Metamorphosis (just not the one where Kryten becomes human)

[Qonundrum]

An oddball of season 2, an episode that should having me liking it more for discussing the ideas of loneliness, companionship, immortality, boredom, healing/deaging, and so on, there is still something that doesn't really align. Or I missed something.

The reveal from the diplomat Nancy Hedford who cites in anger over how she has never had the chance to love whereas Cochrane has had it for 150 years and finds it disgusting reminds me of "Deja Q" in a way, where Q is human and Data - almost sadly - describes how Q got something he didn't want whereas Data himself is still pining for it. Still better than Tng's attempt in copping "your history would be less bloody" line that Spock told McCoy (and, decades later, from Riker to Data, but that's another story - in both shows...)

The story simplifies "male" vs "female", while also extending Cochrane's metaphor of "feast for the eyes" to include all on the shuttle - whether this was intentional and then the story shifts back to sixtiesisms to bypass any questions, we do not know.

Not to mention, the dumb stereotype of "hysterical woman" is also on display, which contrasts a person who is rightly upset over Starfleet Medical screwing up, which now has her life put at risk. (It's surprisingly a good opening, for a while, as showing Hedford in such a strong profession.) That said, over-the-top sixtiesism hysteria aside, a lot of people might be taken aback and have a fit about being kidnapped to be specimens in a zoo like animals.

The Companion and bringing and forcing people to stay reminds me loosely of "The Cage", only less cerebral.

The bridge scenes are generally pretty good.

Cochrane, who didn't seem to care about much for 1.5 centuries, now seems disgusted when it's revealed how the Companion entity has a female voice, and sees him as a lover, with all the usual attributes told by Kirk, because-- sixties. What sort of assumption is he thinking of, or being alluded to. Different species boinking? It's a stretch but not inconceivable. But even The Big Three mention his length of time with Companion. All and all, I'm on Team Spock with this.

The diplomat, Nancy, (whose name I'd forgotten earlier, but not the actress: Eleanor Donahue, as I've seen her in other shows) also ends up having her dying body (how convenient) taken over without permission by the Companion shimmering alien. And then Cochrane just accepts it all without issue because now he can oinkyboink a corporeal human body... which raises even more questions, some of which disturbing what with a human being bodysnatched by an alien presence. In a story that tries to pass it all as harmless because Cochrane was already dying until Companion saved his already-dying 87 year-old body. Does the kidnapping really justify her being saved, if she's little more than a puppet with an alien being controlling the strings neurons? Or, rather, is Companion constantly a part of him and animating him all this time or is it something about the planet? Seems strange that Companion needs to take her body, yet could simply rejuvenate his and he'd be okay as long as he'd never leave the planet.

There are messages in this one, and being made in the 1960s makes them a tougher sell, regarding love, sexuality, and other aspects, in relationship or other formats.

That, and even "The Cage" didn't feel as slow-moving as this one.

But then comes the final and dismissive line from Kirk, about how they can find any ol' woman to replace Ms Hedford with. Perhaps he was being sarcastic; good diplomats are hard to find.

Until then, just watch the end of "Zardoz" and watch the people grow old and die there. I don't think Star Trek was going to beat that movie to the punch, however.

There are ideas in this, and there's a certain romanticism at the end. But, and maybe I'm missing a piece or two to this puzzle, it just doesn't add up. Which reminds me, I have this 1000-piece Jackson Pollock painting jigsaw puzzle I need to finish. It took me three weeks to finally get 1/500th of it put together...

6/10 and probably worth a rewatch despite the nitpicks

 

[ZapBrannigan]

6/10 and probably worth a rewatch despite the nitpicks

I feel like you dwelled on all the wrong things, and missed the forest for the trees. "Metamorphosis" is an allegorical episode. Don't go in looking for the rusty-knife realism of re-imagined Battlestar Galactica. This one is a fable.

You have to make allowances for the implied (gulp) heterosexuality , a baseline which has come under fire only recently, and only by ideologues. Further, Nancy doesn't get hysterical. She gets angry, and later delirious, but never as delirious as Kirk got under the influence of a mugatu bite, or the Gorgon sending him into the elevator with Spock.

And the writer's intention is that when Nancy merges with the Companion, it's a benevolent thing that she benefits from. I've had some fun in the past, kidding about the merger being a horror story for Nancy, but you can't do that for real and still get your money's worth. It misses the point.

