WHAT ARE LITTLE GIRLS MADE OF?
STAR TREK, The Original TV Series

GUEST STARS...

Ted Cassidy and Sherry Jackson.

PLOT SUMMARY...

The Enterprise finds Nurse Chapel's fiancee, who has been missing for three years.

QUICK SCAN...

This episode features a rare look into Nurse Chapel's personal life. Look for Ted Cassidy, Lurch on TV's "The Addams Family" as the evil android Ruk. Good FX and split screen photography allows Kirk to talk to his android double.

SYNOPSIS...

When the Enterprise travels to Exo III, they find Nurse Chapel's missing fiancée, Dr. Roger Korby. A delighted Chapel beams down to the planet with Kirk.

Her fiancée is taking part is weird android experiments. He makes a duplicate of Captain Kirk, who beams up to the Enterprise.

On board, Spock determines that the android Kirk is a fake. On the planet, Korby turns out to be an android also. He destroys himself and an android associate.

Star Trek Review: WHAT ARE LITTLE GIRLS MADE OF?

Director James Goldstone's, WHAT ARE LITTLE GIRLS MADE OF?, is a strange, little Sci-Fi fable. Goldstone also directed the classic Trek episode: "Where No Man Has Gone Before".

This episode allows us to learn more about Nurse Chapel (Majel Barrett) the crew person who frequently lusts after Mr. Spock. We find out that Chapel had a fiancée, Dr. Roger Korby (Michael Strong) who has been missing for three years. Later we meet Korby, or at least think we do. Why so much effort was taken to flesh out the background of a very minor character (Chapel) is a bit of a puzzle. Majel Barrett played the Chapel character role in several of the Trek features, and has appeared frequently on "Star Trek: The Next Generation".

A split - screen technique allows William Shatner to play both Kirk as well as an android double. Under Goldstone's careful direction, we see some subtle differences between Kirk and his duplicate.

The Story, written by Robert Bloch ("Psycho") eventually devolves into an attempt by Korby to take over the galaxy with androids. Aspects of this Story were later recycled in the "I, Mudd" episode, to better effect. Bloch also wrote the classic Trek episode: "Wolf in the Fold".

Fans of the original "Adams Family" television series will enjoy seeing Ted Cassidy, who played "Lurch", as the android, Ruk. The extremely tall Cassidy, equipped with a latex bald pate and cleverly shaded facial makeup, makes for an imposing bad guy, er, android.

WHAT ARE LITTLE GIRLS MADE OF? will be somewhat watchable for some Sci-Fi viewers. Nurse Christine Chapel/Majel Barrett fans may dig this one.