Metamorphosis (TOS - S2E09)

[Hailing Frequencies Open]

In this episode of Treks and Tangents, Brian and Jaci beam into Metamorphosis, an episode full of purple rocks, a lovesick lava lamp, one very grumpy commissioner, and the surprisingly awkward introduction of warp-drive legend Zefram Cochrane.

Jaci finds the romance unexpectedly sweet, Brian finds approximately seven thousand plot holes in an asteroid belt, and together they debate whether the Companion is truly in love, just very attached, or accidentally running the galaxy’s strangest retirement plan. 

What did you think of this episode of Star Trek? Comment below!

[End Transmission]

Transcript

Intro/Turbolift Tease Recap

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Ailing Frequencies Open and welcome aboard Treks and Tangents. I'm your co-host Brian.

SPEAKER_03 0:16

And I'm your co-host Jackie. I'm the Star Trek newbie who treks off on tangents.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

And I'm your Star Trek expert who is here to get the tangents back on track.

SPEAKER_04 0:24

Each episode we watch and talk about a different Star Trek episode, and this week we watched Star Trek, the original series, season two, episode nine, Metamorphosis.

SPEAKER_02 0:36

Thank you all for tuning in to another episode. As a reminder, stick around to the end of this episode so that you can learn what our bonus Star Note episode topic is going to be. That's where we do a deeper dive over on our Patreon, patreon.com/slash treks and tangents. Just a nice little bonus when you're done listening to this episode to go check out. But with that, Metamorphosis.

SPEAKER_04 1:00

What a weird title.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

I have in my notes a better title would have been The Judas Goat if they had leaned more into that little subplot thing that just kind of goes nowhere. I think that's a much cooler title, but an interesting episode. But before we get too far into it, why don't we revisit last week's episode TurboLiftees real quick? That's where we gave Jackie the title of this week's episode. And last week, Jackie, without any other context, tried to guess the plot of this week's episode. So, computer, what was Jackie's prediction last week?

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Jackie's prediction last week was the Enterprise comes upon a group of aliens that start off as ugly grub things, but then once they go into a cocoon, we are able to see them change and become these beautiful water aliens, and then we learn about a new species.

SPEAKER_02 1:54

So, Jackie, how accurate do you think your guess was this week now that you've seen the episode?

SPEAKER_04 2:00

It would apply much better to the cartoon we watched last month.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

Yeah, I mean, Water Aliens was an interesting prediction. I tried. Yeah, and it's it's a bad title. It is absolutely a title that leans nothing to the actual plot of the episode.

SPEAKER_04 2:18

Which is like all the titles that we've come across.

SPEAKER_02 2:22

Some of them are better, some of them are worse. Definitely, definitely didn't hit the mark this week. No aliens, really. No group of aliens, I'll say. There was an alien. There was an alien, so but yeah, why don't we talk about it? What were your thoughts to this episode?

SPEAKER_04 2:39

At first I did not like it because I didn't get it, but then the second time I kind of really liked it, and I was like, aww, it's love.

SPEAKER_02 2:49

It is. It's uh definitely an episode whose theme is love. I liked the beginning of the episode. I don't like the

Initial Impressions

SPEAKER_02 2:57

episode the second half when they lean too far, I think, into that overall plot point of love. I think ultimately it has a stronger beginning than it doesn't end. And that's too bad because this is the episode where we get the introduction of Zephyrin Cochran, the inventor of the warp drive, who will absolutely be a character who becomes iconic and we revisit in several other episodes in other series and movies. So Star Trek First Contact being the most famous example of that.

SPEAKER_04 3:39

So is he alive in these or just more like explaining the lore of like the history of it?

SPEAKER_02 3:46

So in Star Trek First Contact, the Enterprise, which is the next generation Enterprise, go back in time because the Borg have gone back in time to try to assimilate Earth and assimilate humanity before they invent warp capabilities. And the movie is watching Zephyrin Cochran create and have his first successful warp flight, which garners the attention of the Vulcans, who then come down and meet the humans. So this is not only the first instance of humanity having their first warp drive, but also first contact with an alien species. That's how really the starting point of the Star Trek timeline takes off. Oh, that's very interesting. We'll get to it. Also interesting who they choose to play Zephyr Cochrane compared to who plays him in this episode. Because James Cromwell looks very different in the movie, and it creates a little bit of a paradox that never gets fully explained, but you can kind of write it off as to why the character Zephyrin Cochran in First Contact to the movie looks so much older compared to his appearance, and of course it just comes down to being played by a different character. So it does partially explain the other inconsistency from this episode for Metamorphosis when Kirk and Spock and McCoy don't recognize Zephyr Cochrane in the beginning, but he's such an infamous and famous person in Star Trek. It's kind of weird that they don't recognize him. But you can partially explain it away from he looks totally different, and maybe the de-aging process from the companion, while it makes him healthy and young again, maybe he looks different.

SPEAKER_04 5:50

Well, he did say he did look familiar. So maybe, you know, his ruggedly handsome, you know, blue eyes stood out.

SPEAKER_02 5:59

Maybe. So but back from our tangent of Cochrane, it's it's an okay episode overall. It's not I don't I don't think it's one of the best episodes, and I'm and I'm disappointed in that because it does introduce a character that becomes iconic to Star Trek.

SPEAKER_04 6:20

And see, I don't know that history, and so I didn't have that kind of expectation, but I can see how small of a part he had in the show from how important he is.

SPEAKER_02 6:33

Yeah, and I guess just kind of interesting because it kind of puts a it's interesting that they introduce the character, put a capstone on his overall story arc, because if you go off of canon, this is the last we see of Zephyr Cochrane in the chronological Star Trek timeline. So they're introducing him and telling you where he ends up, and then we get to revisit him later and fill in the blanks. Kind of interesting.

SPEAKER_04 7:01

I could see that, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:03

So we'll have a lot more to talk about as we go through it, I'm sure. We'll try to fill in this episode, but without further ado, Jackie, why don't you walk us through the episode?

Treking Through the Episode

SPEAKER_04 7:15

Alright, we are in our dear shuttlecraft, the Galileo.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

It's interesting that you say dear shuttlecraft. It would have to be a different Galileo shuttlecraft, because the first one was stolen and murdered. Yes. Destroyed in the Galileo 7.

SPEAKER_04 7:33

Poor thing. So is this our dear shuttlecraft number eight?

SPEAKER_02 7:37

Yeah, I no, I think it's shuttlecraft number two. So it I it just is funny that you would say our dear shuttlecraft. I'm like, it's a new shuttlecraft that just took on the name. But what am I to argue? We do the same thing with the Enterprise.

