This episode is one of many poor Season 2 shows that prove once and for all that Fred Freiberger was not the man who ruined Star Trek. I had gone more than 30 years without seeing this episode but its details were burned in my memory because I used to have the old Trek "Fotonovel" of this episode. Finally revisiting it, it is so bad and distasteful that I think those who are so quick to praise it should stop and think for a minute.
Let's start with how this episode gives us for the THIRD time, Gene Roddenberry's caveman philosophy about women in which they can't be seasoned professionals and also have a love life. Nope, first we had Marla McGivers (Space Seed), Carolyn Palamas (Who Mourns For Adonias) and now Nancy Hedord, professional women all who are lonely and unfulfilled. Funny how James T. Kirk can be a man who is devoted to his profession who will never settle down but we can accept that. Not with women though.
Well if that isn't bad enough, let's consider this episode's ultimate resolution. Nancy Hedford is dying of disease because this self-centered gas cloud "Companion" has forced the shuttle down to provide companionship for stranded Zefrem Cochran, and then later Hedford basically dies and the Companion takes over her body so the Companion can know what it means to love. For all this "We are here" junk, the fact remains that Nancy Hedford has been taken over by an alien for the alien's pleasure and only because she died thanks to being denied medical treatment that was needed. And oh BTW, isn't it interesting how James T. Kirk's revulsion for war in "A Taste Of Armageddon" goes out the window here? Because after all, the Commissioner, a professional the Federation thinks is the right woman for the job to stop a war taking place on another planet (how many people are dying in all that death, disease, destruction and horror that's taking place?) is gone now and Kirk just shrugs (in what reeks of an "oops, we forgot about that point!" moment put in the script the last minute), "Oh, I guess the Federation will find SOME woman who can stop that war." No big deal that people are dying somewhere else, so long as that Companion is happy. And just how is Kirk going to explain things to Scotty and company who he's been so chipper with on the communicator up to now? How is Kirk going to explain this to Starfleet? If he's not going to tell them about Cochran it's going to be his head for negligence! Please don't tell me I'm nitpicking and missing the "big picture". The fact is, if you want me to think about the "deep" issue of the story then don't screw up the details of the story that undermines your "deep" point. Make Hedford an ordinary bureaucrat in a dead-end desk-pushing job and you solve one problem at least. Failure to solve these problems is to put it bluntly, rotten writing.
Let's start with how this episode gives us for the THIRD time, Gene Roddenberry's caveman philosophy about women in which they can't be seasoned professionals and also have a love life. Nope, first we had Marla McGivers (Space Seed), Carolyn Palamas (Who Mourns For Adonias) and now Nancy Hedord, professional women all who are lonely and unfulfilled. Funny how James T. Kirk can be a man who is devoted to his profession who will never settle down but we can accept that. Not with women though.
Well if that isn't bad enough, let's consider this episode's ultimate resolution. Nancy Hedford is dying of disease because this self-centered gas cloud "Companion" has forced the shuttle down to provide companionship for stranded Zefrem Cochran, and then later Hedford basically dies and the Companion takes over her body so the Companion can know what it means to love. For all this "We are here" junk, the fact remains that Nancy Hedford has been taken over by an alien for the alien's pleasure and only because she died thanks to being denied medical treatment that was needed. And oh BTW, isn't it interesting how James T. Kirk's revulsion for war in "A Taste Of Armageddon" goes out the window here? Because after all, the Commissioner, a professional the Federation thinks is the right woman for the job to stop a war taking place on another planet (how many people are dying in all that death, disease, destruction and horror that's taking place?) is gone now and Kirk just shrugs (in what reeks of an "oops, we forgot about that point!" moment put in the script the last minute), "Oh, I guess the Federation will find SOME woman who can stop that war." No big deal that people are dying somewhere else, so long as that Companion is happy. And just how is Kirk going to explain things to Scotty and company who he's been so chipper with on the communicator up to now? How is Kirk going to explain this to Starfleet? If he's not going to tell them about Cochran it's going to be his head for negligence! Please don't tell me I'm nitpicking and missing the "big picture". The fact is, if you want me to think about the "deep" issue of the story then don't screw up the details of the story that undermines your "deep" point. Make Hedford an ordinary bureaucrat in a dead-end desk-pushing job and you solve one problem at least. Failure to solve these problems is to put it bluntly, rotten writing.