Nancy Hedford's Fate, a Blessing or Curse?

[Mojochi]

I have a hard time watching Metamorphosis. In some ways it's a really good episode, that has an engaging premise, with wonderful performances from the cast. Even the score is terrific. It's just a well played production, all around, and as Trek episodes go, is a great viewing experience.

However, I find myself uneasy with the ending. It's just hard to get around the fact that Nancy is, in at least some part, consumed by the companion, for the benefit of its own motives of wanting to further its relationship with Cochrane. Now, from the sensibilities of the time the show was made, it may have been much easier to overlook. She was only moments away from dying, & therefore, the companion saved her from that fate (Even though it was the direct cause of that fate) Plus, in her diseased delirium, she in fact confesses to her own loneliness, but neither of those facts are cause enough to speculate that she would be willing to let herself be possessed in such a way, & the episode doesn't specifically reference her willingness to have herself become the vessel for the companion.

In fact, any such consent given, would certainly have been under the duress of knowing she would soon be dead otherwise, & that's the meat of it. It's just not possible to see THAT as consensual. It's at best coercion, and at worst abduction. There actually isn't any reflection of Nancy from any point after which the companion has entered her. Every remaining line of dialog reflects only what the Companion is experiencing or how the future will affect it. Nothing of Nancy at all, until the final line which reduces her impact down to the mere fact of what her current mission had been, a remark so cavalier in delivery, that it's kind of an insult to her as a person.

In fact, in some ways, it's almost reasonable to think this possession is no different than the effect of TNG's neural parasites, from Conspiracy. Even if that's debatable, it's certainly true that if this were Picard's away team, & someone they had been with had this happen to them, they surely wouldn't be leaving like everything was splendid, no?

 

[Poltargyst]

Doesn't Nancy/the Companion refer to themselves as "we" like Nancy is still in there?

Anyway, like you said it was that or death, though I get that the Companion's abduction had a lot to do with it.

I try to guess writers' intentions, and I am quite certain we are to take it that both Nancy and the Companion are alive and well and quite happy to be living with the new love of their lives.

Actually, what bothers me is this business of Cochran asking and Kirk agreeing not to tell anyone they are there. That's ridiculous. Suppose the day after the Enterprise left one of them has a rock fall on their head. Now the other has a terribly lonely existance. In my head canon, Kirk tells the Federation, and they check in regularly with the happy couple but otherwise leaves them alone.

 

[Push The Button]

Hm, like the way Kirk went back to Ceti Alpha V to check up on Khan and his people..?

Kirk probably didn't even put any of this in his personal log, nevermind whatever official report that he is required to file with Starfleet.

The decent thing to do would have been to leave the Galileo behind on the planet, just in case, and also to beam down a cache of medicine, tools, food, a computer, and a subspace transceiver before leaving orbit. Oh, and a phaser with some extra batteries.

 

[Shawnster]

Plus, in her diseased delirium, she in fact confesses to her own loneliness, but neither of those facts are cause enough to speculate that she would be willing to let herself be possessed in such a way, & the episode doesn't specifically reference her willingness to have herself become the vessel for the companion.

In fact, any such consent given, would certainly have been under the duress of knowing she would soon be dead otherwise, & that's the meat of it. It's just not possible to see THAT as consensual. It's at best coercion, and at worst abduction.

Isn't this basically similar to what many sick and critically ill or injured people go through at any hospital? They are in pain and dying and given a choice - choose this procedure that may (or may not) save your life, or you can die. The Companion offered the only medical treatment it could offer to save Nancy Hedford's life.

 

[Mojochi]

Isn't this basically similar to what many sick and critically ill or injured people go through at any hospital? They are in pain and dying and given a choice - choose this procedure that may (or may not) save your life, or you can die. The Companion offered the only medical treatment it could offer to save Nancy Hedford's life.

