S2E02 - Metamorphosis.. Kirk abandons the Commissioner to die??

[Gokiburi]

Warning - spoilers!!!!!!!!!!


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In general I like TOS, but I have a serious problem with this episode, and I'm wondering if I'm the only one. As you will recall, Kirk and his officers arrive on the planet with the sick commissioner, who, at the end of the episode, is possessed by "the companion". Kirk then cheerfully (literally) leaves her behind with Zephram Cochrane and heads back to his ship.

OMG @$*%&@$*(%&@!!!!

First of all, the commissioner's opinion was never taken into account as to whether she chose to stay (in fact, she said rather forcefully early on in the episode that she'd rather not). It's wrong to say that she was better off that way "because she would otherwise have died", since she would never have died if the companion hadn't altered the course of the shuttlecraft. Why are Kirk and his officers so glib about her fate? The commissioner never even expresses an interest in Zephram Cochrane .. how presumptuous do you have to be to abandon a person to a lifetime marooned on an asteroid with someone they don't even like, while possessed by an alien entity who determines what she says and does?? They were even cracking jokes about it. This has to be Kirk at his all time worst.

What do you think?

 

[Shatmandu]

She was a bitch.

Joe, briefly

 

[Gokiburi]

That's such a cop out response! :/ what difference does it make if she was a likeable person or not? Does Kirk have the moral right to blissfully sentence someone to lifetime imprisonment on an asteroid because he doesn't particularly like them? How does that agree with his high moral code? With McCoy and Spock being there?

One could argue at a deeper level that the episode doesn't even make sense. How does he account for losing a superior officer (the commissioner obviously outranks him) if he isn't supposed to be making any log entries about the planet (Zephram asked him not to)?

 

[JustKate]

I never got the idea that the commissioner had no say in this. The cloud entity merged with her, so the thoughts and desires of the resulting personality were a blend of what the cloud entity thought and wanted and what the commissioner thought and wanted.

Where did you get the idea that the commissioner had no say? I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying that in all these years, I never once got that idea.

 

[Gokiburi]

Well, based on the way the commissioner behaves once she's been "possessed" as opposed to how she behaved before. She talks and acts entirely from The Companions perspective. When she talks to Zephram she relates to him as The Companion and never as the former commissioner, in fact after being possessed she never once says anything that would indicate that the commissioner is there at all (except that The Companion implies that she is in its rebirth speech).

Since the commissioner states emphatically that she has no desire to be marooned on the asteroid at the beginning of the episode, and since she spends the majority of the rest of the episode racked with fever in bed - she isn't exactly given anything on which to base a sudden change of heart. Are we to believe that the experience of being suddenly possessed by an alien is enough to make her fall totally in love with Zephram, give up her overwhelming political ambitions, and change her entire motivations regarding the planet? I think not. Kirk, and certainly Spock, would have logically realized this yet they gleefully leave her to her fate - and this I find troublesome.

 

[Nerys Myk]

That's such a cop out response! :/ what difference does it make if she was a likeable person or not? Does Kirk have the moral right to blissfully sentence someone to lifetime imprisonment on an asteroid because he doesn't particularly like them? How does that agree with his high moral code? With McCoy and Spock being there?

One could argue at a deeper level that the episode doesn't even make sense. How does he account for losing a superior officer (the commissioner obviously outranks him) if he isn't supposed to be making any log entries about the planet (Zephram asked him not to)?

You must be new here.

 

[JustKate]

I don't see it even the least bit the same way that you do, Gokiburi.

In the first place, I think you are overestimating how much any viewer - me, you or anybody else - really knows about either the commissioner or the cloud creature. When you think about it, we didn't really get to see much of the commissioner as plain unadulterated commissioner. We saw a few - a very few - brief scenes, showing her as an irritable, sickly, rather unpleasant woman, and we don't know much more about her beyond that.

As for the cloud entity, we only heard it talk through the universal translator and then through the commissioner, and not very much either way. So we don't know much about the cloud creature, either, except that it loves Cochrane.

So why are you so sure that a merged entity is pretty much 100 percent cloud creature? Assuming such a merging is possible, and we pretty much have to assume that or give up on the episode entirely, the resulting personality would presumably consist of part commissioner, part cloud creature. So why is it so impossible that the cloud creature's great love for Zephram be carried through to the merged being? Presumably some of the commissioner's likes and dislikes, loves and hates, would be carried through as well, but since we don't know much about them, the episode leaves that alone. I mean, sheesh, TOS episodes are only 40-some minutes long, right? How much detail can there be?

This scenario is, I have to say, far more likely that than that Kirk and Spock would "gleefully" abandon an innocent person, even a rather unpleasant person, on a lonely planet. We may not know much about the cloud creature or the commissioner, but we know quite a bit about Spock and Kirk, and they just wouldn't do that. After all, they know the commissioner far better than you or I do, and they seem convinced that this is what she wanted too. I am assuming that when they left her there, they did so because they honestly believed it was the best option available.

And the episode left me thinking it was the best possible option as well.

 

[Hambone]

Does Kirk have the moral right to blissfully sentence someone to lifetime imprisonment on an asteroid because he doesn't particularly like them?

Sure he does; just ask Khan. Anyway, he's James T. Kirk and he can do whatever the hell he wants.

Plus, Nancy Hedford was a bitch. On wheels.

