Landru Landru was first a man , and then a machine . In approximately 4000 BC , war threatened to destroy the planet Beta III and its inhabitants . The leader at that time was a gifted engineer and philosopher , Landru . He believed the way to preserve his people was to take them back to a time of peace and tranquility . He sought to end war , crime , disease – all of the evils that plagued his world , and to produce " the unity of good " – a world without hate , without fear , without conflict . To that end , he built and programmed a sophisticated machine , which took on his identity . The machine Landru built was powerful enough to manage the affairs of an entire planet ary population . It ruled Beta III for about 6 , 000 years , managing the affairs of each individual and striving to meet the ambitious goals its builder set it . Its subjects were oblivious to the fact that they were ruled by a computer . Since Landru was hidden behind a solid wall , it is likely that its builder intended this ; even millennia later , some of the citizens of Beta III believed the Landru who ruled their world was the same one who saved it so many centuries ago , and none realized it was a machine . The passing years of peaceful rule had inculcated in the people a kind of reflexive worship of Landru . This could be seen even in members of the underground who sought freedom and actively opposed Landru ' s will . To meet Landru ' s goals , his machine was given the ability to control the attitude and conduct of individuals , through a process called absorption . Once absorbed , a living being ' s individuality and free will were largely subordinated to the instructions and ideas supplied telepathically by Landru . Within the parameters of Landru ' s guidelines , referred to as the Directives , the individual had some free will . Absorbed individuals were referred to collectively as the Body . Landru viewed the Body as analogous to the body of a living being ; it referred collectively to the memory of the body , and to outsiders as " infection " . To enforce its will , Landru maintained an army of lawgiver s . These brown - robed individuals were under extremely deep control ; they lacked all volition except what Landru supplied . When Landru was forced to devote most of its power to solving a paradox , it withdrew its direct influence from its lawgivers , causing them to panic . Lawgivers carried staffs with which they could absorb individuals who were not part of the Body , or " in extremis " , kill . Landru preferred to absorb its enemies , killing only when it believed it had no choice . In 2167 , the " " visited Beta III and encountered Landru . The specific sequence of events remains unclear , but from information supplied by the underground , it can be concluded that some event caused Landru to attack the " Archon " , possibly with the same heat beam s it later used against the . As the " Archon " s orbit decayed , her crew fled to the surface , where many were absorbed , and many others killed . The fate of the " Archon " remained a mystery for a hundred years . In 2267 , the " Enterprise " arrived at Beta III , seeking to learn the fate of the " 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 . ( ) Appendices . Background information . In her reference book " BFI TV Classics - Star Trek " ( p . 47 ) , Ina Rae Hark proposed that the concepts of Landru and his control over Beta III ' s population were inspired by " contemporary fears of communist collectivism or blissed - out youth drug cultures . " Landru was referenced in an early title for the episode " The Return of the Archons " – namely , " Landru ' s Paradise " . Similarly , the character was also referenced in some foreign titles of the episode ( such as in its German and Japanese names ) . ( " Star Trek Concordance " , Citadel ed . , p . 23 ) The manifestation of Landru was played by Charles Macaulay . Regarding this performance , director Joseph Pevney said of Macauley , " " He loved doing it . " " ( " The Star Trek Interview Book " , p . 192 ) Macauley ' s apparently projected appearances as Landru in " The Return of the Archons " were accomplished with use of double exposures . ( " The Star Trek Compendium " , 3rd ed . , p . 55 ) In the book " BFI TV Classics - Star Trek " ( p . 44 ) , the technological version of Landru was cited as one of several unsupervised computers in TOS that each enslave humanoids for what it considered to be for their own good ( other such artificial intelligences being Vaal in and the androids of ) . Similarly , the book " " ( p . 117 ) cited the computerized Landru as the first of multiple computers on which Kirk induced self - destruction . Apocrypha . In " The Return of the Archons , Part 2 " , an issue of IDW ' s " " comic series , it was revealed that Landru ( first name ) was the head of Starfleet ' s Advanced Research Division and was apparently creating an artificial intelligence to assist in colony development . His true intentions were more sinister : he was attempting a means of population control . The crew of the " Archon " attempted to stop him , but the ship was destroyed : the ship ' s crashed remains were built into a temple by the descendants of the crew ' s survivors . After the computer was removed , Admiral was admonished by an unseen superior for not keeping a tighter leash on his protege after exposing the secret experiment that lasted for decades .