Similar except that at no point does the doctor get to assume your entire being, and basically take control over your consciousness, and whatever life you're now able to continue. That's some Robocop shit right there, man. Coming to someone on their deathbed, and offering that option is opportunistic, and ghoulish, imho, and is a very sketchy interpretation of consent, especially when it's coming from the one who essentially was the cause of the impending death. Had the companion not intervened, she'd have been treated by Starfleet & lived... gone back to handle her war business, etc...

Edit:

Doesn't Nancy/the Companion refer to themselves as "we" like Nancy is still in there?

Yes. Nancy is still in there, however in all their dialog thereafter, only the companion seems to be present. It's all talk about the man & their life together. It's as if Nancy's life isn't worth mentioning at all, until Kirk drops a quick one-liner at the end about the war she was working to end.

The whole thing leans very heavily toward the companion, & given that Nancy was corralled into this situation, with very little by way of other options, it all just stinks of some hijacking, to me, even though I'm sure that wasn't how they meant it back then... in the 60s, when women's rights & social status were let's say... more limited than today. They probably never gave it any thought that she might be a person who had wanted more for herself than sharing a body with some entity, who's only interest was in bonding with some guy she'd never even met before

 

[BK613]

There is dialog earlier in the episode that indicate that Hedford would be a willing participant:

NANCY: I heard him. He was loved and he resents it.
MCCOY: You just rest.
NANCY: No. I don't want to die. I've been good at my job, but I've never been loved. Never. What kind of life is that? Not to be loved, never to have shown love? And he runs away from love.

As for Kirk covering things up, no need for him to go to extremes. In fact, to fulfill his promise, he need only mention that the man was a Zephram Cochrane and not mention that he was the Zephram Cochrane.

COCHRANE: Captain, don't tell them about me.
KIRK: Not a word, Mister Cochrane.

 

[urbandefault]

I think Nancy might change her mind once she finds out the truth: that "The Man" really looks more like James Cromwell than Glenn Corbett.

 

[Forbin]

I always wondered what Kirk reported about Hedford's fate. Everyone knew she was aboard that shuttle - she was on an official mission. Did he report that she died along the way and he dumped her body in space? Buried it on that lonely planetoid? Recycled her into the food slot system? Wouldn't there be a family member wondering and wanting her remains for burial in the family plot?

 

[Mojochi]

There is dialog earlier in the episode that indicate that Hedford would be a willing participant

I was aware & made some mention of that in my OP, but nothing in her confession about her own loneliness & lack of personal love, that she confesses under the duress of dying, is inherently an admission that she'd be OK with someone or something else inhabiting her body, so some stranger could love it. She doesn't love Cochrane. She doesn't even know him.

So, the most optimistic appraisal of the situation is that Nancy gets to, in some way, be party to someone else's love, which imho is not only not the same thing as being loved by someone, or loving someone, but it's rather tragic, like the companion arranged a marriage, "But on the bright side, I love the man, and since I'm taking over part of you, enough of us will love him that maybe you'll be OK with that. As for him loving you, well I guess you're shit outta luck there, because he never loved you. So at best, you can pretend the "we" he loves includes you now too. But hey, at least you're not dead because I brought you here, right? Congrats."

The companion abducted more than it ever even knew it wanted, & got it all. Nancy was abducted, in the middle of a medical emergency, & was stranded until it became terminal, & then given the sole option of giving up everything she'd ever been or ever could be, for the sake of joining in on someone else's fairy tale romance

She's still a young woman, who now understands the importance of what having not been loved means to her. Wouldn't it be preferable for her to return to her life & find a love of her own? Well, she's never going to get that. I guess beggars can't be choosers, ey?

I might not feel so bad about it, if anything of Nancy had come to the surface after the merging, or at least seemed that way, but it was all dialog reflecting how the companion felt, what would become of it, & its relationship with the man, etc... It just leaves me feeling Nancy got herself shafted, and spends the rest of her days roped into some strange couple's romance, & just having to be OK with it, or at least we think she is, based on what was said by an entity claiming to in some way include her, even though it was mostly shown representing the companion's interests

 

[johnnybear]

Always made me laugh that the differences between James Cromwell and Glenn Corbett were explained away as radiation sickness! Wonder what Cromwell thought about that analysis?
JB

 

[Ronald Held]

Why could Kirk not have left food and medicine there? No real need for hand weapons. Cochrane seems to want to be alone before the merger and afterwards, so no need to leave a transceiver .
As was mentioned above, unlikely Kirk would check back at all.

