KIRK RUNS INTO JACK THE RIPPER WHO IS STILL KILLING AND NOW FRAMING SCOTTY

 

Episode Title:  Wolf in the Fold

Air Date: 12/22/1967

Written by Robert Bloch

Directed by Joseph Pevney

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk      Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              James Doohan  as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”        George Takei  as Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Virginia Aldridge as Lieutenant Karen Tracy          John Winston as  Lieutenant Kyle            Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie                 Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley     Judi Sherven as unnamed Nurse            Judith McConnell as Yeoman Second Class Tankris        John Fiedler as Hengist                       Charles Macaulay as Jaris         Pilar Seurat as Sybo              Charles Dierkop as Morla               Joseph Bernard as Tark                Tanya Lemani as Kara        Marlys Burdette as  Serving Girl               Suzanne Lodge as Argelian Waitress   Majel Barrett as Enterprise Computer

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets:  Argelius II

I like Dr. McCoy's treatments

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The background to the episode is Mr. Scott was injured in an explosion caused by a female crew member.  He recovers but Dr. McCoy is concerned that this accident will cause could cause Scotty to develop a total resentment of women.  This doesn’t make any sense but 23^rd century brains must be wired a little bit differently.  Mr. Scott doesn’t seem to harbor any resentment towards women but in the 23^rd century we didn’t get rid of misogyny by standing around, if we think someone’s infected we perform an intervention.  In order to prevent Scotty’s potential emerging misogyny Kirk and McCoy intervene by beaming down with him to the planet Argelius.  While on the planet they take the Chief Engineer to a local strip club to remind him that women can be “good.” 

Pretty alien stripper

At the club there is a very pretty belly dancing stripper named Kara, who Scotty takes to.  Apparently already aware of his Chief Engineer’s type, Kirk had taken the initiative to invite her to sit with them after her act.  Upon hearing this Mr. Scott thanks his Captain for being one who “always looks out for his men.”  Scotty asks the stripper for some private time that she grants as strippers tend to do.  Kirk then turns to McCoy to remind him that there are some better clubs including his favorite and McCoy already knows where he means to go before Kirk finishes his sentence.  This means that the Captain who “always takes care of his men” does so at the cheaper strip clubs.

Scotty looking for some private time

All of a sudden they here a scream and run out to find the pretty stripper they saw earlier has been stabbed dead and Scotty is standing there holding the knife.  When confronted Scotty doesn’t remember what happened.  Two officials show up first an investigator named Hengist and the second is the Prefect of Argelius whose name is Jaris.  When he is questioned Scotty doesn’t remember anything that happened.  Hengist who is from Rigel explains that his office doesn’t have a lot of resources to deal with this because this type of thing rarely happens on Argelius.  Jaris mentions that they did have an ancient way of investigating that had to do with ESP and telepathy, and that his wife has these abilities. 

Kirk calls Spock to explain the situation and Spock wants to bring Mr. Scott to the ship but Kirk reminds the First Officer they are bound by the planets laws.  While Sybo, Jaris’s gifted wife is preparing, Kirk asks the Prefect if it would permissible for them to bring down a psycho-tricorder.  A psycho-tricorder is a device that was clearly invented last week and has the ability to scan Scotty’s mind and tell them everywhere he has been and everything that has happened to him.  This great little device would have been very useful in Kirk’s own court-martial, bad for Spock’s, and helpful with old Matt Decker last week. 

Scotty just can't remember!

  With permission from Javis obtained, the Enterprise beams down Lt. Tracy with the device to examine Scotty.  Tracy takes the Chief Engineer to another room and that is when Javis notices the murder weapon was missing.  A scream from the other room cause Kirk and Javis to head in there where they discover Lt. Tracy dead and Mr. Scott over her body claiming he can’t remember what has happened.

And another one bites the dust

Hengist returns with two “persons of interest” who were there the night of the first killing.  One was the musician who it turns out is the father of the first murder victim.  The second man is the ex-fiancé of the victim whose relationship ends because of jealousy; an emotion looked down upon on Argelius.  He strongly insists he wasn’t the murder and he wins over Hengist when Kirk tells all of them of the second murder.  To Hengist, Scott must be guilty he was found with both women at the time of the murders and had the weapon in hand for one.  Scotty is also warned by Javis that there hasn’t been a murder in so long that they haven’t changed the penalty.  That penalty is death by slow torture.  

