This episode adds more fuel to the K/S fire, but *does* offer a spicy m/f scene to challenge it. This episode also panders pretty shamelessly to whatever sadomasochism is lurking in the secret hearts of the audience, lending weight to my assertion that TOS was ~intentionally~ playing that card for entertainment value, as I shall explain.
The story opens with the Enterprise orbiting a frozen, deserted world, the last known whereabouts of Nurse Chapel's fiancee, Dr. Roger Korby. Miraculously, his voice is heard over the radio. He's alive, against all odds.
Korby asks Kirk to beam down alone, which is what Spock suspiciously terms "an unusual request". Unusual, hell, it's against regulations! Kirk is dazzled by Korby's sterling reputation and he's inclined to agree. Spock asks Chapel if she is sure it's Korby's voice and she replies:
"Have you ever been *engaged*, Mr. Spock!?"
Kirk and Spock exchange a long look, and both decline comment.
Blah, blah blah... Kirk beams down with Chapel, and when Korby isn't there at the beam down point to meet them as promised, Kirk wises up and asks for two security guards to be sent down. One is left at the beam-down point, one follows Kirk and Chapel as they begin to descend into the cavern, looking for Korby.
They encounter a spooky fellow whom Chapel recognizes as old friend Dr. Brown, Korby's associate. Oddly, he doesn't seem glad to see her. Moments later Kirk's guard has fallen to his death, and Brown dismisses it as an unfortunate accident.
They are led by Brown to Korby's underground home, and the first person they meet there is a gorgeous, breathy brunette who introduces herself as Andrea. Korby soon follows, and he at least acts normally, greeting Christine Chapel very warmly with hugs and kisses. Kirk smiles a little at this, somewhat reassured.
Korby welcomes Kirk and seems genuinely dismayed when told of the guard's "accident". By now we know it was no accident, because we saw a weird looking giant take out the other guard too. Kirk tries in vain to contact the other guard, then the ship, but is stopped when Brown points a gun at him. Korby sends Andrea to disarm Kirk, but Kirk grabs her as she tried to take his phaser, and ~uses her as a human shield~ until he can get behind better cover. He shoots Brown, and Brown falls down with a hole blown through his circuit box. He's an android! Just then, Ruk (the weird giant guy) rushes in and picks Kirk up and throws him high up against the wall as if he's a toy.
Things are definitely starting to get interesting! Kirk and Chapel are now captives.
Ruk demonstrates his ability to imitate voices, by calling the ship for Kirk using Kirk's voice. Ruk (as Kirk) reassures Spock and gives him a plausible excuse for the delay. Now Korby orders Ruk to be decent to Christine, and Kirk makes Korby also order Ruk to obey Christine. Smooth move! That's using the old noodle, Kirk!
Blah, blah, blah, let's get to the good stuff.
Kirk is restrained by Ruk, while Korby, to make some silly point about how Andrea is just an android and has no feelings, orders Andrea to first kiss, then slap Kirk.
[NOTE: OK! Very interesting. Why was that necessary again?]
Kirk asks, basically, "Hey, if all they do is follow orders, then who ordered them to threaten me and kill my guards!?"
[NOTE: Well, DUH!]
Next thing you know, we are in Korby's lab, and Kirk is stripped naked and bound helpless on a rotating table that turns out to be an android-making machine. Korby is going to show Christine how he makes androids by making a copy of Kirk while we watch. Kirk faces this scary process with astonishing calm. Next thing you know (after some hocus-pocus), we have *two* naked Kirks strapped down helpless on a rotating table, and Chapel is asked to pick which one is the real Kirk!
[Personal NOTE: Aww! How could she choose!? They are both identically ~so cute~! :::gush!::: They both have their chests shaved and everything!]
[NOTE: Chapel could have asked to be left alone with the two naked Kirks in a room with a hot-tub, a bale of towels, some sparkling water on ice, massage oil, and a big box of Godiva chocolates - so she could choose properly n stuff - but No0ooo! Chapel is generally useless through the whole ep, but never more so than at this crucial moment.]
[NOTE: It's canon that Kirk shaves his chest. We are never told this outright, but it's certainly no secret. Is it just me, or does that seem a bit, I don't know, unusual? Do you think he stops there, or do you think maybe he shaves, um, lower? Do guys in the 2200's still shave? Maybe he uses some fancy 2200's process that's less tedious. Well, at least one hopes so, especially since he has so much, um, ground to cover...or uncover, as the case may be.]
[NOTE: Where was I? Oh yes, two Kirks in bondage, naked...]
Only one Kirk is our boy. The other is a brainless android who hasn't even been imprinted with his personality yet. The moment Korby explains this in a way Kirk can't help but overhear, Kirk starts using his famous noodle again. Realizing he has a chance to impress the android with a false idea that may alert his comrades of the danger among them, Kirk starts chanting to himself:
"Mind your own business, Mr. Spock! I'm sick of your half-breed interference!"
Obviously with the hope that the android will retain it as a regular idea.
