Yet Another Star Trek Podcast - Ep 063: (TOS S02E09) Metamorphosis

Episode Date: June 18, 2024

Kirk, Spock and McCoy are escorting a diplomat back to the Enterprise for urgent care, but a strange cloud hijacks their shuttle and diverts them to a planet where a very young 150 year old Zephram Cochrane is stranded. It turns out the cloud is also a horn-dog and won't let the crew leave. Will Kirk figure out how to appease female Melllvar? Tune in to find out! Be sure to check out our website, social media, and join our Discord! Links for all are listed below: Website | Discord | BlueSky | Facebook | Instagram | Threads | Twitter | TikTok | YouTube Drop us an email at [e-mail]! “Warp Speed” and "To the Stars" was written and performed by William Grobbelaar Music: https://soundcloud.com/williamgrobbelaarmusic Additional artwork by George Rateau: https://www.fiverr.com/georgerateau Looking for more great content? Consider checking out some of our friends below. Stone Age Gamer Podcast

Good evening, everybody. Welcome back to yet another Star Trek podcast. We're a little late tonight. Well, I mean, I was on time. Good evening everybody, welcome back to yet another Star Trek podcast. We're a little late tonight. Well, I mean, I was on time. Where you at though? Now you're right. I'm sorry.

Don't be sorry, just be better. Can we do it again? I f***ed that joke up. No. No. You stick with it. You live with it. No!

If you wanted to try it over again, you should have gotten here earlier. But at least you showed up. Uh... Hashtag Brad. We do try to, I guess, make some of these jokes happen, and uh... You know. Sometimes it works out great, sometimes it doesn't. It does.

But hey, that's just life. Because life hits us, and the older we get, not... Sometimes it doesn't. It does. But hey, that's just life. Because life hits us and the older we get, not only does life hit us, it just knocks us down and kicks us repeatedly until we say, I quit. What's that quote from Ferris Bueller? If you don't slow down, you might drive your Ferrari through a glass garage. I think that was it. I think you nailed it. Yeah. I think you nailed it. Yeah, I think you nailed it reasonably

confident is exactly what it was. Yeah. I mean, you know, this is a Star Trek podcast, not a Ferris Bueller podcast. So we're fine. Yeah. It's not like Matthew Broad is going to come in here and just start raging. Yeah, no, we're good. He's not. He's not here. Thank God. But I feel like I could if I listen, if I had to, if I had a chance. I feel like I could beat up Matthew Broderick. I mean. Why? So you don't ever do this, you don't ever kind of look at a celebrity and like, oh, I could beat that celebrity up.

Like I was watching Dune and it was like Timothy chalamet. I'm like, Oh, I could, I could, I could mess up Timothy chalamet. You know, um, like Dave Bautista, I'm like, I don't want no parts of Dave Bautista. I don't do that. Really? Yeah. Oh, I wonder if that's a problem with me. It might be.

Wow. We are so far off course. We'll probably have to circle back to that when I problem with me. Maybe. Wow. We are so far off course. We'll probably have to circle back to that when I'm in therapy. Well, yeah. I mean, if you want to talk about your toxic feelings, you know, off air, just let me know. I don't think it's toxic. I think that it's because I'm a father and a husband. I have to be able to protect my family.

Right. So part of protecting your family is being able to size up potential threats. I can look at down. Okay, I hey, you know, pause, I got you. Man, we are far off base right now. Let's try this. Hey, everyone. Welcome back. To get another Star Trek podcast. I'm one of your hosts of three. Majid. Brad couldn't make it, because it's a different time zone

wherever he is in Atlanta. But I am joined by my lovely co-host, Drew. Drew, how are you, buddy? Oh, just, I'm lovely. You are. You know, I spent, all right, so we only record on days that I'm off off and lately every day that I'm off, I'm doing something in the yard or in the garden.

Right. So today was no different. I spent 90 minutes trying to tie a knot. It's a YouTube video for that somewhere. Oh, I'm aware. I watched them all. Still couldn't get it done. And I sent my poor wife like this scathing text message about how I'm sick

and tired of the effing garden and the effing rope and the effing tomato posts and the effing Florida weave and F this and F that I'm going to rip the garden out and F F F and Yeah, god, I wish you had security cameras in your backyard. I want to see you rage out I've wasted so much string trying to make a freaking knot It's like impossible and it's really infuriating too because I was going to put in some serious work on the patio today And instead all I did was fix two of the stones that were messed up and swap out a third one

So basically i'm I I broke even in that project today. That's fair. I mean at least you tried. Just to throw a little salt on the fire though, I had to tie it out for the screen that I put up for my wife. Yeah. And I did it in like five minutes by myself. What kind of knot did you use there, Boy Scout of America? A stable one. What's that called? A stable? Yeah, a stable knot. Like it's not going anywhere. It's stable.

Oh, okay. Well, you'll have to show me that because the slip knot and the hitch knot and the other three knots that I tried, you know what, like, like, I'm just not good with like doing things like that with my hands, right? Like at my, my new role at work, um, I have to use like tools and I'm not good at that. Like I never have been growing up.

I was always messing around with the computers. I was not like building stuff. So when, when it comes time for me to be a man and do something that requires the use of my hands and tools, I'm an utter failure. You play video games, sometimes for a living. It's emasculating, man. I feel very emasculated today.