Not the type of investigation I would want to save me from slow torture

Sybo is now ready to conduct the Séance and this investigation attempt proceeds over the objections of Hengist who feels the case was already solved.  Attending Sybo’s ritual are all parties involved including the two suspects, Scotty and the ex-fiancé.  While performing the ritual Sybo doesn’t name any of the suspects and instead she blames and ancient evil and called out some of its names "Kesla," "Beratis," "Redjac."  Then the room goes dark and Sybo screams!  The lights come back on and she is in the arms of Mr. Scott and the same dagger in her back. 

Third one today

Javis, who is clearly the most understanding person in the world, despite the fact that the love of his life has been killed with her killer seemly caught red-handed in his third murder of the day, nevertheless agrees to let Kirk continue the investigation.  Despite that Kirk is obviously biased in the matter and wants to relocate the investigation up to his ship, Javis continues to follow even with Hengist’s objections.  

The most understanding man in the universe

On the Enterprise they gather in a conference room to use the new psycho-tricorder on both Mr. Scott and the ex-fiancé.  Unlike the earlier promise about the psycho-tricorder's abilities the device is a simple lie-detector.  Both Mr. Scott and the ex-fiancé are cleared.  I hate to say it but it is at this point that the episode starts to get weird.  By feeding names that Sybo called out into the computer they come to the conclusion that the killer isn’t a man at all rather an energy creature that can assume human form and feeds on fear to make itself powerful.  It targets women because they generate more fear.  Their killer is none other than Jack the Ripper. 

Scotty cleared! It's Jack the Ripper instead!

Hengist continues to object to what he regards as simple “ghosts and goblins” not real investigative work.  However it is quickly pointed out that he his home planet of Rigel was the site of the last attack where he had claimed nothing like this had ever happened there.  It is then reveled that Hengist is Jack the Ripper.  Old Jack tries to escape but he is cornered and Kirk decks him.  To everyone’s surprise McCoy determines that he is dead.  Kirk maybe one of the greatest fighters in the galaxy but even he shouldn’t kill a person with a light punch.  Apparently the creature occupied a corpse thus restoring it to temporary life. 

Mr. Sulu as high as a kite!

However soon they hear the killer’s voice coming from the computer.  He is threatening to destroy them all, but he makes no move to do so yet.  Kirk reasons since he feeds on fear he would torment the crew first in order to generate it.  Now it should be pointed out at this phase the actor John Fiedler also played the character Piglet in The Adventures of Winnie the Poo and unlike a lot of voice actors he didn’t create a special voice for the character he just used his own voice.  So you need to imagine the voice of Piglet saying “I’m going to kill you all!”  I don’t understand how anyone would fine that intimidating it’s kind of like seeing a little dog park up a storm trying to scare you.  Nevertheless, Kirk doesn’t take this threat lying down.  He wants to insure that Jack the Ripper won’t be able to terrify, so he decides to drug his entire crew to the point they are so high that they can’t tell they’re in danger.  Then in order to get him out of their computer Spock enters the equation to the value of Pi and programs the computer to solve it.  This forces Jack the Ripper out.

Taking out the garbage

Jack tries to control Javis but he is quickly Vulcan nerve-pinched forcing Jack out.  Going back to his Hengist body he tries to take a hostage but fails.  With no fear to feed on he is weak and an injection traps him in the Hengist body.  Kirk and Spock take him to the transporter room and beam him into space.  Jack the Ripper is defeated, Scotty is innocent and the whole crew is stoned.  

Additional thoughts: It should be pointed out that this is not Robert Bloch’s only “Jack the Ripper is still alive and not even human” story.  He apparently had a number of them.  I am not going to talk about any of them here; I just thought it should be noted. 

                This is one of those episodes that even though it is not supposed to be funny it is in fact hilarious.  From Piglet Jack the Ripper and the stoned crew of the Enterprise there are no stop laughs in this episode.   It is just impossible to take any of it seriously.