 

[Timo]

I've always seen this episode from the OP's view. There's this person who's dying and trying to get, if not help, then at least some sort of sympathy. But she gets none, because she's a woman. Even McCoy abandons her patient to her deathbed. Her desperate attempts at communication are ignored, just because she's a woman and does not have the right to speak, certainly not out of turn. And then a space monster comes and eats her. And the heroes cheer, because they got rid of her.

I can sort of understand why Spock would pay no attention whatsoever. After all, Vulcans (at least of the Sarek family) are portrayed as having a distinctly male-led culture where wives walk three steps behind their husbands and nod a lot; moreover, Spock's human half seems attracted to human women often enough, but he's adamant about fighting that half, and thus likely to over-ignore any humans of the female persuasion; and finally, Spock always vents his urges into his insatiable scientific curiosity, for which there are plenty of ticklers in this situation.

I can sort of understand Kirk, too. He probably tried Hedford and failed, so she's sour grapes now.

I can almost understand Cochrane, too. He's probably way too crazy to care about human companionship at this point, least of all female companionship. Only humans who happen to be part his favorite space monster (preferably 100%) are of interest to him.

But I can't understand McCoy, who just doesn't seem to care.

And the episode left me thinking it was the best possible option as well.

I was left with the thought "somewhere inside that possessed, smiling body, she must be screaming".

Timo Saloniemi

 

[JustKate]

^ Wow, Timo. I completely disagree, but I have to say your version is much more psychologically twisted and dramatic than mine is. Mine is, I have to say, kind of romantic, which is odd because I'm not really a romantic. The TOS writers were, though.

Edit: Your synopsis would make a great horror plot, and no, I am not being sarcastic.

 

[Yeoman Randi]

Kate, i am in complete agreement with you. And also think Timo's version is very creepy.

Gokiburi- although she WAS a bitch (on wheels too), Joe was just being funny/sarcastic, and i pretty much consider him to be a god around here, so be nice to him or i may have to beat the shit outta you. (being sarcastic here).

 

[ToddPence]

Cochrane said he built his home out of the supplies he carried in his ship. He lives in a house with superior architecture and workmanship, apparently built with a variety of materials. It has some pretty nice furniture, and is well-decorated with many knick-knacks and wall hangings. He even has a nice drink serving set. In addition, he brought seeds to grow his own crops and a variety of other flora we see around the house. These are a lot of appointments to take along for a man who was going out into space to die!

 

[Nerys Myk]

Cochrane said he built his home out of the supplies he carried in his ship. He lives in a house with superior architecture and workmanship, apparently built with a variety of materials. It has some pretty nice furniture, and is well-decorated with many knick-knacks and wall hangings. He even has a nice drink serving set. In addition, he brought seeds to grow his own crops and a variety of other flora we see around the house. These are a lot of appointments to take along for a man who was going out into space to die!

Not quite

The food, water, gardens, everything else,the Companion gives me. Apparently, it creates it out of the native elements

And I think Hedford was pretty much dead when the Companion merged with her.

That part of us was too weak to hold on. In a moment, there would have been no continuing. Now we're together.

 

[Jonas Grumby]

I agree with your take on the episode as well, Justkate. And I also think it seems everyone is forgetting Hedford's little rant about how lonely she's been and how stupid she thinks Cochran is to turn his back on love. It was a defining moment for the character, I thought.

 

[Forbin]

t's wrong to say that she was better off that way "because she would otherwise have died", since she would never have died if the companion hadn't altered the course of the shuttlecraft.

Where do you get this idea? She was already dying of Sakuro's Disease when they encountered the Companion in space. By merging with her, the Companion literally saved her life. The Companion/Hedford combined being then flatly stated that she would die if she left the planet. There was simply no choice at all but to leave her there with Cochrane.

The bigger question to me was how Kirk was going to explain where she went to his superiors and her family, given his promise to keep Cochrane's existance and location a secret.

 

[Forbin]

I mean, sheesh, TOS episodes are only 40-some minutes long, right?

52 minutes, IIRC! Back when you could turn the TV on and NOT have to sit thru 8-minute blocks of commercials.

 

[Doug Otte]

For once (although his post here has its own internal logic), I disagree w/ Timo. I agree w/ Kate; I'm not a romantic, either, but this episode makes me feel like I am!

And, I've always felt that the plot, characters, and resolution made perfect sense.

I just watched the BD version last weekend. I didn't like this episode very much as a teenager in the 70s (what adolescent boy would? - not much action!), but each time I've watched it since then, I like it more.

Charles Duning's score adds so much to the emotion.

BTW, I noticed clouds in the sky in some shots, but didn't remember them before, nor do I think they would have gone to the trouble to hang them on the stage. Were they added by the remastering team?

Doug

 

[Shieldsdown]

Nice of you, and considerate, to post with a Spoiler Alert, but under the Statute of Limitations Act 1989 annex 2442 (Star Trek-Original Episodes), no need for you to do so!

 

[Grant]

Yes, they added the clouds in the sky for the remaster project. They removed a 'rock formation' that was used to hide the studio rafters from being in the shot and added the sky and clouds---big improvement as the show was a little cramped considering the fact that they were supposed to be 'outdoor's for most of it.

 

[Hober Mallow]

Reminds me of the episode of the original Superman series where some viewers felt Superman killed a a bad guy and bad girl who learned his secret identity. In the episode he takes them to the top of a mountain and leaves them there until he can figure out what to do with them. Luckily for Superman, as they attempt climb down the mountain, they fall to their deaths. Superman could rest easy.

Okay, it's actually nothing like that...