Star Trek Flashback: What Are Little Girls Made Of?

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has been picking up odds and ends from the original Star Trek series, expanding on one-off elements in its semi-serialized format. One such element was Nurse Chapel's fiance, Dr. Roger Korby: a complication for Chapel and Spock's SNW relationship, but a back story originally introduced in the TOS episode "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"

The Enterprise arrives at Exo III in search of Dr. Roger Korby, the "Pasteur of archaeological medicine," whose expedition to the planet has been out of contact for five years. They find Korby, who has made a mysterious discovery he wants to share only with Captain Kirk... though his plans change upon learning his fiance, Christine Chapel, is also aboard the Enterprise. As Korby plots a secret foisting of his discovery upon the Federation, Chapel may be the only one who can make him reconsider.

Strange New Worlds had to acknowledge this original series episode somehow; how is it that Chapel had a fiance she didn't see for five years? Still, it's fascinating how such as siloed idea -- an almost tangential part of this episode -- became such a significant element on the prequel series. This episode only scratches the surface on Chapel's emotions; it's really about adventure and suspense with android brutes, bombshells, and doppelgangers.

In the way of many Star Trek episodes, there is a moral to this story, almost slipped in at the end like a pill in a dog treat. Obsession can blind someone and make them behave so strangely that they aren't even themselves anymore. (The android conceit of this story makes that quite literal.) But I'd say that's not what the episode is really remembered for by Star Trek fans. Maybe its the imposing Ruk, played with icy menace by the bass-voiced Ted Cassidy. Maybe it's Kirk's huge stride toward becoming the lothario we all know, as he literally romances his way out of trouble by kissing doubt into the android Andrea. Maybe its the unceremonious deaths of two redshirts who, for the first time, are literally wearing red shirts? Maybe it's the uncomfortably phallic stalactite Kirk tries to use as a weapon.

In any case, it seems clear that the more action-adventure elements are leading the charge in this story. And while I don't mind that in principle, I'm surprised on this re-watch to see just how often classic Star Trek was already recycling plot elements this early in its run. This is the second time that the Enterprise has dealt with a clone of Kirk. It's the second time a member of the medical staff has had compromised judgment because of a significant person from their past. Don't get me wrong; I think this episode is better than "The Man Trap" (if not as good as "The Enemy Within"), but it's weird that barely half a dozen episodes into the series, I can already find two prior episodes to compare a "new" one to.

Other observations:

• We head into the credits off of ridiculous crash zooms on the shocked faces of Our Heroes -- very much a style of the time this episode was made.

• For how fast and cheap so much of Star Trek was made, I am rather impressed by the underground cave set. There's more to it than I'd ever expect (and they cleverly film it to look like even more).

• ...but they took the money this week from the sound department, it seems. At many points through the episode, sliding doors don't make the expected Star Trek sounds. 

• The communicator is a prop that takes a beating. At two different points in the episode, Kirk's communicator (ostensibly the same one) is shown flipping open and locking in position like the cell phones it would inspire, and later with the screen bent backwards because the hinge has given out.

• The character of Andrea is definitely here to titillate. But the episode does hang a lantern on that, with Chapel calling her a "mechanical geisha." (And I guess they show is equal opportunity, showing not one but two naked Kirks strapped to a table elsewhere in the episode.)

• I noted earlier that this is the second episode in close proximity to serve us two Kirks. Also repeated is the reversing of a closeup to make the eye lines match. There, the scratches on "negative Kirk"'s face gave it away. Here, it's the green-crossed-over-blue outfit that Kirk has been made to wear; a closeup shows the colors on the opposite shoulders.

I suggested earlier that this episode falls between two earlier ones for me, and here I'll make that official: I give "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" a B-.