SPEAKER_04 7:49

So and I mean, like, and with pets, I'm sure there's like a fluffy one, two, three, and eight in some other child's house. Yeah, I don't know that they clone pets in Star Trek, but maybe Kirk Spock McCoy and a Starfleet commissioner, Nancy Hedford, are all on their way back to the Enterprise because Ms. Hedford has come down with a very rare disease called Sakuro's disease, and she is super angry that Starfleet did not give her the vaccine for this because she's supposed to be in the middle of uh keeping a war from happening. And how dare Starfleet not give her this inoculation?

SPEAKER_02 8:36

Yeah, so if you break down the numbers, McCoy telling her that it's literally odds of billions upon billions to one that someone would catch this life-threatening illness. So in order to manufacture and inoculate entire populations against this disease, especially when it seems like I got the impression that they're going to get her back to the enterprise, they're going to take her to a medical facility, and she will be cured.

SPEAKER_04 9:10

That's what I got. That uh McCoy didn't have it with him, but they were, as we learned, only four hours and some change away from Enterprise. She'd get her, you know, Elixir, and then she'd be back to the Epsilon Canaris III to prevent that war. Yes, she's the you know, the boss.

SPEAKER_02 9:34

Yeah, the negotiator, the mediator, the arbitrator. So yeah, I guess it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to inoculate thousands of populations against this disease fine, and she's just and so that kind of paints in my mind, that kind of paints her character for what she is in the beginning. She's kind of a bitch.

SPEAKER_04 9:57

I called her a Karen.

SPEAKER_02 9:58

Yeah, she's definitely not likable in the beginning, but in any case, also interesting to note, Shuttlecraft at this time don't have warp drives. The Galileo does not have a warp drive. They're sublight, which means they can go really, really fast. But those kinds of speeds are meant for like shuttlecrafts are meant to go from a starship to a space station or from a starship down to the surface of a planet. They're not really meant to go super long distances. So it's kind of weird that the Enterprise would send their own shuttle out to get her from the planet and then cause her to come back on the shuttle craft instead of just sending the Enterprise to pick her up directly. And I don't think it's ever fully explained why they're doing this.

SPEAKER_04 10:53

No, I didn't catch why, like, there's the Enterprise supposed to be going somewhere and they'll just pick them up on the way. It's a that was kind of odd.

SPEAKER_02 11:01

That is kind of the way it's perceived. So maybe that's kind of because again, they also can't live forever on the shuttlecraft, they're not meant to be there for long periods of time. So it really just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to be like, oh, we're gonna drop you off, go get her, and we'll pick you up on the way back. Just come get her from the planet. Kind of takes you out of the moment when you think about that as to this doesn't really fit into the overall sense of Star Trek, and it's just a plot point that exists to put the characters in a position where we can have an episode.

SPEAKER_04 11:37

Yeah, because they could have just gotten to the planet and beamed her up, fix her and then go back. You're right. Yeah, interesting. I didn't even think about that.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

Yep, so a little inconsistency, but whatever. We'll keep going so we don't go too far down that rabbit hole. But I think there's gonna be a lot of rabbit holes on this episode. Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 11:56

And so Spock and Kirk, they as they're going back to the Enterprise, they see this weird, odd shape coming straight at them, and they do say this object is coming at warp speed, and they've never seen something like that. It's like a weird shape. It made me think of those peeps, the marshmallow ones, that weird shape. And but actually, it's like a cloud of nitrogen with erratical electrical impulses, hydrogen. I get my gins wrong. Yep, hydrogen, and so finally it gets so close that it engulfs the shuttle craft and it pushes them off course and to make them go to the gamma canaris region, right?

SPEAKER_02 12:46

Which we'll never hear about again in the episode. And you're right, it's a little weird to say this cloud of ionized hydrogen is approaching us at warp speed because warp speed compared to their speed is so fast, by the time the sensors pick it up, it would be on top of them.

SPEAKER_04 13:07

So a little weird, and of course, they've been pushed off course, and the commissioner, she's like, get back on course, we have to get back to the enterprise. And McCoy is of course like we can't gamble with her life, so like, can we get back? But Kirk is they're trying all their best, but they can't, so just hold on, we're working on it. Yep. Pause, please. And so then we have our intro. So that was it was very short beginning.

SPEAKER_02 13:35

Yeah, very quick little opening to get into the episode.

SPEAKER_04 13:39

So the Galileo has been brought to a planet that is like purple, has purple rocks all over it, and they cannot contact the enterprise, like nothing's going through. But McCoy and Spock have their triquarters out, and they can see that humans are able to live here, you know. But it's not really a meteor, but it's not really the size of a planet, so it's like in between.

SPEAKER_02 14:08

No, it's it would be a very large, very large asteroid meteor. Because again, remember at the end of the episode, we see the Enterprise tracking them down to an asteroid belt, and there's several thousand asteroids in that belt that have their own atmosphere because that's where they're gonna focus their search.

SPEAKER_04 14:27

Right. And so while they're on the planet, they decide to scout everything out because why not? They have to figure out what's happening and then fix whatever is not working on the Galileo so they can leave. And so Spock and Kirk get that special job and everything is in working order. So why isn't it working? You know, it's like it's working, yet nothing is broken.

SPEAKER_02 14:53

Yeah, and I like the way they deliver that line or they have that bit of dialogue because it kind of I think in a way echoes what the audience would be thinking. Because how many times have we seen the actors on screen go, there's no reason for this to be broken, but yet it is, it's not working. And I think they delivered in a line to be like, let me guess, once again, it's supposed to be working, there's no reason for it not to be working, but it's still broken.

SPEAKER_04 15:21

And McCoy has been doing all of his little readings with his tricorder, because you know, he needs to figure out what's happening, and he notices that while in space, the ionized cloud like took them off course, but here on the planet, it focuses itself in like a group of gases.

SPEAKER_02 15:41

It's yeah, centralized in one place, so it followed them down onto the planet.

SPEAKER_04 15:45

So while the men are working, the commissioner like peeps out the Galileo and is like, I'm ready to go now, let's go. But this is also when you get to see how adorable she is dressed, because she has her green coat, green and turquoise dress with turquoise tights and green shoes, and her cute little fabric applique on her collar. I love her outfit.

SPEAKER_02 16:08

Yeah, and there's several instances where she's using her scarf as like a head covering shawl.

