That was Voyager 6, a fictional probe based on the real life probes of the same name.

Earth probe gone bad is a common trope in Sci-Fi. Star Trek alone has a few episodes:

- https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Nomad

- https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Friendship_1

Also the Doomsday machine was a very different type of probe to V’ger

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/The_Doomsday_Machine_(e...

My favourite, the ANDROMEDA STRAIN .. the idea that the US government would experiment with weaponizing upper-atmosphere organisms is just too real ..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Andromeda_Strain

Ah yes, the first Michael Crichton novel I read - and also the book that first introduced me to binary code (https://imgur.com/N4IjIYq)! And after watching (and then reading) Jurassic Park some 10 years later, it took a while until I realized that it was from the same author...

Yes, I too had the same disparity in recognizing the author as a young 'un, reading CONGO and SPHERE and so on .. Mr. Crichton sure had his finger on the pulse of the technological world we live in. What a wild series of stories he has created .. he was my favourite author until Messrs. Stephenson and Gibson came along ..

Staying on subject, I wonder if we will see a new adaptation of ANDROMEDA STRAIN some time. As a story it seems topical and relevant.

There was a mini-series, starring Benjamin Bratt, about fifteen years ago.

Wasn't really great, but not bad, either. Just didn't have the impact of the 1970s movie.

Strangely, this isn’t listed as a trope here: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/StarTrekTheMotio...

The article does also say

> As a side note, the general story is nearly identical to the Original Series episode "The Changeling,"

That episode was one of the other examples in my post (Nomad).

Also a Futurama episode where a probe merged with God.

Don't forget the Venus-bound "Death Probe" that got loose on earth in the 6 Million Dollar Man. https://bionic.fandom.com/wiki/Death_Probe