Product Details

• Actors: Star Trek Original Series
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Paramount
• DVD Release Date: September 19, 2000
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00004W5UI
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #85,639 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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• This is item 16 in The Star Trek: The Original Series Series.

Editorial Reviews

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"Metamorphosis"
Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and Dr.McCoy (DeForest Kelley) accompany a Federation ambassador (Elinor Donahue of Father Knows Best) aboard a shuttle bound for a rendezvous with the Enterprise. The ambassador, Commissioner Nancy Hedford, needs to be treated for possible contact with an alien disease, and she haughtily insists her escorts get through this interruption in her work as quickly as possible. But a vaporous, translucent life form called "the Companion" has other ideas, traveling across space in search of humans who can ease the loneliness of a pilot (Glenn Corbett) marooned on a barren planet for more than a century. Kirk, however, offers the stranded man an alternative: a return to civilization. Whether he wants it or not is another matter--he and the Companion share an extraordinary intimacy of the mind and heart. A kind of chamber drama largely set in a single locale, "Metamorphosis" was written by series producer Gene L. Coon and directed by frequent Trek helmsman Ralph Senensky. Guest stars Corbett and Donahue are a bit monotonous in their performances, a little under par for a guest shot on the series. But Coon's story compensates with another fascinating application of one of his pet themes: empathy shared between different species. Kirk and Spock's knowing looks, as they begin to understand the Companion's true feelings for her captive man, alone make this episode worth watching. (Trivia note: An earlier incarnation of Corbett's character, warp-drive inventor Zefram Cochrane, was played by James Cromwell in Star Trek: First Contact.) --Tom Keogh

"Friday's Child"
Our favorite Starfleet trio, Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) beam down to Capella IV to convince the resident warrior race to sign up with the Federation. Unfortunately, a Klingon agent named Kras (Tige Andrews) has preceded them and set enough doubt into play that the take-no-prisoners Capellans decide to give Kirk and company a hostile reception. Written by story editor D.C. (Dorothy) Fontana, "Friday's Child" has the broad outlines of a Western, with the good guys getting rebuffed by hostile Indians and a final showdown with crude weapons set up in the barren hills. Julie Newmar's guest role as Eleen, wife of a former ruler and a pawn in the barbed politics between Kirk, Kras, and the Capellans, even has something of the frightened native princess about it. Viewers hoping to catch Newmar in a Capellan catsuit, however (an extension of her iconic, sleek presence as Catwoman in the old Batman television series), will be sorely disappointed: Eleen is quite pregnant, fit to burst, and placed in McCoy's capable hands. Trek stalwart Joseph Pevney directed this action-adventure piece, which contains one of the good doctor's most memorable utterances, spoken when Eleen expects McCoy to carry her up a steep hill: "I'm a doctor, not an escalator!" --Tom Keogh

Product Description

"Metamorphosis," Ep. 31 - Kirk and his landing party are held prisoner by an alien on a planet whose only human inhabitant had reportedly died over a century before! "Friday's Child," Ep. 32 - A heroic deed by Kirk on Capella IV proves to be his undoing when the Capellan natives and an interfering Klingon agent turn against him.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Glenn Corbett = The REAL Zephram Cochrane, October 2, 2000

By	Hank Drake (Cleveland, OH United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

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"Metamorphosis" is one of Star Trek's finest episodes, hands down. A superbly written story--which touches upon non-corporeal life, love, and immortality--coupled with strong performances from the regular cast and guest star Glenn Corbett (Zephram Cochrane, the inventor of Warp Drive), adds up to an episode with real emotional impact. Watching this second season installment for the first time in many years, I was stuck by the way the writers of Star Trek First Contact had trashed the character of Zephram Cochrane in that movie. Perhaps they were trying to inject a message by re-writing Zephram Cochrane as a selfish drunk who is only interested in cashing in on warp technology. But, in the end, it only reflects on themselves and the cynical times in which we live. No disrespect is intended for James Cromwell, but for this viewer, Mr. Corbett will forever be Cochrane. It has become a popular pastime these days to poke fun at William Shatner's "dramatic pause" acting style, but the pivotal moment of this story belongs to him, during Kirk's dialogue with the Companion, and he more then lives up to the moment. (And, by the way, without those pauses, the whole scene would have fallen flat.)

"Friday's Child" is a standard issue action-adventure story, dealing with a struggle with the Klingon's for a tactically important world. Reasonably well written and acted, it will provide 50 minutes of entertainment, but after watching "Metamorphosis" it serves as something of an anticlimax.

Paramount has done their usual fine job restoring the visual and sonic elements. The print quality on the second season episodes seems, so far, to be marginally superior than those from the first season. This is particularly true of optical shots of the Enterprise.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars TOS Metamorphosis / Friday's Child, June 3, 2001

By	McHenry John (McHenry, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews

"Metamorphosis" is the best "love story" in the 2nd season of TOS. Fred Steiner's music is absolutely beautiful and enchanting. BEST SCENE: Companion/Hedford looking at Cochrane thru the upraised scarf. It's a tear-jerker. "Friday's Child" A fairly good episode even though some people disliked it. GOOF: Watch Tige Andrews when he descends the rocks,he falls down on his rear end!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kirk, Spock and McCOY encounter Zefram Cochrane !, September 19, 2000

By	Fernando Macedo Soares "Fernando Macedo Soares" (SAO PAULO, SAO PAULO Brazil) - See all my reviews

METAMORPHOSIS - Original Airdate Nov, 10, 1967. Ep. 31. - Directed by Ralph Senensky and Written by Gene L Coon. On the planet Gamma Canaris, Kirk, Spock and McCoy encounter the discoverer of the space warp, Zefram Cochrane, who became one of Star Trek's Universe most renowned characters, as you can see in STAR TREK FIRST CONTACT. In this classic episode Cochrane played by Glenn Corbett was discovered by Kirk to be living on an planetoid with the cloud creature known as The Companion, who loved him and recovery their youth age in order to maintain Cochrane eternal. Traveling along with Kirk was Dr. Nancy Hedford dying of Sakuros disease. Nancy merged with The Companion choosing to remain with Cochrane, where they would both live together. FRIDAY'S CHILD - Original Airdate, Dec, 1, 1967. Ep. 32.- Directed by Joseph Pevney and Written by D.C. Fontana. Enterprise and Klingon crews clash when they try to establish relations with the people of planet Capella IV at the same time.

As the wife of Capella's leader, Eleen, we can watch the former Catwoman Julie Newmar, another curiosity:this is the only episode in which Dr. McCoy uses his skills to deliver a baby.