What Are Little Girls Made Of?

DVD, Star Trek S1 (What Are Little Girls Made Of?)

Sugar and spice, and all things nice? Or copper and wire and all things dire… It's actually a rather deep psychological question that the title is propounding, amid all the classic science fiction tropes of the first half of the 20th Century that are crammed in: androids, mad professors, Frankenstein's monster turning on its creator, the transfer of consciousness, and of course, large computers that bleep and blork as colourful knobs are operated! Why is it that such a derivative episode is certainly one of, possibly even the, favourite of mine? I think it's partly to do with the subject matter, but also the style is more similar to the later Trek spinoffs than a traditional 'TOS' episode, concentrating on a couple of characters and learning details about them, seeing them go through a difficult experience and how they deal with it, in the context of a sci-fi idea. There are still some of the emerging familiar patterns of this series, such as Kirk talking a 'computer' into going against its programming, or confusing a female enemy with romance, and the clever tactics that show he's always switched on to whatever situation he's in, quick-witted and on the ball. It is a shame we don't get more of the regular cast, with McCoy, Scotty, Sulu and Rand completely absent, while Spock and Uhura feature only in the minority, but what it does allow is for Nurse Christine Chapel to costar with Kirk in the limelight.

I was very surprised to see in the closing credits that this wasn't a Gene Roddenberry-scripted episode, since I was pretty sure it was, considering the attention given to Majel Barrett's heretofore unexplored character. At this stage of the series only Kirk and Spock were credited as stars of the show, the rest were merely recurring characters, which is why we see several (such as Riley), pop up in more than one episode - Chapel could have been just such a figure, appearing in a smattering of episodes, had she not been played by Roddenberry's girlfriend. It gave the writers a broader canvas to play with, knowing they could bring back this or that crewmember, and I like that impression of a larger ship, instead of focusing down on seven or eight with the rest being nonspeaking background, or one-off guest roles. But anyway, Chapel gets an episode devoted to her and her backstory, which wouldn't be the case for most characters further into the series, making this more special. The impression is that she joined a starship crew in the hopes it would take her to Exo III at some point, the planet where Dr. Roger Korby, the man she'd been engaged to, was carrying out investigations into the ruins of an ancient civilisation. It would seem a slim reason for signing on, why not just charter a vessel to seek him out? Maybe she was in two minds about Korby? Then again, it's said she gave up a career in bio-research to do it, so perhaps she had a strong inclination to find him.

She's obviously excited to see him, especially as he's been considered lost after two previous expeditions failed to locate him on the planet - there's a nice moment of female camaraderie when Uhura gives her friend a hug as she passes, heading off to the planet where her fiance is waiting. It adds a little colour to the characters and makes them more real, instead of Uhura merely stating that hailing frequencies are open, or Chapel quietly assisting McCoy in Sickbay, another side to the series that sadly fizzled out as it became set in its formula. Some things in this regard were a positive, with Spock gradually becoming more and more Vulcan (though even this late in the season he's almost smiling when he and Kirk share a lighthearted moment at the end), but it was more often the case that the tropes we associate with the series became rules of thumb, which, while making it easy for the uninitiated to follow, and helped lead to its place in popular culture, perhaps made it too simplistic. Take the redshirts, for example. We'd seen them die before (just not wearing red), but it hadn't yet become a joke that if you wore red you weren't coming back, so the deaths of Matthews (implied he was pushed into the chasm by Ruk, though we don't see it), and Rayburn (strangled by Ruk, which we do see), are more of a shock - Korby claims it was against orders, but why would Ruk do that when he was programmed to obey? This only adds to Brown's callousness when he appears to show no concern about the 'accident' and pleasantly urges Kirk to come and meet Korby.

The horror of the episode is another very effective asset to its storytelling. There are the instinctual fears of dark, claustrophobic caverns, a maze of darkness (or they would be if not for the colourful lights illuminating the walls of these underground tunnels, making them more beautiful formations than eerie pits - they were still trying to get as much colour onscreen as possible), the body horror, and, most effectively of all, a giant spider. Ruk isn't actually a spider, but he displays the characteristics that we often feel revulsion towards: a large mass, yet all angles, and moves suddenly, without warning with a cunning deftness and frightening speed, especially for one so large. This visual expression of an intelligence, perhaps a predatory attitude, is further enhanced by his aural abilities to mimic, or I should say duplicate, the voices of anyone he chooses. At first, this is only a creepy display of his superior abilities as an android, then it becomes a diabolical method to prevent the Enterprise from becoming concerned about their Captain's wellbeing, and later we see it used in an attempt to lure Kirk from hiding as he's stalked. Kirk isn't fooled, he has a good memory and isn't about to forget Ruk's performance, but unfortunately even the gallant Captain can't outperform the android strength in such an enclosed environment (we'd see him tackle an opposing, more physically powerful enemy later in the season, but he had wide open spaces and natural resources to exploit in 'Arena' - I wonder what it would have been like if he'd been up against Ruk in that environment, since the android has terrific speed, unlike the Gorn), a stalactite proves ineffective as a weapon.