Here's the thing: Nancy isn't dying of Sakuro's disease. That's just a metaphor. She's dying of loneliness. The story finds her a cure.

If anything, the episode is more relevant and moving today than it was at the time, because now dating apps have cremated romance and buried it in an unmarked grave. Today's lonely woman has been with 150 male bodies— none of whom plan to settle down. And why should they, as long as they are the males that women "swipe right" on. Loneliness was a known problem in 1967, but it's a plague today.

 

[Qonundrum]

I feel like you dwelled on all the wrong things, and missed the forest for the trees. "Metamorphosis" is an allegorical episode. Don't go in looking for the rusty-knife realism of re-imagined Battlestar Galactica. This one is a fable.

Yeah, the allegorical and fable-style aspects I didn't often pick up on. Which is odd as I've picked up on others, sometimes out of nowhere.

You have to make allowances for the implied (gulp) heterosexuality , a baseline which has come under fire only recently, and only by ideologues.

True.

Further, Nancy doesn't get hysterical. She gets angry, and later delirious, but never as delirious as Kirk got under the influence of a mugatu bite, or the Gorgon sending him into the elevator with Spock.

Excellent and great points! I wasn't quite sure (what with ASD and all) so I'd read up on others to get their perspectives. I'm amazed how calm Kirk was when it was revealed they were to remain there forever; in Nancy's shoes I think most people would lash out in anger.

And the writer's intention is that when Nancy merges with the Companion, it's a benevolent thing that she benefits from. I've had some fun in the past, kidding about the merger being a horror story for Nancy, but you can't do that for real and still get your money's worth. It misses the point.

Ultimately, that does make sense. Nancy is dying, by that point it'd be too late to get back to the ship. Benevolence does fit the story, though having the companion do to her identically what it did to him would have been easier (assuming my misperception of a scene, of course.)

Here's the thing: Nancy isn't dying of Sakuro's disease. That's just a metaphor. She's dying of loneliness. The story finds her a cure.

I thought loneliness and opting for career over a special person was one facet but she was still dying from the disease?

If anything, the episode is more relevant and moving today than it was at the time, because now dating apps have cremated romance and buried it in an unmarked grave. Today's lonely woman has been with 150 male bodies— none of whom plan to settle down. And why should they, as long as they are the males that women "swipe right" on. Loneliness was a known problem in 1967, but it's a plague today.

That fits perfectly. I don't know how many have racked up body counts like that, but lots of people do "get around" (not a values judgment, I only care about relationships I look for or want to be in) the dating app mention definitely ups the ante. So many people do not want relationships, just hookups, and yet some still feel lonely. Again, is not a value judgment, people have their own preferences, but rarely is the loneliness element pointed out. Even the STD risk issue is brought up far more often, and even then it often isn't. Some people just don't want to settle.

 

[Methuselah Flint]

I agree it's in part due to her illness, and the fact that their reason for being kidnapped - especially Nancy's - is questionable regarding its true motive, nevertheless during this moment, I would argue Donahue's performance does border on hysteria. Revulsion rather than anger:

NANCY: No! No! No! That's disgusting! We're not animals! No! Oh, no! It's inhuman! No! No!
(Kirk and McCoy take her to a bed and lie her down. McCoy gives her an injection.)

 

[scotpens]

. . . Cochrane, who didn't seem to care about much for 1.5 centuries, now seems disgusted when it's revealed how the Companion entity has a female voice, and sees him as a lover, with all the usual attributes told by Kirk, because-- sixties. What sort of assumption is he thinking of, or being alluded to. Different species boinking?

Yeah, Cochrane's revulsion at the thought of the Companion seeing him as her lover always seemed contrived to me. I mean, the Companion isn't a slimy gross thing with tentacles -- it's a goddamn cloud, for Christ's sake.

. . . And the writer's intention is that when Nancy merges with the Companion, it's a benevolent thing that she benefits from.

Exactly. Nancy's body wasn't hijacked or possessed by the Companion; it's said specifically that their personalities merged. They became a single conscious entity.

Definitely one of the best episodes of the original series, helped in no small measure by George Duning's lush, melodic score.

 

[I am not Herbert]

Cochrane's revulsion at the thought of the Companion seeing him as her lover always seemed contrived to me. I mean, the Companion isn't a slimy gross thing with tentacles -- it's a goddamn cloud, for Christ's sake.