Yeah, I never understood that about you. Like, you could unwrap a Starburst with your tongue, but you can't do with your hands It's the wildest thing for me. Yeah, I think yeah. Well I Got nothing Also, I'm sure one of those knots is like a hardcore heavy metal band Slipknot you were saying yes. Yes, but they were they were rope before they were metal That's that's all I got How are you? Hey?

Hey, I'm good. I'm good. I did some low voltage Electricity playing with wire stuff outside before you know, I had dinner recorded. And I'm excited because I did the I did the suburban dad thing and I hired someone to cut my grass. So I have more time now to do other projects. I don't know if we've ever talked about this, but I've been wanting to actually use my motorcycle for the past four years. I keep forgetting you have one. You forget you have four years. I keep forgetting you have one. You forget any. Have I keep I keep forgetting I have one.

Yeah. You know who doesn't forget progressive insurance. You know who else doesn't forget the state of Connecticut. They're taxing me and my wife. Oh, you got a charge for the Honda. What? Oh, I have a motorcycle. Yeah. Which is basically like it's covered and I don't know. I wrote the bike around the neighborhood a couple of weeks ago and it's it's great.

It's a great feeling. But I, when I pull back into my driveway, I'm like, Oh my God, there's still so much for me to do. So, you know, I made the decision to hire someone, brothers, no, Antonio's landscaping. You know, two guys come out and they cut the grass. Listen, they did it in 45 minutes. Just these two guys cutting the grass for 45 minutes. They did the front, back, and side inside and they used the weed wacker.

How much does that cost you? 65 per visit. So we've considered hiring out for that. We have a third of an acre, so it takes us like an hour just to mow the lawn. Yeah. And it's very time consuming, but I have a hard time rationalizing paying somebody that much money to do it like I Don't know

mental health and the work-life balance because what I was doing buddy, I was coming out on my lunch break cutting the grass and Finishing it off to work and that is not healthy. Yeah, but also you work from home so you have to work and that is not healthy. Yeah, but also you work from home. So like you have the ability to do that, which I'm not saying it's good or bad, but it's nice to have the choice. I don't know if I appreciate your tone when you said that I work from home. I mean, when was the last time you drove into the office?

This is my office. This is my office. And I drive here every single day from the gym. I spent three hours in traffic yesterday. Is that a humble break? Oh, no. Oh, no. Look, we've both made our bed, and now we have to lie in it. Yeah.

You can't get time back. We've both made our bed and now we have to lie in it. Yeah. Hey, you can't get time back. But you can watch Star Trek. I don't know. I didn't have a good segue for that. I will say that it's not recommended to watch Star Trek while you're in traffic. It's also not recommended to eat cereal while driving,

but some people still do it. I mean, what else are you going to do? You got to seize the gap. You got to eat some cereal, man. I am. I listen to a lot of podcasts and audio books. Yeah. But hey, we watched an episode of Star Trek. And by the way, I didn't watch it immediately before recording. I watched it three hours ago on your lunch break.

I did. While I put together my spotlights for outside. I actually watched the episode. So not bad. That's pretty good. Did you fall asleep during it? I listen. I won't. I won't bury the lead, but I did not fall asleep. I was actually engaged and I put down whatever I was doing. I was fully immersed in this episode, but we'll get into that. I promise. But why don't we take it away with the synopsis first? Sounds like a plan to me, my man.

All right. Thanks, Brad. You got true. Brad's somewhere else. Where in the world is Brad? Alright, so we are going to be looking at, what is this, Season 2 Episode 9? I think it is? Metamorphosis? I think it was supposed to be released as episode two, but they pushed it all the way back.

Well, a lot of times the air order and like those early episodes of Star Trek are kind of all over the place, right? Because they they produce them in different orders that they release them in. Let me see if I can bring up which one this is. I'm looking for the episode. Yeah. So this was, I guess, the second episode produced, but it didn't air in that order. Memory Alpha is very weird with some of the information about these because the original

air date wasn't until November, right? So it was quite a few weeks afterwards, but I don't know, they're all over the place. You just have to kind of go with it, I guess. It's fair. But we're following the order that Paramount Plus uses. So there you go. Anyway, let's let's talk about metamorphosis, shall we? Let us Captain Kirk Spock and Dr.

McCoy find themselves stranded on a small but conveniently breathable planet after their shuttle craft. Galileo is hijacked by a mysterious energy cloud. Hey, wasn't Galileo destroyed? I mean, the enterprise was destroyed a couple of times too. Not yet. That's fair. Is that spoiler alert? Just a sign of things to come. Anyway, the Galileo is hijacked by a mysterious energy cloud. As if that weren't strained enough, their technology is as useless as a chocolate teapot. Enter a man who looks like he's walked straight out of a history book, Cochrane, a name that rings a bell for everyone, but the poor Commissioner Hedford was too busy developing a fever.

Cochrane casually drops the bomb that he's no other than the Zefram Cochrane, the inventor of warp drive, kept youthful by his bizarre companion, a floating space cloud with a soft spot for humans. Wait, they weren't eating the humans. Okay, anyway, Kirk Spock and McCoy explore Cochrane's cozy setup, complete with some quaintly outdated instruments. It's just like stepping in your grandparents' attic.

