TOS 8: What Are Little Girls Made Of?

Original air date: 10/20/1966
Star Date: 2712.4

Summary: The Enterprise arrives at the planet Exo-III in the hopes of finding the renowned doctor Roger Korby, a man who "revolutionized immunization techniques" and the long-lost fiance of Nurse Christine Chapel.  The planet's surface temperature is 100 degrees below zero (presumably Fahrenheit), and Kirk and Spock and certain that Dr. Korby, who hasn't been heard from in 5 years, must be dead.  But to their surprise, Korby responds to their call, and asks that Kirk beam down to the planet alone to discuss a sensitive matter.  When Korby learns that his fiancee is on board, he agrees to have her come down as well.

It turns out Korby has been living in underground caves first created by Exo-III's original inhabitants centuries ago.  We also quickly find out that Korby has discovered how to use the previous inhabitants' machinery to create androids.  In addition to Korby, there's his android assistant Brown, his other android assistant Andrea --- an attractive female who walks around nearly topless, and Ruk, an android created by Exo-III's original inhabitants, and who has been maintaining their machinery for centuries.

Ruk kills two Enterprise security officers who beam down after Kirk and Chapel, in the name of protecting Korby.  Korby explains that he wanted Kirk to come without other crew members, so Kirk will consider Korby's project with an open mind.  Korby goes on to describe how androids can revolutionize the universe and to demonstrate, he makes an android copy of Kirk (henceforth known as 'Kirkdroid').  While Kirkdroid returns to the Enterprise to collect information about where Korby might set up production of his androids, Kirk attempts to escape but is captured by Ruk.  Kirk then uses clever psychological tricks to get Korby to destroy Ruk, Andrea to destroy Kirkdroid, and Korby to destroy both Andrea and himself.  In the process, we learn that Korby is himself an android, created by the real Dr. Kirby when he had frozen nearly to death.  When Spock arrives with the cavalry as the result of another clever trick Kirk played when Kirkdroid was created, there's nothing for him to do but ask where Dr. Korby is.

8 shows in, and this is already the second time we have two Kirks.

It seems that the writers want the message of this episode to be that no matter how much machines/computers/androids advance, they will never replace humans, because they will always lack humanity.  But their presentation of this message is rather confused.

Korby presents all of the androids --- with the exception of himself --- as machines which will follow orders.  However, Kirk asks Ruk about what happened to the old inhabitants of Exo-III, and Ruk suddenly remembers that the androids destroyed them because the androids came to see them as a threat.  This means that the old-school androids became self-aware.  And indeed, Ruk seems happy to have finally found an "equation" which allows him to ignore his programming and attack Korby.  That sounds pretty human.  Also, it often seems Ruk chafes against Korby's orders not to harm Kirk.  But a machine which just follows orders wouldn't even consider whether they agreed with the orders they were given.

Similarly, Andrea is a good little android for most of the show, just following orders.  But then Kirk embraces her in a passionate kiss, which upsets her because, she says: "I'm not for you."  However, she must have liked the kiss, because when she later encounters Kirkdroid, she mistakes him for Kirk, and has the following exchange:

Andrea: I will kiss you.
Kirkdroid: No.
Andrea: You --- you will not?
Kirkdroid: It is illogical.

So Andrea shoots him.  That sounds pretty human.

In fact, the only time an android demonstrably fails to act human is when Korby is revealed as an android.  He then claims to be the full Roger Korby --- intellect, memories and soul --- and says

I'm not a computer.  Test me.  Ask me to solve any ---  Equate --- Transmit ---

So --- not very human.  But as his fiancee, Nurse Chapel knows the real Korby better than anyone, and she never shows any indication that the Korby in the show might not be the "real" Roger Korby.  Indeed, at one point she is talking with Kirkdroid --- she thinks it's really Kirk --- and he asks whether Korby might be going mad, to which Nurse Chapel replies: "No, you're forgetting how well I know him.  He's as sane as you or I."  If the android Korby could fool even his fiancee, then he must be pretty human, right?

Other observations about the show:

Kirk is able to turn Ruk against Korby by convincing Ruk that, as a human, Korby is a threat to all androids.  This is absurd on its face, since Korby is planning to manufacture androids by the millions.  However, it suggests that Ruk doesn't know that Korby is himself an android.  How is this possible?  By Korby's account, the real Korby had lost his legs and was nearly dead when he transferred into his android body; how did he do that without Ruk's help?  Perhaps he erased that part of Ruk's memory --- Ruk acknowledges that Korby programmed him --- but how did Korby manage to get Ruk under his control under any circumstances?

Andrea is pretty wimpy, for an android.  Kirk overpowers her early in the show with little effort.

More than once, we're told that Ruk has "forgotten" events from long ago, but later Kirk is able to help him recall how the original inhabitants of Exo-III were destroyed.  Of course this is ridiculous; computer memories don't get "foggy".

At one point, Kirk attempts to overpower Ruk by hitting him with a stalactite.  It's not clear why he thinks this will work.

When Kirk shoots Brown, we see his android innards.  When all of the other androids are destroyed by phaser blasts, they're completely vaporized.  I'm guessing this decision was driven by the show's budget and/or shooting schedule.

The writers kindly gave us an easy way to distinguish between Kirk and Kirkdroid.  Kirk is wearing a blue and green jumpsuit (just like Korby, Brown and Andrea), while Kirkdroid is wearing the standard Captain's uniform.  Somehow Andrea forgets this when she encounters Kirkdroid, mistakes him for Kirk, and vaporizes him.

When Kirk's thoughts are being transferred to Kirkdroid, Kirk cleverly creates a racial slur about Spock (calls him a "half-breed"), so that idea is fresh in Kirkdroid's mind.  The ploy works like a charm, as Kirkdroid calls Spock a half-breed during their brief encounter on the Enterprise, thus signaling Spock that something is wrong.  But since Kirkdroid knows all of Kirk's memories, he would know that the "half-breed" slur is trick.

And finally . . .

There's no way Kirk would voluntarily allow himself to be duplicated, which means Korby must have forced him to comply.  This is certainly not the best way to get Kirk to see the wisdom of Korby's vision.  It also means that there was no reason for Kirk to wait until after Kirkdroid was created and off to the Enterprise before using his clever tricks to get all the androids to destroy one another.

The Moral of the Story: I have no idea.