 

[Dukhat]

I have a hard time watching Metamorphosis.

So do I. Hedford is basically treated like a piece of meat by the men in the episode (well, maybe not Spock) for the sole reason that she is a woman. Never mind anything to do with the Companion.

 

[Mojochi]

So do I. Hedford is basically treated like a piece of meat by the men in the episode (well, maybe not Spock) for the sole reason that she is a woman. Never mind anything to do with the Companion.

I can't disagree with that. I'd like to be able to think Star Trek was more progressive than that, but it just can't be done here. That last line from Kirk basically just reduced her entire life to being meaningless. Thank god that companion came along & gave her a man. She's far more fulfilled now than she ever would've been as a peace negotiator. It's a shame really. The episode is a solid production & the premise has great potential, but the treatment is terribly sexist

 

[UnknownSample]

It was both the Commissioner and the cloud speaking, equally. They had depicted the Commissioner as a very lonely person who had not been able to reach out to others. Once the two were joined, they each felt everything that the other did. There ceased to be any separation. Hedford felt the Companion's love for Cochrane just as if it was her own, which in fact it now was. No one "controlled" anyone else here. Hedford could have reacted against all this, but in fact, found nothing unpleasant or wrong about it. It filled a large gaping hole that she had in herself. A lot of us have that. There's sometimes something in us, that keeps us from crossing that barrier between people.
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If there's a criticism to be made, possibly it's that Hedford was too much like the WW2 generation's image of the "career woman", who supposedly had to give up "being a woman" to work at a career. That seems to be exaggerated in "Number One", who had to give up any feeling in order to be tough minded enough for command, to the point of becoming "alien" in personality.
==================
We are supposed to be aware of the sacrifice Cochrane and Commisioner Cloud are making by asking Kirk to make no mention of them. They want their own unique and separate life, fully aware that it will be very hard physically. That's part of what gives the ep its emotional impact. It wasn't some insignificant little plot mistake.

 

[Mojochi]

It was both the Commissioner and the cloud speaking, equally.

Once the two were joined, they each felt everything that the other did. There ceased to be any separation.

There's only two ways to interpret this joining, based on the narrow line of dialog that describes it "We are one". #1, the two consciousnesses are both in there, and they are just sharing the one form, or #2, both consciousnesses are merged into one, as you say, but I can't see it that way completely. Firstly, because she says "We are both here". That implies to me that more than one consciousness is present, & then she says

"Zefram, we frighten you. We've never frightened you before. Loneliness. This is loneliness. Oh, what a bitter thing. Oh, Zefram, it's so sad. How do you bear it, this loneliness?"

That's not Nancy. Nancy, by her own admission, already knows what loneliness is, & has spent at least some time with the bearing of it. It's this line, more than any other, that betrays the idea that Nancy is an equal part of this union, whatever its ultimate form, & even if you're right, & both consciousnesses are merged equally, then by all rights, we really can't suggest that Nancy still exists at all. It's like Tuvix. In that scenario, a whole new entity was born of the combination of two

But as I've said, the dialog betrays that. Clearly the companion is still present, it's discovering the reality of living as a Human, and interpreting it's feelings for Cochrane in a more human way now, wanting to revel in walking & feeling the earth at its feet & sun on its face, etc... Nancy's done all that shit, dude. So where is she in all this? Subjugated somehow, is the only way I can take it.

They had depicted the Commissioner as a very lonely person who had not been able to reach out to others.