As Headford's fever worsens, Kirk digs for answers about the companion. Cochran reveals that his alien cloud not only kidnapped them, but has been his personal fountain of youth. The companion has got serious attachment issues, having kept Cochrane company for over a century. Headford is now raving mad and ends up getting sedated by bones and tucked in the Cochrane's bed, leaving the men to puzzle over their cloud conundrum. What's your thoughts on this so far? So immediately I, I thought that a Cochran was the energy cloud made human, you know, putting on a facade. Sure. And you know, again, this, it just engaged me from the very second

that the episode started. No, from the very second they got onto the planet and Cochran makes himself known. I'm like, Oh, okay, cool. So we have a bit of a mystery here. Right. A bit of a misdirects. All right. And you had a ticking clock too. That's a communication hook. What was that? You have a ticking clock too.

Right. I love my ticking clocks. You know that. Because Hedford's got this disease that if she doesn't get back to the enterprise in time, it's gonna kill her. And so now, not only are you stuck on this planet with a mystery, but you have a ticking clock because otherwise Hed it's gonna die

Yeah Anyway spot gets to work on trying to fix the Galileo only to be electrocuted by the companion Which seems to be a fan of keep away? Cochran after some coaxing agrees to summon the companions see if it can help head for it instead of assistance They observed a disturbingly intimate interaction between Cochran and the cloud to summon the companion to see if it can help Hedford. Instead of assistance, they observe a disturbingly intimate interaction between Cochrane and the cloud. It leaves McCoy and Kirk theorizing that the companion is in love. Spock crafts an electric disruption device to short circuit the cloud, but it only irritates the companion, who retaliates by nearly strangling Kirk and Spock until McCoy shouts, pull it back to its senses.

Oh man, McCoy certainly has a way of yelling at things and making them stop. The worst kind of doctor. He really is. McCoy convinces Kirk to start thinking like a diplomat instead of like a soldier, and this leads to the idea of communicating with the companion using the universal translator. Meanwhile, the Enterprise, under Scotty's command, searches tirelessly for the missing crew. A newly modified translator reveals that the companion has a female-sounding voice, hinting

at an even weirder twist. It's not just an energy cloud, but it's an energy cloud with a crush on Cochrane. Despite Kirk's pleas, the companion refuses to let them leave, prioritizing Cochrane's well-being over the human's desire to escape. Cochrane is surprised by the revelation that his cloud buddy has romantic feelings for him. While the crew struggles to understand his reaction, Commissioner Hedford regains clarity just long enough to lament her life. Companion, showing as not totally heartless, merges with Hedford's dying body, saving her life and providing a more human-like presence. This act of sacrifice convinces the companion slash Hedford hybrid to let the crew go, leaving concrete Cochrane with

a new flesh and blood companion. They part ways with Cochrane choosing to stay behind with the new head for companion to explore this unexpected turn in his long strange trip. Sum up the episode creepy clouds can feel love. Fevers make women hysterical. And Zephyr and Cochrane took one hell of a magic carpet ride. What a very bittersweet ending that episode was. Yeah. Bittersweet and frustrating. Well, I kind of wanted to talk about the character of Hedford a little bit. Mm hmm.

Right. Because I feel like she was very much a 1960s idea of a stereotypical woman. Okay. Tell me more. Like, it kind of bothered me watching this play out because, like, when the shuttle is getting drawn by the cloud to the planet, you know, she's insisting that they stop it from happening. And Kirk has to tell her more than once that he has no control over it.

Bones says to him, like, we need to get her back. And he says, I can't do anything about it. I have no control. And then immediately she's like, you better get us back. And he's like, I just said it. Like, I can't, can't do anything about it. So I feel like they were kind of like writing her to ignore him or just be choosy with what she wanted to hear.

And then as she started having this fever, like she started becoming hysterical, like in the throes of agony, you know, crying. And I just wasn't a fan of that. That's fair. I, I hated space Karen at first. Yeah. I'm like, oh man, she's going to be this way the entire trip. And you know, when she was on her deathbed, I'm like, oh man, she's gonna be this way the entire trip. And you know, when she was on her deathbed, I'm like, oh, I kinda like the character a little more now. But I mean, like, I don't know, I feel like that maybe says something. Like, she was literally dying before you cared about her.

Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. Way to call me out. I'm sorry. I hated her. I know I hate its character. I'm like, Oh my God, this woman's a, this one was going to call Kirk supervisor. I mean, it kind of felt that way, right?

Like she's like insisting that he do something that he has no power or ability to do Yeah, you know and it wouldn't have been so bad if it was like If McCoy wasn't that buffer on the shuttle that whole time But like he was like they're in the same room, right? Like she could see It's not like she was in like some compartment or some office or quarters somewhere else on the shuttle She's literally sitting next to the captain and Spock watching them do everything in their power to try to stop this from happening And she's insistent that they they stop it from happening as like Lady, are you paying attention like read the room? You know, right, right here

Take this drug. It'll make you feel better. Right. Hi there! You think there's room for yet another Star Trek podcast on the internet? Have we got a show for you! I'm Chris. And I'm Dan. And we're the hosts of the Stone Age Gamer Podcast, the official podcast of StoneAgeGamer.com, which is, you guessed it it yet another video game podcast every Friday

Chris and I spend a few hours talking about the world of video games from retro gamers perspective we cover everything from the latest news older games we missed out on even non video game related stuff like lawn care and cooking and child rearing and whatever other nonsense is going on in our lives. I love rearing children. Tune in every week for recurring segments like the SAG Cartoon Express, where we talk about old video game related cartoons and how great they are. The 10, 20, 30, 40 where we discuss notable game releases from 10, 20, 30, and 40 years ago,

quarterly-ish trivia episodes, interviews with people who are usually way cooler than me, but not cooler than Dan, and more. podcast which is part of the Geekade Podcast Network. And as always, keep playing games. So ultimately, female Melvar companion, she takes over Hedford's body. Right. Hedford was gonna die if companion hadn't done that. Right. And now she's forced to love this guy, but she can live. Now she's forced to love this guy. She's in that body. But at the same time, and Cochran, what a jerkweed.