I took Cochrane's revulsion to be as much self-hatred as anything else-- he realizes he had similar, if inchoate and only dimly realized feelings towards the Companion and is ashamed that these feelings are now being given a name and brought out in the open, in front of fellow humans no less. It's part of the wonderful pathos of the episode-- finally getting the human companionship he had wanted, he suddenly sees this beautiful but unnamed thing he had had with Companion through what he thinks is a human perspective and the thing suddenly becomes weird and shameful, and nearly ruined.

I can fully understand why someone could dislike this episode, and the suggestion that a woman who focuses on her career to the exclusion of finding love is somehow defective (unlike Kirk, who elsewhere in the series is viewed as heroic for doing the same). I still love it, though, and still have the same feeling I had when I first watched it 30 years ago: gratitude that the same show that brought me "The Doomsday Machine" and "Balance of Terror" could bring me this dreamlike exploration of love and loneliness, too.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

Yeah, Cochrane's revulsion at the thought of the Companion seeing him as her lover always seemed contrived to me. I mean, the Companion isn't a slimy gross thing with tentacles -- it's a goddamn cloud, for Christ's sake.


Exactly. Nancy's body wasn't hijacked or possessed by the Companion; it's said specifically that their personalities merged. They became a single conscious entity.

In today's terms, NanComp.

I took Cochrane's revulsion to be as much self-hatred as anything else-- he realizes he had similar, if inchoate and only dimly realized feelings towards the Companion and is ashamed that these feelings are now being given a name and brought out in the open, in front of fellow humans no less. It's part of the wonderful pathos of the episode-- finally getting the human companionship he had wanted, he suddenly sees this beautiful but unnamed thing he had had with Companion through what he thinks is a human perspective and the thing suddenly becomes weird and shameful, and nearly ruined.

Until he finds that love can be a gas, in '70s terms.

 

[wild]

An oddball of season 2, an episode that should having me liking it more for discussing the ideas of loneliness, companionship, immortality, boredom, healing/deaging, and so on, there is still something that doesn't really align. Or I missed something.

The reveal from the diplomat Nancy Hedford who cites in anger over how she has never had the chance to love whereas Cochrane has had it for 150 years and finds it disgusting reminds me of "Deja Q" in a way, where Q is human and Data - almost sadly - describes how Q got something he didn't want whereas Data himself is still pining for it. Still better than Tng's attempt in copping "your history would be less bloody" line that Spock told McCoy (and, decades later, from Riker to Data, but that's another story - in both shows...)

The story simplifies "male" vs "female", while also extending Cochrane's metaphor of "feast for the eyes" to include all on the shuttle - whether this was intentional and then the story shifts back to sixtiesisms to bypass any questions, we do not know.

Not to mention, the dumb stereotype of "hysterical woman" is also on display, which contrasts a person who is rightly upset over Starfleet Medical screwing up, which now has her life put at risk. (It's surprisingly a good opening, for a while, as showing Hedford in such a strong profession.) That said, over-the-top sixtiesism hysteria aside, a lot of people might be taken aback and have a fit about being kidnapped to be specimens in a zoo like animals.

The Companion and bringing and forcing people to stay reminds me loosely of "The Cage", only less cerebral.

The bridge scenes are generally pretty good.

Cochrane, who didn't seem to care about much for 1.5 centuries, now seems disgusted when it's revealed how the Companion entity has a female voice, and sees him as a lover, with all the usual attributes told by Kirk, because-- sixties. What sort of assumption is he thinking of, or being alluded to. Different species boinking? It's a stretch but not inconceivable. But even The Big Three mention his length of time with Companion. All and all, I'm on Team Spock with this.

The diplomat, Nancy, (whose name I'd forgotten earlier, but not the actress: Eleanor Donahue, as I've seen her in other shows) also ends up having her dying body (how convenient) taken over without permission by the Companion shimmering alien. And then Cochrane just accepts it all without issue because now he can oinkyboink a corporeal human body... which raises even more questions, some of which disturbing what with a human being bodysnatched by an alien presence. In a story that tries to pass it all as harmless because Cochrane was already dying until Companion saved his already-dying 87 year-old body. Does the kidnapping really justify her being saved, if she's little more than a puppet with an alien being controlling the strings neurons? Or, rather, is Companion constantly a part of him and animating him all this time or is it something about the planet? Seems strange that Companion needs to take her body, yet could simply rejuvenate his and he'd be okay as long as he'd never leave the planet.

