10 More Classic Star Trek Episodes Based On Real-Life Events

The fear of losing one's job to automation goes back to the Industrial Revolution, but became more pronounced as a result of the new technology that came out of World War II. Twilight Zone had done its own take on the theme in an episode called The Brain Center at Whipples, in which Richard Deacon plays a heartless plant manager who gleefully replaces all his workers with machines until his own job goes the same route. Star Trek takes the idea a step further. If Ultimate Alpha Male James Kirk can lose his job to automation, then truly nobody is safe!

Dr. Daystrom, the designer of the Enterprise's current computers, has invented a new sentient computer called M-5, which is designed to replace not only the Captain, but most of the crew. After M-5 is installed on the Enterprise, the ship is stripped down to a skeleton crew, and sent out on patrol, with the now-useless Kirk tagging along to eat his heart out, (or something like that).

Although the M-5 performs well in initial tests, it eventually goes berserk and attacks a flotilla of Starships, as a result of its inheriting Daystrom's own mental instabilities. Kirk must not only talk the computer into destroying itself, but also talk the other Starships out of destroying him. Kirk not only survives, but avoids having to update his resume, and all ends well. Except for the Starship Excalibur.