Captain's Blog pt. 64: What Are Little Girls Made Of?

On October 20, 1966, Endora moved in for a spell over on Bewitched, Steve had driving woes over on My Three Sons, and Star Trek asked America:

I thought I'd try something a little different this time. I'll give you all but one of the scores up front and then use screencaps and lines from the script to justify them with a minimum of my bullshit text. Hopefully some semblance of meaning will still be conveyed.

Script/ Theme: (9 / 9 of 10/10)

Kirk and the Gang: (35 of 10)
Visual Design: (3 of 3)

Internal Logistics: (3 of 3)

Guest: (5 of 5)

Memorability: (5 of 5)

These are for the most part chronological, but the astute reader will notice several that are not. Most lines from the script do not match the image, either; many liberties were taken, all in the name of science.

Michael Strong plays Nurse Chapel's fiancé Dr. Richard Korby, who was of course required reading for Kirk at the Academy.

"His last signal told about finding underground caverns."

  

"When they moved from light to darkness, they replaced freedom with a mechanistic culture."

Ted Cassidy plays Roc.

"Is it possible they built their machines too well? Machines that wanted logic and order and found that frustrated by the illogical emotional creatures that built them?"

"A mechanical geisha would be no more difficult."

Bill Theiss's costume design caused a near-riot at the sci-fi convention at which it was revealed. Allegedly, Harlan Ellison hit on the lady modeling it so relentlessly that security followed him around the convention floor.

"I don't remember Doctor Korby mentioning an Andrea."

"Christine, an android's like a computer. It only does what I program."

"Mind your own business, Mister Spock..."

"Do you think I could love a machine?"

"Did you?"

"Mind your own business, Mister Spock..."

"She simply obeys orders. She has no meaning for me."

"Mind your own - UUUGGR!"

"She's a totally logical computer. A thing is not a woman. Now do you understand?"

"Mind your own BUSINESS Mister Spock. I'm sick of your half-breed interference do-you-hear?!"

...

"You... you will not?"

"It is illogical."

Meanwhile...

Uhh...

I, uhh... hrrm...

"That was the equation! Existence! Survival must cancel out programming."

"That's it, Ruk: Logic! You can't! protect someone! who's trying! to de-stroy you!"

I AM ROGER KORBY!!

"Ask me to solve any... equate... trans-mit...!"

"To love you..."

"To kiss..."

"You..."

... hrrm...

"Doctor Korby was never here."

  

The End.

FINAL THOUGHTS: This episode is pretty much perfect. Provocative, exciting, dramatic, thoughtful, and visually stimulating. And Sherry Jackson's Andrea is a bit on the iconic side. So many "Trek Girls"are, when you think of it. 

Given the thematic concerns of this episode, casting Ms. Jackson or someone similarly bombshell-ish as Andrea not only makes sense but is probably essential. But lest anyone think I'm reading her only as hot chick in skimpy clothes, she plays the part quite well. Imagine someone like, I don't know, Kim Kardashian in the role, and you can easily see how easy it would be for a poor performance to pull the rug out from under the story.

Title: (5 out of 3) "...Sugar and spice and everything nice..." Works well on many levels, but speaks most particularly to the what-makes-a-human-human business, not to mention Kirk's objections to Korby's ideas re: programming-a-utopia (or Nurse Chapel's concerns re: mechanical geishas.)

Total Points Awarded: 74