SPEAKER_04 16:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:15

Yeah, we'll get to super cute. We'll get to that in the triple tidbits.

SPEAKER_04 16:19

So as they're lurking around trying to figure things out, they hear from the distance, hello, hello. And a man is yelling at them and runs like to them, and he's like, Oh my gosh, you who are you?

SPEAKER_02 16:37

Yeah, it's kind of funny to see if you're a filming camera tech nerd, the way they do it with wide-angle lenses to make him appear much further away than he is with um, I guess, forced perception. I'm not a nerd, so I don't know exactly what they did, but I read because it's a sound stage, it's not an open-air shoot. It's also funny because as he runs up, he says hello like three, or he shouts hello like three times, and it never changes. It's this, I'm pretty sure it's the same recording, just repeated three times. It's the same volume, it's said exactly the same way. No matter how close the echo. Yeah, the echo, no matter how close he gets to the shuttlecraft, it's identical. It sounds like it's coming from the same distance away from the same spot.

SPEAKER_04 17:24

So he's in this orange flight suit that has these weird like pins on them. And I had to double check because they look like insects at first, but and he introduces himself as Cochrane, and he says that he's been marooned on the planet for quite some time, and he's like, You're all humans, but you you're you're a Vulcan. And it's like, Thank you for noticing.

SPEAKER_02 17:50

Yes, and they also say that they're from the Federation, so he he knows he knows what a Vulcan is, but he doesn't know what the Federation is, so that kind of pinpoints it on the Star Trek timeline as to the fact that when he says he's been marooned here for quite some time, if he doesn't know who the Federation is, that means he's been there for a while.

SPEAKER_04 18:13

Okay, that ex that explains more. And then Cochrane does say, uh, no, no use working on your machine there. It's not gonna go. There's like a dampening effect here, and but he doesn't explain what's happening. So Kirk asks this gentleman more questions. He wants to know, like, why are you here? Why were we forced here? You say you were marooned, but how long ago? And then Spock even shows Cochrane the ship and how everything is in working order, but he can't leave. And this is also I find it interesting when McCoy and Kirk say, he looks really familiar. We just they can't put their finger on it.

SPEAKER_02 18:58

Right. And again, the starting down the path of finally coming to recognize who he is because we get that little exchange back and forth. We also glossed over in this initial meeting that Cochran is very infatuated with Hedford.

SPEAKER_04 19:16

Oh, yes, she can feed a hungry man.

SPEAKER_02 19:18

Yeah, he makes several comments that are very much I think feeding into the stereotype of marooned man first sees a woman after a long period of time. It's kinda kinda weird, kinda out of place for overall structure, because he hasn't been alone this whole time. He's been with the companion, so he's had some form of company, but in any case, I think it could have led to a better plot than what we get. I'll explain it when we get to it.

SPEAKER_04 19:51

And so McCoy is still concerned, though, about Miss Hedford because she is getting worse, and if she gets a fever, she's pretty much gonna die.

SPEAKER_02 20:02

Right. So we get the crew taking Cochrane up on his invitation to their home. We get to see his home, and he explains that he built it from leftover parts from his ship that quote unquote crashed on the planet. A lot of filler moments in his house where they notice his instruments are very out of date.

SPEAKER_04 20:25

He calls them uh Kurt calls them antiques.

SPEAKER_02 20:28

Yes. And back and forth conversation, but ultimately what happens is Hedford starts to feel worse. She makes the comment about it being super warm. McCoy points out that, oh, that means the fever's coming on, she's gonna continue to get worse and worse. Ultimately, the big push to move the plot forward is when Kirk starts to really interrogate and lean into Cochrane and question him about the strange ionized cloud of hydrogen.

SPEAKER_04 21:01

Right, because while he's showing her to a room where she can lay down and have a drink, McCoy, Kirk, and Spock see the gassy centralized thing just outside the door. And I call that a rubber ducky this time.

SPEAKER_02 21:16

Yeah, it's like, yeah, because it's mostly yellow, it's got a bunch of flashing, moving colored blobs in it. A little transparent. It kind of looks like a lava lamp.

SPEAKER_04 21:27

Yeah. And so, um, after all that interrogation, Cochrane has to finally finally explain that he wasn't marooned, he was out in space himself because he wanted to die alone in space. And he ended up being brought to this planet where he calls that gassy figure a companion. And it gave him back his youth because we learned that he was 87, and that pretty. Pretty much he gets all of his emotional needs, his you know, his physical needs, as of like meals, all from this companion. And then we also learn that his name is Zephyr Cochrane. And he is the discoverer of the space warp. And if this is so true, McCoy's like, that was 150 years ago, and we never found your body.

SPEAKER_02 22:24

Yeah, more than a hundred and fifty. I mean, he makes the comment it's 150 years ago, but it's more than that. It'd be closer to almost 175 to 200 years ago. Well, because he's 87 when he goes missing and is dead. And then he's been on the planet for 150 years, but he didn't invent the warp drive when he was 87. He invented it in his 30s, let's say. So yeah, you gotta tack on another 50 years.

SPEAKER_04 22:50

Well, poor McCoy, he's a doctor, not a mathematician.

SPEAKER_02 22:53

There you go.

SPEAKER_04 22:54

And so we do find out that the Galileo was not, you know, broken or malfunction as they already know. But Cochrane said it was lonely. And what do you know? The companion was like, Here are friends. Yeah. It brought them to him so he would have friends.

SPEAKER_02 23:15

Yeah, specifically his companions. And that's where we get Hedford having a complete shit conniption fit breakdown where she just screams that she's not an animal and they they're not in a zoo and all this stuff. Little overacting. Maybe I'll attribute it to the fact that she's developing a fever.

SPEAKER_04 23:35

Yeah, she doesn't feel good.

SPEAKER_02 23:36

Yeah, but we already know she's kind of a dramatic person.

SPEAKER_04 23:40

She was trying to keep a war from happening. That's high stress.

SPEAKER_02 23:44

Sure. Let's use that, let's use her negotiation skills as a way to excuse her egotistical attitude.

SPEAKER_04 23:52

So Kirk's like, we gotta figure out a way to destroy this companion, as you call it, because we have to leave. So, Spock, do some more tricorder readings and get to work on that. You know, because their number one thought, though, is we have to save the commissioner. She has to get healthy, and there's nothing on this planet.

SPEAKER_02 24:12

Right. And they're not going to allow her to die, and they're not going to allow themselves to become marooned on the planet like Cochran himself.

