Metamorphosis by: Gene L. Coon and directed by: Ralph Senensky

“Metamorphosis” is written by Gene L. Coon and is directed by Ralph Senensky.  It was filmed under production code 31, was the 9^th episode of Star Trek Season 2, the 38^th episode of Star Trek, and was broadcast on November 10, 1967.

 

“Metamorphosis” is an odd episode, at least when you look back on it with modern eyes.  It is an episode that is wrapped in the traditional gender roles of the 1960s with slight variation, telling a love story where neither party really have agency in the relationship.  This is portrayed as saccharine in the end, the pair of displaced travelers being framed as perfect for each other, and by necessity straight.  It’s an episode that directly addresses in dialogue a human need for love and companionship specifically with the opposite sex, and further than just human but all intelligent life needs this monogamous heterosexuality.  This makes “Metamorphosis” feel very far in the past, however, there is an argument to make that Gene L. Coon is actually subverting this by the relationship is between a human and an entity, called the Companion, that in any other story would fall into the trope of the non-binary alien, but Coon at almost the last minute decides it must have a sex despite the way it is described biologically wouldn’t fit into the then current understanding of sex from a human perspective.  Biology already understood there were ways of reproduction that would not have followed the human paradigm, even those that reproduced sexually.  The Companion being revealed to be female is played as a shocking twist and adds to some of the regressive gender politics of the episode.

 

“Metamorphosis” features one major female character in Commissioner Nancy Hedford played by Elinor Donahue, who is stranded with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy as the Galileo shuttlecraft is dragged through a warp to the planet where the inventor of warp drive Zefram Cochrane, played by Glenn Corbett, has been stranded for a century and a half.  Hedford, on a peace mission with the Enterprise, has contracted a deadly disease so her literal purpose in the episode is to deteriorate into hysterics and then just die by merging with the Companion to provide an immortal partner for Cochrane.  Hedford, while shot to be shown as physically attractive to Cochrane, doesn’t actually reciprocate any of his feelings which means that the romance aspect of the episode reads as if consent is being violated and the ethical questions of the Hedford’s corpse being reanimated as a companion.  This is made incredibly clear by the score from George Duning and Ralph Senensky’s direction both being explicit in framing this as a positive romance, Senensky also directing the romantic “This Side of Paradise” but that episode worked due to all parties consenting so the tragic elementst are not underecut.  Senensky frames Hedford and Cochrane as especially soft to accent the romantic ideas and the visual effect for the Companion, a fairly simple overlay effect, is quite effective for the alien version of the creature.

 

Senensky’s direction is actually one of the very effective aspects of the episode, as the first half of “Metamorphosis” is genuinely brilliant.  Glenn Corbett gives this great and nuanced performance as a man who is wracked with the guilt of dragging four innocents, one of them dying, into his situation: he demanded companionship from the Companion believing the only course of action would be to bring other humans into the pocket dimension.  Kirk, Spock, and McCoy questioning Cochrane and the equipment he used to build his shelter and playing it as a slight mystery if Cochrane is responsible for their situation and harbors any malice is also excellent.  There are also some small cutaways to the Enterprise which are genuinely great for Scotty who is in command, even if he doesn’t actually do much in command and it is there to fill time, but James Doohan is quite fun to watch.  There is also just this general sweet quality to the episode that if you can just turn off your brain to the blatant sexism and misogyny on display that feels among some of the regressive, and because of the music you almost can, there’s at least some interesting ideas to be had.

 

Overall, “Metamorphosis” is probably one of those episodes that is going to make Star Trek fans reading these reviews angry.  It’s got a solid idea at its center and the first half is brilliant, but the second half falls down this terrible rabbit hole of sexism that feels regressive even for the 1960s.  The sex/gender essentialism also feels incredibly aged even for an episode that aired in 1967 since biology was already understanding more than just sexual reproduction as a possibility, so establishing every alien species being divided into binary sexes just feels unscientific and of course wrong.  A true episode of two halves.  5/10.