What Are Little Girls Made Of? (Star Trek TOS - S1E08)

[Hailing Frequencies Open]

On this episode, we discuss Star Trek’s most dysfunctional robot family drama: Andrea pines, Ruk looms, and Kirk tries very hard not to get turned into a glorified action figure.

[End Transmission]

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro/Turbolift Tease Recap
• 5:20 Initial Impressions
• 1:02:12 Final Thoughts
• 1:04:30 Tribble Tidbits
• 1:10:20 Episode Ranking
• 1:14:48 Turbolift Tease
• 1:16:08 Socials/Outro

Transcript

0:00

[Music] Haley and Frequence is open and welcome aboard tracks and tangents. I'm your co-host Brian and I'm your co-host Jackie. I'm your star track movie which is "Treat Stop on Panging" and I'm your star track expert who is here to get the tangents back on track. Each episode we watch and talk about a different star track episode and this week we watched Star Trek the original series season one episode seven what are little girls made of episode seven for star track but episode eight for our podcast counting of course the strange failed pilot the cage as I always like to point out I really can't wait for the next season so that this counting irregularity goes away but here we are episode eight how you doing Jackie? I too am confused because I was right episode eight in my notes when it's supposed to be episode seven. I think coming up there might be an opportunity to rectify that situation we might cram two episodes together but I don't want to spoil anything we'll have to see but maybe we'll get that fixed. I also like episode eight of our podcast as a milestone because in all of the reading and research that was done leading up to launching this podcast it seems like the majority of podcasts that start up and then flicker off and don't make it to episode eight so we're here that's a good thing so far so don't be jinxinous. No god no it's been fun to watch the podcast slowly grow of course it takes much longer than eight episodes to grow anything we've seen the numbers we've seen the comments we've seen the support on patreon so again just wanted to take an opportunity to think all of the listeners whether you support us directly on patreon whether you comment whether you rate and review or whether you're just a background listener we appreciate you being here for the journey and hopefully we continue to provide some form of entertainment to you and don't forget to share our podcasts say your friends can like it too yes the biggest thing that you could do besides subscribing on patreon besides liking or reviewing the podcast on whatever platform you consume it on sharing it with a friend telling someone about it referring someone to our podcast whether they like Star Trek whether they like sci-fi whether they just like hearing a couple of people argue about science fiction please send them our way we have to revisit our turbo lift tease from last week we we don't have to do that no it's it's tradition we have to do that Jackie last week we gave Jackie the title of this week's episode and without any other information or without any other prompting Jackie failed tried to guess the plot I think is what happened anyway I have it here in front of me Jackie started by saying that she thought the episode would be about everything nice but I'm sorry what was the title again it was rough it's it's a rough title out of context so we gave the title again and then Jackie again said quote why would they name it this especially after the episode before which was muds women I'm just gonna go out on a limb and say sugar plum and cinnamon because I don't want to get us canceled so you were answering the literal question of what our little girls made of and not what the plot was we had a back and forth conversation and then you asked for a hint and the hint was the episode plot is centered around a relationship with nurse chapel and then you exclaimed that you didn't even know who nurse chapel was but then I reminded you who she was and you said your final guess well obviously we're going to learn more about nurse chapel and we do said Jackie how accurate do you think your prediction was this week I still failed but we'd learned a little bit but I failed it's an interesting title for sure compared to some of the past episodes it's the wrong title it's so stupid it really doesn't have any sort of tie-in that I can name so much I think it's just weird it's it's definitely someone's trying to tie in this idea of the androids in the artificial life but they really don't ever address it in the episode so I don't know that this would have been one that you could have guessed well I mean if they're going to hint towards that nursery rhyme they could have included little boys what are they made of because we take a peek at both genders hold that thought Jackie for a later episode oh but what did you think of the episode what are your initial impressions I hated it why did you hate it because instead of being creative with their misogyny like last time that was blatant this time and we were like running around in circles and never really got an answer until the very end and then oh onto the next planet I like it what what examples of misogyny existed in this episode because I'm going to tell you I like this episode of course you would yeah well I mean literally hello pretty lady kiss that man okay like no I'm over that that's not cool but I mean I mean I can see I see good merit but I just don't like I don't know it wasn't exciting and intriguing like all the others okay I can kind of see where it was going and I'm the worst at foreshadowing and if I could see what was happening so you figured out by the end of the episode you knew that Dr. Corby was an android yeah okay I I can see that I think that's but at the same time I think that that's a normal progression for a Star Trek episodes plot is to not leave the viewer completely in the dark I think Star Trek is built around the idea of getting the viewer to the final answer before the characters I think that's how the show is set up partially I really like this episode in that one I'll just point out fantastic set design we have the very elaborate cave system sets and dressing it is not an episode that takes place all in the enterprise using two or three different sets there's multiple scenes in those cave systems and I am sure that it is just one or two sets being redressed and fancy camera angles but they did a fantastic job with that but I also really enjoy the plot this is just a fun sci-fi adventure I get your point to the character of Andrea being another female character that doesn't serve initially any other purpose than being something to look at and an object of sexual desire and don't forget the girl fight over the one man and there is the fact that there is the quote unquote girl fight over the one man I don't know I certainly think that it is not as egregious of an episode as some of the ones we've seen in the past I can understand that then tell me why if it's supposed to be a planet that's 100 degrees below zero that only one character is wearing warm clothes and poor nurse chapel is wearing nothing and Andrea only has on like overalls yeah well because they're underground is the reason why they can survive they say that in the episode that the inhabitants of the planet go underground when the sun starts to die and that's how they were able to continue to exist for many many centuries true but still Kirk because eventually it's only just Kirk and our girl nurse chapel who beam down to this freezing planet but no coat and sight no because they're beaming down into an underground location when they beam they're