What Are Little Girls Made Of? (TOS episode)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Star Trek: TOS episode
"What Are Little Girls Made Of?"
Andrea and Nurse Chapel, "What are Little Girls Made Of?"
Episode no.	7
Prod. code	010
Airdate	October 20, 1966
Writer(s)	Robert Bloch
Director	James Goldstone
Guest star(s)	Majel Barrett Michael Strong Sherry Jackson Ted Cassidy Harry Basch Vince Deadrick Budd Albright Eddie Pasky
Year	2266
Stardate	2712.4
Episode chronology
Previous	"Mudd's Women"
Next	"Miri"

"What Are Little Girls Made Of?" is a first season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. It is episode #7, production #10, and was first broadcast October 20, 1966. It was repeated two months later, on December 22, 1966, and was the first episode of the series to be repeated on NBC. It was written by Robert Bloch and directed by James Goldstone.

Overview: Nurse Chapel searches for her long lost fiancé, and uncovers his secret plan for galactic conquest.

[edit] Plot

On stardate 2712.4, the USS Enterprise, under the command of Captain James T. Kirk, travels to the icy planet of Exo III to search for the exobiologist, Dr. Roger Korby. Korby is the fiancé of Dr. McCoy's temporary assistant, Nurse Christine Chapel, and is known as the "Louis Pasteur of archaeological medicine". Chapel has been searching for her missing lover for quite some time, and signed on to the Enterprise for just this reason.

At Korby's request, only Kirk and Chapel beam down; however, two security guards are also beamed down because Kirk does not trust the situation. The guards however, are quickly disposed of. Kirk and Chapel find the doctor living in an underground complex of caves, the remains of an extinct race who once lived on Exo III. He refers to them only as "The Old Ones". Korby shows them machinery which is used to create realistic androids. With the help of Ruk, a still functioning android left behind since the days of the Old Ones, Korby created more androids, one being a lovely woman he calls "Andrea" who likes to give passionate sample kisses to her male guests.

Chapel recognizes Korby's aide Dr. Brown, but is surprised the man does not remember her. In reality, Brown is also an android created as a prototype for Korby's diabolical plan that will replace key personnel in the Federation with android duplicates under his control.

Korby keeps Chapel at his side, but imprisons Captain Kirk and makes an exact android duplicate of him, fooling even Chapel. The Kirk android even knows Kirk has a brother named George Samuel Kirk, whom only he calls "Sam". Kirk however managed to place a flaw in his duplicate. While Kirk's mental patterns were being transferred to the machine, he kept repeating in his mind, the words: "Mind your own business, Spock. I'm sick of your half-breed interference! Do you hear?" over and over again, which becomes imprinted in the android's personality matrix.

Korby has the duplicate Kirk beamed aboard the Enterprise with orders to go to Minas V to begin the spread of android duplicates throughout the galaxy. Korby is convinced the duplicate Kirk will fool the Enterprise crew, but when the duplicate Kirk shouts the insulting words "half-breed" at Spock for questioning his orders, Spock suspects something is not right. Spock then forms a security team and follows the duplicate Kirk back down to Exo III to investigate what he is up to.

Meanwhile, the real Kirk is being guarded by Ruk, and Kirk convinces the android that his master Korby is a threat to his continued existence and must be destroyed. Ruk remembers that the same kind of clash between the Old Ones and the androids led to his civilization's demise centuries ago, and believes it is inevitable again. Ruk goes to confront Korby, meanwhile Andrea destroys the duplicate Kirk with a phaser when it refuses to kiss her. Ruk finds Korby, but he manages to destroy Ruk with a phaser. At the same time, Korby's hand gets caught in a door and when the skin tears back, it reveals to Chapel's horror that he is also an android.

It is now revealed that Dr. Korby, while dying from severe exposure to frostbite, transferred his mind to an android body so that he might live on. However, Kirk convinces Korby that he is nothing more than a machine and has lost his humanity forever. Chapel is also repelled by what her fiancé has done to himself. In despair, Korby grabs Andrea, they kiss, and turns a phaser on himself, destroying them both.

Spock now arrives with the security force, but finds the situation is over, since Kirk and Chapel are now safe. In the end, Chapel decides to stay on with the Enterprise and finish out her tour of duty.

[edit] Trivia

• The title of the episode is taken from the fourth line of the 19th century nursery rhyme What are Little Boys Made of?.
• After Kirk (William Shatner) kisses Andrea (Sherry Jackson) the second time, we can see that her lipstick is now all over Kirk's lips and that her lips are swollen from the very rough kiss. The Sci-Fi Channel produced a series "Star Trek on Sci-Fi" in which anecdotes were discussed by TOS cast members and guest actors. In this episode's production of that series Sherry Jackson reveals that the kiss was supposed to be a "screen" kiss, but William Shatner used full tongue and startled Jackson. This probably added to the realism to her reaction.
• Sherry Jackson was in the earlier TV series Bachelor Father starring John Forsyth.
• This is one of only two episodes (the other is the series' final episode, "Turnabout Intruder") in which Christine Chapel's hair is light brown or brunette. It is blond in all her other appearances.
• Long before it is revealed that Korby is an android Kirk briefly holds him hostage, strangling him with a length of cord. Korby's reactions are entirely that of a human being choked, rather than that of an android.

[edit] External links

• What Are Little Girls Made Of? article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki.

Last produced: "Balance Of Terror"	Star Trek: TOS episodes Season 1	Next produced: "Dagger Of The Mind"
Last transmitted: "Mudd's Women"		Next transmitted: "Miri"