SPEAKER_04 24:23

Cochrane, though, asks, you know, why do you want to destroy it? Like, what am I missing? Because I'm so happy here. And then this is when Kurt goes on and on about how the Federation was formed, how there's so many more galaxies out there that they've explored. Like, you may have a tiny window of what you left, but look at all of this that we found. You could totally join us.

SPEAKER_02 24:49

Yeah, and it does turn him around. The pep talk that Kirk gives Cochrane makes Cochrane go, Well, yeah, I'm not actually satisfied on this planet. I owe a lot to the companion, but I'm bored. I don't want to live forever just stuck on this planet. I do want to go out and see other things.

SPEAKER_04 25:09

So while they're talking, we are having like a quick trip over to the Galileo where Spock is inspecting more. Like, how do we leave?

SPEAKER_02 25:21

Yeah, we're jumping over to probably the most useless scene for the whole episode.

SPEAKER_04 25:27

And our friend, the companion, just pops up behind him and Spock's like, let me put my hand through you. And then it shocks him. And he's surprised.

SPEAKER_02 25:37

Yeah, and how dumb are you, Spock? How illogical to just be like, screw it, I'm gonna stick my hand in this and see what happens.

SPEAKER_04 25:47

And he's alone, so like something bad could have happened.

SPEAKER_02 25:51

Yeah, it I guess drives home the idea that we get later for an attempt to solve the situation of discovering that it quote unquote is made up of electrical energy, but you guys couldn't get that from your tricorder scans. You guys couldn't figure that out the other way. You that literally, this is the same of like what's the hole in the wall? I'm gonna stick a fork in it. That's how I discovered it's an electrical outlet. Come on.

SPEAKER_04 26:19

Well, thankfully McCoy found him and he's okay. But we're back at camp, and Kirk wants to know more about the companion. Like, you've been here for a century. Century and a half. How do you talk to it? What does it do? Why are you alive? Give me more information. And he doesn't really know, you know, the whole steps of what he does, but Cochrane says he just kind of clears his mind and asks for it to come. And then he demonstrates by going out to a clearing and closing his eyes, and the companion arrives and then like overtakes him. Like he's inside a jello.

SPEAKER_02 27:04

Yeah. Envelops him. But yeah, then we get this back and forth conversation because Kirk and McCoy are observing this communication between Cochrane and the companion. And Kirk is making all these observations of like, oh, it just it seems like it's much more than communication. It's something that's happening on a deeper level. My God, it must be love. Not everything has to be love, Kirk. This is where the episode starts to go downhill for me.

SPEAKER_04 27:33

And so, because Kirk's like, we're not gonna be prisoners, so you need to call on the companion, and we're gonna try to get rid of it.

SPEAKER_02 27:45

Yeah. So this is the payoff for Spock's stupid moment of sticking his hand inside the companion from earlier and coming to the conclusion that the companion is made up of electrical charges. So Spock builds a device that is basically meant to overload the companion's electrical nature and short circuit the companion, which either is going to knock it out, kill it, whatever, but it will no longer be creating the influence preventing the shuttlecraft from taking off. They hope. They hope. Well, they also have to hope that they can fix all the problems with the shuttlecraft because when Spock stuck his hand inside of it, everything in the back of the shuttlecraft caught on fire. So explain to me how they're fixing that.

SPEAKER_04 28:33

So as Cochrane goes out to call his companion, this is where he mentions they that he is the Judas goat.

SPEAKER_02 28:41

Yes, this is where you get the reference for the Judas Goat. So I would have liked this. Okay. Wouldn't it have been a better episode if Cochrane falls? Cochrane doesn't understand that the companion loves him. I don't think the companion understands it either, but whatever. But wouldn't it have been interesting if Cochrane in seeing Hedford for the first time being marooned, falls in love with her, and the companion gets jealous to the attention that Cochrane is paying toward Hedford. And now you have an episode where the companion does become a quote-unquote monster, a jealous monster, unable to understand or control their feelings because they don't understand their feelings. And now you do have to use Cochrane as a literal bait to try to defeat the companion, a literal Judas goat. I think if we had revolved the episode around this concept, it would have been more entertaining. I also, for the record, wouldn't have made Zephyr Cochrane Zephyr Cochrane. I would have made him a different character.

SPEAKER_04 30:00

I can see where you're going, but we've also had a lot of episodes like that. I kind of liked this episode. It was so cute and romantic.

SPEAKER_02 30:08

I don't need a romantic episode.

SPEAKER_04 30:10

So, anyways, back on check. So our little goat Cochrane goes out and calls onto his friend, the companion. And once she engulfs him, they turn on this machine and she turns bright red. Like, I don't know why I'm calling it it turns bright red.

SPEAKER_02 30:31

Well no, you can call it a she. Well, that's another problem with the episode. Let's go on that tangent right now. We gender this alien, and ultimately she ends up taking the form of a female human to be compatible with Cochrane.

SPEAKER_04 30:50

Because she was told what love is.

SPEAKER_02 30:52

Right. Fine. I uh not a problem. Is the companion a female when she's in her lava lamp stage? Does her species have a gender? Who knows? Kirk makes the folly of being like man and woman, that's universal. And I'm like, Kirk, dude. You know what doesn't have genders? Tribbles.

SPEAKER_04 31:14

Well, I I did notate that he did say that, but I would imagine male and female was ideal when they were made.

SPEAKER_02 31:23

Uh when this episode was made. Sure, and that's a theme that you'll see in biology, but yeah, just kind of stuck out a little bit where Kirk is making a lot of assumptions in this moment. Not only to gender the companion and to say that she's female, but also to assume that this relationship or interaction between Cochrane and the companion is in this moment one of romance, love. Why can't it be like love in the sense of a mother to a child? And why can't the companion just be expressing motherly instincts? And I know what eventually comes, but just in this moment, this first couple interactions before they turn on the Universal Translator, he's making a lot of assumptions in the moment.

SPEAKER_04 32:15

No, I totally understand what you're saying, but we only have like 57 minutes, so they probably just want the easiest one.

SPEAKER_02 32:22

Yeah. 50 minutes when you take out the commercials.

SPEAKER_04 32:25

And he's alone, so he needs a companion.

SPEAKER_02 32:29

Right. But in any case, they turn on the device, the companion gets pissed off, enters the house, and starts throwing Kirk and Spock around, choking them out. We get the companion changing into this big red color filling the screen.

SPEAKER_04 32:51

Because it's angry.

SPEAKER_02 32:52

Right.