Yeah. He's like, no, oh, you're a female energy cloud? Oh no, I'm not, I don't wanna do anything with this. Oh, now you're in a beautiful female's body? Oh, I could rock with this. I could rock with this. He was a bit of a horn dog when when the episode started, the moment he saw head for it, he was just like,

oof. Yeah. Yeah. Our man gets to eat. Yeah. Which is a super creepy thing to say. Oh, man. Women. Wasn't that it's that's but I mean, I'd be fair, I think that was Brad's first opening line to his wife. The one when you saw her. Well, he's not here to deny it. So yeah, it's it's it's out there. It's it's it's it's fact now he can't defend himself.

Yeah. Can we can we talk about how much I love Kirk in this episode? Yes. Just him outwitting, not even outwitting. It wasn't a wit. It wasn't military might. It was him appealing diplomatically to someone's emotions. Yeah. And humanity. Yeah. Well, maybe not humanity, right? It was a well, energy cloud. Right. Right. But I get what you're saying.

Right. Him appealing to the heart of the matter. Him using logic. Him basically doing and ignoring what Spock and McCoy were saying. Because I think Spock wanted to try a different method and Kirk's like, I will smack you across the room if you tell me to do something again. And Kirk just kept on with his course of action and it was the right thing to do. Well, I mean, McCoy ultimately encouraged him to kind of take a more diplomatic approach though, right? You know. He did, he said, hey, you're thinking like a military man.

Right. And I mean, was it really diplomatic or was it appealing to the emotion? Because being a diplomat, you're not appealing to one's emotions, you're appealing to logic. Not necessarily. I mean, look, I have a PhD in diplomacy. And, you know, one of the things they teach you in diplomacy is if there's something you want bad enough, you just have to appeal to the other person's desires. I think P did he said that, too, but, you know, it didn't work out so well for him. No, I guess not. Yeah.

Ultimately, though, Kirk did fail, I think. Ultimately, though, Kirk did fail, I think. Well, he appealed first to the emotions had burden wouldn't have died. Yeah. I mean, the desired result obviously was to get her back to the enterprise so that she could be healed up and then get back to being an ambassador, trying to stop a war. And in that respect, yeah, he failed. Oh, and then the flippant comment at the end where there's like, oh, we'll just find another woman to go be the diplomat.

Yeah, that was really 60s of him. Yeah. To say that that was, that's what I'm saying. It's a bittersweet and frustrating end. So I was expecting, at first I was expecting that they blew up the cloud. They, you know, filled it up like too much balloon or whatever they do, science terms,

to defeat the energy cloud. And then I said, okay, well, now that this energy cloud is inside of Headbird, Headford or Headbird? Headford. Headford. Headford. So now that the energy clouds inside of Headford, Cochrane is going to show her a bit of humanity in the galaxy.

And then he just stays there. Yeah. I said that was frustrating. Yeah. That was a frustrating part for me. And it would have been a, I think a very poignant ending, a very sweet ending and very loving ending. Had he taken companion with him and explored the galaxies, right? Regardless of how much time they had, because it made it seem like the moment she leaves,

she has still a limited amount of time but they never really assimilate how much right even if she goes back after a while will she get that that extra time right kind of like uh you know when you play freeze tag and you go back to base right you know um but i i think that would have been a very bittersweet end because that's all cock would want to do was just explore. Right. And now he's stuck on a planet. It's like this is going to backfire me, but I'm going to power through a boy. It's like it's like the high school player getting the cheerleader

pregnant when he's about to go off to college. And, you know, he has his whole life laid out for him. And now he's stuck in his hometown. Wow. Being a used car dealership salesman. That's a very specific situation. Please don't cancel me. So this is the first time we've seen Cochran officially named in Star Trek. Are you familiar with the character?

I am familiar with the character played by the famous actor Whose name escapes me, but he was in first contact. Yes And he was in Lower Decks. Oh yeah, that's right. He was in Lower Decks had a Brief appearance there James Crom Um, James Cromwell is the name Cromwell is the name we're looking for. Um, so in, in my head cannon, James Cromwell

is that from Cochran? Yeah. Full stop. Sure. Um, so this is like breaking my brain. Because he doesn't act like the same character. And I know, obviously, it's a different take on it. And this guy's been stuck there for 150 years, and he's been made younger and blah, blah. But the second Zephyr Cochran that I know and love is basically a drunk cowboy. He's unsure of himself, but he's unsure of himself. But he's riding off into the distance and being awesome. Right? And this is a very different take, you know? So, I mean, I think that in terms of canon,

we can always explain things away with canon in terms of time. So we're talking about him being stuck on this planet for 150 years. By the time he even got to the planet, he was 80 something. So let's kind of map this out How old was Cochrane in first contact would you say approximately?

