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Federation diplomat Nancy Hedford (Elinor Donahue) was to
negotiate a peace between two planets but became seriuosly ill, which is
why Kirk (William Shatner), Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and McCoy (DeForest
Kelley) pick her up with a shuttle to fly her to the Enterprise where she
can be easily cured. However on the way to the ship, they are sucked onto
an asteroid (with perfect living conditions for humans) which they are
apparently unable to leave because of some energy cloud. Soon they find
out the asteroid is inhabited by a man, Cochrane (Glenn Corbett), who
turns out to be the inventor of the warp drive who has been living here
for a mere 150 years, staying forever in his mid-30s. It's soon revealed
that the energy cloud is actually a sentient being Cochrane calls
"the Companion" (voiced by Elizabeth Rogers), and Cochrane and
the Companion have a sort of symbiotic relationship - which Kirk
identifies as love, but Cochrane insists on the contrary. Cochrane though,
after 150 years of loneliness, is desparate to escape, so he agrees to
help our heroes in their attempts to do just that. At first, Kirk and
company try to attack and destroy the Companion, but it's just too strong
to even be dented. So they try to reason with it, teach it feelings ...
and ultimately, the Companion takes over the body of dying Nancy Hedford,
and as her let's the others go but persuades Cochrane to stay with her on
the asteroid until the end of their natural lives. Quite
simply, not one of the better episodes of the show. Sure, one has to love
the set designs, including purple skies and the like, they're all pure
1960s, as is the energy cloud adversary of our heroes, but when it boils
down to a simple "love is the answer" solution to the whole
preceding story, one feels a bit cheated, having expected something a
little more in terms of action. Fans of course will still find an
abundance of beloved Star Trek mainstays firmly in place,
including Shatner hamming it up, so there are things to like here for
those inclined, it's just a less noteworthy episode.
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