Ruk has powerful 'RAM,' as evidenced by the way he rams Kirk up against the wall like a doll, but he needed more memory. Fortunately for Kirk, he was able to joggle the memory he did have and recall the terrible truth of the fate of The Old Ones, Ruk's creators, and the race whose ruined civilisation Korby was exploiting. Ruk had been tending the machinery of his former masters for so many centuries even his android brain had lost track, but Kirk's logic problem forces out his old personality, the equation of existence/survival = cancel all other programming. And so Ruk turns on Korby, and is destroyed. It's amazing, but Ruk is yet another iconic 'alien' creation in a whole production line of them. Few episodes have passed which don't feature something that has the image or the concept of something memorable in the extreme, with great design and aesthetics. I don't think we ever see Ruk with his hood up, which would have been cool, but that vast robe and huge sleeves only emphasise his bulk and menace. Although he mainly speaks in the voices of others when he does speak, he finally reveals his deep voice when Kirk speaks to him alone, adding to the sense of a creation from an ancient time. It's rather convenient that all the androids get killed off rather than surviving to provide a problem for Kirk's superiors of what to do with them (maybe Ruk could have been stranded on the planet and returned in one of the films?), Brown shot by Kirk; Ruk by Korby; duplicate Kirk by Andrea; and Korby and Andrea in Korby's suicide.

If Ruk was the stick in this new utopia Korby plans for, then Andrea was the carrot: Kirk's amorous reputation may have begun with such scenes as the one where he kisses Andrea for real, teaching her the difference between the robotic, programmed response she's experienced before, and the 'real' experience, confusing her. Korby claims she doesn't have emotions and is just a thing, but she certainly seems fearful, worried, maybe guilty that Kirk is taking her away from Korby's will. It's no surprise that Chapel looks so sceptical when introduced to Andrea - he hasn't tried to get in touch for five years and now she drops in on him to find he's built his own female, and it looks nothing like her! I'm surprised they didn't take the opportunity to have two Chapels, the jealousy and resentment could have been played to even greater degrees and we might have been even more uncertain of the role Korby's female android played for him - he makes it sound like she was a mere tool, an experiment with which to prove his theories, but he pretty much just keeps digging himself into a pit with Christine, claiming she has no meaning for him, only does what he tells her, then showing what sort of instruction he might give: kiss Captain Kirk, as if to illustrate the very fears Chapel has!

If Dr. Korby shows a lot of weakness and lack of thought in his interactions and plans, Kirk is the opposite. He's always on the alert, planning ahead like a space Jason Bourne. He sees a chink in Korby's armour when he commands Ruk not to hurt Chapel, and suggests Ruk should also obey her orders. Later, when the duplication procedure is running its course, just before the mental pathways are about to be copied into the android version he thinks hard of an out of character racial epithet about Spock as an indication to his First Officer that something's wrong, correctly assuming Korby will use his alternate Kirk to control the Enterprise. What was Korby's ultimate goal? To transfer human consciousnesses into his android bodies. But what was his immediate goal? Did he plan to convert the whole Enterprise crew, then use the ship to spread his benevolent immortality across the galaxy, or did he have more work to do and only wanted the ship to leave? If that were so he'd have had his Kirk take the ship away with the message that Chapel would be staying behind, rather than having Kirk return to be shot by Andrea for refusing to kiss her. I wondered why previous expeditions hadn't found Korby, but it may be that he was ready to be found at this point. He believes he can transfer a person's soul into a machine, something that continue to be a question of science fiction to this day, though I'm not quite sure how he was able to create a replacement body for himself while critically injured, so maybe he'd already prepared one?

While we've seen increasing percentage of a person's body capable of being replaced by artificial parts, the revulsion towards complete mechanisation is still there. We accept people that have had an arm or a leg replaced, but could we accept someone that's had their head replaced or their heart? And at what stage does keeping someone alive with artificial means change from treatment to torture? It is these questions and more that are provoked by this episode, although it tends to side on the negative: perhaps the best moment is when Korby protests that he is still human, that he hasn't changed, but can only respond in mechanical language about tests and transmitting data, not the personal, emotional language a human would use, and you see him struggling, unable to accept what seems to be true, yet also unable to be human. He's a forceful personality, a charismatic genius, but he's allowed his personal dream of "a practical heaven, a new paradise," to overtake compassion and reason. He refuses to accept the inevitability of life and death, intent on prolonging a life, but an artificial one. Conversely, it could also be seen from another point of view: people with locked in syndrome are still human, even though they can't operate their bodies, so if they were given control, perhaps remotely of an artificial body, controlled by their own mental impulses, wouldn't that improve their lives? It's not quite the same as transferring consciousness to somewhere else, but it's probably the closest we could come in real science.