they're they beam down no above like on the planet they have to like find the entrance they beam into an entryway that leads to the cavernous systems but if you look closely there is what you can see behind them is the frozen exterior of the planet the surface of the planet but there's a window there and you can tell there's a window because you can clearly see Kirk and chapel's reflection in the window oh I was busy reading the little cc caption thing yeah so what they beam down they're beaming down into like an entry hall there's no exposure to the planet surface and I think they do that specifically they beam into that area because before they beam down they have the communication from dr. Corby explaining that he's existed underground for five years I assume that he would have sent up transporter coordinates to send them to that entryway because he's supposed to meet them there according to him so that's why they don't beam down with a coat they're beaming down into the same environment that he's lived in for five years it's just weird such is the nature of star trek weird well still Andrea's half naked also and everybody else has long sleeve uniforms they up girl also normal trope of star trek if you like this episode and you like her costume I've got an episode of the next generation will eventually get to where they beam down to a planet and everyone's wearing white and I'll just leave it at that star trek fans know exactly which episode it is when Wesley gets in trouble for that so over my head we'll get there but enough of our initial impressions Jackie why don't you walk us through the plot of the episode we start on our enterprise and they're just like not driving they're flying around but they're going to try to rescue nurse chapels fiance love of her life dr. Corby who is also the fantastic they call them the pastor of like archaeology or whatever you know we all know about pastor right he actually you know pasteurized milk now it's safe don't get me started on the whole unpasturized yeah we don't want to go there I was able to understand that aspect so this guy is supposed to be fantastic and amazing which is why nurse chap Christine thanks she goes back and forth from all of her names wants to make sure he's first of all she knows he's alive like he is a man that knows what he's doing she has ultimate faith and then Kirk has to remind her we've tried twice and nothing but the faith she has in him is this kind of like the fairy tale yeah and that's the whole point of the enterprise's mission is this is the third attempt by starfleet to figure out what happened to dr. Corby don't really get into why the first two expeditions failed I don't believe they hand that he's underground and that's why they couldn't find them yeah so I guess they the other two times the other two ships showed up weren't able to reach him and then took off because they didn't bring their coat either and they'd be freezing yeah because they didn't bring their coat they didn't want to be down to the freezing planet we've seen enough times where cold temperatures and starfleet officers don't mix but we do this time this expedition third times the charm get a communication or hailing message from dr. Corby from underneath the planet in that cave system up to the enterprise so that they do get confirmation and that nurse chapels instincts were correct that dr. Corby is still alive or is he oh but and then they've been weirdly before the credits start to roll they all like white christmas esque get all together and are just like smiling this weird happiness and the two in the background one I thought was wearing a robe but thankfully I watched it again because you know I watched it multiple times he just happens to have a very loose pajama like a uniform so he was not wearing a robe on the deck yeah it was very reminiscent to maybe what if you go all the way back to the original pilot with the doctor in pikes quarters giving him the martini he wasn't really wearing a uniform either he was just wearing a blue bathrobe yeah which at the in the pilot episode in pikes quarters that was kind of explained away because the doctor was off duty he had been woken up he wasn't coming from the sick bay but is this an example of them reusing clothing or in costumes from the failed pilot in previous episodes I don't know I just found that odd and I really want a roo your horrors hey but you know what I want a little weird earpiece gotta find it the thing that looks like it almost like antenna it's like an antenna it always it it reminds me of like a metallic the honeycomb kitchen utensil that you if you watch a commercial egg beater not an egg beater if you watch a commercial for honey nut Cheerios the thing that they dip into the thing a honey and they pull it out it looks like yes that's a wooden dowel with a like a circle at the bottom yeah there's a name for it we're both gonna fail we're gonna look it up when we're done but it yes it looks like that we'll breathe that together yeah I still don't think that I think Spock is still a bit hesitant though about this whole are we sure it's him and then Christine's like how do you ever been in love mr. Spock and then I can imagine her nowadays just be like doing the three snaps to go uh-huh and then credit the opening credit start yes and then surprisingly enough after the credit we only have one captain's log when Kirk basically repeats everything we already just said but he is excited to know that they that he's alive at least so once they're in contact with Dr. Kirby Dr. this Kirk's act will be right there we're bringing a party we're gonna get you up here just tell me what we need let's let's get you out of there I'm sure you miss your loved ones blah blah blah and the doctor is kind of sheepishly uh do you mind if you just come alone really quick uh I have those predicament and Kirk agrees that yes that's a weird question but sure and too bad I'm bringing someone else and then Christine pops up and goes hi Roger and he's like Christine and so yes the both of us will be beaming down so we can reunite and then the doctor has to take it or all she's not gonna get what he wants and then it's like super quick beam room or yeah beam room yep yep they were in the beam room yep eight episodes in folks were calling it the beam room and then they that's when they arrive on the freezing planet that they should have had a coat but they're at the entrance the part that you can see the window and their reflection in and I think I forgot to say that we're entering we're I forgot to say that we're on planet exo three the names they come up with I have this crazy and spark believes it once was inhabited but because the sun started to fade that's why it's a hundred degrees below zero the inhabitants went underground to be warm and that's why everybody has kind of said we can't be alive anymore spend five years so you should probably remind you of that yeah well I would imagine that because you have an archaeologist going to the planet dr. Corby goes there for a specific reason so they had to have known that there was some kind of intelligent life on the planet at some point so I guess dr. Corby's mission would have been to examine or investigate if they had survived the sun going dark and the planet freezing over I don't know that it'd be interesting to know if there was any communication with Corby after he arrived and discovered the remnants of the inhabitants of the planet living underground if that information had made it back to starfleet or if he had just arrived and then maybe immediately disappeared I don't really think we they never tell us and I think that's why the