SPEAKER_04 32:53

And McCoy's yelling, stop, stop, you're killing them, but he has no effect. But then Cochrane kind of like calls it back and it turns back to yellow as it engulfs him again.

SPEAKER_02 33:04

Right. Cochrane is the one who ends up calling off the companion from attacking Spock and Kirk. Kind of interesting because he's the one that led the companion into the trap. Okay. So is part of it, but I guess the companion doesn't see it that way.

SPEAKER_04 33:19

And then Kirk is, you know, watching this happen, and he and McCoy are discussing like, did Cochrane call it off as a favor? Is there an underlying, you know, nitty-gritty thing? How do we fight something like this? And then this is when McCoy has words of wisdom, and he's like, You've been working as a soldier for so long. Maybe it's time to use your diplomat hat. You know, you can instead of using that that stick, use a carrot. Sure. And this is when Kirk thinks about the universal translator that's in the shuttlecraft. Can we adjust it somehow for this electrical pulse yellow thing?

SPEAKER_02 34:02

Right. Gee, what an idea. Let's try talking to the alien before we start attacking it.

SPEAKER_04 34:10

And we also fit find out that uh Ms. Hedford is getting worse.

SPEAKER_02 34:15

Right. We did gloss over the fact also that in the initial, when the initial communication happened where Cochrane summoned the companion, and we had the observation of Kirk and McCoy watching them going, they're lovers. The whole point of that was Cochran was going to ask the companion to help Miss Hedford to cure her because they're stuck on the planet, and they find out that the companion, at least through Cochrane, says, I can't help her. What? The companion is able to keep Cochran alive for 150 years, and he's able to tell the crew that they're not going to age either, thanks to the companion, but the Canyon can't cure a little illness.

SPEAKER_04 35:02

They're already healthy, so she just has to like sustain life. But uh Commissioner Hedford, she she's dying. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:09

Can't do that, sorry. Makes zero sense, especially with what happens at the end. Any case, another problem I have.

SPEAKER_04 35:17

So while they're working on the universal translator, we're on the Enterprise, and Scotty is in charge, and he's looking for the shuttlecraft. Where are they? They should have been here already. They are almost five hours late. And so they're gonna start backtracking the coordinates, and lo and behold, Sulu has found some particles that the Enterprise may have left. Because you know, if they would have blown up, there would be debris. So I'm kind of equating particles as like bubbles, you know, when you blow underwater.

SPEAKER_02 35:51

So for the actual enlightened Star Trek fans, thank you. Scotty is detecting antimatter particles from the shuttle's engines. They're basically following tire tracks.

SPEAKER_04 36:05

Oh, that's cool.

SPEAKER_02 36:06

There you go.

SPEAKER_04 36:07

Bubbles and tire tracks.

SPEAKER_02 36:09

That's why we get the whole conversation about O'Hora saying, well, this is only gonna work if they got to wherever they were going under their own power. If they were towed, which they were, technically, then their engines aren't putting out antimatter particles and we can't track them anymore. So, yes, they are following the tire tracks of the Galileo shuttlecraft.

SPEAKER_04 36:32

So we're back on the planet, and I call it the camp. The translator has been created, and they ask Cochrane to call the companion. Let's see what we can do if this will work. And they start talking to her to it. They start talking to it with the re the translator, and a female voice answers, and she's like, How can you hear me? What's happening? I don't understand. And then Spock is like, She isn't a zookeeper, they're not specimens, she's a lover.

SPEAKER_02 37:07

Yeah, what we've already been pointed out several times as an audience by the episode.

SPEAKER_04 37:13

But now it's confirmed by the gal herself.

SPEAKER_02 37:16

I guess so.

SPEAKER_04 37:18

And then now Kirk, you know, goes on his giant monologue now about how keeping them on the planet is wrong. Humans are supposed to be free, they have to go through obstacles to stay strong. Oh, and by the way, we have this female who's gonna die and she needs a doctor.

SPEAKER_02 37:39

Which the companion would already know from earlier, but okay, Kirk, way to restate it.

SPEAKER_04 37:44

And the companion says, You guys are peachy. You haven't aged a bit since you've been here, and you're you're here to keep my friend Cochrane company.

SPEAKER_02 37:55

Not a friend, the man. Yes, yes, yes, the man. The man needs companionship, and that's why I'm here. But he needs friendship of his own kind. So I brought you here to make sure the man had friends, and I'm like, okay.

SPEAKER_04 38:11

And then so Kirk is like trying to, you know, please let us go. And Spock is over here, like he did with the change, you're in ask about its culture, ask about this, ask about that.

SPEAKER_02 38:24

Yeah, and Kirk's like, shut up.

SPEAKER_04 38:27

Like you can see how like excited Spock is, like, you know, half you know, human.

SPEAKER_02 38:33

He's like, Ask, ask. Yeah, what's ask all about it? Ask about it where it comes from. Yeah, it was kind of a funny moment where Spock is just like, who cares that she's dying in the bedroom back there? Who cares that we're stuck on this planet, we're not getting out of here? Let's find out more about the lava lamp alien. And Kirk's like, this is not a classroom. Yeah, so shut up, Spock. We've got other priorities we're working on here.

SPEAKER_04 38:57

And then Kirk finally tells the companion that yes, all of this is true. You've done a great job, you know, sustaining the man and whatnot, but they will not be able to exist in captivity.

SPEAKER_02 39:12

Yeah, there's a lot of references to their state as being in captivity and trying to convey this partially abstract idea to the companion because the companion is sitting there thinking, like, you all have each other to keep each other company. I give you food, I give you water, I give you nourishment. You guys are perfectly fine. So I don't know if it's too on the nose or too abstract, but referring to them as in captivity, animals in a cage, it's almost I don't know. When I when I watch it, it's almost like the the scenario of a kid finds the the frog walking home from school and it's just like, I'll take it home. This is a Mitch Hedberg joke, so I'm ripping off Mitch Hedberg, but I will take the frog home and put it in a jar, and I will give it a leaf and a stick to represent its natural environment, and it will be fine. And it's like, eh, it's not quite how it works. You can't tell, we're coming back from a break, but we watched some Mitch Hedberg because I could tell Jackie had never heard of Mitch Hedberg before. So we watched some clips of Mitch Hedberg in between the the cuts here in the podcast. Rest in peace, Mitch. You were great. So the companion tells Kirk he's being illogical. And Spock instantly fell in love. Spock was like, oh my god, ask it what it meant. Ask it what it meant. Ask, ask her if she likes me. Because I don't like illogical stuff either.