That's a that's a good question According to memory alpha. He was born sometime in the 1930s. I'm sorry the 2030s and Boy it got a little dark there, buddy. What happened? Uh, did the battery run out on your light, uh, for the audio listeners? Majid is rolling away from his desk and I don't know what he's doing. Cause I can't see. This is, this is fascinating I think he broke his light get this brand new light, I'm pretty sure he broke it

Relatively sure oh hey, hey the lights are back on look at that now. He's wheeling back in like nothing ever happened. So how's it going? I guess there's a timer. Something that it would have been nice that someone would have told me. I mean, I wouldn't have known. You doing all right there? Now you're trying to get the microphone set back up again? There's no way for us to cut any of this out, is there? Of course there is.

You're not going to do it, are you? Of course I'm not. I'm trying to use a box to hold up my microphone I had it right before okay oh my god this is delightful I'm just watching you do the same thing over and over and over again. That's the definition of insanity. All right, we're good now.

We're good. Lights, microphone. Take it away, Drew. All right, so Cochrane was born sometime in the 2030s. The events of First Contact happened at around 2063, which would put James Cromwell at a very elderly looking 33 years old. Yeah, that was, all right, so 33 years old. Yeah.

So that was 50 years between the ending of, let's say it was about 50 years between the ending of, let's say, let's say it was about 50 years between the ending of first contact and him leaving as he gets stranded on that planet. That's 50 years. Then another 150 years on that planet by himself. So that's 200 years for him to mature. That time, that's what, four lifetimes?

You are a different person. Mm-hmm. You know, oh 100% 100% Yeah, like I'm not reading that So does it doesn't that affect your Canon in some way shape or form not really? No, majeed logic does not affect my Canon, how dare you ask Well, it's just that the portrayal I can't. How dare you ask? Well, it's just that the portrayal. So I mean, you have to keep in mind that the name Zephyrum Cochran was thrown around a lot in the next generation.

Right. Okay. Jordy LaForge being the chief engineer of the ship would constantly refer to Cochran and the warp field and the warp design and all this stuff. And in First Contact, like he's basically meeting like his hero, right? So you've got seven seasons of this name being thrown around as like this historic textbook person. And then in First Contact, he ends up being a drunk, right? Who is brilliant, but very unsure of himself.

And quite frankly, is not a hero, right? He becomes a hero, but he's not when they first meet him. OK. So that is kind of like how my point of reference for the character has just been for literally 30 years. Right. And I had never seen this episode before. This is the first time I've seen this one. So it just kind of breaks my brain. Like you have a mental image of something

and then you're shown something different and like you have to rationalize that, right? Sure. I think for me, it's looking a little bit differently because I was exposed to the James Cromwell version twice, twice over. Years ago when First Contacts came out, so I knew him as the bandana loving drunk. And then I knew him again in Lower Decks as the hologram drunk. And now understanding how, not time travel, but understanding how the amount of time works,

I'm okay with this, but for you, I think that you're coming around as like a, like really a full circle. Yeah, yeah, I mean, you know, it's, it's, you know, you're hitting it, it's like, I don't know, I guess it's kind of like watching videos of family members that you've only known to be older and then you get to see them when they were younger.

Sure. I don't know. But sure, like if I had, I guess like maybe a good example, and I'm gonna get canceled with this again. Oh boy. So stick with me. That's like if I in my 20s had an only fans and I was really famous on it and then I retired.

But then my daughter finds out that her father had an only fans and then it kind of breaks her brain about her perception of her father. OK. Okay. Sure. I'll allow it. But in actuality that I would never show my face. It would just be my feet. I know.

It's like I know. I'm your number one subscriber. I'm your only subscriber. Only fan. Only, only fan. Oh my goodness. This is such a, this is, this would have been the perfect love story though buddy, if it had ended in tragedy. No, let me, let me rephrase that. This would have been a perfect love story if they rode off into the sunset together, conquering it and companion.

If they found a way to like get them off of that planet, you mean? There was a way to get them off the planet. There was. Except that Companion didn't want to take that risk. She just said, oh, I'm gonna die. Well, Cochrane says, you're gonna die there anyway. You know?

Right. It's just a matter of time. So now, again, like the high school football player that has thrown his life away for the prom queen, now has to just be stuck there. Right. You know, he could have continued exploring the galaxy. So if he's locked in at what, let's say 40 as his age?

Yeah. They don't actually say, they just say, you know, he's perpetually young he has Probably another I guess in this time time frame another 60 years. I guess people I Mean there's there's um evidence of people in the original series being upwards of a hundred By now by next generation 150 Sure, so he has let's say at minimum and upwards of 100. By next generation, 150.

Sure. So he has, let's say at minimum 60 years. That's 60 years he'd be exploring planets. And like Kirk said, a lot has changed. A lot has changed. He could have been doing the thing that he loved to do. Right. But he's stuck.

And I think that that takes away from my final thoughts and ultimately my final score for the episode, you know? Yeah, yeah. What do you think about Spock and Bones's role in this entire thing? Spock was a punching bag. Yeah, he kind of got beat up a lot. Yeah, he got beat up a lot in the episode.

