Star Trek: 9 Times Mr. Spock Got A Power-Up
5. Spock’s Computer Connection
Bones has been known to mention Spock’s “mathematically perfect brain waves” and even implied he was machine-like when he said, “Well, I don't know why I was worried. You can't kill a computer.” But the good Doctor apparently had no idea the accuracy of his diagnoses, because by the second season not only could Spock mind meld with Hortas and Kelvans and men (oh my!), his telepathic power-up got power-up-upped to allow him to join minds with... machines!?
This inexplicable ability appears in “The Changeling” when Spock says, “Captain, I suggest the Vulcan mind probe,” and proceeds to do a mental download from the Nomad space probe’s memory banks. Look, buying telepathy is a pretty big ask to begin with, but expecting us to swallow Spock connecting to Nomad’s wifi is beyond the pale.
Spock tries this same gimmick in “I Mudd”. After Norman the android stops responding, Spock places his hand on Norman’s head in the characteristic mind meld fashion and reports, “He simply appears to have turned himself off, Captain.”
But that wasn’t it for Spock getting mental broadband. In Star Trek: The Motion Picture he nearly gets his brain fried trying plug into V’ger’s Universe Wide Web, yet another reason some people call that film “Where Nomad Had Gone Before”.
Such nonsense makes mind melding with whales seem perfectly logical.