crew is so excited to hear that he's alive and with his being alive he has to have some crew and a lot of material that has to be transported my the assumption is best or assumption so it's but then it's kind of a letdown where he's like no no no no no come just to just you oh christine can come okay so they're there and but the doctor did not meet them at the rendezvous point like he said he would so they just start going into the cave and dr. Corby is not there to meet them as planned Kirk decides to call down to security crewman so that everybody could be safe because I mean he still has no idea what they're dealing with so we have Matthews and Rayburn that beam down remember that Kirk also says Matthews you're coming with us Rayburn used to hear at the mouth of the cave and then check in as we go so they start one the three of them start wandering through this cave Kirk Chapel and what Matthews Matthews thank you and as they're going and then very dramatically christine kicks a rock and it starts and it falls down into the great abyss of the cave and they just gets more scary and dangerous and that's when they start hugging the wall even more yeah and we get a lot of different shots of this quote unquote cave system again it's probably one or two set pieces but the way they use the camera angles and lighting it really adds at least when I watched it it really added to this feeling of an elaborate cave system and that they were exploring many different parts of this system and you know like when we were in school we learned about those they're not icicles but like little walks and minerals that come down like a spear or come up still like lights yes so they have those hanging around or you know yeah hanging around and but see I was hoping there a go the show was going to go more on why Matthews was touching the wall more and no one else so no one else was touching the wall but Matthews kept touching the side and looking at his fingers like there was something on it so that's why I was thinking something might be happening about that but they never addressed it it's probably just the actor checking for wet paint that's very true but they never bring it up so after the fall of the rock not anybody else they turn a corner and a bright bright light is blinding them say who's there what's going on and then a man steps in front of it oh my gosh is that Roger and he's like oh I guess I should turn on the light the other light to turn off the bright one and it's actually Dr. Brown Dr. Corby's assistant and Christine's super excited to see him and Kirk's like do you know this person and so he asked yes of course of course but where is Dr. Corby and then Brown's like oh don't worry he's been detained but I'll take you to him he's very creepy he's being super vague and not being even though nurse chapel seems to recognize him and doesn't say anything in the moment she's also it seems to non verbally with her body language express some unease in the way Dr. Brown is acting something's off because it's like he doesn't really recognize her right because you know like he knows well that's Christine but that's it so okay we'll follow you so they're off they go and then a scream poor Matthews has fallen down the cliff into a bottomless pit like the rock yes so he is gone and then while they're discussing that we flush over to where Matthews fell and this creature who is dressed warmly in white in graze and and he just like scurries away and this is where I bring up my SG connection because I I want to say that this character who he named his name is rock he has to be the bad guy from SG one like they have the same head a poffis yeah you I am probably totally wrong but even under any thought that makeup they look a lot alike so stargate SG one season one that we use some of the episodes for as test episodes would you can listen to on our patreon if you're a crew member patreon.com/trux and tangents stargate was filmed in what the late 90s early odds this episode was filmed in 1966 oh so it's his little brother yeah I don't think it's the same person I don't think 30 years later I have a fun fact about the actor who plays him and how it all ties in but we'll get to that at the end but okay so you think they look very similar yes okay well I think you're alone in that opinion but we'll let you have it and then Kirk continues to question Christine about their relationship because I think Kirk is still filling it off and this is when this is where Kirk calls back to the remaining crew member at the beam down site we'll use Jackie's term for the transporter I like it and reports to that crew member that Matthews is dead and that Rayburn should continue to remain posted at the entrance at the beam down site Rayburn acknowledges that that's what he'll do Kirk also tells Rayburn to reach back up to Spock on the Enterprise to relay the same update and to start making preparations in case they're needed Kirk also assumes that Rayburn gets to perform this action but he never does because as soon as Rayburn cuts communication he again is a victim of rock rock arrives and ambushes Rayburn we're rounding the bend into a nice furnished room and Brown is just explaining how about the culture of the planet X03 how the light was just everything is turning dark because the sun was going dark yes it's been fading for millions of years he's basically giving the reiteration of what Spock does with more detail exactly I think trying to also sell what he is trying to tell them could he's like I have all this important stuff to tell you but we can't tell you yet right because he does at this point Dr. Brown does hint at this idea that he explains everything the same that Spock does but then adds the detail that once the inhabitants of X03 went underground they were able to create these mechanoid android servants thank you for saying that because that's gonna butcher that entire phrase yeah he doesn't get into much detail after that I'd also would point out that it may be not be a scientific breakthrough that they made and this was more of an adaptation to living underground they created these androids not as an advancement of science and research and technology but more out of necessity to adapt to their life underground but then the group enters a living room living quarters area escorted still by Dr. Brown and once during the room we see a beautiful woman walk in and she has on the same uniform as everybody else and it reminds me of oshkoshbagosh everyone else is wearing like this one piece jumpsuit that like you mentioned earlier has long sleeves high necks she is wearing basically space overalls for lack of a better term without undergarments yeah this is the same thing like when you were a kid and you would just throw on your overalls and didn't put on an undershirt that's what she's wearing and Andrea who Christine has never met knows exactly who Christine is she knows exactly who Kirk is says everything and she just is so thankful she tells Kirk thank you for bringing Rogers fiancee to him like she never calls him doctor it's always Roger and you can see how Christine has like a little jab at her every time she says it and then finally Dr. Kirby arrives and King Christina reunited and then they have what I call a John Wayne kiss it's just smoothing their faces together yes no intimacy coordinator on the set of this episode so all that's happening Kirk's like oh shoot my hours been up I need to contact my security guy at the other end to make sure everything's okay and Rayburn never replies he's like hello hello nothing and then that's when Dr. Kirby's like you just stop you need to know what's happening like that