31 - Metamorphosis

Data Stellare 3219.4: Kirk, Spock e McCoy stanno trasportando a bordo della Galileo Nancy Hedford, una diplomatica della Federazione che ha bisogno di particolari cure mediche. A causa di un apparente guasto alla navetta, sono costretti ad atterrare su Gamma Canaris N, un vicino pianeta. Qui trovano Zefram Cochrane, l'inventore della propulsione warp, ritenuto morto da più di 150 anni, e una misteriosa nuvola.

Note

• Gli effetti visuali del Compagno sono stati realizzati da Richard Edlund presso la compagnia di fotografia Westheimer. Edlund ha in seguito vinto l'Oscar per gli effetti speciali per Star Wars.

YATI

• Questo episodio è ovviamente in contraddizione con quanto narrato in First Contact, benché la versione canonica degli eventi sia quella del film.

Citazioni

Kirk: Not one hundred percent efficient, of course... but nothing ever is.

Kirk: The idea of male and female are universal constants.

Kirk: Love sometimes expresses itself in sacrifice.

McCoy: There's nothing disgusting about it [the Companion]. It's just another life form, that's all. You get used to those things.

Kirk: We estimate there are millions of planets with intelligent life. We haven't begun to map them.

Kirk: There are certain universal ideas and concepts common to all intelligent life. This device [the universal translator] instantaneously compares the frequency of brain wave patterns, selects those ideas and concepts it recognizes, and then provides the necessary grammar.
Spock: Then it simply translates its findings into English.

Kirk: Our species can only survive if we have obstacles to overcome. You remove those obstacles. Without them to strengthen us, we will weaken and die.

Kirk: Companion, try to understand... it is the nature of our species to be free. Just as it is your nature to stay here. We will... cease to exist in captivity.

Spock: You will both grow old here and finally die.
Cochrane: That's been happening to men and women for a long time. I've got the feeling it's one of the pleasanter things about being human, as long as you grow old together.

Spock: You [humans] are, after all, essentially irrational.