SPEAKER_04 40:35

She thinks that communicating with them is useless and stops and just leaves.

SPEAKER_02 40:40

Yeah, it just just goes away. Ghostsome. Terrible.

SPEAKER_04 40:48

I could be funny too.

SPEAKER_02 40:50

Terrible.

SPEAKER_04 40:51

So then Cochrane's like, why when you made this communicator, why did you give it a female voice? Like, I don't understand.

SPEAKER_02 40:59

We didn't, buddy. The companion gendered herself.

SPEAKER_04 41:03

And then when they tell her that uh she, you know, viewed him as her lover, he got way upset and like called it disgusting, and how dare it be all up in his business.

SPEAKER_02 41:16

It was like a really weird episode of catfish. Yeah. Where it was like they showed up. They like can it's like where they confront each other, where it's the episode of catfish where there's the catfish is the one who's romantically involved, but the one being catfish thinks it's just a friendship. Yeah. And they're like, let's meet up for the first time, but I don't think you're gonna be who I think you are. And they show up and the person is less the catfish, the the person who is catfish is less mad that they got catfish, that the person is not who they say they were, but is more upset over the fact that they are now romantically attracted to the person. It's like I'm not mad at being catfish. I'm mad at the fact that they pretended to be my friend when they really just were attracted to me. It was it it was that kind of levels of awkward as Cochrane is ranting and raving about. I mean, okay, fine, he had a difference of opinion and he didn't r quite realize what was going on because he wasn't effectively communicating with her. But I don't think the companion at any point deceived Cochrane, because like again, the companion doesn't know really what love is.

SPEAKER_04 42:29

No, they were just have like a transac a transactional relationship, and then these other humans pop on and they're like from looking from the outside in, like, oh, they love each other.

SPEAKER_02 42:42

Well, that's an interesting concept. So the companion didn't start loving quote unquote Cochrane until Kirk and Party show up and plant the idea.

SPEAKER_04 42:50

That's what I think because I mean, look at the steps later, what she does to be able to understand what they're talking about.

SPEAKER_02 42:59

Yeah, but she's keeping him alive.

SPEAKER_04 43:01

Anyway, I think bored and wants a plaything. Yes, I get that, but I don't think she would call it love.

SPEAKER_02 43:07

Yeah, I think we're dipping into where I want to cover for the the Star Note episode. So we'll tune in, tune into the Star Note episode. We'll dive into that tangent a little bit deeper. But yes, Zephyrin Cochran gets very upset that he discovers he's a sugar baby and the companion is his sugar mama.

SPEAKER_04 43:25

And this is when Spock tells him he's being illogical because for 150 years, all it's been happening, and when Cochrane storms out, he's like, that's weird. That's a very narrow-thinking person right there. Right. And so what I also find really sad at here at this point when he's he's running out, Commissioner Hedford heard all this happening and she's crying.

SPEAKER_02 43:50

Yes, we get another overacting scene with Nancy Hedford.

SPEAKER_04 43:55

But I think it's good too, because she is she's worked so hard and Her job that she hasn't had the opportunity to love or give love, and this man has had it for 150 years, and he calls it disgusting.

SPEAKER_02 44:12

Yeah. And so we have to have this scene because otherwise the companion taking over Hedford's body and forcing her into this new level of existence would be terrible and would be basically murder, for lack of a better term. This scene is necessary to show that the ending when the two combine, spoiler, I think is to imply that Nancy Hedford as an entity and a person is consensual to this merging. Fine. We'll take the overacting.

SPEAKER_04 44:47

And then we get like a little pop-in up with the Enterprise. They are closing in on where they are.

SPEAKER_02 44:54

And they've narrowed it down to an asteroid field. We mentioned it earlier. The asteroid field has roughly 7,000 bodies in it that have an atmosphere. And so they only have to search all of those to try to find out if that's where they are.

SPEAKER_04 45:10

But we're gonna go back to Kirk and everybody, and Kirk is gonna try to talk to the companion again. And so she's summoned, and he asks her if she loves Cochrane, and she doesn't understand the word love. So then she Kirk asks that if he is important to her, as if he were a part of her. And so she kind of just goes, The man will continue. She's keeping his body ageless, and you know, going on and on. She doesn't she still doesn't understand what love is. And then Kirk's like, Yes, you're keeping him alive physically, but his spirit is dying.

SPEAKER_02 45:49

Yeah. And the new approach by Kirk is to basically point out to the companion that, for right or wrong, accurate or not, hey, you are literally a transparent lava lamp image. And he's trying to use all these metaphors of like you can't touch him, you can't basically because you are not compatible in your current state, you can't really love him. What Kirk is trying to say is you two can't bang, you can't have sex, so you can't consummate this love. It's a crude metaphor, but that's basically what he's saying is you think that you are keeping him alive and providing him everything that he needs, but you literally are incapable of providing him what he needs because of your current state and how you exist in this world, which is where the companion gets the idea to join and merge with Nancy Hedford.

SPEAKER_04 46:43

And Miss Hedford is standing outside the shelter, perfectly healthy, and her hair is down, it's all beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 46:51

She's not sweating anymore, she's not running a fever.

SPEAKER_04 46:54

The companion has sacrificed her powers and immortality so that she can feel the stun on her face, she can walk on the planet and feel the dirt on her feet. So she can do all these things that Cochrane has been able to do. And I mean, she's she's excited, but then when Cochrane realizes what the companion did, he's scared at first.

SPEAKER_02 47:21

Yeah, he's still got some of this xenophobic. He doesn't want to be the boy toy anymore. But it's kind of a long, drawn-out ending, I think. I think they try to cram too much in at the end. Because it, or maybe it just felt like every time you got to a natural conclusion, the show just kind of added one more wrinkle to the ending.

SPEAKER_04 47:43

I can see what you mean, but I also like how again the companion goes on to say, I understand this awful feeling of loneliness now. Because she didn't it before.

SPEAKER_02 47:56

No, and sh yeah, she didn't understand it and now she's sympathetic. But then so it's this like, okay, so that's ending one. Oh my god, I didn't realize you were lonely. We're now together, let's go off and let's do our thing. And he's talking about I'll show you everything. But then what happens? The companion said she cannot leave the planet, right? Because if she leaves the planet, she'll die. She's stuck to the planet, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Well, she says that she can be there for away from the planet for a short number of days, which I guess explains why she was able to leave the planet to go into warp to get the shuttlecraft to bring down to the planet. But yeah, she says she can't leave, but she encourages Cochrane to go off and explore. And now we have the second ending path where Coch where she says, go on, just leave me, it's all good. But then we don't end the episode there. Instead of Cochrane going off and exploring the universe, he comes back to the crew and tells them that he's decided to stay behind with the companion.