you can't do that right now yeah there's a lot of stuff going on Dr. Corby continues his insistence that there be no communication with the outside world echoing his initial request that Kirk beam down alone with nurse chapel and he doesn't want Kirk to give any information or communicate with the enterprise he doesn't want crew members from the enterprise coming down quite yet he even pulls the little phaser gun on him uh Dr. Browne pulls the phaser gun out when the argument between Dr. Corby and Kirk escalates Dr. Browne pulls it out in a very reactionary protective manner Dr. Browne and Kirk are fighting for the phaser and in that struggle brown is shot and this is when that large dude named Ruck that we talked about earlier pops in and just easily puts Kirk up against the wall and as that's happening her poor nurse chapel is screaming because Browne is on the floor with a giant hole in a stomach and what looks like a computer circuit board going off so weird yeah it's revealed at this point that Dr. Browne is not human he's an android and then we're back on the enterprise because the audience needs to gather their thoughts there's a lot just happened well this is also we get a commercial break in reality oh that makes sense too yes we are watching this on paramount where we have the ad free version so we don't have to watch commercials in 1966 they didn't have that option so it was me on make commercial we do yep so we do get a commercial break between the two acts so on the enterprise spot is just waiting there waiting for the connection from Kirk saying everything's okay surprisingly Kirk connects and is like we're all great no worries just you know prepare for us and then sparks like are you okay you sound kind of tired but he doesn't know that Ruck on the planet has a little communicator device and is impersonating Captain Kirk impersonating him perfectly yes like every nuance in his voice and I have no idea how we can presume well you must be tired but then again spark is pretty amazing and smart so that Ruck is like no we're fine just get ready so that all of our stuff down here can be transported once that shut down for retails Ruck just by speaking this voice see this person see that person perfect impersonation Andrea Christine you name it and then Ruck does something stupid and Dr. Colby is like you will not mock Christine and at that point all I saw was a man talking down to a dog did you get that feeling yeah because wait at this point we also get some more background from Corby for context were in very sparse living quarters and it's Kirk Corby and Ruck if I remember correctly Corby shares with Kirk that when he arrived into this cave system Corby found Ruck Ruck is the last remaining android automaton that has survived this previous civilization that used to live on the planet and Ruck had been tending the machinery keeping all the lights on doing all the regular maintenance and it been doing it for centuries eons not even Ruck with his android computer brain can say how many years had passed since he'd been the sole survivor and caretaker of these machines that have been left behind this is also the part where Kirk directly asked Corby where the rest of the crew is is nurse chapel okay or my two security officers okay Corby says that nurse chapel is fine but confesses to Kirk that now the other security officer Rayburn is dead and in fact it was not an accident Ruck had killed both of them because Ruck was acting on programming to protect Corby and Corby's research and he viewed those two officers as a threat but it was not a direct order by Corby to kill them which is also foreshadowing because that shows that he can think for himself it's not all programming true very very true but then to do when a net we're in like the I guess it's all the dining room but I initially thought it was like Christine's quarters like they may try to make her comfortable in her own spot so she can calm down I don't have any direct evidence but I want to suspect that Corby's living room quarters the dining room as well as this room whatever it is nurse chapel's room or whatever I honestly think this is the same set and it's just been slightly redressed it's very confusing to know if it is a separate room if it is a completely different area of this inhabited space that Dr. Corby is living in or if it's the same room and they're just moving furniture around between scenes I don't really know I wouldn't put it past it that it is the same set because when they first walked in I remember the dance hall from last episode when it was just rock right I was like oh we're all gonna party some but no party here so Andrea let us ask Christine are you unhappy why are you upset why don't you like it when I call him Roger I mean that's his name like literally Andrea asks all the hard questions and Christine can't really answer that I don't think she knows what to say she's just a little stunned well it's a little let's bring up the fact that it's a little weird that your fiance is hanging out with a pretty lady going back even further you're engaged and your fiance goes off on an expedition and goes missing for five years it's never really addressed in the show are they still engaged five years have passed isn't that some mate do they need to pick their relationship up at some point in the past before the engagement to reconnect I don't really know I can't really tell based off of nurse chapels reactions I certainly get the impression from Dr. Corby that he wants to continue on with the relationship as if nothing has happened yeah I would also suspect that's partially because of the way his brain is programmed for shadowing but you can't really tell from nurse chapel she has feelings for him she cares for Dr. Corby but does she have the same level of connection in her own brain toward Dr. Corby where they should still be engaged and continue on a relationship I don't know I can't answer that it's not really addressed so now I think I I'm with you that they're on the same room just like a studio apartment because Kirk and Corby arrive and that's where Corby shows off Andrea as being so lifelike she even has a pulse again very creepy the difference can tone of her face the warmth of her body and they even hint that she can do everything but that not really fun yeah I just think about part Christine but this whole time all of these demonstrations underlying point to them is Dr. Corby is trying to convince Kirk that all of this work all of this research is one vitally important and two has to remain a secret from everyone who doesn't agree with point number one that it's vitally important this whole time Dr. Corby's whole purpose is to convince Kirk that Dr. Corby's research must continue and it must be able to be allowed to continue in secrecy exactly and it's mechanical they don't have logic no emotion nothing I mean he gives him orders Andrea does what is told and next task but then Kirk comes back with then wire two of my men dead he did that on his own you didn't say that right Kirk's underlying counterargument or resistance to this whole scenario is to continue to point out all of the holes in the logic of Dr. Corby's way of thinking the androids way of thinking and to catch them on loopholes and technicalities and he's like Dr. Corby says well let me show you how we make an android and we flash into a laboratory and what looks like a merry go round but we have this giant pillow pillow like man like for a lot it just looks like a pillow on one side and I really don't know how they got Captain Kirk to land the other side voluntarily yeah there's no real explanation to that I'm glad you pointed