There are messages in this one, and being made in the 1960s makes them a tougher sell, regarding love, sexuality, and other aspects, in relationship or other formats.

That, and even "The Cage" didn't feel as slow-moving as this one.

But then comes the final and dismissive line from Kirk, about how they can find any ol' woman to replace Ms Hedford with. Perhaps he was being sarcastic; good diplomats are hard to find.

Until then, just watch the end of "Zardoz" and watch the people grow old and die there. I don't think Star Trek was going to beat that movie to the punch, however.

There are ideas in this, and there's a certain romanticism at the end. But, and maybe I'm missing a piece or two to this puzzle, it just doesn't add up. Which reminds me, I have this 1000-piece Jackson Pollock painting jigsaw puzzle I need to finish. It took me three weeks to finally get 1/500th of it put together...

6/10 and probably worth a rewatch despite the nitpicks

 

[wild]

I actually registered to comment, normally I just read. The Metamorphosis episode review seemed to have forgotten a few things, so I am moved to comment.

(1) Nancy Hedford was despairing, frustrated and in pain over her lack of ever finding "love". That complex mix is difficult to write and portray. Hedford simply was married to her job and did not seem to have been in a situation where she could experience or actually value personal time. Her becoming ill with a dread disease causes uncomfortable contemplation of a life lived not for herself.

(2) Cochrane has been alone with "The Companion" for 150 years. Their only means of communication is "feeling" mentally towards each other. So, he literally has not been physically touched for at least that long.

(3) He also has not "seen" a woman in 150 plus years. The appearance of Nancy Hedford must have been shocking and amazing. The discovery {to him} of her illness must have brought him fairly close to grief.
(4) It should also be noted she has not been touched in years either {I read the James Blish short story and rewatched the episode, again, for like the the 20th time }.

(5) I did not find Nancy Hedford "hysterical" so much as going through the metaphysical process of trying to understand her fate and accept it {Elizabeth Kubler Ross wrote a book on death and dying, it fits }.

(6) It is implied that the companion rescued Nancy Hedford after much anguish, from the edge of death and the two became one soul so Nancy could live and so that the Companion could finally touch Cochrane {this is acknowledged by the companion, rather painfully driven home} and Cochrane "freaks". He initially does not know what to think. We do not see that conversation with The Companion either. It is also implied that Nancy had been worse off than Cochrane ha been when he first arrived.

(7) The episode was not supposed to be comfortable with perfect moral clarity. It was supposed to be uncomfrtable.

 

[PCz911]

My favorite episode. I still am upset that TNG reimagined cochrane as such a jerk.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Some of this dialog is outdated by today's LGBTQ / non-binary acceptance (or struggle for same), but in the end, the message deep in this (bolded) is "love is love." Sometimes, you gotta just accept the time the show was made in and see the actual point of it. Every Trek show is a product of its era and sometimes they had to appease the network/studio to get the message through.

Although I have no idea how a blind man could see love with a cane, but whatever you say, Gene Coon.

KIRK: The idea of male and female are universal constants, Cochrane. There's no doubt about it. The Companion is female.
COCHRANE: I don't understand.
MCCOY: You don't? A blind man could see it with a cane. You're not a pet. You're not a specimen kept in a cage. You're a lover.
COCHRANE: I'm a what?
SPOCK: Her attitude when she approaches you is profoundly different than when she contacts us. Her appearance is soft, gentle. Her voice is melodic, pleasing. I do not totally understand the emotion, but it obviously exists. The Companion loves you.
COCHRANE: Do you know what you're saying? For all these years, I've let something as alien as that crawl around inside me, into my mind, my feelings.
KIRK: What are you complaining about? It kept you alive.
COCHRANE: That thing fed on me. It used me. It's disgusting.
MCCOY: There's nothing disgusting about it. It's just another life form, that's all. You get used to those things.
COCHRANE: You're as bad as it is.
SPOCK: Your highly emotional reaction is most illogical. Your relationship with the Companion has for one hundred and fifty years been emotionally satisfying, eminently practical, and totally harmless. It may indeed have been quite beneficial.
COCHRANE: Is this what the future holds? Men who have no notion of decency or morality? Maybe I'm a hundred and fifty years out of style, but I'm not going to be fodder for any inhuman monster. (leaves)

For this message alone, the episode is worthwhile. Love is love.