I think the episode would have worked without him. You take Spock out of the episode, nothing changes. You do need McCoy though. You need McCoy. You need McCoy. So you take Spock out the episode, nothing changes. You keep Bones in because Bones is ultimately the one that is giving Kirk the idea to be diplomatic. But actually Spock is needed just barely.

The translator. The translator was ultimately the MacGuffin, right? Right. Am I using the word right? I don't know. It was ultimately the tool to aid in, I won't say defeating, but it was the key to the whole episode. And by the way, this is, I guess, the earliest episode, the feature, the translator. By name. I think it's implied that there's something else, because they've encountered the clay

guns, they've encountered the Romulans, and how many other dozens of species at this point? I think it's illogical to assume that they're all speaking English, right? So while we've never had anything explicitly say, to my knowledge, that there's a universal translator functioning, it's well established in Star Trek lore of modern times that the universal translator is basically running 24-7. Okay. Yeah, kind of like in Guardians of the Galaxy, where it's implied that... Oh, not implied. It's actually shown that Star-Lord had an implant, a translator implant, implanted when he did the scan. But I don't know, this is the first time for me

we've actually seen a translator. Right. So it ultimately ends up becoming something that's just unspoken until it becomes a convenient plot point. You never actually see one in the next generation forward. Like it's implied that it's built into the communicator or it's built into the ship systems

and it's actively doing that. But there's a lot of just. Magic that, you know, you suspend your disbelief, right? And do that again. Magic. I love that. It actually just becomes a situation where, you know, the less you think about it, the easier it is to accept it.

You know, yeah, because it's like, okay, well, these communicators are not like audibly speaking for them, right? So do they have an earpiece? Do they have an implant? It's never, it's never made clear. So yeah, don't think about it and you'll be fine. Yeah, just like you don't think about, oh man, these guys have been stuck in a planet for the entire time, we didn't see one of them

go to the bathroom. Okay. Case in point. So this episode touches on a lot. This episode touches on mortality, love, loneliness, and ultimately the fear of the unknown. Right. touches on mortality, love, loneliness, and ultimately the fear of the unknown. Right. So, to me it's a very unique episode

in all of any episode of Star Trek I've seen. But for you, do you think that this episode holds up, like with those themes today? Yeah, I mean, if I if I look past the the Zephyrum Cochrane logic, breaking this of it and just try to consider him like just a character. I mean, I think they could tell the same story if they just put some modern sensibilities to it. Yeah.

You know, you have somebody who has never loved, uh, who is going to die essentially alone, um, given an opportunity to try to, you know, experience that. Um, although it is a little weird that they just assume that she's going to fall in love with him, Like, oh, you're here now Right, like that's a little weird. But anyway, yeah um The idea of companionship I think is something that everybody can identify with right? You know we we all seek to some degree

companionship whether it's with, whether it's a loving relationship, animals, whatever, right? Yeah. We all seek that companionship. And I think that's something that that story can be told any countless number of ways and has been. Yeah. It's a... This is, it's an almost perfect episode.

Almost perfect episode. So I've said it more than a few times. I mean, this is probably the only, only part of the episode I don't like is how it was forced, how the ending was forced. Yeah. It was the forced ending of, oh, we'll find someone else to restore peace to this war torn planet. Right. It was forced that Cochrane, who was so desperate to continue exploring the planets is now stuck.

It's forced that that Hedford is basically dead. Right. Dead inside. You know, like companion said, she was going to die anyway without me. You know, now she's stuck with me. Now she's a prisoner. Right. That was I feel like that was forced. And again, had this been maybe a modern Star Trek episode, the loss, Kirk's loss, right, I've said it before,

Kirk lost, but if this were a modern episode, this loss for him would stick with him. He would know that in the future that he can't just go for the attack. That he needs to think of a different way, right, especially when dealing with a being of immense energy. Right. But I know those are the things for me that just kind of hold it back from being perfect. And again, this is just another sleeper for me of an episode like we we've talked about this, you know, I think during

the Moby Dick episode, right, where this is an episode where people don't often talk about as being one of the greats. And I think this was just a really great episode. You know, it's interesting. What was the episode in season one where it was rated like one of the top ones? It was the time travel episode. City on the Edge of Forever. Yeah.

I like this episode more than City on the Edge of Forever. That's fascinating. OK. Yeah. Yeah. This is for me a better love story. OK. You know, well, I think a better ending. Yeah.

I mean, I think. better ending. Yeah. I mean, I think, um, you know, it was, this is a different approach, right? Because you already had this being that had been in love with Cochrane and it just inhabited a new body. Whereas with city on the edge forever were to believe that Kirk falls in love with a woman that he just met and knows is going to die. And it's like this epic, you know, moment, like she's being like, he's sweeping her off her feet and they were meant to be together, but no, he has to let her get hit by a car. It's her fate that would affect the rest of, you know, civilization.

Basically, you know, the whole butterfly effect thing. So, you know, I think, you know, there's some if you're comparing it to city on the edge forever, like city kind of also asks you to. Be forgiving with the things that you're allowing to happen. You know, like just like the same thing with the communicators. Don't overthink it. Just let it happen.

