You have to feel a little bad for Dr. Roger Korby, who, after unleashing an ancient evil and being transformed into a dog by an all-powerful wedding planner with a grudge, is doomed by Star Trek canon to go mad and die a lonely death on a Q-forsaken planet. “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” was just another Original Series adventure-of-the-week when it aired 60 years ago today, but now that Trek is a sprawling franchise with an active prequel, it’s accidentally become a foundational text.
Only the series’ seventh episode, “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” sees the Enterprise travel to chilly Exo III to search for Korby, who’s been missing for five years. Nurse Chapel, his fiancé, is along for the ride, while Kirk knows Korby by reputation; his work in “archaeological medicine” has revolutionized Federation healthcare. But while the Enterprise manages to contact Korby, the cagey doctor asks Kirk to beam down alone. Instead, Kirk not only brings Chapel, but two security officers who become the first victims of the franchise’s infamous redshirt trope.