that out because we do have a it a very hard cut between everyone talking in this dining room living quarter space hard cut to the laboratory Kirk is now naked and strapped down on this carnival ride merry go round type situation with a dividing board and yeah I was like oh they must have like a not a prisoner but someone of another friend he's gonna be the part of the experiment but then it's Kirk that is the biggest question I have I think about this episode I the only the only logical logical the only explanation that I can think of is that rock physically overpowered Kirk and stripped him naked and forced him to lie down maybe at face your point maybe not I don't think Kirk would voluntarily participate in this experiment but so what Dr. Corby tells Andrea to start the machine and it literally starts going in a circle that again another carnival ride that little spaceship that goes super super super fast and makes you go against the wall called the Gravitron thank you it's reminding me of that and merry go merry go round Gravitron yeah and this is a good several minute scene where we watch this thing spin up we watch a very very cool for the time special effect camera trick where all of a sudden the human pillow as Jackie is done it disappears and we now see that there is it we can tell it's Kirk even when it's spinning it full force but it slows down and we get this dramatic reveal to chapel because there's a divider Kirk can't quite see it but he knows what's going on as well somehow that the pillow has turned into an android is now Kirk so while we have two physical Kirk identical Dr. Corby then explained well we also need to now make identical brains uh memories thoughts the voice all that has to be the same we have to imprint the mental onto the physical thank you and that is rock job I guess so he pushes those buttons and then is that happening Kirk starts to say mind your own business mr. Spock that's nothing to do with you all kinds of I mean your half breed interference he says he starts giving himself this little chanting mantra where he says quote mind your own business mr. Spock I'm sick of your half breed interference do you hear which of course he does his he wants to corrupt this transfer he wants to imprint this completely uncharacteristic thought in the android's brain so that again foreshadowing in the future when the android ends up back on the enterprise and interacts with mr. Spock it gives mr. Spock a clue that this is not a okay something is a miss and as that finishes it's just flashes and lard loud loud buzzing and then then we jump into a dining table where android has taken nurse chapel to have lunch and Kirk joins her or so she thinks so they're having lunch and Kirk's just pushing her and then like a special one what if I gave you an exact order to betray Roger and then porn chat Christine I why would you ask me to do that because he's fucking crazy and then it's like that was the magical words because in come the real Kirk the doctor and even rock them they're like ha ha you couldn't even tell the different and then Kirk's like ha ha but I got you you may be able to do all this other stuff but I'm hungry so I'm going to eat and he starts quizzing this android because he's supposed to have all the memories yeah and again this is partially a scenario that's been set up by dr. Corby because again Corby is trained to convince Kirk to be on Corby's side and so this gives the opportunity for Corby to show off his work and that this newly created android without any other prompting or needing any other setup time is able to fully jump into the role of playing Kirk and the two have discussion why why why eliminate joy imagination trust love also that you can have a quote unquote better person that doesn't have all those emotions it's all logical like it's just like the post that the other side of the coin devil's advocate so android Kirk the science they's gonna go back to the enterprise because I mean he's got the whole uniform on so how will they not believe him all clarify Kirk and Roy doesn't decide himself that's true doctor Corby orders android Kirk to go to the enterprise to get information on where the enterprise is going what the right dinner area is pulling back the curtains doctor Corby is looking for some kind of colony that he can use the enterprise to transport himself and his machinery to this other colony so he can continue his research and it has to be the right size colony it has to have people but not too many people because he's going to start replacing people with their android counterparts again this is all doctor Corby's plan and as he's telling the plan Kirk is just the real Kirk just kind of appeasing him as he's fiddling around with this rope that happens to be on his chair leg and then when it is free he jumps up and wraps it around Corby's neck and is like he let us free we're going home this is wrong and uses him as a human again another shield so that ruck can't do anything about it and Kirk runs away trying to go back the way he came but remember ruck also has to follow commands and doctor Corby tells him protect so you know go kill him but then we seem to have forgotten that he was also told that he has to follow orders from Christine so off-ruck those and Christine is following as she's running she's like don't hurt him you have to obey me too don't do anything bad it's kind of funny but kind of sad at the same time and then of course of course Kirk while hiding he finds us the monosol stagnates that we were talking about earlier so he's grabbing it and of course and then it made a sound because ruck is hunting him ruck then uses his little voice changer capability pretening to beat Christine I'll help you I'll save you where are you just tell me where you are I'm pretty sure Kirk knows that it's not Christine hunter-borshed Kirk knows it's not Christine Kirk's not that dumb and so and that's pretty I think that's why he made that noise anyways thanks just to cover everything up and he gets ruck to get to over to him tries to hit him with that ice flip what's it called the lag site thank you that's not how you pronounce it and it didn't work very well it looks like with that popcorn that's stealing popcorn yeah yeah reminded me of that it's probably made out of pure spesto's to be honest and did didn't I make a dent in our rock man and Kirk is hanging out for dear life on the side of the cliff right because they struggle and Kirk slips and ends up dangling off the side of this bottomless pit I like to think it's the same bottomless pit that the other crew member fell down I mean I agree with that and they just look at each other and finally ruck like reluctantly pulls them up by one by one hand just like saying it yeah as the as the viewer we have to assume it's because of this conflicting order that he received from nurse chapel not to harm Kirk he's done his job he's retrieved Kirk in protecting doctor Corby but he can't just often kill him like he did the other crew members because Christine gave him the order not and then we're back on the enterprise but only for a short while it's like android Kirk rushes past Spock no pleasantries no hay no buy no gather my face nothing and Spock's like hey what's up what what do we got to do to prepare to everybody over here let tell me what I need to do and android Kirk yells at him about being an interference and how he's a half breed and stand of his way it's the exact same phrase that he said earlier was imprinted in his brain by the real Kirk and again quote mind your own business mr. Spock I'm sick of your half breed interference do you hear thank you so he grabs whatever