So so that's all I thought of time. Yeah. Yeah. The the reason I think city on the edge of forever is a good comparison is the theme of love. Right. Do you think that Kirk falling in love with this woman, you know, and love at first sight essentially is more believable than Cochran falling in love or Cochran and companion having this relationship

until they both die? I mean, 150 years is a long time. 150 years is a long time when you consider that the relationship was unrequited love. Right. Companion loved Cochran. Cochran did not love companion. I feel like there's some kind of mean potential in that statement. I only want to use the word unrequited love because I've heard it used before. Companion love Cochran.

Cochran didn't love companion. I'm going to let you workshop that. I will So I've kind of hinted at my At my rating for the episode right much higher Much higher than I was expecting for you. Really? What do you think I would have rated this episode? I mean, I don't know.

Certainly not a nine, but I think that's where you're going. I never said nine, but yeah, definitely a nine. Definitely a nine. I think the reason why I've rated this episode so high in terms of love is my wife, man, she he's putting on these sappy ass Hallmark movies and these Lifetime movies. And it's all about love at first sight, you know?

And this is like love in the time of Star Trek, you know? This is what that is. Right. So yeah, no, definitely a nine out of 10 for me. And it would have been a perfect 10 had those gripes I had regarding the ending being forced and these choices being forced. And yeah, would have been fine. You're looking for a happy ending full of choices. You're looking for a happy ending full of choices. No, I was looking for them to write off into the sunset. Not necessarily happy, but knowing that they're both going to die eventually, but dying together, right.

Doing the thing that they love, not just being stuck somewhere. Right. They're essentially almost in the same place they were when they got to start the episode. OK. Maybe a little bit of a Stockholm syndrome on Cochran's part. Sure. Yeah, I can see that. You know, you're in prison with somebody for 150 years,

eventually you fall in love with them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yep, just like our wives. Yeah. They have no choice, they're stuck with us. They certainly are. They're stuck with us.

Yeah. Oh, that's not gonna get anybody canceled on this show. I Think that if I didn't get canceled for my first two comments, I think I'm pretty safe on my third So I'm the look I'm not in charge of the canceling as long as I It's fine It's fine. There's a 24 hour news cycle. So I think that 24 hours being counted is fine in the end. Fair. So I've talked a lot about how much I love the episode.

And I don't really kind of get any strong feelings one way or the other from you about the episode. So if we are moving on to review, if there's no other gripes you had that you wanted to get out on the table, I think that when it comes to you rating the episode, I think that this is just an episode for you, that this is just a filler for you. Yeah. Star Trek. Yeah. So that's accurate. for you that this is just a filler for you. Yeah. Star Trek.

Yeah, so that's accurate. So that being said, you're gonna give it more of a meh score, not a five, you wouldn't go that low. So maybe about a six, six and a half, seven around there. I was thinking seven. I was thinking seven. Yeah, because I think it does what it's doing well, right? To fall on my usual metrics,

this would be an episode that I would leave on, but not put on. It was inoffensive. I enjoyed it. Inoffensive. Well, I mean, you know, there have been episodes that have offended me. You know, we've had our Drew Rants in the past.

I love my Drew Rants, and I hope with the next one we get another Drew Rants. It's been a while. It's been a while. It's been a while. But but yeah, like there's there's nothing wrong with this episode. That would really make it or break it for me, right? I do think that Headford was a little bit. Two dimensional in the beginning of the episode and I not really crazy about the oh, women writing that they they gave her.

But that being said, I like the idea of encountering a such a historical figure and given a little bit of backstory to well, what happens to him rather, you know helps kind of Draw, you know fill in the lines a little bit more than what I had expected to see The the cloud You know, whatever Just um, it's fine.

It's fine. There's there's nothing great about this episode. There's nothing bad about it. It's it exists and I've watched it and it wasn't bad. It was somewhat enjoyable. OK, so about a seven out of about a seven out of ten. That's not bad. And I feel like a seven is being generous generous except for the fact that it like it didn't bore me right like it was just there Mm-hmm, so Yeah, that's what I got

That's that's more than fair. I get it What do we got next week as or whenever we're able to get up together again Yeah it might be a little while cuz I know you've got some family stuff coming up and I do so while you're looking that up for the listener, my wife is Haitian and there's been a lot going on in that country, but her family her mother and her brother have the opportunity to finally Come up and, you know, get their lives in a better place and get to be a little more safe. And the only problem is, is Haiti's main airport in Port-au-Prince was closed from February 25th, and they just recently opened it. So we got tickets through JetBlue Saturday.

I've been on flight tracker. I've been on I have Google Alert set up for news just ensuring that this nothing happens because you want to be able to act quickly. Right. Long story short, the flight is scheduled. The flight is ticketed. And it's gonna be a really happy day for my wife. And a lot of the busyness around here for me has just been ensuring that they're comfortable. And she has as little stress as possible because it's a big moment for her. She hasn't seen her mom in six years.

Oh wow. Yeah, it's bad. It's, it's bad like her father's up here, but you know, her mom being down there. It's right. It's sad. So I try to do the good husband thing and I try to get everything ready here. So I think we're good to go. Saturday is going to be very busy. Yeah. How many people are coming up? Five. Wow. Her mother, her brother, her sister-in-law, and then two kids.