[NOTE: That Kirk is thinking of Spock at a time like this is significant. The false message contains an underlying truth: that Kirk really *doesn't* want Spock to mind his own business, and Kirk is *not* normally sick of his interference. Kirk has no way of knowing ~that, or how~ this message will get through, but it's pretty clearly intended for Spock. He's counting on Spock to recognize that it's very atypical of his normal attitude, and to therefore go on the alert. What this says about his relationship with Spock is that he's expecting Spock to interfere with the android, expecting his usual warm welcome, and when he does, Kirk's hoping the android will instead slap him down with this atypical remark. Hmmm!]
After the android is finished, there's a bizarre dinner party where Kirk's android double (dressed in Kirk's uniform) and Kirk, (clad in a jumpsuit lent to him by Korby) sit side by side and exchange bon mots. The android is then sent to impersonate the Captain to the Enterprise crew. Once he exits, Kirk jumps Korby, there's a scuffle, and Jim-boy manages to escape into the cavern, leaving Chapel behind.
[NOTE: Chivalry, schmivalry. Chapel, yer on yer own!]
Ruk goes after Kirk, with orders to kill, but then Chapel calls after him and tells him not to harm Kirk. This is why he doesn't kill Kirk when he has the chance a few minutes later. Instead, Kirk is recaptured alive and locked in a room.
*Meanwhile*, aboard the Enterprise, the android Kirk marches right past Spock without even saying hello, and heads straight for his cabin. Spock calls after him, then follows him right into the Captain's room without even knocking, as if he lives there himself.
Spock starts to question Kirk's actions, and the android performs his role perfectly:
"MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS, MR. SPOCK! I'M SICK OF YOUR HALF-BREED INTERFERENCE!"
Spock is stunned with shock.
"You looked worried, Mr. Spock. Is everything all right?" the android now asks, in a milder tone.
Well, Spock doesn't need a mind-meld or flash cards to see that something is very, VERY off. He dismisses the android's question, and the moment the 'bot has left Kirk's cabin (leaving Spock in there, like the guy lives there too), Spock assembles a security force to follow "Kirk" to Korby.
*Meanwhile* back in Korby's lair we now find Kirk incarcerated, with the beguiling Andrea for a prison guard. As is typical of him, he decides to have a little fun while in captivity. Kirk now knows Andrea is a robot, not a woman, and he treats her accordingly. He stops her while she's taking his supper tray and orders her to kiss him. She unthinkingly complies. She then unthinkingly winds up to slap him the way she was originally told to by Korby, ROFL, but he stops her hand, grabs a hold of her, and plants a big deep, wet kiss on her. Dismayed, she pulls away, saying:
"No...no...not programmed for you."
She tries to take Kirk's tray again but he stops her, caresses her cheek and asks:
"S'matter, Andrea? Confused?"
[NOTE: No, but hopefully the censors are...]
[NOTE: Kirk knows this is a machine, not an emotional woman. He's trying to confound her the way he's confounded other smartypants robots and computers he has dealt with, with illogical behavior. He won't let her act toward him the way she was taught to. He's trying to overwhelm her simple robot mind by (titillating the audience, and) throwing her one of his trademarked curveballs. So for those who point to this as proof that Kirk is hetero...SORRY.]
She pulls away, leaves, and he tries to simply follow her out as she goes, but Ruk rushes him from outside the door, picks him up and throws him all the way across the room, easily, as if Kirk is nothing but a rag doll. Kirk is impressed! It takes him a full five seconds to start antagonizing the guy even more!
[NOTE: here we go again. Once again, as is 100% typical of Kirk, he can't resist the urge to invite a big bully to beat him up]
Kirk quickly starts asking Ruk about himself, and encouraging the big lug to think disloyal thoughts about Korby. Ruk, with Kirk's help, digs up his oldest memories about his life before Korby and comes to the conclusion that all humans are imperfect and inferior, starting with Kirk. Kirk doesn't argue. In fact he eggs the guy on further.
[NOTE: What do you expect? Spock's not here, and Jim's bored]
Ruk grabs ahold of Kirk and makes like he's either going to kiss him or kill him, when Korby comes in and spoils the fun. Ruk complains that Korby shouldn't be mixing pure androids with impure humans, and Korby decides that Ruk needs a long, unpaid, permanent vacation right now. End of Ruk.
Well, the odds are much more even now. Moments later, as Korby is taking Kirk on a lovely little forced march at gunpoint, Kirk manages to injure Korby, and the bit of skin that pulls off of Korby's hand exposes circuitry. Korby is an android too!
There's an emotional scene where Korby pleads with Christine to understand that it's really him and why all this was necessary. Meanwhile, Andrea offs the android Kirk thinking it's the real Kirk. She reports to Korby, one thing leads to another, and Korby ends up vaporizing both himself and Andrea with her gun as they kiss, while Kirk and Christine watch, aghast.
Moments later, Spock arrives with guards, ready to save the day. He asks:
"Captain! Are you all right?"
[NOTE: Spock doesn't give a rat's ass if Chapel is all right! Notice the similarity between this scene, and the way he asks if Kirk (and nobody else) is all right once the crisis has passed in Naked Time.]
At the end, Spock chides Kirk for using such an unsophisticated term as "half-breed". Kirk promises to do better the next time he finds himself in a similar situation. We are supposed to find this humorous, since when will Kirk ever be in a similar situation?
[NOTE: Hey, for the answer to that question, TUNE IN NEXT WEEK! ;)]
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