SPEAKER_04 49:04

And the companion has lifted whatever hold she has on the shuttlecraft, allowing Spock Kirk McCoy, they're able to go back up to the Enterprise because Cochrane has stayed behind with the companion. Although Cochrane does ask, please do not tell anybody that I'm down here. That you didn't see me.

SPEAKER_02 49:25

Just to leave them alone.

SPEAKER_04 49:26

And then the Galileo flies up to the Enterprise.

SPEAKER_02 49:30

Yeah. I don't know why Cochrane would want to remain unknown.

SPEAKER_04 49:35

Maybe because he doesn't. Well, he probably likes having the idea that he went off to space and died on his own accord, and then explaining this whole weird thing would be kind of odd.

SPEAKER_02 49:48

Yeah, it just seems kind of awkward that because we should also point out that they're not gonna live forever anymore. The companion in merging with Nancy Hedford has taken away her ability to maintain Cochran's immortality and to keep him alive forever. Nancy is cure of her disease, but she will naturally age, so they're gonna die in the next 50, 60 years or whatever. Fine. Again, it just seems weird that it would be like, don't tell anyone I'm down here. Like, what what's gonna happen? They're not gonna come take you away. You just live there now. I don't know. But the episode ends on that note. It was like a really super quick ending, just like no. It was so quick, even that we get uh almost throwaway line where it seems like the writers realize, like, oh, wait a minute, Hedford was supposed to go negotiate this peace between on this planet between these people. What are we how are we gonna do that? And Kirk's just like, eh, they'll find another woman who can do that. I found that weird. Yeah. Well, because it's weird because okay, Cochrane, we won't tell anyone we found you. Everyone thinks you're dead anyway. Fine.

SPEAKER_04 50:58

How do we explain how yeah, weirdly the commissioner?

SPEAKER_02 51:01

Yeah, what happened to the commissioner, guys? Like, you guys just have to make something up as to why she's not on the shuttlecraft anymore. Cool. I guess. Anyway, enough tangents, roll credits.

Final Thoughts

SPEAKER_02 51:15

So, Jackie, what did you think? What are your final thoughts about season two, episode nine, Metamorphosis?

SPEAKER_04 51:23

I really liked it, actually. Like, I already kind of knew what was gonna happen because again, we have like the same scenario of a logical monster, but I liked how they threw in the love sidebar. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 51:36

It was really cute. Not my thought to it. It's a fine episode. It's entertaining, it's got a lot of plot holes to it. A lot of plot holes. A little disappointed that such an important, iconic character from Star Trek is introduced in this episode in the way that he is. I would have been fine if the character of Zephyr Cochrane was just some other random person that they found, some other random scientist that they happen to know about, it would have fit it better. But they did what they did, so we have to accept it and take it for canon.

SPEAKER_04 52:13

So is that because you know the lore of this gentleman, or is it because no, yes, it's a hundred percent you're using your canon.

SPEAKER_02 52:23

Yep, I'm using the rest of the Star Trek canon, and the fact that this is going to become such an iconic character, and this is his introduction to Star Trek, I think is a little disappointing.

SPEAKER_04 52:34

Interesting. Because I think it was a great show of his character, but I don't know hit how important he is.

SPEAKER_02 52:39

Yeah. I yeah. It just creates too many plot holes, it creates too many paradoxes and too many unanswered questions. And ultimately, while there's parts of the episode that are slightly entertaining, I would have liked to see the episode go in a different direction for what it was. Gonna be my final thought. Before we give our favorite quotes to round out our thoughts for the episode, don't forget, over at our Patreon, we'll post our Star Note bonus episode where we'll take a deeper dive into one main topic and several other tangents for however long we decide to go to. Those episodes are free for everyone who follows our Patreon, patreon.com/slash treks and tangents. And this week's Star Note topic question is going to be was the companion truly in love with Cochrane or just attached to the idea of him?

SPEAKER_03 53:29

Good one.

SPEAKER_02 53:30

So don't forget to pop over to Patreon to listen to that episode when you're done listening to this episode. Again, to round out our final thoughts, Jackie, what is going to be your favorite quote and why?

SPEAKER_04 53:41

I chose. You're not a pet, you're not a specimen in a cage, you're a lover. And that's McCoy explaining to Cochrane his relationship with the companion before, you know, Mr. Cochrane becomes disgusted. And I just like how true it is. It's beautiful, I think. Well, love is love, but like McCoy knows what's happening right off the bat.

SPEAKER_02 54:04

Yeah, because he's a hound dog and he knows how to he knows how to play that game. So okay. Well, my favorite quote is gonna be from the very, very beginning, uh, toward the beginning of the episode, again, when I think the episode is strongest, but it's right when Cochrane is first meeting everyone and talking to Hedford, and he's inviting them all back to his house to be host and hospitable, and he looks at Hedford and says, I could even offer you a hot bath. And I'm like, Okay. And then Hedford says, How perceptive of you to notice that I needed one. And it again, it's just a fun little moment because again, it kind of paints Cochrane. They'd never end up fully exploring or going down that road, but it it paints Cochrane as the marooned man seeing a woman for the first time. And then it also paints Hedford as the character that she is. She's kind of a bitch, she's kind of a Karen. I understand that she's got a medical issues going on and she's now in this predicament, but it carries over throughout. She does this and acts this way pretty much through everything. I would say right up to the monologue where she's in a fever dream and she's explaining how she's never loved anyone. So she's kind of a bitch up to that point. But anyway, that's going to be my favorite quote. Didn't find a whole lot of quotable moments from the episode that I wanted to