plans he needs from a cupboard not a lot of stuff he grabs just like a no pad looks like and goes back to planet xO3 but of course Spock's suspicions are raised and after Kirk leaves he starts to form a security team to go after Kirk because again he realizes something is wrong and can I just say I appreciated this scene in the episode only because it was so short it was so concise it did not ramble on this easily could have been a plot point that was stretched out for an entire act this could have easily been 10 15 minutes of filler moments of android Kirk interacting with different members of the crew and raising all of their suspicions before we get back to the main part of the episode but the writers chose not to do that it was a quick three-minute five-minute scene it accomplished what it needed to and we get back to the action down on the planet I just I just absolutely appreciated that of the episode I agree with you it was just perfecting like once Kirk leaves everyone gets together because then we're going to go help something stinky here and we're going to go down and figure it out yep exact quote of the Vulcan science officer something is stinky here so back on the planet our doctor and android Kirk are kind of talking pleasantries about the enterprise how nice it was to be on there as they have whatever items the Kirk grabbed from the other Kirk quarters it's so weird saying all the Kirk but now like oh it's so nice on there but now we're going to take it over so after that little pleasantry we see Kirk the real Kirk in his own quarters dungeon holding area and Andrea walked in and Kirk site kissed me so she kisses him and then she prepares to strike him because that's what the doctor had told her to do earlier the pattern like it see like a dog I'm sorry they know patterns and Kirk stops her and then starts to kiss her again and oh my gosh she's like really grabbing her arm because when he removes his hand you can see their red marks from his fingers yeah so hopefully all is okay and I mean he just starts kissing her and then she's like no I'm not programmed for you she's confused she doesn't know what to do yeah this is Kirk's whole plan is to break through her programming get down to her base circuitry in her brain and her thought patterns and confuse her and get her to fall into this logic feedback loop where she doesn't know how to process all of the external information and act upon it so he's getting her to I guess romantically fall for him or at the very least try to get her to be confused as to I'm supposed to be polite to you but I was never ordered to become romantically involved with you it does eventually work yeah because I mean he's like petting her hair and making her look at herself in the mirror as she's trying to get out of there I mean this kind of her asses in her asses in too very creepy of real her is it she's an android well I'll be that guy I'll be the guy to point out that she's not human I know but she said no so and she's a lady form I also don't know where Andrea comes from is I'm no idea was she I I can't remember if it if it was mentioned if she the human Andrea was originally part of dr. Corby's expedition I don't think they mentioned that so dr. Corby just made her without any reference doesn't but it doesn't have a female form to copy in the human pillow that's what I'm saying is how did he make her without a human her mad scientist yeah fucking sci-fi magic and then probably to Andrea's android thankfulness rock walks in and he's and Andrea leaves yes important to point out and then peric is just going all over like is that emotion I see you disapprove of me touching you know your friend your pal like he's like poking at her your master's property there you go and then after he gets there then he's then he's like well tell me about these old ones I mean really think back why are there no more why are you the only one here the thousands and thousands of years ago but no one else like what's up and then Rutto's on to explain that the androids were smarter more capable the humans were afraid of what they could do and they were starting to you know shut the androids down and the androids did not want that to happen so they shut the humans down yakes and so that's why he's out by himself well yeah in an interesting point you are correct yeah the the androids realize that their creators were shutting them down because they feared them and so the androids rebelled and rose up and killed all of their creators leaving them behind doesn't explain why ruck is by himself this was not a battle to the last man and ruck was the only survivor it didn't sound like it sounded like there were many more does ruck not have the capabilities to repair the androids and he's just the last one not to break down again oh good one doesn't get into it but Kirk uses this history provided by ruck to have ruck mentally turn against dr. Corby because i mean he says this is exactly what what he's doing yeah drawing parallels between dr. Corby and the old ones it's almost like a therapy session where Kirk is making ruck regress back through his memories to remember what happened to the old ones and that they were killed by ruck and ruck's people but in any case Kirk again is successful in breaking down the programming and getting ruck to turn against dr. Corby by appealing to ruck's sense of survivability and survival instinct and saying you need to get rid of dr. Corby because he's eventually going to do what the old ones did he's going to try to turn you off the dr. Corby and Christine into the room were ruck and Kirk are already are dr. Corby figures out that he cannot control ruck anymore and decides to get rid of him and shoot them yeah he doesn't really have a choice yeah and then we have a hard cut into the hallway and our dear Andrea is still super confused on what's happening and well she doesn't know but android Kirk is walking in the hallway and she's like kiss me and he's like that is a logical and she shoots him yeah it was like weird well because again Kirk has confused her with his actions the real Kirk is confused her with the kissing and the compliments and so he's planted this confusing information in her brain so when she sees him she assumes that it's the real Kirk and not the android Kirk so she tries to continue that line of logic and thought and continue their kissing and when the android Kirk rejects her that I think is when her initial programming kicks in protect dr. Corby and so by protecting dr. Corby she has to eliminate Kirk again if this is the real Kirk which it's not he's out of his confinement he's wandering the hallways doing who knows what to undermine dr. Corby in his research so she does the only thing that she can think of based on her programming and orders protect Corby kill Kirk and she ends up killing the android Kirk by mistake we're back at Kirk and Corby and they're they get into a tussle and from a doorway part of Corby's hand is scraped and instead of blood we all we see like that circuitry that was on brown and then now he has to start you know pleading for his life on how much better it is that we can all be better people if we're androids and it's no big deal all good this is fixable and Christine is just gutted she doesn't know really what to do well then Kirk implores the same tactics that he's used on every other android in this episode by overriding logic and exploiting the shortcomings in the way that the androids think dr. Corby's argument is he's still human that's what he continues to protest that's what he continues to say to everyone and Kirk points out that his actions and his thoughts and what he's saying