"The Changeling" unites the murderous fairy child Nomad with Creator Kirk and his imperfect crew of biological units, just like TMP except with excitement and originality. From front to back the tension mounts as the full destructive potential of Nomad becomes clear (though the ominous but unrealized threat to launch point Earth soon overshadows the multitudinous offscreen loss of the vibrant Malurians). Confused from its accident with The Other, Nomad is aptly described as "space happy" after finding anyone else (not to mention the Creator!) that not only knows about a dimly memorized home and one large natural satellite, but further has maps directly there.

The background behind the Nomad probe quickly and convincingly provides how a primitive product from a brilliant but erratic Jackson Roykirk could merge with the Tan Ru craft to form the limitless menace encountered (and Nomad's floating effect is quite impressive particularly after seeing the simple tricks used to move the prop around!). Anything capable of absorbing the energy of a photon torpedo and returning that ninety-fold (at Warp 15) is not going to be bothered with forcefield doors and pesky security guards and therefore must succumb to a dazzling display of logic alone. Even if a certain First Officer didn't think his Captain had it in him!

This is perhaps the best example of Kirk vs. Computer but credit for the triumph also belongs to the crew. The already formidable abilities of the unit Spock now expand to mind melding with machine intelligence (Nimoy's great acting in the contact sequence deserves special mention). Despite being different and well-ordered this unit still delightfully snarks at both Kirk the Creator and the unit McCoy. The doctor himself delivers a demanding tongue twister requesting every conceivable medical "tape" up to and including a hyperencephalogram for the unit Scott. The unit Uhura and her dog's blooey ball lightens the mood refreshingly though in her mass of conflicting musical impulses she alone was able to "unsettle" Nomad. Just must suck to wear red that day.

Unexamined confidence provides a blindspot to evil and that goes for nonhuman intelligence as well. Nomad has no internal conception of error, finding it easier to assume human data is (sic) faulty, but perhaps the Enterprise computer (perhaps similarly "adjusted" like the engines?) convinced it indeed Kirk not Roykirk was telling the truth leading ineluctably (there are no exceptions) to self-sterilization. Intelligence may not require bulk but does requires a firm foundation, and Kirk knocked that away. Who wouldn't want him as their father?