK**: Captain, if that is correct, if there has been no brain damage but only knowledge erased, she could be re-educated.
>
> **KIRK**: Bones?
>
> **MCCOY**: Yes. I'll get on it right away.
While I understand that they can't just leave her as-is, it's worth pointing out how demeaning it is to assume that Uhura's experience and personal relationships aren't of interest, as long as she can do the bare minimum on the job.
> **SPOCK**: The study of it would be of great use, Captain.
Nomad kills a few of the crew (resurrecting the important one) and wiped the mind of another, but Spock doesn't want to hurt it, because...the weapons could be useful. He's not *wrong*, but definitely not the point of the discussion.
> **CHAPEL**: Not Swahili, Uhura. In English. The dog has a ball. See? B, ah, ll. Ball. Now you go ahead.
There are plot questions about Uhura already knowing Swahili (unfortunately, closed captioning and various transcripts don't show the actual Swahili words), but for our purposes, it's probably only important in that Uhura probably grew up speaking Swahili so exclusively that it's still natural in her re-education, while English is alien.
> **SPOCK**: Captain, I suggest the Vulcan mind probe.
I've mentioned before that Spock introduced the mind-meld in [*Dagger of the Mind*]({% post_url 2020-03-12-trek-dagger %}) and subsequently has been quick to just use it whenever it's convenient, but here, I'd also point out that he described it as working with pressure points that Nomad clearly doesn't have.
> **SPOCK**: I. Am. Nomad. I am performing my function. Deep emptiness, It approaches. Collision. Damage. Blackness. I. Am. The other. I am Tan Ru, Tan Ru. Nomad. Tan Ru...
I don't have anything useful to say, here, except to mention that *Tan Ru* was later used as the name of an alien race in [**Strange Adventures in Infinite Space**](https://rich.itch.io/strangeadventures), which I'm comfortable mentioning, because the code was released under the GPL v3 and the game assets CC-BY-NC 4.0. If it wasn't for the non-commercial clause, I'd put the game in rotation for the [*Free Culture Book Club*](/blog/tag/bookclub/), since it does have at least the pretense of a story. Maybe one day, someone'll release a Free Culture version of the data files and an appropriate mod.
Regardless of all that, my point is that the team on that game tried to envision what Tan Ru might actually mean and it's reasonably interesting.
I'd also point out that there's a certain similarity between "Tan Ru" and "Landru" from [*Return of the Archons*]({% post_url 2020-06-04-archon %}), but that would be spinning conspiracy from (fictional) coincidence, I'm sure...
> **SPOCK**: Not the Nomad we lost from Earth. It took from the other a new directive to replace its own. The other was originally programmed to secure and sterilize soil samples from other planets, probably as a prelude to colonization.
I appreciate Spock's conviction, here, primarily because *Space Seed* provides an excuse for Nomad to exist to kill and for the program to be discontinued, in hunting down the dictators whose escape was covered up.
> **NOMAD**: Is there a problem, Creator? I have increased engine efficiency fifty-seven percent.
There's probably an interesting discussion to have about the effects of wasting significantly more than a third of the generated energy and why there's no "turn down the energy output" button. I won't *have* that discussion, but it's interesting.
> **KIRK**: Well, it thought I was its mother, didn't it? Do you think I'm completely without feelings, Mister Spock? You saw what it did for Scotty. What a doctor it would've made. My son, the doctor. Kind of gets you right there, doesn't it?
I mean...four billion people are dead, but sure, we can make an "immigrant mother" joke, I guess.
More relevant to our little project, here, though, that immigrant mother stereotype of pushing their children into specific high-prestige careers is still well-established in Federation culture.
## Blish Adaptation
Like last week, the adaptation is in **Star Trek 7**, so there isn't much new to work with. It's made clear that Earth's solar system is being shown in close-up to hide the context and that Nomad was specifically launched in 2002, but it otherwise follows the script.
## Conclusions
We get a handful of artifacts, like that Symbalene blood burn, more of *Beyond Antares*, and a bunch of technology and history discussion, but this episode was mostly plot-heavy, meaning that we won't get a lot out of it.
### The Good
I can't think of anywhere that anybody comes off looking amazing, here.
### The Bad
Kirk seems to think that the phrase "United Federation of Planets" has some significant meaning, implying that it thinks of itself as an important player in the galaxy.
The treatment that Uhura gets in the story is remarkably unpleasant, both in Spock's dismissing of her lady-thoughts as confusing and the idea that her worth doesn't extend beyond her education.
And everybody is awfully nonchalant about the body count in this episode, with a bunch of people they know---remember that, in [*The Enemy Within*]({% post_url 2020-02-13-trek-enemy %}), Kirk knew the name of a random member of the crew without any hesitation---and four *billion* Malurians. Plus, Spock and McCoy are both quick to look for ways to exploit Nomad regardless of the damage it has caused.
And sterootypes about immigrant mothers (Jewish and Asian being the most common in popular culture) wanting their children to be doctors are still considered funny, somehow, implying that the status of a medical degree outweighs many sins.
### The Weird
The Federation has either members or allies that aren't particularly advanced. Another massive oddity is the confusion between metric and imperial units. Likewise, star/planet naming is a bit erratic.
However, everybody *does* know Jackson Roykirk's name and association with the abandoned Nomad program.
## Next
Next week, we find out whether Spock with a goatee or Spock without a goatee is the fairest Spock of all in *Mirror, Mirror*.
#### <i class="far fa-hand-spock"></i>
* * *
**Credits**: The header image is [Illustration of the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Capstone_graphic_13feb20_0.jpg) by [NASA](https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/small_spacecraft/NASA_CubeSats_Play_Big_Role_in_Lunar_Exploration), placed into the public domain by agency policy.