Star Trek (TV Series)

The Ultimate Computer (1968)

DeForest Kelley: Dr. McCoy

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Quotes 

• Mr. Spock : [referring to Dr. Daystrom]  Most illogical. Of all people, he should have known how the computer would perform. Of course, the M-5 itself has not behaved logically.

  Dr. McCoy : Please, Spock, do me a favor, and don't say it's fascinating.

  Mr. Spock : No. But it is... interesting.

• Dr. McCoy : Did you see the love light in Spock's eyes? The right computer finally came along.

• Dr. McCoy : I don't like it, Jim. A vessel this size cannot be run by one computer.

  Mr. Spock : We're attempting to prove that it can run this ship more efficiently than man.

  Dr. McCoy : Maybe *you're* trying to prove that, Spock; but don't count me in on it.

  Mr. Spock : The most unfortunate lack in current computer programming is that there is nothing available to immediately replace the starship surgeon.

• Captain James T. Kirk : Do you know the one, "All I ask is a tall ship"?

  Dr. McCoy : It's a line from a poem. A very old poem, isn't it?

  Captain James T. Kirk : 20th-century Earth. "All I... ask is a tall ship, and a star to steer her by." You... 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, Bones.

• Wesley : [after M-5's first successful battle drill]  Our compliments to the M-5 unit. And regards to Captain Dunsel. Wesley out.

  Dr. McCoy : "Dunsel"? Who the blazes is Captain Dunsel? What does it mean, Jim?

  [Kirk slowly leaves the bridge without another word or looking anyone in the eye] 

  Dr. McCoy : Spock. What does it mean?

  Mr. Spock : 'Dunsel', Doctor, is a term used by midshipmen at Starfleet Academy. It refers to a part which serves no useful purpose.

• Captain James T. Kirk : Am I afraid of losing command to a computer? Daystrom was right. I can do a lot of other things. Am I afraid of losing the prestige and the power that goes with being a starship captain? Is that why I'm fighting it? Am I that petty?

  Dr. McCoy : Jim, if you have the awareness to ask yourself that question, you don't need me to answer it for you. Why don't you ask James T. Kirk? He's a pretty honest guy.

• Dr. McCoy : Compassion. That's the one thing no machine ever had. Maybe it's the one thing that keeps men ahead of them. Care to debate that, Spock?

  Mr. Spock : No, Doctor. I simply maintain that computers are more efficient than human beings, not better.

  Dr. McCoy : But tell me - which do you prefer to have around?

  Mr. Spock : I presume your question is meant to offer me a choice between machines and human beings; and I believe I have already answered that question.

  Dr. McCoy : I was just trying to make conversation, Spock.

  Mr. Spock : It would be most interesting to impress your memory engrams on a computer, Doctor. The resulting torrential flood of illogic would be most entertaining.

• Captain James T. Kirk : You know, I have... I have never felt this way before - at odds with... the ship. I sat there and watched my ship perform for a mass of circuits and relays, and felt... useless. Unneeded. To Captain Dunsel.

  Dr. McCoy : To James T. Kirk, Captain of the Enterprise.

• Captain James T. Kirk : [about Dr. Daystrom]  At the age of twenty-four, he made the duotronic breakthrough that won him the Nobel and Zee-Magnees prizes.

  Dr. McCoy : In his early twenties, Jim. That's over a quarter of a century ago.

  Captain James T. Kirk : Isn't that enough for one lifetime?

  Dr. McCoy : Maybe that's the trouble. Where do you go from up? You publish articles, you give lectures, then you spend the rest of your life trying to recapture past glory.

  Captain James T. Kirk : All right, it's difficult. What's your point?

  Dr. McCoy : The M-1 through M-4, remember? Not entirely successful. That's the way Daystrom put it.

  Captain James T. Kirk : But a genius doesn't work on an assembly line basis. Did Einstein, Kazanga, or... or Sitar of Vulcan produce new and revolutionary theories on a regular schedule? You can't simply say, "Today I will be brilliant". No matter how long it took, he came out with multitronics - The M-5.

  Dr. McCoy : Right. The government bought it, then Daystrom had to make it work; and he did. But according to Spock, it works illogically.

  Captain James T. Kirk : And he won't let Spock near it. What're you saying - that he's... tampering with it, that he's making it act that way? Why?

  Dr. McCoy : Jim, if a man had a child who'd gone antisocial - killed, perhaps - he'd still tend to protect that child.

  Captain James T. Kirk : Now he's got you talking about that machine like a personality.

  Dr. McCoy : I'm afraid that's the way *he* thinks about it.

• Uhura : Sir, sensors are picking up four Federation starships. M-5 is altering course to intercept.

  Captain James T. Kirk : The main attack force. The war games.

  Dr. McCoy : But M-5 doesn't know it's a game.

  Captain James T. Kirk : Correction, Bones. Those four ships don't know it's M-5's game. And M-5 is going to destroy them.

• Mr. Spock : Of course, the M-5 itself has not behaved logically.

  Dr. McCoy : Please Spock do me a favor and don't say it's "fascinating".

  Mr. Spock : No, but it is... interesting.

• Captain James T. Kirk : What are you doing here, Bones?

  Dr. McCoy : Well, all the sickbay systems are shut down until such time as the M-5 is informed there are patients to be cared for.

• Dr. McCoy : Fantastic machine, the M-5: no off-switch.

• Captain James T. Kirk : I think that thing is wrong, and I don't know why.

  Dr. McCoy : Well, I think it's wrong, too, replacing men with mindless machines.

  Captain James T. Kirk : [touches back of neck]  No, no, no, I don't mean that. I'm getting a... red alert right here. That thing is dangerous.

• Dr. McCoy : We're all sorry for the other guy when he loses his job to a machine, but when it comes to your job, that's different. And it always will be different.