The Changeling

Episode aired Sep 29, 1967
TV-PGTV-PG
50m

IMDb RATING

7.6/10

3.1K

YOUR RATING

Action

Adventure

Sci-Fi

A powerful artificially intelligent Earth probe, with a murderously twisted imperative, comes aboard the Enterprise and mistakes Capt. Kirk for its creator.A powerful artificially intelligent Earth probe, with a murderously twisted imperative, comes aboard the Enterprise and mistakes Capt. Kirk for its creator.A powerful artificially intelligent Earth probe, with a murderously twisted imperative, comes aboard the Enterprise and mistakes Capt. Kirk for its creator.

IMDb RATING

7.6/10

3.1K

YOUR RATING

Director
- Marc Daniels
Writers
- Gene Roddenberry
- John Meredyth Lucas
Stars

Top credits

See production, box office & company info

See more at IMDbPro

Photos11

Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley in Star Trek (1966)

James Doohan, DeForest Kelley, and Eddie Paskey in Star Trek (1966)

Majel Barrett and Nichelle Nichols in Star Trek (1966)

Trivia
In conventions, Nichelle Nichols frequently tells a story of getting into a dispute with director Marc Daniels over the filming of this episode. As it had already been established that Uhura's first language was Swahili, Nichols believed that, after her mind was erased, Uhura would revert to her first language. However, as Nichols herself did not speak Swahili, Daniels wanted Uhura to just speak English. Nichols refused to, telling Daniels, "Nichelle Nichols doesn't speak Swahili, but Uhura does!" Gene Roddenberry was eventually brought in to settle the dispute, and he sided with Nichols. A linguist specializing in Swahili was then brought in to write the few lines of Swahili that are spoken in the episode.

Goofs
When Nomad is firing at the Enterprise, Spock states that Nomad is 90,000 kilometers away, and that the energy bolts are moving at warp 15. At that distance, even if they were moving at warp 1, their impact would be virtually instantaneous.

Quotes
Capt. Kirk: [of Uhura] What d'you do to her?
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.

Alternate versions
Special Enhanced version Digitally Remastered with new exterior shots and remade opening theme song

Connections
Featured in Mr. Plinkett's Star Trek 2009 Review (2010)

Soundtracks
Theme
Music credited to Alexander Courage.
Sung by Loulie Jean Norman

User reviews25

Review

Top review

8/10

Shatner Saves It (mostly)

Yeah, lots of plot holes and cheesy special effects but this is one of my favorites, and it's entirely due to Shatner's restrained (for once) performance. He actually seems to be acting and responding to the crew (mainly Spock) like a normal human being without any of his typical over- the-top hamming it up. Well, with the exception of the ending where, sadly, the writers reverted back to the cutesy crap. I can't really blame Shatner for that, either. When given decent dialog in the rest of show, The Shat did alright in this one, making it one of the most watchable episodes.

And a shout-out to user verbusen for noticing Lt. Leslie in his review. After rewatching these episodes many times, you start picking up the small things in the background, and Lt. Leslie at the helm next to Sulu, as well as wearing a gold tunic (as opposed to his typical red) is unusual. What isn't unusual, of course, is that Leslie has no lines. It's worth noting that the actor who played Leslie, Eddie Paskey, made a point of actually reading the scripts beforehand so he knew when an anonymous red-shirt was going to get offed, and made a point of making himself scarce during those red-shirt casting calls.

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