The Changeling by: John Meredyth Lucas and directed by: Marc Daniels

 

“The Changeling” is written by John Meredyth Lucas and is directed by Marc Daniels.  It was filmed under production code 37, was the 3^rd episode of Star Trek Season 2, the 32^nd episode of Star Trek, and was broadcast on September 29, 1967.

 

The myth of the changeling is the name given to the faerie that replaces an unattended baby, it’s a creature that is an unnatural imitation of a human being.  It is this myth that gives this episode of Star Trek its name and main theme.  “The Changeling” is the first script from John Meredyth Lucas and on the outset of the episode the viewer would think that it’s a piece of introspective science fiction.  The Enterprise is on a rescue mission and finds the planet they are meant to be rescuing is missing, with four billion people dead.  This is a harrowing situation, equivalent to the destruction of Earth at the time of broadcast, and it falls prey to the large number of deaths coming across as honestly cheap, especially as once the episode is underway these deaths aren’t really brought up until the very end when it’s clear that the entity responsible needs to be taken down.  The Enterprise is attacked by NOMAD, voiced by Vic Perrin, an earlier Earth space probe that was deemed lost, presumably destroyed, though it stops and shows intelligence, demanding to come aboard and submitting itself to Kirk’s orders as Kirk in its mind is its creator.  This premise is fascinating on the surface, exploring what it means to be alive as NOMAD can think for itself and clearly has its own goals and thoughts, but they are specifically framed by Lucas as non-human intelligence.  Marc Daniels’ direction frames NOMAD as inhuman in the way that the shots surrounding the probe are often from a low angle and not matching the very human framing of the rest of the characters, so much so that there are points where half the prop is out of frame intentionally (and to possibly help with the movement effects).

 

The episode takes a turn for the worse, however, as an inconsistent tone develops, the introspective science fiction angle being enhanced with NOMAD lashing out to perceived dangers including killing Scott and wiping the mind of Uhura.  When I say Scott is killed, I mean killed, and NOMAD is convinced to resurrect him, something that is treated as essentially a normal, albeit new, thing.  DeForest Kelley as McCoy is the only one to react to this development as the impossible happening with the possibility that Scott hasn’t actually been brought back, but even then, the skepticism doesn’t get explored.  He is relegated to sickbay with Nurse Chapel for the back half of the episode rehabilitating Uhura.  The treatment of Uhura here is more explicitly treated as a joke, at least Scotty’s death is treated like a death and brings out rage in Kirk.  Uhura is laughed at in the small scene where Nichelle Nichols gives a great performance portraying someone attempting to relearn a language and sense of life from the ground up.  The episode is also just stretched incredibly thin, taking a very slow pace as Kirk and company learn about NOMAD and eventually find a plan to destroy it.  The idea of the damage caused by a collision with another probe causing the programming and intelligence to go wrong is genuinely great, but it takes far too long to get there and the inevitable climax of it being forced off the Enterprise is clearly attempting to be fast paced through Shatner and Nimoy’s performances with Daniels’ direction, but it just doesn’t work.

 

Overall, “The Changeling” is an episode that has the skeleton of a brilliant idea, taking earlier ideas of robotics as seen in “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” and “The Return of the Archons” before pushing them forward into something very new.  The effects work and inhuman nature of NOMAD is genuinely amazing and if we just focused on that there might have been enough to make this a good episode, but the other characters not being allowed to properly react to proceedings causes a problem.  The death of Scotty is almost immediately undone and that undoing is treated like it’s a normal thing, while death in previous episodes of Star Trek has been permanent and had impact, while the trauma Uhura is forced through does not get addressed outside of comic relief.  4/10.