One of things that annoys me not just here but in a lot of fiction is how skeptics are treated.  Here we have multiple murders with the same person seemingly caught red-handed each time.  The audience knows Scotty didn’t do it.  How the crew solves the case is the issue.  Do they use great detective work to clear him?  No, they use instead a séance, psycho-tricorders, and wild speculation with the computer.  Hengist is the only character pleading common sense rejecting the “ghost and goblins” approach.  It turns out this is a case of ‘smelt it dealt it’ and the skeptic wasn’t giving legitimate objections but rather trying to cover his own crimes.

The only voice of reason turns out to be Jack the Ripper!

I’m assuming the psycho-tricorder technology doesn’t last since I don’t recall ever seeing it again.  It didn’t seem like it was that great to begin with, it was supposed to record memories but it turned out to be just a fancy lie-detector.  If it did everything they said it could it have plot killed a lot of future episodes.   Of course we could always turn to the Vulcan mind-meld.  Hey why didn’t they use the Vulcan mind?

"I'm going to kill you all!"

It is nice to have an episode focus on Mr. Scott, but if we are going to that wouldn’t it be better to present him with a great engineering question to solve as opposed to falsely accusing him of murder?  He is a great character who’s always holding the ship together so Kirk and Spock can get the win.  He deserves more than an episode where he has a knife in his hand and a blank expression on his face saying “I don’t know.”

 FINAL GRADE 3 of 5

THE HALLOWEEN EPISODE

Episode Title:  Catspaw

Air Date: 10/27/1967

Written by Robert Bloch

Directed by Joseph Pevney

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              James Doohan  as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”        George Takei  as Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Michael Barrier as  Lieutenant DeSalle            John Winston as Lieutenant Kyle      Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie                 Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley     Frank Da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent                 Jay D. Jones as Lieutenant Jackson         Walter Koenig as Ensign Pavel Chekov      Jeannie Malone as unnamed Yeoman                   Theodore Marcuse as Korob                 Antoinette Bower as Sylvia     Rhodie Cogan as First Witch                Gail Bonney as Second Witch             Maryesther Denver as Third Witch

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets:  Pyris VII

My Spoiler filled summary and review: Captain Kirk is sitting on the bridge waiting for his landing party to respond. The Captain is not one to like to sit around waiting for updates he prefers be leading his landing parties, but the ship is full of explorers so the Captain has to let other people have fun some of the time. However right now the away team doesn’t seem to be having fun they just seem lost. Finally one of them makes contact with the ship the request to be transported up.  His request is only for himself despite the fact that there were three members on his team.  Anxious to find out what’s going on Captain Kirk heads to the transporter room to see the officer as he boards the ship.   When the transporter beam finishes Lt. Jackson, the officer returning to the ship, immediately dies.  As Kirk and McCoy rushed to his body a voice comes from the dead body, as if the corpse were some sort of receiver, telling Captain Kirk to get his ship out of there or he and his ship will be cursed.  

Among the missing crewman are the chief engineer Mr. Scott and the chief helmsman Mr. Sulu.  With two of his most important officers missing Captain Kirk decides the lead a rescue party that consists of himself, his first officer, and his chief medical officer.  Kirk leaves Lt. DeSalle, the former navigator and now assistant chief engineer in charge of the ship.  The trio beam down and discover a great deal of fog which shouldn’t be the case as there is no water on this planet.  Mr. Spock’s tricorder is picking up lifeforms a short distance from them, yet the sensors on the Enterprise itself pick up nothing.

Fog where there should not be

They walk along and find themselves running into three witches straight out of the play Macbeth.  The witches call out to Captain Kirk by name and remind him of the curse demanding he turn back.  According to Mr. Spock’s tricroder readings however those witches they just saw were not even real.  They continue on and find a big castle.  As they enter the castle they encounter a black cat just like the ones they have on Earth.  The cat has a strange diamond on its collar.  They follow the cat for little bit only to have the floor collapsed beneath them knocking all three of them unconscious.

 

The trio wakes up in a dungeon.  They are on their feet as they are shackled to the wall by their wrists placed over their heads.  One would assume that their arms would hurt like hell.   It doesn’t seem to bother them I guess they are just “mission focused.”  Upon seeing a skeleton chained up next to them Kirk decides to give McCoy’s traditional nickname a rest.   Suddenly Scotty and Sulu show up and the three are happy to see the missing crewmates only to quickly discover that the two men have been seriously mind####ed and are now just zombies.

