Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and Dr.McCoy (DeForest Kelley) accompany a Federation ambassador (Elinor Donahue of Father Knows Best) aboard a shuttle bound for a rendezvous with the Enterprise. The ambassador, Commissioner Nancy Hedford, needs to be treated for possible contact with an alien disease, and she haughtily insists her escorts get through this interruption in her work as quickly as possible. But a vaporous, translucent life form called "the Companion" has other ideas, traveling across space in search of humans who can ease the loneliness of a pilot (Glenn Corbett) marooned on a barren planet for more than a century. Kirk, however, offers the stranded man an alternative: a return to civilization. Whether he wants it or not is another matter--he and the Companion share an extraordinary intimacy of the mind and heart. A kind of chamber drama largely set in a single locale, "Metamorphosis" was written by series producer Gene L. Coon and directed by frequent Trek helmsman Ralph Senensky. Guest stars Corbett and Donahue are a bit monotonous in their performances, a little under par for a guest shot on the series. But Coon's story compensates with another fascinating application of one of his pet themes: empathy shared between different species. Kirk and Spock's knowing looks, as they begin to understand the Companion's true feelings for her captive man, alone make this episode worth watching. (Trivia note: An earlier incarnation of Corbett's character, warp-drive inventor Zefram Cochrane, was played by James Cromwell in Star Trek: First Contact.) --Tom Keogh
Also on this DVD
"Friday's Child"
Our favorite Starfleet trio, Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Mr. Spock
(Leonard Nimoy), and Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) beam down to Capella IV to
convince the resident warrior race to sign up with the Federation.
Unfortunately, a Klingon agent named Kras (Tige Andrews) has preceded them and
set enough doubt into play that the take-no-prisoners Capellans decide to give
Kirk and company a hostile reception. Written by story editor D.C. (Dorothy)
Fontana, "Friday's Child" has the broad outlines of a Western, with
the good guys getting rebuffed by hostile Indians and a final showdown with
crude weapons set up in the barren hills. Julie Newmar's guest role as Eleen,
wife of a former ruler and a pawn in the barbed politics between Kirk, Kras,
and the Capellans, even has something of the frightened native princess about
it. Viewers hoping to catch Newmar in a Capellan catsuit, however (an
extension of her iconic, sleek presence as Catwoman in the old Batman
television series), will be sorely disappointed: Eleen is quite pregnant, fit
to burst, and placed in McCoy's capable hands. Trek stalwart Joseph
Pevney directed this action-adventure piece, which contains one of the good
doctor's most memorable utterances, spoken when Eleen expects McCoy to carry
her up a steep hill: "I'm a doctor, not an escalator!" --Tom
Keogh
