Girls in Space

At the start of What Are Little Girls Made Of?, Nurse Chapel (ah… Nurse Chapel!) is on the bridge with Kirk. We learn that she joined Starfleet after her fiancé, a renowned boffin called Korby went missing on the creatively-named planet X03. So when his voice comes over the Enterprise’s tannoy, she is overjoyed… but sensibly.

Kirk and Chapel beam down to the planet’s surface, but when Korby isn’t there to meet them, Kirk brings down two security men. One has grey hair, he’s lived a full life, this will be of some comfort to him when he meets his inevitable death minutes later. The other is younger, but soon will be equally as dead.

They meet Brown, a man in multi-coloured dungarees (as if made from leftover cuts of material). Brown leads Kirk and Chapel to Korby, but in the background we see Lurch from the Adams Family skulking off (looks like he’s taken a few styling tips from Uncle Fester).  Lurch killed our security men. Gomez is going to be mad!

While waiting for Korby, we meet Andrea. Holy Moly!  The phrase “Humina humina humina” springs to mind. She wears the same brand of dungarees as Brown, but unlike him, she wears nothing underneath them (insert gasping-for-air noise here).

Korby appears and kisses Nurse Chapel. Lucky Bastard. But when Kirk uses his communicator to contact the Enterprise, he finds Brown pointing a gun at him. Swiftly and courageously, Kirk shields himself behind Andrea. Not the most heroic move Kirk ever made. He shoots Brown and we discover that he is actually an android (Brown, not Kirk).

Yes folks, it’s an android episode.

Andrea reveals that she too is an android. Where do I get one? Then, to show off her moves, Korby commands her to kiss Captain Kirk and slap him around a little. Seriously, where do I get one?!!

We are shown the process of replicating a human. First, take one giant green jelly baby. Next, place a butt nekkid Kirk onto the Wheel of Fortune. Finally, give it a spin, and hey presto: two nekkid Kirks! Even Chapel cannot tell them apart! It’s The Enemy Within all over again!

After the discovery that Korby himself is an android, it all ends in a big scrap with Andrea killing the Kirk clone (no great loss), Korby killing Lurch (no great loss), Korby killing himself (no great loss) and taking Andrea with him (Noooooooo! KHAN!!!)

It’s a shame that they didn’t come up with a more satisfactory ending. Killing off all the non-crew characters leaves us with the feeling that everyone would have been better off if the Enterprise had never shown up. Oh well, they’re only robot people anyway.

But seriously, folks…  If this episode accomplishes anything, it is to reveal how brilliant a character Nurse Chapel is. Unlike a lot of the background space girls who swoon and flutter their eyelids at Kirk, Chapel has a refreshingly level-headed, rational presence. She demonstrates that the show is capable of delivering female roles which are more than mere eye candy.

Not that I have a problem with eye candy. Andrea is perfectly cast (and I don’t use the word lightly). It is easy to believe that she is an android, and she steals every scene she’s in. And while I can poke a little good-natured fun at the two-tone dungarees, I honestly do love the originality of this costume choice. The whole ‘look’ of Andrea is work of art.

So, to answer the question in the title of the episode, what are little girls made of? Green jelly babies, apparently.

Cast:
William Shatner as James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy as Spock
Nichelle Nichols as Uhura

Guest Cast:
Michael Strong as Dr. Roger Korby
Sherry Jackson as Andrea
Ted Cassidy as Ruk
Harry Basch as Dr. Brown
Vince Deadrick as Matthews
Budd Albright as Rayburn
Majel Barrett as Christine Chapel

Creative Staff:
Director:  James Goldstone
Written By: Robert Bloch

Official Episode Guide