Title: Metamorphosis
Airdate: 11/10/1967
Plot Summary
Metamorphosis starts with Kirk, McCoy, Spock, and a federation commissioner, Nancy Hedford heading back to the Enterprise to treat her for a rare disease. They are on a shuttle. However, they are hijacked by an energy being who takes them down to a class-M asteroid where they encounter a historical figure in the federation, long thought dead. The Companion, a cloud of energy, is in love with Zefram Cochrane who was marooned here, and plans to keep the crew with him because she’s in love with him.
Risk Is Our Business
Kirk is not a fanboy but does recognize the importance of meeting Cochrane. He also tries some tough love on The Companion that doesn’t work out like he thought it might.
Logical
Spock does what he has to and comes up with first a weapon to stop The Companion, and then later gets the universal translator to work. He also is mystified by Cochrane’s reaction to The Companion’s affection.
He’s Dead Jim
Bones comes up with the idea to short out The Companion. He also does what he can in fighting a losing battle with the disease the Commissioner carries. He rightly reminds Kirk that he’s not just a military man, he’s a diplomat, maybe try talking to The Companion instead of using weapons on it?
Helm Sluggish Captain
Sulu finds the trail of the shuttle but loses it pretty quickly.
Nuclear Wessels
Chekov is not in the episode.
Hailing Frequencies Open, Sugar
Uhura finds the proper coordinates of the shuttle. She’s not at all confident that Scotty will find the shuttle as she comments, “It’s a big galaxy, Mr. Scott.” He can only agree.
My Wee Bairns
Scotty is in command of the Enterprise and begins the search for Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. He’s pretty correct on what happened to the shuttle and is able to find the asteroid.
Canon Maker
Once again, Galileo gets the shit end of the stick. The original Galileo was destroyed during The Galileo Seven, so I would assume this is a new shuttle christened with the same name, given some of the differences in the sensor controls and other things in the interior. Maybe they should realize that’s a bad luck name.
But the real canon here is the introduction of Zefram Cochrane, the inventor of the warp drive. His story would be explored in the movie Star Trek: First Contact. He is much more formal and less drunk here. His importance to the Trek universe would greatly surpass this episode. Even measurements of power in the drive would be referred to as “cochranes” or “millicochranes.” Cochrane would show up again in Enterprise in an historic video that James Cromwell would reprise after first playing him in the aforementioned First Contact.
Canon Breaker
Kirk mentions Zefram Cochrane is from Alpha Centauri, but that doesn’t really jibe with what we know about him. Several non-canon novels have tried to reconcile this, most simply say that he went there in his retirement and because he was so famous, time just made him more a native of that system than of Earth.
Man It Feels Bad To Be A Red Shirt
No one dies.
Technobabble
While the universal translator was sort of mentioned in passing in past episodes, this is the first time it’s brought out and examined as a piece of technology. I’m not sure why we don’t see it when they go down to other planets (other than how it would break the drama of most stories.) Clearly, when they are on the Enterprise, the computer can do most of the work but on away missions, what do they do then? Is it built into their communicators or do we assume they bring out that flashlight-looking thing when necessary?
It’s an important tech of Trek and it’s great that it’s explored here. I could’ve easily put this under Canon Maker but that section is pretty full already.
I Know That Guy:
Elinor Donahue plays Commissioner Nancy Hedford in Metamorphosis. She was most known in the 50s for her portrayal as the eldest daughter in the show Father Knows Best. Interestingly, Jane Wyatt, who played the mother in the same show, would show up later to play Spock’s mother.
Glenn Corbett is the first actor to play Zefram Cochran. Corbett had a long career in movies and guest star roles before landing The Doctors in the 70s, and Dallas in the 80s.
What It Means To Be Human – Review
What an interesting episode Metamorphosis is in this day and age. Back in the day, I found it more interesting in the lore it created but as Pa Kent once said, a man gets older and he sees things very differently.
Nancy Hedford is a career gal, a bit cold and unpleasant. As the disease gets to her, she begins to express regrets, especially in the face of Cochrane’s revulsion at being loved by the Companion. Understandable, given he’s 150 years out of date but she has never been loved by anyone and realizes what good is it all if you’re alone.
Cochrane in the meantime needs some human companionship, even though a few friends are not enough. It’s interesting that Kirk mentions that the concepts of male and female are universal constants. Hey lefties, he’s got a point.
We need each other. It’s a part of the human condition and probably of all higher life forms. I’m sure feminists hate Metamorphosis, a successful career girl giving up everything to live on a farm, so to speak.
But really Metamorphosis is about what’s really important for a good life. Cochrane could leave and spend a life that even those who live in the utopian federation could only dream about, given his place in history. A technologist, he would find the future exhilarating. He also gives it all up, just to be with someone and have a simple life.
It’s an admission that life without someone to share it with is no life at all. It’s a theme that runs throughout the episode. In truth, I ended up liking this episode way more than I thought I would.
Add to that all the lore that this episode adds to the Trek universe and it should be more important than it is.
I didn’t like Kirk telling the companion that it can’t love, but my memory was shoddy on this one. Kirk really didn’t believe what he was saying. He was using words in the same manner as Spock using the electrical doo-dad as a weapon. You get the sense he felt like he was kicking a puppy and even Bones gently calls him out on it.
Metamorphosis really should be better thought of than it is. In the end, both people seemingly end up sacrificing but together they will probably experience more happiness than they would ever have without each other. No amount of material wealth or fame can really replace that simple feeling. It’s a theme that resonates throughout a lot of Trek stories. Even Spock realizes it in The Motion Picture, for all the knowledge V’ger amassed, it was empty.
It could be deep friendship, as proved by the little short film just released. More often than not, it’s a man and woman who find each other and get over themselves for the greater whole. It’s aspirational, not oppressive. I miss that romantic attitude in entertainment these days.