Actually, they only really depicted her as being a woman angered & appalled by her predicament, who in the throws of a death from disease, confesses the regret of having never loved or been loved. Well, geez, she's barely 30 years old. It's not as if under normal circumstances she'd never have gotten the opportunity to have that. It's only when faced with her impending death, that she laments never having had it. #1, Companion's fault. #2, hardly a just outcome to only be granted a place in a love that wasn't really hers to begin with, whether she is somehow merged into accepting it or not.

 

[UnknownSample]

There's only two ways to interpret this joining, based on the narrow line of dialog that describes it "We are one". #1, the two consciousnesses are both in there, and they are just sharing the one form, or #2, both consciousnesses are merged into one, as you say, but I can't see it that way completely. Firstly, because she says "We are both here". That implies to me that more than one consciousness is present, & then she saysThat's not Nancy. Nancy, by her own admission, already knows what loneliness is, & has spent at least some time with the bearing of it. It's this line, more than any other, that betrays the idea that Nancy is an equal part of this union, whatever its ultimate form, & even if you're right, & both consciousnesses are merged equally, then by all rights, we really can't suggest that Nancy still exists at all. It's like Tuvix. In that scenario, a whole new entity was born of the combination of two

But as I've said, the dialog betrays that. Clearly the companion is still present, it's discovering the reality of living as a Human, and interpreting it's feelings for Cochrane in a more human way now, wanting to revel in walking & feeling the earth at its feet & sun on its face, etc... Nancy's done all that shit, dude. So where is she in all this? Subjugated somehow, is the only way I can take it.

Actually, they only really depicted her as being a woman angered & appalled by her predicament, who in the throws of a death from disease, confesses the regret of having never loved or been loved. Well, geez, she's barely 30 years old. It's not as if under normal circumstances she'd never have gotten the opportunity to have that. It's only when faced with her impending death, that she laments never having had it. #1, Companion's fault. #2, hardly a just outcome to only be granted a place in a love that wasn't really hers to begin with, whether she is somehow merged into accepting it or not.

ST is trying like crazy here to let you know NF is an officious, stiff person on the outside, to cover a wounded inside. Let Trek do this... You're over-nit-picking the double consciousness thing. Both are fully in there. Each part, though, is experiencing a lot for the first time. At will, each part of Commissioner Cloud can isolate her point of view to emphasize Hedford more, or the Companion more. In fact, I don't know how she/they could avoid it. It will take time to merge all they know and feel and remember into a larger thing.
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She can speak mainly as Hedford or the Cloud anytime she wants, just as Kollos/Spock could.

 

[2takesfrakes]

I can only imagine that Nancy would be in need of counseling, with this new and very awkward arrangement. Yes, she should just be "glad" to be "alive," especially by the time the Compnaion takes over. But ... I don't know. It would also be like a double headed snake, or something, sharing the one body. Each with their own objectives. And who is to council this poor girl? At least if Cochrane were Vulcan, she would've stood a better chance.

But really, what can he say, except, "just relax and don't let it bother you." Well, thank you for that advice, I'm sure. He got what he wanted, at least, so he's happy. As it is, whatever she can't cope with is her own lookout. The Companion's not a damn bit of help. In a way, it's kind of a play on Beauty & The Beast, only this time, the Beast gets transmogrified into a smokin' hottie.

 

[UnknownSample]

They both appear to complete each other. Everything's fine. Better than therapy.

 

[Greysun]

This is something of a recurring pattern in Trek. Spock melds with people all the time, like Kollos. Decker and Ilia merged with V'Ger. Better than Hedford dying, I suppose.

 

[Michael]

I agree with the OP: The premise upon which the ending of this episode is based is somewhat horrifying once you start to think about it. The point is, I'm sure there are a lot of people who would rather be dead than live on sharing their body with an alien consciousness. Pretty scary when you remember that Nancy had no way of agreeing to this before it happened and that the episode treats it as the most romantic thing to happen to her.

I think Nancy might change her mind once she finds out the truth: that "The Man" really looks more like James Cromwell than Glenn Corbett.

What does that even mean? James Cromwell is a really good-looking man, if you ask me. So what are you saying?