Landru was a highly advanced, intelligent computer that appeared in the Star Trek episode "The Return of the Archons". This machine was built on the planet Beta III by a man known as Landru six thousand years ago and was powerful enough to manage the affairs of the planet's entire population. It was portrayed by Charles Macauley.
History[]
The Landru computer was built somewhere around 4000 BC. Since its activation, it had established total dominion over the planet Beta III, joining the minds of the population into a form of collective consciousness known as the Body. For millennia, the citizens went about their lives in a state of absolute tranquility, but completely lacked any independent thought. Since Landru had been built behind a solid wall, none of its subjects ever realised that they were being ruled by a machine. Few people ever saw Landru, which projected holograms of a human male dressed in regal-looking robes whenever addressing its Lawgivers.
In 2267, the Enterprise arrived at Beta III, seeking to learn the fate of the starship Archon. Sulu and O'Neil were dispatched to the surface and were quickly discovered and absorbed, forcing Captain James T. Kirk to organize a larger landing party. This landing party also quickly ran into trouble and was captured by Landru. Several members were absorbed before assistance from Marplon, a member of the underground, helped Kirk and Spock escape. They confronted Landru in the Hall of Audiences, confirming what they had earlier guessed: that Landru was a machine, and not a living being. Landru threatened Kirk and Spock with obliteration, likening them to a strong infection. It believed their deaths, and the deaths of all who had seen them or knew of their existence, were necessary to cleanse the memory of the Body. Spock realized that it might be possible to reach it by questioning the value of its leadership. In asking what Landru had done to do justice to the full potential of every individual of the Body, Kirk forced the machine to confront a truth it had avoided for 6,000 years: by reserving creativity to itself, it was destroying the Body – it had become the evil against which it was charged to protect the Body. It expended so much computing power attempting to resolve this paradox that it began to withdraw its influence from even its Lawgivers. But it failed. Throughout the encounter, it had repeatedly asserted its identity as Landru, but in the end it made a final plea to a man six millennia dead, imploring its creator for help. And then, in a shower of sparks and a cloud of smoke, it ceased to operate, freeing both the Body from their thralldom and the Enterprise from the threat of destruction.