 

The mental puppet crew members take their three comrades to go meet with a man named Korob.  Korob is a strange man who is dressed like a wizard complete with a cape and a wand.  The black cat from earlier is with him still with the diamond on her collar.  Korob explains that he is from another galaxy and in this galaxy he has great power.   For a man who is holding them prisoner he seems quite nice and he tries to get his new ‘guests’ to like him.  First he offers them food then when it became apparent they had no appetite tried to bribe them with precious gems that magically appeared to replace the food.  Kirk informs Korob that his information on Earth and humans is completely out of date.  These gems can easily be created on their ship and therefore have no value to them.

Kirk gives McCoy's nickname a rest, good idea

 Suddenly the black cat leaps up and leaves the room, as soon as the cat is gone a woman named Sylvia appears.  Sylvia is wearing a necklace with the same diamond that the black cat was wearing earlier.  Sylvia explains that she is the one who took control the minds of Mr. Scott and Mr. Sulu.  With that Kirk jumped Scotty and takes his phaser and pointed at Sylvia.  Then Sylvia reveals how she killed Jackson, for she can create what we would call a voodoo doll.  She makes an image of someone then does something to the image and it ends up harming the person.  She pulls out a tiny model of the Enterprise and she puts it under a flame.  Korob gives Kirk his communicator and allows him to contact the Enterprise.   Using his communicator Kirk learns from DeSalle that the ship is heating up and it doesn’t seem to be anything they can do for they don’t even know the cause.  With that Kirk surrenders and the two captors allow Kirk to remove the model from the flame.  DeSalle then reports to the Captain that the ship’s temperature has gone back down to normal.

Kirk demands to know how they do this what type of power they possess.  Korob almost answers him but Sylvia stops him, this leads Kirk to threaten more landing parties is but with a touch of Korob’s wand the model Enterprise is encased in a clear block.  Above Ensign Chekov reports to Lt. DeSalle at the Enterprise is now surrounded by force field of some kind.   Sylvia has Kirk and Spock brought back to the dungeon but orders McCoy to remain for some mind####ing.

 

We get a scene with Korob and Sylvia alone where they have a disagreement about how their proceeding.  Korob reminds her that they have a duty to the “old ones,” but Sylvia declares that she doesn’t care she is taken in by all these new sensations they get in human form and what she wants to experience is more the sensations.  From their interactions it is clear that in their relationship Korob is clearly whipped.

  

DaSalle in command

Dr. McCoy now in zombie state goes to the dungeon to retrieve Captain Kirk for Sylvia so that she can give him some mind####ing.  However when Captain Kirk gets there he decides to give her a new sensation and introduce her to this concept of regular ####ing.  Kirk begins his seduction and Sylvia’s totally going for it. She begins to show off her powers taking the shapes of various different women to show Kirk what a great lover she will be.  Kirk gets her to admit that her power comes from something called a transmuter.  When Sylvia goes to read his mind she learns the truth that Captain Kirk is only using her to get information.  In rage she accuses Kirk of using her and that someone amuses Kirk that she would find herself a victim of anything.  He points out the hypocrisy to her and she has him taken away back down to the dungeon.

At this point the bridge crew of the Enterprise has figured out a way to penetrate that force field.  This leads Korob to give up. He drops the force field and goes to free Kirk and Spock in the dungeon.  As they begin to escape Sylvia turns into a giant cat and chases them around the castle.   Korob his hurt and Kirk grabs Korob’s wand, which he expects to be the transmuter.  After he gets a hold of it his brainwashed crew members are sent to fight him, Kirk uses his unparalleled supreme fighting skills that are famed throughout the galaxy to defeat using them, and Spock uses his nerve pinch. Sylvia then transports them all back the dining room and she tries to negotiate with Kirk again.  Spock warns the Captain not let her touch the wand and Captain Kirk decides to break the device.  With that the castle disappears, the Enterprise crew members are all cured with their minds restored, and there are two silly little creatures on the ground.  It is the true forms of Korob and Sylvia.  They quickly die without their technology which is disappointing to Spock because he wanted take them and study them.  McCoy mused that none of it was real and Kirk points out that Jackson is still dead.

