Stardate: 3219.8
Synopsis: While transporting a Starfleet commissioner in order to end a war, the Galileo shuttlecraft is taken into the tractor beam of a strange ion field. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and the commissioner are placed on a planet where they're met by a man marooned there 150 years ago. It is the famous Zephram Cochrane who invented space warp, and from the movie, First Contact. The ion field has kept Cochrane young and brought the others to keep him company. We soon discover the reason is that the ion field is actually a female ion field and loves him. Needing to escape soon before the commissioner dies of a rare disease, Kirk convinces the ion field that captivity would kill Cochrane's spirit, if not, his body, thus enticing it to take on human form through the Commissioner's body. Cochrane stays with her on the planet when the others leave, ending the galactic love story walking off towards a purple-sky horizon.
Review: Maybe it's just that the previous few episodes were so bad that this one seemed so solid. The manufactured love story between The Man (Cochrane) and The Companion (the ion field) is perversely weird, yet somehow believable. The plot's best turn is when Kirk wonders aloud, "How do you fight a thing like that?" and McCoy responds that maybe fighting it is the wrong way to perceive the problem - "more carrot, less stick".
This episode really gets an unintended boost from the presence of Zephram Cochrane who was, of course, featured in perhaps the best Star Trek movie ever after The Wrath of Khan, giving it some meaningfulness in the larger Trek mythology. Somehow that just makes it seem important.
The story is oddly compelling and manages to overcome the ridiculousness of a man falling in love with a gas cloud the way only Star Trek can. The effusive cheesiness at the end is forgivable, but we could do without the seemingly obligatory speech on humans needing obstacles to overcome.
Review: 4 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment