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The Companion - Sparkling cloud of living energy featured on episode No. 38
"Metamorphosis" of the science fiction series STAR TREK/NBC/1966-69.
The Companion & Zefram Cochrane
In the year 2117,
87-years-old scientist Zefram Cochrane (Glenn Corbett) decided to travel into space
with the wish to die there. Zefram had developed the first warp
drive technology that enabled humans to travel throughout the galaxy.
Unexpectedly, however, his ship was intercepted by a sparkling cloud of living energy ("The Companion") and carried to a
planetoid (Gamma Canaris N) where he was rejuvenated and given all the creature comforts of home.
In the year 2267 (150 years later), the same cloud hijacked a shuttle craft filled with
Federation personnel (Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Federation Commissioner Nancy
Hedford) to the same planetoid when the Cloud sensed Zefram's need for
human companionship.
Eventually, The Companion (discovered to be female and in love with
Cochrane) realized that the only way she could ever get to know Zefram on his
level, was to merge its life force so she entered the dying body of Nancy
Hedford (Elinor Donahue).
Recognizing his own love for the creature, now living in the shell
of a human female body, Zefram decided to remain and share a new life and age
gracefully together with his
new mate.
Cochrane asked Captain Kirk (William Shatner) not to tell anyone that he was
alive. Kirk honored his wish and the former captives returned via shuttlecraft
to the USS Enterprise.
TRIVIA NOTE: The character Zefram Cochrane (played by James Cromwell) reappeared in the
STAR TREK motion picture First Contact (1996).
On April 4, 2063, Zefram activated a spacecraft called the
Phoenix (a reconverted nuclear missile) which sent a warp
signature into space that alerted a passing Vulcan survey
craft of Earth's new found ability to travel through the stars
at light speed. Upon arrival on Earth, the Vulcans greeted our
planet with "Live Long and Prosper."
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