Big Cat on the chase

Additional thoughts: To my recollection this is the only episode of Star Trek that tries to make a theme out of a holiday. There are a few episodes where we see a Christmas party or two but there are no episodes about Christmas or Christmas themed.   I generally would prefer for Star Trek not to try to base their episodes around the calendar.  This was the first episode of the second season yet given the serious habit of not airing their episodes in order it was broadcast seventh so he could align with Hollow ween of 1967.

Kirk in seduction mode

This is a fine episode with nothing wrong with it per se but it tends to be a bit disappointing as it is mostly a retread of earlier episodes.  We have two powerful beings who are fascinated by Earth culture but tend to make a good deal of mistakes while observing it, a replay of what we saw in “The Squire of Gothos.”  The only difference is in this episode Korob and Sylvia make mistakes about Earth culture that are never entirely explained.  Why did Korob not know that the Enterprise was capable of making gems just as well as he could?  The gaps in Trelane’s knowledge were explained by his mistake of failing to account for the speed of light.  We have brainwashed Scotty, Sulu, and McCoy similar to the cult of Landru in “The Return of the Archons.”  Although this was Scotty’s first round of getting brainwashed for Mr. Sulu and Dr. McCoy this must’ve been horrible déjà vu.   It even has Sulu with a fellow crew member get brainwashed right from the beginning where McCoy gets later, just as in the episode prior.   The look on McCoy’s face when Sylvia tells him to remain lets you know that he knows exactly what’s going on.  His thoughts are clearly, “Oh no!  Not again, I hate getting my brain messed with.  How can blame this on Spock?”

Enterprise crew breaking the shield

Lt. DeSalle is moving up in the world.  We saw this character twice before as one of the Enterprise’s navigators.   Now he’s the assistant chief engineer under Mr. Scott and left in command of the entire ship when the big five leave.  He was the star of the entire subplot even overshadowing the first appearance of Ensign Chekov; a character added to appease critics in the Soviet Union.  I wish they had given Mr. Sulu this much screen time when he was left in charge of the Enterprise in “Errand of Mercy.” I was pleased to see him with Uhura and Chekov able to break through the force field set up by Korob and Sylvia.  It shows the crew of the Enterprise is impressive even when their leaders might not be around.

Bad guys revealed 

So after the deaths of both Korob and Sylvia why didn’t Spock collect their remains and study them?  Don’t they have scientific value?  Particularly, if we were to run into other members of their kind we might want to have the data we might be able to get from examining them.  It was a bit of an odd way to end the episode.

FINAL GRADE 3 of 5

ANDROIDS UNDERNETH THE ICE AND THE ORIGIN OF NURSE CHAPEL

Episode Title:  What Are Little Girls Made Of?

Air Date: 10/20/1966

Written by Robert Bloch

Directed by James Goldstone

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Lieutenant Commander Spock             Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura             Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie             Majel Barrett as Nurse Christine Chapel             Vince Deadrick Sr. as Crewman Matthews               Budd Albright as Crewman Rayburn            Michael Strong as Dr. Roger Korby         Sherry Jackson as Andrea      Ted Cassidy as Ruk    Harry Basch as Dr. Brown 

   

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets:  Exo-III

My Spoiler filled summary and review:  *Special Notice in addition to Star Trek spoilers this review will also contain spoilers for the film The Sixth Sense (1999)* The Enterprise is heading towards the planet Exo-III an ice world whose star has been going dim. If history is any guide that will mean trouble.  They are trying to find a Dr. Roger Korby a famous scientist whose expertise is researching planets that are home to dead civilizations and discovering their medical knowledge for use in the Federation.  Dr. Korby hasn’t been heard from in the five years since he went to this planet.  Nurse Chapel had been engaged to Dr. Korby before he left on his mission and his disappearance is part of the reason she joined Star Fleet.

                The Enterprise gets a surprise communication from Dr. Korby, they are all happy to hear he is alive but surprised by his request.  He asks that Captain Kirk beam down alone because there is sensitive material that must not be shared with just anyone.  Korby relents however when he learns that Chapel is aboard the Enterprise and allows her to come down as well.

Enterprise crew happy to hear Dr. Korby is alive.

                When Kirk and Chapel beam down however they find no one to great them, Kirk tells Chapel not to be too concerned but he nevertheless calls up to the ship and orders two security personnel to come down.  Two red shirts beam down as we Star Trek fans know that means we have to get two coffins ready.  Kirk has one of the men stay behind and has the other come with him and Nurse Chapel exploring the underground tunnel, which has a steep and dangerous cliff. 

Kirk loses one of his red shirts!

They then run into Dr. Brown, Dr. Korby’s assistant, who for some reason doesn’t recognize Chapel.  He accepts who she is when they tell him but Chapel still feels there is something odd about him that she cannot quite figure out.  As one of the security officers falls down the cliff. Captain Kirk and Nurse Chapel run up to the ledge looking over to see if perhaps it there was a lower ledge that he could’ve fallen on.  Brown insists that the security man who fell over the ledge is now dead.  What Kirk and Chapel don’t realize at this point is that the man did not fall he was pushed by a rather strange looking fellow.  Kirk communicates with his remaining security personnel and tells him to contact the Enterprise routinely.  After they go off communicator however the same strange man kills that member of Kirk’s security team.

Ruk, red shirt hunter!

The two officers finally meet with Korby and Nurse Chapel embraces her lost fiancé.  Korby is very energetic and friendly he is generally excited to see them and of course very excited to see Nurse Chapel.   Korby also introduces them to an assistant of his name Andrea, a beautiful and scantily clad woman.  Kirk insists he needs to get in contact with his security man and reestablish contact with his ship; however Korby is unwilling to let Kirk do that.  He explains that he has work here that cannot be seen by just anyone.  With that Brown pulls his phaser on Captain Kirk.  Kirk grabs his phaser and takes Andrea as a hostage as he tries to escape.  Brown moves in on him and Kirk fires blasting Brown both killing him revealing him to be an android. Ruk arrives and subdues Kirk.  

Korby explains that Ruk is a sophisticated alien android built by the world’s original inhabitants.  He found Ruk and has now programmed the android to protect his work at all costs.  It was then that Korby had to explain to Kirk that with that mandate he had killed both of Kirk’s security officers.  In addition to Ruk, Korby also built other androids to use as his assistants.  One of these was Brown, a copy of a real assistant he once had, and the other is Andrea.  Korby goes in length explain how wonderful Andrea is showing that her skin is soft and that she is warm even has a pulse. 

Isn't my creation so sexy!?!

Nurse Chapel was not too happy to hear Korby go on about Andrea’s traits.  It made her think that he had designed himself a lover robot while he was down here the caverns.  Korby understanding her distress decides to demonstrate something, he has Andrea kiss Captain Kirk and then he orders her to strike him both of which she does.  He then turns to Chapel and says, “You see Christine she doesn’t have any emotion she just obeys orders.”  The funny thing is he is not denying that he had sex with her; he is just insisting that it’s okay because Andrea doesn’t feel anything.

Korby showing Andrea's skills on Captain Kirk for Nurse Chapel

Later Korby decides to show Nurse Chapel how they make androids by making a duplicate of Captain Kirk.  He brings Chapel into the android making room and we see Kirk strapped into the device completely naked with the exception of his bounds covering his private areas.  This makes one wonder how exactly they got Kirk into this contraption I am assuming that Ruk put him in their off-camera, which is to be had probably would’ve been hilarious to watch.  As he’s being duplicated Kirk focuses his mind on an insult targeting Mr. Spock.  When the process is complete there is a duplicate Captain Kirk.

Android making time!

To show his android’s effectiveness Korby uses the duplicate of Captain Kirk to have a conversation with Christine Chapel, when Chapel asked the android, thinking he is Captain Kirk, not to ask her to betray Korby the android Kirk reveals himself by pointing out that androids do not eat.  Then Korby enters with the real Captain Kirk so that Kirk can both see the uselessness of trying to get Chapel to join him and how effective the android is.  It is clear now what Korby’s long-term plan is he plans to go to a small Federation colony and eventually use androids to replace all leaders with duplicates loyal to him and allowing the government to run according to his vision.  He thinks if he is running everything he has better priorities and will make the universe a better place.

Kirk pulling up a plate engages with his android duplicate.  Kirk, having already dealt with a double of himself, doesn’t seem the least bit phased by the presence of his doppelgänger.    In fact it was probably something of a relief to see a duplicate of himself who was not made out of parts of his actual being that pulled out of him by transporter.  This time Kirk faces a duplicate while in full command of his own facilities and mind.  During the conversation it is clear that the android does possess his memory.  The android can recall details of his life, journey, and even recall details of Captain Kirk’s brother.  The details he recalls on Kirk’s brother include his full name, how many children he has, and his present work assignment.  The conversation did to have about a brief spat about food that was interesting, but I also think could’ve been a tad bit funnier.

Kirk: Unlike androids I do need to eat.

Android Kirk: You’re weakness sir, not mine.

Kirk: Food is one of life’s pleasures.  It is a shame you’ll never enjoy it, sir.

Android Kirk: Ah, but I will never starve, sir.  More importantly I will never have to waste my time pooping.

Kirk: To drop a big load can be both an immense relief and another one of life’s great pleasures.

Android Kirk: Yes sir, but I will never be stuck on a broken turbo lift with a case of diarrhea. 

Kirk: Okay that’s a good point.  But I would argue that you may have the better body but I do better mind.

Android Kirk: Do you have any idea how many calculations I can make it a single second?

Kirk: Can you calculate how quickly I’m going to talk you and your friends in the killing each other?  For you have forgotten that I, Captain Kirk, am the bane of all artificial intelligence as you will soon see.

"I have faced off against me before!"

Korby uses the android Kirk to go aboard the Enterprise and gather information on the planet they can use.  While there the artificial Kirk encounters Mr. Spock.  Fake Kirk insults Mr. Spock with Kirk’s last thought before duplication.  This is enough to trigger Mr. Spock to realize that this is not the real Captain Kirk, and he orders the formation of a security team to go down to the planet.

The Bane of All AI, begins his work on Ruk! 

The scene with android Kirk and Mr. Spock helps emphasize how the crew the Enterprise is not both competent but also would’ve been a foil for Korby and his androids if they had actually made it that far. Fortunately they are unnecessary because Kirk unleashes his plan to destroy the androids before Mr. Spock and company can get down.

After his encounter with his own duplicate Kirk notices the androids are not as unemotional as Korby seems to think.  He notices that Ruk is not pleased with Korby’s way of doing things.  Kirk speaks with him long enough to get him to realize that he had once betrayed his original makers in the he can do the same thing again with Korby.  This sets Ruk against Korby and Korby has to vaporize Ruk with the phaser.   Kirk then manages to seduce the love robot Andrea.  This leads her to approach the android Kirk with the same intention and when she is rejected she vaporizes him just like Korby did with Ruk.  With that two of the androids have been destroyed.

Kirk goes to confront Korby during the scuffle Korby is damaged it is revealed that he himself is an android.  He tries explained that although he is an android body he is in fact the real Korby, and tries to prove it but realize every time he tries to answer a question he processes it in the way that android would think.  As he tries to tell Christine Chapel that he still the same person and not an android, Andrea shows up and kisses him and uses her phaser to vaporize them both simultaneously.

The not real Dr. Korby 

The episode ends with Mr. Spock and his security team to the rescue where they find Captain Kirk and Nurse Chapel.  When Mr. Spock asked about Dr. Korby Kirk responds with a statement “Korby was never here.”

Additional thoughts:  In 1999 I was in a movie theater with my father and two sisters watching the film The Sixth Sense.  At the scene where Oliva Williams drops Bruce Willis’s wedding ring my father yelled out in the middle of the theater, “He’s dead! He’s been dead this whole #$%%$# time!”  The funny thing was no one else in the theater objected they just nodded their heads in agreement.  The whole theater was equally shocked and my father was voicing the collective opinion of the audience.  In the words of President Theodore Roosevelt he was saying what everyone was thinking and he was saying of the loudest.

