In Star Trek‘s 60-year history, Captain Kirk has plenty of memorable quotes. From calling out bigotry on his starship to simply yelling Khan’s name, William Shatner’s iconic character is as much a man of words as he is a man of action. When he isn’t spouting sci-fi technobabble, Kirk can be a very poetic man. In the Original Series Season 2 episode “The Ultimate Computer,” Kirk and his crew face off against a supercomputer designed to pilot a Starship and make them obsolete. The episode sees the M5 unit take control of the Enterprise, leaving everyone fighting for the soul of the ship and Starfleet’s future.
In 1968, when the episode premiered, the idea of a machine being given a job to replace hundreds of people was science fiction. Yet 58 years later, in 2026, it is sadly becoming a reality. Companies worldwide are looking to cut costs by eliminating countless jobs by replacing employees with AI, all under the guise of efficiency. Kirk’s speech in this Original Series episode somehow draws from humanity’s real-world present and proves that, on the path to the future, the people who shape it should not be left behind.
Kirk Links Humanity’s Past & Present in “The Ultimate Computer”
During the episode, Kirk reflects on the long lineage between ships and their crew, specifically how a human crew makes it all feel so special. Kirk’s opening line of the speech, “All I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,” comes directly from John Masefield’s 1902 poem “Sea-Fever.” Kirk then continues with his own thoughts, saying: “You could feel the wind at your back in those days; the sounds of the sea beneath you. And even if you take away the wind and the water, it’s still the same. The ship is yours. You can feel her–and the stars are still there.”
Kirk’s speech echoes that while the technology of voyaging has evolved, with ships now sailing across the stars instead of the ocean, the art of the craft has remained the same. It is still made possible by the human ingenuity of the crew and its captain. Even though an automated machine can, in theory, do the same job, it doesn’t necessarily mean it can do it to the same standard. An AI can never replicate that special alchemy that the crew of the Starship Enterprise possesses.
The same holds true for art. Yes, someone can type a prompt like “Write me a Star Trek episode” into an AI, but the software can only copy what has come before. It can’t imagine new ideas or take creative risks. Thankfully, there is still a reluctance to embrace AI-generated content because it creates a shallow replication of what human storytelling can be. Star Trek and other franchises are more than the aesthetic trappings that an AI can latch onto. Star Trek is great because of the writers, actors, directors, and craftspeople who bring it to life in the first place, and continue to push the envelope.
The franchise has always been one of the best in sci-fi to link humanity’s sea voyaging history with space travel. For instance, Moby Dick served as an inspiration for Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. Furthermore, Kirk’s final lines in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country are “second star to the right, and straight on till morning,” calling to mind a flying ship from Peter Pan. By mirroring a poem that was already 66 years old when “The Ultimate Computer” aired, Star Trek once again showed how humanity’s past and future are intertwined, but on the journey to the future, we should never forget that people shape history.
- Release Date
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1966 – 1969-00-00
- Network
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NBC