The horror element of 'TOS' has always been there from the first pilot, where bulbous-headed, unspeaking aliens watch and control, but the body horror of this episode isn't quite so common. We get our first sense of foreboding when Kirk and Chapel beam down and Korby isn't there to meet them. Kirk's uneasy enough to order two security men to beam down after them as he descends into the ominous unknown. This uneasiness is increased by Brown's unnatural manner, and the knowledge he imparts of the civilisation Korby has unearthed, where freedom was replaced by a mechanistic culture deep underground (another Morlock-like community, from 'The Time Machine'). The first real shock is a one-two punch: Kirk shoots Brown (handily keeping a Type 2 Phaser attached to his belt under his shirt), who collapses with wiring spilling from his gut like entrails, and at the same moment, the huge figure of Ruk dashes through the door, lifting Kirk bodily and easily, to slam him against the wall, like Jaws fighting James Bond. The horror continues later, in the revelation of Korby's own situation, Kirk trapping his opponent's hand in the door, revealing the damaged circuitry beneath the skin covering, repulsing poor Chapel.

It's really more poor William Shatner, though, as he has to be strapped naked to a revolving turntable in the creation of his double: it's an ingenious visual metaphor for the duplication, as we see the machinery whir faster and faster blurring the two individuals into one. The old-fashioned sci-fi computer they operate could have been distracting, but the obvious speed and power of the machine, and the diabolical simplicity of creating another version of Kirk cancels out all other concerns. In a way, this sequence is the most horrific, as we see a blank, corpselike, crudely humanoid shape, an unfinished, mummified, organic lump of matter, placed on the opposite side of the turntable to be made into Kirk's image. The thought that a duplicate of a person could be made is terrible enough, but one subjugated to Korby's will, with the memories and seeming personality of the original is even worse, as is seeing it formed from such gross and impersonal substance. You wonder if Korby has a room of mannikin-like synthetic flesh lumps and you see how far off the deep end he's gone. There's a kind of cruelty in his demonstration of his success to Chapel by having what she assumes is Kirk come to dinner with her. It's a kind of Turing test in the flesh, to test her loyalty, which is found to be true as she asks Kirk not to make her choose between Korby and her duty. That was a quite a moment when you didn't see it coming!

In the end, Kirk's conclusion is that Dr. Roger Korby was never there, a poignant and sad conclusion for a brilliant mind. It would have been a much more effective ending if the episode had closed out there where the full force of the episode hangs for a moment, as we've seen in a couple of episodes recently, but they had to get a lighter moment in at the very end, with Kirk and Spock joking about the halfbreed insult the Captain programmed into his double, joking that he'll come up with something better next time he's in that situation (being duplicated was actually something he would experience several times again, so he shouldn't have joked about it!). I can see they don't want every episode to end on a sombre note, but it felt more suitable for this episode, especially as we hadn't seen much of the ship or Spock, so there was no need for 'conclusion' to that part of the story, apart perhaps to show Kirk and Spock were as tight as ever with no hard feelings.

Although the episode is very successful in its depiction of androids and exploring the possibilities of them, it's also a good story for Kirk and Chapel. We learn not only about Chapel's history and motive for joining the Enterprise, but we also hear of Kirk's brother, George Samuel Kirk, whom only he calls 'Sam.' It was really only an aside to prove the android had Kirk's memories, but Sam would be important at the end of the season. There are a few other details of note, not least Mr. Leslie managing to make his appearance: on the Bridge at his usual station to the left of the Command Chair; the laser pistol from 'The Cage' gets another outing, used by Korby's creations - this might even have been deliberate, since he travelled to the planet years previously when that weapon may have been more common than the contemporary Phasers, added to which the image they have of Korby in the Enterprise computer is wearing the old style of uniform, an excellent detail. It's also good to have a little mention of the Orions - Korby's study of their ruins was important work. There are also some odd little moments, such as Kirk appearing to have a selection of flyers for other planets which he fetches for Korby from his quarters on the Enterprise; we see Ruk slightly bump his head when he turns towards the low door in the caverns while hunting Kirk; Kirk mispronounces his man Rayburn's name as Rayborn one time; and the camera's shadow passes over his face when it follow him into a Turbolift. Minor issues, but fun trivia to spot.

In the time of the episode there was a lot of nervousness about the replacement of body parts (the Cybermen were created in response to such advances in medical technology), so it's easy to see where the bias would lie. It's interesting to see later series' such as 'TNG,' where the ideas were advanced: Data is the obvious counter to Korby's wrong. Artificial, but created to become human - while he could also chill with his abilities similar to Ruk of enhanced speed, strength and the perfect mimicking of human voices, he did a lot more for showing androids in a positive light. On the other hand, the Borg were the ultimate combination of mechanical and organic components, desiring, like Korby to force everyone into their 'utopia' of immortality in the hunt for perfection through assimilation. Korby might have got on quite well with them. We also see many other episodes that may have sprung in part from this: 'The Schizoid Man' deals directly with Korby's ideal - another mad professor is able to transfer his consciousness into Data; and on 'Voyager' there was 'Prototype,' where two factions of robots were at war, having finished off their creators first, many years before; and the EMH's creator, Dr. Zimmerman, similarly surrounds himself with his own artificial creations in 'Lifeline,' though they were holograms. The seeds of artificiality versus reality have flourished in later Treks, and is one aspect of the franchise I've always thoroughly enjoyed and found fascinating to think about. And you could say it all began here.

****