lack all human qualities and emotions and it's all just programming logic somewhere in the middle of all of this andria comes back into the room reveals that to everyone that she's accidentally killed the android Kirk the things are breaking down pretty quickly for Corby here his whole plan and empires quickly crumbling based on that soul train that his soul is in there all as well and then he it's a very quick ending to a resolution to this whole thing Kirk ends up disarming Corby with just his logic and thoughts and speech so it's a nonviolent removal of the phaser but andria doesn't want to give up her phaser she again is still super confused is still super brainwashed by Kirk for lack of a better phrasing she's still stuck in this thought path in this thought loop of wanting to express affection and love and be romantic so the news and revelation to her that she is accidentally killed the android Kirk and not the real Kirk short circuits her brain she starts to profess her love to doctor Corby doctor Corby I think is admitted defeat that his whole experiment is failed he is no longer human he is just another android and doctor Corby instead of disarming andria with the phaser pushes the trigger on the phaser and vaporizes both of them in front of Kirk and nurse chapel then we have spot in his team racing in to you know save the day they haven't heard from anybody so now they have to come in and make sure the captain is fine ray brinda Matthews everybody and then they then porous box where is a doctor Corby you know we're supposed to be saving him and these Kirk says doctor Corby was never here which is true he never was as far as when Kirk and nurse chapel arrived this is really sad yeah now we're back on the deck the main deck of the enterprise called a bridge thank you point could we be on a boat oh no but we've talked about this star fleet is like a navy the starships are like regular ships in the water oh we're gonna have for next episode so we're back on the bridge yes the bridge and Kirk and Christina just chatting about what's happened and Christine agrees that she will stay on the enterprise you know be a part of it me sure he has the short short just go with everything so she got that covered and then the spot can it just goes on it's like you know that wasn't really cool of you to call me that half-breed is not really respectful but I got the idea and I got your plan and they kind of share a smile and on to the next plan they go and roll credits so Jackie what did you think about season one episode seven what are little girls made of what are your final thoughts I think it has the stupidest title ever agreed very out of context title to the episode in the contents I am sure there could be a huge number of other ways to try to I get what you said in the beginning that they're trying to convey this idea of tying it into the fact that these are artificial creations I want to go out on a limb and say the little girl that is referenced in the title is Andreus but I think they should have made her a more prominent figure in the episode a more important character I think almost even Ruck outshines her in importance to the plot of the episode oh totally she's like just a pretty face and face and body yep and even in the description on the streaming service it says something about finding the doctor and his women who's just kind of like the follow-up of muds women it makes no sense but at least in this episode it doesn't appear that doctor Corby I don't think dr Corby had any real intention of having a romantic relationship with Andrea I think that the first instance that we see of Andrea having any sort of romantic inclinations is when dr Corby first orders her to kiss Kirk and that is simply a way for Corby to demonstrate to Kirk that she's following orders the capabilities of the android how different with this episode of gone if dr Corby chose a different demonstration for Andrea to perform something as simple as no interaction with Kirk what if he just ordered her to do push-ups or jumping jacks or any other number of orders to demonstrate to Kirk what the capabilities of an android would be Kirk wouldn't have had the ability to brainwash her and confuse her with further romantic advances I guess the air point that makes no sense yeah so anyway I do as always have a few fun triple tidbits or fun facts about the episode first airing October 20th 1966 this is and I had to think back I think it's true this is the only original series episode to prominently feature nurse Christine chapel played by of course mageal barrett she appears in other episodes but this is the only episode that focuses on her character so you mentioned that you thought the actor who played rock was the same is from stargate sg1 maybe I'll also confess that I had to go back and look I thought that the actor who played dr Corby was a younger henry Gibson specifically from henry Gibson's role in the tom hangs movie the burbs when he plays the evil doctor neighbor the just for some reason those first few scenes that we are introduced to dr Corby in person his mannerisms were very much like that character from the burbs but that's just my own thing the back to the triple tidbits from my tangent rock was played by a actor named Ted cattity who also played lurch in the original Adam's family TV show 1964 well yeah the guys like seven foot ten well that was my next question like is he really that tall yes he is absolutely really that tall so it's not that big of a shock that he played lurch in the TV show fast forward mageal barrett would later go on to play the character rock san a Troy in star trek the next generation who has a valet who is also an extremely tall individual plays a very similar style as the character ruck the actor's name is Carl struck in that actor who played rock san a Troy's valet played lurch in the Adam's family movie of 1991 and Adam's family values of 1993 so they're all connected so just just fun little six degrees of separation all tying in together but yeah if you need an actor who's like seven foot ten I don't know how tall he is he's very tall that was the platform truth for him no that he is that tall Jackie kept referring to it as the hangy things in the cave huh the stalactite that Kirk pulls down to defend himself or to attack ruck if you look at it it changes from what he pulls down to what he ends up holding rewind it watch it you'll thank me later it looks funny i'm gonna go do that right now how about we finish recording the episode and then we can go look back at it yeah okay i will the this is the first appearance of androids in star trek of course kind of an interesting topic it gets expanded upon greatly the more you look into it artificial life and artificial intelligence in star trek is a very broad subject and leads to some very interesting plot points i briefly went back and tried to remind myself what the difference is between these androids and data and lore that we encounter in the next generation the difference of course being i think is not so much the physical appearance or that the creation of androids but data and lore had very specific positronic brains that were very advanced that isn't repeated in other androids but anyway if you're looking for a deeper dive go look up all the different instances of androids and artificial life in this vein in star trek and just see all the difference examples of androids might be surprised to see the the full listing telling you star trek was before it's time because we're doing a i now yep also important of the first for star trek everyone jokes about the red shirts of star trek especially in the original series