Wow. So then they go up to Vermont. And I make the joke all the time. Like, oh, you're taking your family from from their country and then put in the work on a farm. That's irony is lost on you. It doesn't work well. Oh, well, they're going to be going from a tropical island to like a place that gets

like six feet of snow and one storm. Yeah, that's going to be a hell of a culture shock. Yeah. Um, so this part of Vermont is what 30 minutes away from Lake George. Oh, that's beautiful. Yeah, I've never been so dude, our anniversary is in 15 days. So it's June 5th right now. It's in 15 days and I'm going to try to plan a trip to Lake George. So hopefully I can take Kylo with me. I can, uh, can give you some recommendations if you'd like, cause they have to be dog friendly because I want to take Kylo and, uh, I'm up early in the morning to go exercise and

she's not so well, the dogs just hang out. There's so much, um, there's so many different places to go hiking. Um, my wife and I I have have visited that area a couple of times, and there's so much to do in and around Lake George. It's it's it's beautiful up there. It really is. All right. So I'll have my camera, my tripod. I'll maybe I'll maybe take my drone.

There you go. Did you know I have it? Do you know I have a drone? Yeah. No. OK. Wait. No. OK. No, I Do you know I have a drone? Yeah, no. OK. Wait, no. OK. No, I do not. I have. I had a drone for a year. Another thing that I've just been too busy to use. Well, if you need somebody to help you use it, let me know.

I do. Hey, let's let's try to go kayaking together, too. I really want to get that going. At some point, I'm down for that, although I have kind of a history with kayaks. I would dive in to save you. I appreciate that. Yeah. I wouldn't dive in to save Brad. You know what? You know what it was? I think it was my weight. I think that had a lot to do with it because I think you look great. Well, put it fantastic. I wasn't fishing for compliments, but thank you. No, I'm I tell you this all the time. You sent a picture of you doing the yard work in, I think that was your father in the picture and your back.

I can't get over how muscular your back looks. That is day labor back. It looks great. I love it. And I'm a little jealous. I'm a little jealous of how good your back looks. Well, I mean, you stop mowing your lawn, so, you know. Fair. That's fair. I still have other projects, though. Let's talk about the next episode. The Deadly Years. The Enterprise discovers a colony full of rapidly aging scientists.

Whatever causes the rapid aging of the scientists soon affects the ship's landing party as well. Kirk Spock and McCoy and Scotty are shocked to discover that they are aging Decades each day and will soon die unless a cure for their condition can be found Meanwhile the unaffected checkoff may be their only hope for survival This sounds very similar to an episode of the next generation Which I am absolutely floored that I'm not seeing referenced in the memory alpha article. What the hell was the name of the episode? I am confused. I thought our next episode was journey to Babel.

Did I go to the wrong one? I must have gone to the right one. Yeah. I thought we had journey to babble and then Friday's child. I clicked the wrong link. Leave that in. Don't you dare. Journey to babble as the enterprise comes under attack. See, this is what I'm talking about with memory alpha.

They have all these different episode orders, right? So I clicked on the one that was the next release for the remastered, not for the original. So anyway, sorry about that. As the enterprise comes under attack on the way to a diplomatic conference on Babel, one of the alien dignitaries is murdered and Spock's estranged father, Sarah, is the prime suspect, but he is also deathly ill and only spot can save him. Okay. Well, I'm looking forward to seeing Sarah. That's, that's, that's going to be fun. He is a semi regular appearance in Star Trek throughout multiple series. We've already seen this actor in Bounds of Terror.

He played the Romulan commander. So seeing him play a Vulcan, which is almost exactly identical to the Romulans, just, you know, more logical. It'll be fun. I'm excited. Yeah, this, this, I don't know anything about this episode. I am looking forward to seeing it, but yeah, it looks like we got some, some very popular, uh, alien species, including Tellurites and Endorians in this one. Uh, speaking of alien species, I get to have some fun with the

triples this season. And I'm excited for triples because they look adorable. You need to calm down. Okay. All right. Hey, this has been great. I love catching up with you. Oh, yes, man. Until next time. I want to hear people's thoughts on this seemingly messed up love story that took place in metamorphosis. So you know, yell at us on Twitter, uh, yell at us on Instagram, uh, threads, our YouTube comments.

I want to hear your thoughts about it. Yeah. It's been a while since you and I have had such vastly different opinions on an episode. So yeah, I think being a father and a husband has ruined me. But that's another episode for another time. Yeah. Bye, Drew. Bye, everyone. Later, everybody. Thanks for listening to this week's episode of yet another Star Trek podcast.

We're part of the Retro Sessions Network. This episode was recorded on June 5th, 2024. It's hosted by Dru and Majid. I'm a said Brad. Well, it happens to die hard, I guess. We'd like to thank William Grobelar for writing the original music to the show, including the songs Warped Speed and To The Stars. Check out his music on SoundCloud. There's a link in the show notes. You can also check out George Rattow, who drew us like Lower Decks characters. We have a link to his fiver in our show notes as well. We'd also like you to check out all of the friends of the pod. They are so kind to contribute ads and

sponsorship to our show. Take a look at our show notes and you can check out some wonderful podcasts. Also in the show notes, boy there's a lot in the show notes this week, also in the show notes are social media. YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter. It's not X, it's Twitter. Anyway, we'd love to have you follow us on social media and of course swing up by our Discord room, say hello. Send us pictures of your cats, your dogs, your fish, raccoons, whatever you got. And let's talk Star Trek. Thanks for listening folks, we'll see you next time.