Ah, that Bloch...he managed to impart his feel for the macabre onto a science fiction show, and one of the best ones, at that. The result was a chilling meditation on attempting to find out what passes for the soul or the mind of a human being - how much of what we are can be copied or passed on to another receptacle; are we really just glorified computer programs? Or, you can just look at this as the serious version of "I,Mudd" - the final exploration on androids. Well, not so final, as this was an early blueprint for the entire saga of Data on the TNG series and movies, from 1987 to 2002. Here are asked the early questions about the ethics and dangers of creating a race of androids. This leaned towards the concept of Data's evil twin, Lore, in seeking an answer, but it's not so much a concept of evil as just a horror story about science going sideways.
The one who poses these questions is the famous Dr. Korby, missing for 5 years on a desolate, frozen planet. The audience finds out that Nurse Chapel is his fiancée (how this jibes with her revealed secret passion for Spock from several episodes earlier I do not pretend to understand). I would think Kirk learned his lesson in this episode about the unreasonable dangers of beaming the captain of a starship by himself into the unknown; he rationalizes that the well-reputed Korby has made this request so it must be OK. Well, Korby turns out to be not quite all there and soon Kirk is the guinea pig in his experiments on android creation. This is also another sample of some long dead civilization with highly advanced technology being found by the current humans of the 23rd century; it's a recurring theme of potentially new techniques being uncovered and of such potential probably scattered all over the galaxy for us to find. Such story lines can also be traced back to Star Trek's precursor, "Forbidden Planet" from 1956. Kirk more or less ignores such potential and so represents the side of thought that certain technology is best left alone, or is perhaps unethical.
The androids we encounter here are quite memorable. First, gaining an amusing look of obvious suspicion and envy from Chapel, you have the female-shaped Andrea, played by the perfectly-formed brunette Jackson. Then there's the huge, monstrous Ruk, played with scary precision by the towering Cassidy. The scenes of him tossing Kirk through the air like some toy still carry an eye-popping visual charge; you really get the impression that Kirk is just one twist of an android wrist from being snapped in two during most of the episode. Then Kirk meets himself - yes, it's another example of a Kirk doppelganger show (as the recent "The Enemy Within"), but again, with that chilling tone. The episode becomes even more effective in the final act, when there are truly chilling revelations and shocking tragedy awaiting at least one character. Kirk's last line on the planet before returning to the ship stays in the mind for awhile afterward.
The one who poses these questions is the famous Dr. Korby, missing for 5 years on a desolate, frozen planet. The audience finds out that Nurse Chapel is his fiancée (how this jibes with her revealed secret passion for Spock from several episodes earlier I do not pretend to understand). I would think Kirk learned his lesson in this episode about the unreasonable dangers of beaming the captain of a starship by himself into the unknown; he rationalizes that the well-reputed Korby has made this request so it must be OK. Well, Korby turns out to be not quite all there and soon Kirk is the guinea pig in his experiments on android creation. This is also another sample of some long dead civilization with highly advanced technology being found by the current humans of the 23rd century; it's a recurring theme of potentially new techniques being uncovered and of such potential probably scattered all over the galaxy for us to find. Such story lines can also be traced back to Star Trek's precursor, "Forbidden Planet" from 1956. Kirk more or less ignores such potential and so represents the side of thought that certain technology is best left alone, or is perhaps unethical.
The androids we encounter here are quite memorable. First, gaining an amusing look of obvious suspicion and envy from Chapel, you have the female-shaped Andrea, played by the perfectly-formed brunette Jackson. Then there's the huge, monstrous Ruk, played with scary precision by the towering Cassidy. The scenes of him tossing Kirk through the air like some toy still carry an eye-popping visual charge; you really get the impression that Kirk is just one twist of an android wrist from being snapped in two during most of the episode. Then Kirk meets himself - yes, it's another example of a Kirk doppelganger show (as the recent "The Enemy Within"), but again, with that chilling tone. The episode becomes even more effective in the final act, when there are truly chilling revelations and shocking tragedy awaiting at least one character. Kirk's last line on the planet before returning to the ship stays in the mind for awhile afterward.