how they are disposable we reference it in our ratings the number of times that a red shirt crew member beams down to a planet and is very quickly killed this is the first example of that in star trek we've seen other characters killed they weren't red shirts and we'll see other characters killed later but this is going to be the first example of a disposable red shirt member beaming down and just immediately dying without any consequence but isn't that the point of quote security i don't necessarily think that starfleet would consider their crew members cannon fodder in that sense it's more of the fact that these people are instantly dying and then they have to go get replacements at some point so and the fact that no one else at least for a long time no one else is going to readily die off as quickly as members of the enterprise as these disposable unnamed red shirts unnamed non main characters and my last tidbit of course body count of seven two humans the red shirts and five androids i think i counted but am i right we got dr brown we have rock android curk on dreah and dr corby see yeah five android but those are your tripled tidbits and as i just recently mentioned this is the part of the episode where we give the episode a rank we pretend that the episode is a member of our fictitious crew of our fictitious starship for the season and we assign a starfleet rank to the episode the rank not only reflects how entertaining we found the episode when we watched it but it also implies how important we find the episode to be to our fictitious crew a higher rank means we were more entertained by the episode and the episode is more important and valuable to our crew a lower rank means that we weren't very entertained or we just find the episode to not be very valuable to our crew looking at our ranks we go all the way at the bottom andson lieutenant junior grade lieutenant lieutenant commander commander captain and admiral we also limit the higher rank so as an example you can only have one admiral one captain in our starship we will of course post a full visual representation of the rankings as they stand on wednesday the wednesday after this episode air Jackie you have not ranked any episode higher than a lieutenant commander which would be about a six or a seven out of ten on our scale you also ranked last week's episode muds women as a lieutenant commander what rank would you give this week's episode to join your crew of the USS Galactic Glitter B well so far none of them have deserved to be at the top just saying agree and after listening to what you were saying because you are the expert so we're going to go with lieutenant junior grade lieutenant junior grade which is the second to lowest rank that would be a two or three out of ten you also ranked for reference the naked time on that rank yeah so let's hope next and the next one is a bit better because i'm i have a leaderless step and that's a good point because if we get to the end of the season and we don't have a captain we don't have an admiral or gonna have to do some field promotions at the end to fill those ranks we of course at any time can do promotions or demotions if we deem necessary to make room on a specific rank looking at my rankings i also don't have a captain or an admiral i do have a commander last week i gave muds women a lieutenant junior grade which would be a two or three out of ten which is what jackie ranked this episode this week and i'm just gonna go out on a limb and i'm gonna put this up all the way back up at commander an eight or nine out of ten i'm serious yeah which is where i put the naked time again i think this was a fantastic episode all right do i need to take your temperature no no no no i'm i was briefly thinking about it for a moment but no we're gonna make we're gonna make this rank this episode a rank of commander again first introduction to star trek for androids the first introduction of the trope of red shirts being disposable and it's just a fun episode again i think it nails the pacing perfectly i mentioned in the moment the brief time that we have the android Kirk go back to the ship and go back down to the planet was absolutely perfect not drawn out did exactly what it needed to do and i think it's just it's a fun episode it's goofy it's kind of silly it's kind of campy but it's got a lot going for it at no point did i feel like the episode was being dragged out like so many other episodes so yeah i'm gonna give this a rank of commander i can see your point and just as a reference as of this recording i m db ranks the episode as a 7.5 out of again i lose and we'll still and again we'll post a visual of our current rankings up to this episode on our patreon on wednesday the wednesday after this episode goes live that's at patreon.com/treksintang we'll be back next week to trek through another episode but before we go we'll give our turbo lift tease or elevator pitch to the next episodes plot this is where i'll give jackie the title of next week's episode and jackie with no other information having not seen the episode before will give a brief pitch to the plot based on the title alone jackie next week's episode is entitled myri can you please spell that and use it in a sentence that is m i r i and in a sentence next week's episode is entitled myri this is not fair because i would think that myri is a person's name but from what i've learned it's gonna end up being a planet some alien a disease or even a kind of money it's gonna be something weird yeah i don't think you can head your bet like that and guess all of it so let's narrow it down to one of those planet person disease or currency i'm gonna say they're gonna save some thing named myri all right and tune in next week to find out how close jackie was to the actual plot if you want more show information you can find and directly support our podcast at patreon at patreon.com/treksandtangence we have posted there all of the test episodes we recorded to kind of work out some of the bugs and kinks for these episodes we used stargate sg1 and fringe as our background test episodes if you want to listen to those we have more content planned for our patreon members and so hopefully we'll start rolling that out here soon and be able to focus some of our time on that but we wanted to get some solid episodes out and start building a little bit of an audience before we get that uh fleshed out too much the size patreon you can also follow us on x at treks_tangence we're also on instagram and blue sky at treks and tangents jackie working people find you and what you are up i have a lot of stuff brewing so mainly i'm on instagram under jibboon and i have dog training on my music i play so many instruments i have clothing makeup and my newest endeavor i'm making a what-not store because i have a lot of stuff and my stuff can be your new stuff all right looking forward to seeing that go up uh you can watch me brion stream a variety of video games over at twitch.tv/piratepoundtown on youtube i post video games and other random content on my main channel at piratepoundtown and my neglected second child of a youtube channel which has coin collecting and other random hobby content can be found at pirate treasure hunting on youtube i post socially on blue sky at pirate poundtown and i can be found on instagram under pineapple cannibal because i'm proudly banned as pirate poundtown from instagram links to all social media mention can be found in the episode description thank you everyone for tuning into this episode we hope you had fun like we did and we will see you all next week don't forget lady anjoids kits and stuff and transmission[Music]