                What makes a good twist? To me it has to be something that most people won’t see coming but when you watch it again it seems so obvious that you feel like a fool for not having seen it.  So what about this twist in the revelation of Korby?  When viewing these episodes for this blog I tried my best to clear my head of all my vast Star Trek knowledge.  I tried to consider each of these episodes fresh as if I were watching them for the first time and not to take any element from later in the series or franchise into the review.  (I do allow myself to take previous episodes already reviewed and apply the knowledge of them to the episode being reviewed.)  Now this doesn’t always work in the end of the day I’m a diehard Star Trek fan who has these episodes many times.  For example when this episode starts and Nurse Chapel asked Mr. Spock if he’s ever been engaged I want to raise an eyebrow with Mr. Spock seeing as I already know the answer to that question.  Or when reviewing The Corobmite Maneuver I couldn’t help but wonder where the First Federation had gone to in the Star Trek franchise.  However, I think the Korby reveal was an excellent plot twist.

                When the viewer first meets Korby the character is animate.  He is very lively, smiles a lot, and he can be very charming.  These characteristics are stark contrast to the characters we introduced to and who we know are androids such as Ruk, Brown, Andrea, and ultimately the android Kirk.  There are also some great red herrings to throw us off.  When we first meet the character of Brown he’s introduced to us as somebody who Christine Chapel knows from her past but immediately she realizes something wrong with him.  When it’s android status is revealed we now have an android based on a real human who as a consequence of it being an android can’t fully imitate its human model.  In addition to that when the android Kirk is created we see an android that has a completely different identity of the person it was created from.  Android Kirk is aware he’s not the real Kirk and only pretends to be to fool the crew.  Korby always acts as the real Korby.  Then there is how Korby’s always describes the androids as not having willpower, emotions, or any thought of their own.

                However as one continues to watch the episode there are some cracks that start to show that after the reveal you feel silly for not picking up on.  The major clue is how Korby’s wrong about the androids.  He speaks of them having no minds and emotions.  He often talks about how they have no choice but to obey him.  Yet we see this is not true.  Rok clearly feels frustration at the direction of Korby’s leadership and annoyance at his mercy; Andrea the lover bot android is clearly hurt by Korby's now rejection of her in his embrace of Nurse Christine Chapel; and finally there is android Kirk who feels “at home” on the Enterprise.  The android Kirk also develops some of the mannerisms of the man he’s based on, unlike Brown. 

                Even though it’s not directly stated it becomes clear to the viewer what happened to the real Korby.  After losing his assistant he did manage to survive and find the underground cavern with the android making facility.  He was able to reawaken Rok and re-program the android to help him activate the machines.  In order to continue his legacy Korby arranges to make his android duplicate but dies during the duplication process.  When the android Korby awakes he comes to the conclusion that his mind had just entered a new body.  He thinks he is the real Korby with an android body and he continues to think himself as a separate thing from the androids he creates.  His assistant Brown was already dead during the duplication process so there was no mind for that android to copy.  Since there was a still living Captain Kirk during his duplication process his android always knew he was a copy and never presumed he was the genuine article.  Korby learning he was fake was an incredible dramatic moment.

                The best part the episode for me is this was the first episode where they introduce one of my favorite traits of Captain James T Kirk: the bane of all artificial intelligence.  Right now I’m violating my rule of clearing my head of what I know of the franchise but this is something we will see again from the good Captain.  When encountering forms of artificial intelligence Kirk will simply outsmart them by playing divide and conquer as he does here or simply talk the artificial intelligence into committing suicide.  This is an actual trait of Captain Kirk has as much as slow speaking lines, making out/having sex with beautiful and sometimes alien women, or rule breaking.  Except the difference between this and those other things is this is not an exaggeration this is an actual demonstrated trait that he will use again and again.  What is amazing is not only that Kirk does it but he will often do it easily.  In this particular episode was almost like he had a tolerance of how much he would let the androids annoy him and them he decided to let loose and turn them against each other destroying all of them.

                When I first began this blog I looked ahead at some of the episodes that I would see in the first season and got excited when it came to seeing some of my favorites.  For example I really enjoyed writing the last review and I had looked forward to viewing that episode for the review.  This episode and the next two coming up were on the list of episodes that did not really excite me too much, however I found myself really enjoying this episode as I watched it and that was a great and pleasant surprise.  I am hoping that trend will continue.

FINAL GRADE 4 of 5