★★★★1/2 October 20, 1966 Season 1 Episode 7
If you want to see where we are…and you missed a few…HERE is a list of the episodes in my index located at the top of my blog.
This episode was written by Robert Bloch and Gene Roddenberry
This episode highlights Majel Barrett as Nurse Christine Chapel. Nurse Chapel and Kirk beam down to a planet to meet with Chapel’s old fiancee Dr. Roger Korby. What they find is extraordinary. Making copies of humans into Androids who gain their consciousness and live practically forever.
This episode has Ted Cassidy as Ruk. If that name doesn’t ring a bell, he was Lurch in the Addams family as well as the voice or growl of The Incredible Hulk over a decade later. He plays a survivor still running the machinery of the old civilization that died out long ago. He’s also quite protective of that and those that are on the planet.
Another guest star in this episode is Sherry Jackson who plays Andrea… who is an android. She was in many television shows from the 50s through the 90s. In this episode, she has an interesting relationship with Kirk.
Dr. Korby was so overcome with his obsession with eliminating the bad aspects of human nature, he didn’t consider the consequences of the good. He was trying to build the perfect human but stripping away everything that makes us humans. This is an excellent episode.
From IMDB
Sherry Jackson’s revealing costume never failed to get an enthusiastically appreciative response, whether it be stunning a noisy commissary into silence, when the actress showed it off there, or when it was displayed at a SF convention and the model for it found herself being approached by a large number of men, including Harlan Ellison, trying to secure a date from her.
The only TOS episode to prominently feature Nurse Christine Chapel, who was played by Majel Barrett. Also featured is Ted Cassidy, best known for playing Lurch on The Addams Family (1964) TV series. Barrett would later play Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)’s gag character Lwaxana Troi, whose valet Mr. Homm was played by Carel Struycken, who played Lurch in The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993).
To test the effectiveness of Ted Cassidy’s Ruk costume and makeup, the producers arranged for Cassidy to receive a visiting clothes dealer while costumed as Ruk. Sure enough, the salesman, who thought he was calling on Gene Roddenberry, was so frightened at Cassidy’s intimidating character, he was barely coherent even as he attempted to do his pitch. However, the salesman eventually recovered, and Roddenberry ended up purchasing some pants from him.
William Shatner kisses Sherry Jackson so hard that when they pull apart you can see that her lips are swollen a little, and that most of her lipstick is gone and all over his lips. Also, when he holds her in his arms and pulls her in close to kiss her, he squeezes her arms so tight when kissing, that he leaves his fingerprints there. In 1998, the Sci-Fi Channel aired all the original episodes in their complete, non-syndicated format, with added interviews from some of the series stars, guest stars and production people. It was called “Star Trek Insights”. Jackson said in her interview, “I must say when he kissed me on screen, he really kissed me!”
Ruk is Ted Cassidy’s only appearing role in Star Trek. He provided voice overs in Star Trek: The Corbomite Maneuver (1966) and Star Trek: Arena (1967). Ironically, in a few scenes of this one, his own voice is dubbed over by other actors to show Ruk’s mimicking abilities.
Summary
The crew of the Enterprise arrives at the planet EXO-III with some trepidation and great anticipation. They are there to see if they can locate the renowned scientist Dr. Roger Korby. The man hasn’t been heard from for 5 years and the general belief is that he is dead. For Nurse Christine Chapel, however, a reunion with Corby will be a reunion with her fiancé. They find Korby alive but when Kirk and Chapel beam down to the planet, they find a man obsessed who is using alien technology to reproduce the humans around him in the form of androids.
CAST
William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk
Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock
Michael Strong … Dr. Roger Korby
Sherry Jackson … Andrea
Ted Cassidy … Ruk
Majel Barrett … Nurse Christine Chapel
Nichelle Nichols … Lieutenant Nyota Uhura
Harry Basch … Brown
Vince Deadrick Sr. … Mathews (as Vince Deadrick)
Budd Albright … Rayburn
Eddie Paskey … Lieutenant Leslie (uncredited)
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Yes Lurch that’s it! Thought I recognised that guy…
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There is already an obvious ‘what the Hell is Humanity?’ vibe in the series, pretty early in the run.
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Sounds like a good episode, Max! The thought of androids with no emotions, who simply follow programmed commands, is pretty frightening!
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Sounds like a good moral. Not sure about the episode although something about the review seemed to catch my attention…
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William Shatner had a way of immersing himself into his roles, so I bet that kiss was real to him.
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Yes it looked it on the screen.
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I don’t think the show has a bad episode in it, at least for me. It was great when some of the lesser known I guess you could say cast members got some screen time. I found out that Majel Barrett (Nurse Chapel) was the voice of the on-board computers right up to 2009.
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Well we haven’t got to Spocks Brain…that bordered on it! But no even the lesser ones are good.
That is cool about Majel Barrett…I didn’t know that. I wish they would have highlighted her more.
BTW….I loved your post yesterday on Daves sight…I was late getting to it.
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Thanks Max, sorry I wasn’t fishing there but I’m glad you enjoyed it just the same
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No no…sometimes I’m late as you very well know. I always get to posts…but sometimes I take a long time…
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Wow didn’t know that, Randy.
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I still chuckle when I hear the line, “This is how you make an android.” My brother and I used to yell out, “So, that’s how you make an android!” So simple.
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LOL… yea I thought when I was a kid we would gave them look just like humans now
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That’s funny!
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“He was trying to build the perfect human but stripping away everything that makes us humans.” Well said, Max. I liked this episode and had totally forgotten the twist at the end.
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I really liked this episode Lisa…the story was thought-provoking. Perfect is not always perfect.
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I’m watching a good series on Netflix right now, called, “Better Than Us.” It’s set a bit into the future where androids are used as servants of all types. A new model is supposed to have human emotions including learning to love. There is a group of anti-bot terrorists that try to sabotage the new model. It’s a pretty good show that examines some of the questions asked in this episode.
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We need to get Netflix again…I usually get to watch some of their stuff from newsgroups that I visit. I’ll have to watch for that one.
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I am on my older son’s account so am lucky there. This is a Russian series.
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Oh they got it from a Russian series?
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No it is a Russian series, made in Russia, with English dub.
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Ok…gotcha! I’m slow on this lazy Sunday!
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It was an interesting episode with early androids more realistic than Data. Majel Barrett certainly was versatile and enduring beyond the original series through Next Generation and DS9 as Lwaxana Troi.
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I forgot “Lurch” was in this one! Yes, that intriguing costume and kiss certainly both generated “interest.”
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My favorite part of this episode is the Trickster Kirk. He’s really using his brain to plot a way out of their predicament from the time they arrive. My other favorite part is Andrea’s costume. Can’t believe that made it on 60s TV!
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I know…some of those costumes the women wore…don’t get me wrong… I love them but I dont’ see how they flew back then.
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