![](\"https:\/\/vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net\/memoryalpha\/images\/6\/62\/Kirk_and_his_android_duplicate.jpg\/revision\/latest\/scale-to-width-down\/180?cb=20130729201022&path-prefix=en\")
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- In the opening, it\u2019s odd that Nurse Chapel is on the bridge \u2013 until we realize this episode\u2019s backstory.<\/li>\n
- In the enhanced graphics<\/strong>, nice view of this ice planet<\/li>\n
- Two previous expeditions failed to find them, why?<\/li>\n
- Beam-down point: a force-field shielding a cave from the ice outside. Why bother to build a force field at a cave opening? Understandable as a point of reference, to emphasize the underground isolation of Korby\u2019s quarters; but not plausible.<\/li>\n
- The first appearance of redshirts<\/strong>! That is, \u2018security\u2019 personnel whose story purpose is to get killed off.<\/li>\n
- That up and down harp theme<\/strong> \u2013 as of this writing, I\u2019ve just acquired La-La Land Records\u2019 http:\/\/www.lalalandrecords.com\/Site\/STTOS.html<\/a> original series soundtrack collection \u2013 an incredible collection, which I will blog about individually at some point — and will be paying closer attention to soundtrack composers and individual themes in future posts. The music in this series is one reason it’s been so enduring.<\/li>\n
- When we see the \u2018bottomless pit\u2019, it\u2019s the gun on the mantelpiece\u2014we know it\u2019s going to be used, as indeed it is, moments later, and then again later in the show.<\/li>\n
- Brown seems forgetful \u2013 a nice directorial touch, given the backstory. (Because he\u2019s an android, not a real person who\u2019d have actual memories of Christine \u2013 Nurse Chapel.)<\/li>\n
- Andrea seems to be one of the earliest gratuitous sexy lady roles<\/strong>, in this series. Roddenberry was notorious for \u2018sexing things up\u2019 in episode after episode \u2013 one reason the first pilot, \u201cThe Cage\u201d, was rejected.<\/li>\n
- Even in the enhanced graphics, the Enterprise is seen orbiting the planet in an obvious, completely implausible, arcing orbit<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
- In general, this episode is full of pulp fiction devices \u2013 the bottomless pit; the tall, crudely made-up Ruk; and the convenient yet implausible device that allows Ruk to imitate anyone else\u2019s voice.<\/li>\n
- Korby reveals his discoveries gradually, worrying that his discoveries might so shock the outside world they would be rejected, without him explaining them in his own due time. He reveals that Andrea, like Brown, is an android; a computer, with no emotion.<\/li>\n
- And then he has Kirk duplicated \u2013 another duplicate Kirk story<\/strong>! [after The Enemy Within<\/a>] \u2013 on a device, for no reason, that involves a spinning disk \u2013 perhaps simply for the visual effect of how the disc, spinning so fast, dissolves the differences between the two\u2026. Anyway, it seems to be spinning so fast, surely both bodies would be stretched outwards by centrifugal force.<\/li>\n
- Kory claims the next step would be to completely transfer the \u2018soul\u2019 into the android duplicate \u2013 which could then be programmed for the better.<\/li>\n
- There are some nice split-screen scenes of the two Kirks.<\/li>\n
- The android Kirk goes back on the ship to get the \u2018command packet\u2019 from his quarters, a list of the next destinations of the enterprise. I don\u2019t think we ever hear about a \u2018command packet\u2019 again in the entire series, though we do see Kirk\u2019s security safe a couple more times (with different combinations).<\/li>\n
- The real Kirk confronts Ruk in what I hadn\u2019t realized until now is the first of the series \u201cKirk outwits a computer<\/strong>\u201d stories \u2013 he challenges Ruk about the \u201cOld Ones\u201d and why they built him, and why they were destroyed. Ruk has a revelation\u2014\u201cThat<\/em> was the equation! Existence!<\/strong> Survival must cancel out programming!\u201d It\u2019s a dramatic moment but the dialogue leading up to it doesn\u2019t quite make clear what the issue is.<\/li>\n
- And then Kirk shoots Ruk, killing him with his phaser, in a manner in which the victim glows and vanishes. Is this the first depiction of this effect of the phaser? (The major technical issue about phasers is: how could so much mass simply disappear? Turned to energy? Where did the energy go? A blast of\u2014no.)<\/li>\n
- Korby is injured and reveals himself to be an android as well.<\/li>\n
- And we see Andrea casually kill the duplicate Kirk, thinking it\u2019s the real Kirk.<\/li>\n
- Basically all the bad guys kill each other. Roger, then Andrea, start going slightly batty, hesitating like malfunctioning computers, leading Chapel to conclude, heartbreakingly, that \u201cit isn\u2019t<\/em> you<\/strong>\u201d.<\/li>\n
- And so no one is left. There\u2019s a nice line by Kirk: \u201c Korby\u2026 was never here.<\/strong>\u201d<\/li>\n
- But all of this is pulp fiction plotting<\/strong>. It conflates two issues: that android bodies might replace biological bodies, allowing humans to live indefinitely; and the idea that androids could be programmed, which really does lead to Orwellian speculation about how such programming could easily go wrong. And it sweeps all these issues away by having all the characters on the planet kill themselves by the end of the story.<\/li>\n
- Marc Cushman\u2019s book mentions something I\u2019d never noticed, when I watched the show decades ago (not then having read HPL): that the script writer, Robert Bloch, was a devotee of H.P. Lovecraft, and how this story re-imagines elements of HPL\u2019s famous \u201cAt the Mountains of Madness\u201d<\/strong>, about an ancient race who builds servants which survive them\u2026<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Blish\/Lawrence adaptation, in ST11:<\/p>\n
- \n
- The adaptation omits one of Kirk\u2019s first lines, to Chapel, as broadcast: \u201cI understand you gave up a career in bio-research to sign aboard a starship.\u201d Which sounds like a last minute addition to justify Chapel\u2019s presence on the bridge and devotion to Korby.<\/li>\n
- This adaptation matches the broadcast version very closely, with only a handful of wording changes.<\/li>\n
- Ruk, however, is described more than once as \u201chairless ape-thing\u201d and as a \u201cNeolithic savage\u201d, which is not how he turned out as made-up and outfitted in the broadcast show.<\/li>\n
- The adaptation clarifies a moment in the broadcast version I hadn\u2019t understood\u2014why, after the creation of the android Kirk, the real Kirk starts muttering imprecations about Spock\u2019s half-breed interference. It\u2019s to imprint the attitude onto the android as a potential clue.<\/li>\n
- The final confrontation between Ruk and Kirk is longer in the adaptation, with Kirk challenging Ruk on peace and disorder, before Ruk recalls the Old Ones; the broadcast version is tighter, with Kirk forcing Ruk to acknowledge the threat from Korby, and adds that peculiar line \u201cthat was the equation!\u201d<\/li>\n
- There is more dialogue between Kirk and Korby at the end, as Kirk challenges Korby\u2019s human response to Chapel\u2019s suffering.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Enterprise finds archaeologist Dr. Roger Korby, Nurse Christine Chapel’s fiance and missing for many years, on a remote planet where he’s discovered the remnants of a race of androids — and claims discoveries that could revolutionize human existence. In … Continue reading