In March of 1968, the only way for Captain Kirk to wrest control of the USS Enterprise away from an out-of-control AI was to convince it of its own shortcomings. But, this episode of the classic Star Trek — “The Ultimate Computer” — was just one of many occasions in which the human element was weaponized by Kirk and the crew to beat an out-of-control sentient computer. Although the show was called Star Trek, if we just looked at Kirk’s proclivity for taking down evil AIs, the show very well could be reconsidered as a kind of Van Helsing-esque romp, in which Captain Kirk battles robots instead of vampires.
