38 – Metamorphosis

Grade: B-

Summary

Captain Kirk, Spock and McCoy find an asteroid where the legendary Zefram Cochrane lives. Could it be possible that the inventor of the warp drive is still alive and on this planet? Meanwhile, a female ambassador is deathly ill and will die if she is not brought to a medical facility.

Commentary

This above-average episode has some pretty good moments (like when Cochrane offers Ambassador Hedford a hot bath, and she says with some disdain: “how perceptive of you to notice I needed one”). I didn’t really care for the character of Ambassador Hedford. She was a bit abrasive and condescending. But overall, the storyline is touching, and different from what we normally see in this series. This would be a good episode to show someone who is not familiar with Star Trek since it doesn’t depend much on technology.

Of Note

The character of Zefram Cochrane appears again in the Next Generation film, First Contact. But in this episode, he appears to be from Alpha Centauri. In the film, he is from Earth. Also, Cochrane is supposed to be in his early 30s during the events of First Contact. The actor who played him was 56 years old, however. So the official character data on StarTrek.com was changed to say that Cochrane just looks older because of exposure to radiation.