Filmed May 1967
When I published the post for METAMORPHOSIS (http://senensky.com/metamorphosis/) on March 9, 2011, I was very inexperienced when it came to websites. That was only my 3rd post on RALPH’S CINEMA TREK and I was hesitant and insecure about my capability as a writer. Earlier when I wrote in my invitation to future viewers on my home page, …
So if you’re interested, how about hopping aboard, pull up a chair beside me at the moviola as I take you onto the sets where all of this occurred.
… my goal was to provide an onset fly-on-the-wall view, a before-and-behind-the-camera experience for those viewers. What I didn’t yet know (and since I didn’t want to be verbose and boring) was how long in what I was writing I could hang onto the attention of those viewers.
In the METAMORPHOSIS script Kirk had Spock create a device that could translate the frequency of the brain wave patterns of the amorphous cloud-like Companion into understandable speech.
In the script Kirk had two confrontations with the Companion. Following the scene of his first confrontation were two character-revealing scenes. Considering the length of the post and fearing that my writing might not hold viewers, I eliminated that first of the two Kirk-Companion confrontations plus the following sequences and cut from the Translator scene (just viewed) to Kirk’s second confrontation with the Companion. I realize now that what I eliminated held some very important elements to the story being told.
The scenes I eliminated …
… followed by a scene of Cochran’s unexpected reaction to what had just transpired …
… followed by another unexpected reaction.
Obviously I was aware of the values when I filmed and those scenes must have been effective. One of the Comments left on my post by one of my female viewers who wrote:
The clips were marvelous except that I wish you had included the scene where clueless Cockran (sic) is informed by Kirk and the others that the creature has been making love to him. The men were snickering at him, and he really got upset.
And a male viewer wrote:
The scene wherein Hedford bemoans the fact that most people futiley (sic) wait their whole lives for love, yet Cochrane doesn’t accept it when it is offered to him has remained in my memory since I first saw it nearly forty years ago.
Why am I bringing all of this up? Am I trying to condone my act of exclusion? Absolutely not! As I stated above, my goal on this website was to provide an onset fly-on-the-wall view, a before-and-behind-the-camera experience for my future potential viewers. But that was my original goal. Now eight years later I realize that through these eight years, that goal expanded. And especially about STAR TREK! And STAR TREK fans! They wanted more and the Comments they left revealed their deep feelings for the series. One of them wrote:
One of the main things Trek is about is love.
Back at the time of filming I was apprehensive working for the first time in science fiction. Now I recognize 4 of my 7 STAR TREKs were love stories. METAMPORPHOSIS was the most unusual and as I’ve stated — my favorite STAR TREK. It had great sets, a superlative cast, extraordinary photography by my friend, Jerry Finnerman, but providing the basis for all of this was the creatively imaginative script by Gene Coon. Let me provide a brief synopsis; you will see how impossibly unrealistic the plot is:
Kirk, Spock and Doc are racing through space to get an ill female Assistant Federation Commissioner back to the Enterprise when they are overtaken by an amorphous cloud and transported to a strange planet. There they meet a handsome 35-year old-in-appearance astronaut who tells them he has been stranded on this planet. They learn he is a space legend who at the age of 87 died in space 150 years ago. He was brought to this planet by the cloud he calls the Companion, rejuvenated and cared for and they have been brought to the planet to keep him company. The ensuing conflict then is for Kirk to convince the Companion that he and his party must be allowed to leave the planet. That brings us up to the clips above.
I remember that when I embarked on my career 72 years ago the established format for a love story was “Boy meets Girl; Boy loses Girl; Boy gets Girl!.” Gene did his deviation on that pattern to “Cloud (girl) meets Boy; Cloud almost loses Boy; Cloud gets Boy.” To get there Gene had Kirk convince the Companion she could only truly love if she were human. The Companion then inhabits the dying body of the Assistant Federation Commissioner and Gene wrote another beautiful scene.
I DIDN’T omit that scene from my original post, but I did omit the final resolution scene.
I directed THE NIGHT OF THE DRUID’S BLOOD, a script on THE WILD WILD WEST that Gene Coon rewrote and BREAD AND CIRCUSES, a STAR TREK script that Gene co-wrote with Gene Roddenberry, but METAMORPHOSIS was the only original script by Gene Coon that I directed. (I almost got to direct THE DEVIL IN THE DARK.) I wish there had been more!
From Comments left I’m going to let some of the viewer’s of this post have the final word:
Definitely a great episode that seems to not land in Top Ten lists but it certainly belongs there.
Always one of my favorite Trek episodes.
This was my favorite episode! The story was so romantic and original.
This was my mother’s favorite episode.
This is one of its most unusual love stories and one of its nicest.
…none of the episodes, exciting though they are, ever make me tearful, except for this one.
This episode never gets enough praise.
Ralph, this is definitely one of my top 10 favorite episodes, and “Bread and Circuses” is on that list as well. The unexpected directions the story takes (in both cases) are masterfully handled by you and Jerry Finnerman. I watch it again and again, and every time, your comments here come to mind. Thank you for such great, lasting work!
Ralph, Thank you for sharing your stories about Star Trek and other shows that you directed. Metamorphosis is one of those episodes that makes you stop and think that all anyone wants in life is to be loved and cared for. Thanks for telling the story.
Ralph, your inspired direction of Lisabeth Hush as the Companion parallels that of Beulah Bondi in “The Pony Cart”. To make me utterly believe these characters, not as actors, but as real women is amazing. That a gaseous cloud moved me as much as Martha Corinne says all that needs to be said about your gift to us. And, on behalf of all of us, thank you.