Tribble Tidbits

SPEAKER_02 55:23

use. Before we get to anything else for the episode, let's jump into our triple tidbits or interesting facts about the episode and why do we call them triple tidbits, Jackie? Because they are the best. Because tribles can be fun, interesting, a problem, not so cool. And fluffy. A grab bag of everything. So unfortunately, not a lot of triple tidbits this month. It's just kind of an episode that it floats out there and went through production and filming and was done. But the couple that I was able to dig up, it first aired November 10th, 1967. For you Grateful Dead fans, this is the same date that they had their famous concert at the Shrine Exposition Hall in Los Angeles. It later, of course, it was all recorded and it was released on an album. I almost think that album kind of revitalized and brought in new fans after their run, but in any case, Grateful Dead fan, big date for you. A couple of the scenes had to be reshot with Eleanor Donahue, who is the actress who played Nancy Hedford, because the negatives when they went into post-production were damaged and unusable. So they had to rebuild part of the set, the outdoor set, because those were the scenes that got damaged, and they had to reshoot those scenes. You can tell which scenes they had to reshoot because those are going to be the scenes where she's wearing her her scarf as a headband and she's covering up her head and her face a little bit because in between the initial shooting and these reshoots, she got pneumonia and lost 10 pounds. You can still tell, but they were trying to hide it when they did these reshoots. Now I need to go back and watch it. They're primarily from the earlier part of the episode when they're at the shuttlecraft, where my quote is from. And then the only other triple tidbit I have this month is Elizabeth Rogers is the actress who originally recorded the voice of the companion, and she's often mistakenly credited for it. However, her takes and her recordings were too emotionless and robotic. So uh actress Elizabeth Hush recorded all of the dialogue or re-recorded it, and that's ended up being used in the episode itself, but it's often miscredited to the first actress.

SPEAKER_04 57:51

So they needed to make her robotic but still feminine and lovely. Yes. Oh, interesting.

SPEAKER_02 57:58

Very much a circ situation where the original voice actor for Darth Vader ended up being replaced with James Earl Jones because that was not the original plan. You can find um takes online of the original Star Wars movies where you can hear the British actor who's playing, who's inside the suit for Darth Vader, reading the lines, and they decided he wasn't menacing enough, and they got James Earl Jones to come in and record over it and redub it. So those are gonna be your triple tidbits for the week.

Episode Ranking

SPEAKER_02 58:31

And let's rank this episode. I think this might be the first episode for the season where we're a little bit divergent. We've had some divergences, but we've ranked pretty closely amongst ourselves. Little hit or miss, but all the episodes are within a rank for each other. But in any case, we'll rank the episode by assigning the episode a Starfleet rank, pretending that the episode is a member of our fictitious starship crew. A higher rank means we not only were more entertained by the episode, but more importantly, we find the episode a more valuable member of our crew. And the opposite is true. A lower rank means we weren't as entertained by the episode, and we find the episode to be a more disposable member of our crew. Our episodes start at the bottom with ensign, lieutenant junior grade, and lieutenant, and we can have an unlimited number of episodes in those ranks. And then we move up to Lieutenant Commander, we can have seven, commander five, captain one, and admiral one. If none of that makes sense, we will post a graphical representation of the episodes for the season ranked up to this point and last season as well over at our Patreon, patreon.com/slash treks and tangents. Again, free for anyone to view, and we will post it Wednesday, the day after this episode goes live. Jackie, for your starship, the USS Luminara. Hey, got it right this week. What rank do you assign this episode Metamorphosis?

SPEAKER_04 1:00:01

I am going to put it in the Lieutenant Commander. Lieutenant Commander Seven.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:06

Love. Because love. So kind of middle of the road, but above average, if you want to consider the middle of the road, completely average. This will be just one step above.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:18

I think it was nice in the middle, right there. Okay. And because of love. Yes. That's it.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:27

Okay. Well, for my deeper dive into the topic for the USS Comet, this is going to be a lieutenant junior grade. It's not going to be the bottom of the bottom. It's not going to be uh a terrible episode, but it's not going to be anywhere higher than a step above bottom of the bottom. Again, too many plot holes. It starts out fantastic and it just kind of dives off for the reason that Jackie likes it. The explanation of love is the theme of the episode. I just kind of go, okay, there are better stories and better plots that can be used to tell that story. This wasn't one of them. But again, jump over to our Patreon the day after this episode goes live to check out the rankings and see how this episode fares against all other episodes for the season so far. And again, check out season one. We have all the rankings, including a final graphic showing all the episodes, how we ranked all those from season one. As of recording on IMDB, Jackie, what do you think Metaphorphosis ranks?

SPEAKER_04 1:01:35

Well, since I like it, it's going to be below me.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:38

So a five. Five. Five would be very low for an episode. It's going to be a 7.2 out of 10. I failed both times. It's not a uh it's pretty well liked as an episode. Uh sevens are gonna be pretty good for an IMDB ranking.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:57

Perhaps also the community enjoyed Spock being ask this, ask that. It was being so inquisitive.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:04

That is a fun little moment. Probably end up being one of the shorts I pull for the episode this week. So be sure to check that out. But before we transition

Turbolift Tease

SPEAKER_02 1:02:13

out and end the episode, we'll give our turbo liftees. That's where we'll give Jackie the title of next week's episode. And Jackie, with no other information, no other context, and probably having never seen the episode before, will try to guess the plot of the episode. Jackie, next week's episode is going to be Journey to Babel.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:35

O'Hara is getting special transmissions that she didn't know. They just like keep popping in. And we learn that it's from a single-manned vessel that is needing help getting home, and the Enterprise is going to pull them in and help him or her get safely home.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:58

And tune in next week to see how accurate Jackie's prediction is. If you want more show information, you can find and directly support our podcast on Patreon, patreon.com/slash treks and tangents. Again, we post our StarNout bonus episode. We post our graphical rankings as we mentioned. We do a deeper dive for our crew members who support our Patreon into the animated series for Star Trek. We have all of our test episodes posted, you can binge through. And hopefully more coming soon. One day we'll get bar treks off the ground and we'll do a bar review blog. That'd be very fun. That would be a very nice thing to do someday. But in any case, you can also follow us on x.com treks underscore tangents. We're on Instagram at Blue Sky and Trex and Tangents. But Jackie, where can people find you? And what are you up to?

SPEAKER_04 1:03:51

I'm hanging around on Instagram the most at this time as Jaboom J-I-B-B-O-O-M. I'm coming up two months post-op from my hip replacement and hitting physical therapy super hard. So I have those videos on there as well as my music. I have clothing and makeup and always the weight loss surnaming 20 years, 265 pound loss, and no regain. I think that's cool to show off.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:24

Alright, you can watch me stream a variety of video games over at twitch.tv slash piratepoundtown. On YouTube, I post video games and other random content on my main channel at PiratePoundtown, coin collecting and hobby content at Pirate Treasure Hunting. And I also post socially on Blue Sky at Pirate Poundtown. And finally, I am, I think, getting a little better about posting on Instagram, which you can find me as Pineapple Cannibal. Links to all social media mentioned can be found in the episode description. Thank you everyone for tuning in to this episode. We hope you had fun like we did. We will see you all next week.