Why did Dr. Korby commit suicide?

[Jedi_Master]

In the final scenes of "What are Little Girls Made Of?" Dr. Roger Korby, confronted by his own failings and his less than human nature now that he inhabits an android body, commits suicide while smooching the android Andrea.

Watching that scene last night, I realized that what he had done made no sense. He could still have advocated the benefits of life-transference, he could have appealed to Starfleet to protect his efforts and to advance his research, he was such a super star in the world of science that people would have believed him, there was no real reason for him to kill himself.

It just was a strange ending for that character.

Any thoughts on this subject?

 

[BillJ]

Maybe he thought if the secrets got out, people would become as deluded as he was about life transference. But someone might succeed. Knowing Starfleet would bury it, he and Andrea were the only loose ends left.

 

[J.T.B.]

I always thought it was Chapel's reaction to him. She made it clear that he wasn't Korby anymore.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Yeah, it wasn't Korby.

He was a malfunctioning machine. The android may have realized that the transference didn't work as well as he'd previously believed, and that he'd been deluding himself that he was behaving as Korby would and that his plans were what the real Korby would have wanted. It seemed that in the end he saw himself and Andrea as hopelessly inhuman and soulless constructs. To any part of Korby left in him, that may have been too bitter a pill to live with. Perhaps realizing that he was soulless made him consider his existence irrelevant.

The episode doesn't say why; that's all I've got.

Though I agree with J.T.B. that Chapel's revulsion had something to do with it.

BillJ's take is interesting also, although you'd think that if android-Korby was really trying to bury the secret then he'd have destroyed the equipment first.

 

[Melakon]

People who commit suicide don't always leave a note explaining their actions, leaving us to wonder why. But I think some of the posts above are correct. When damaged, and after Kirk and Chapel's pleadings, his human intellect becoming corrupted with its mechanical breakdown, the only way out he saw was to end his life.

 

[GNDN18]

The episode doesn't say why; that's all I've got.

I believe the episode does say, for all the reasons you alluded to above.

KIRK: Then prove it. Give me that phaser gun. If there's any human left in you, give it to me.
KORBY: No. You will never understand. I constructed a perfect being, tested it, proved it. Proved it. Proved it? (hands phaser to Kirk)
KIRK: Andrea, give me the weapon.
ANDREA: No. Protect. Protect. (to Korby) To love you. To, to kiss you.
KORBY: No. You cannot love. You're not human.
ANDREA: Love you. Kiss. (Korby reaches for trigger and disintegrates them both)
SPOCK [OC]: Captain Kirk!
KIRK: In here, Spock.
SPOCK: Captain, are you all right? Nurse? Where's Doctor Korby?
KIRK: Doctor Korby was never here.​

The meaning of Kirk's last line, while eloquent and understated, is unmistakable for all the reasons you mentioned, CorporalCaptain.

 

[Ronald Held]

Suicide is another indicator of the defective transfer of Korby into the android.

 

[Jedi_Master]

The problem is, that if the Korby android was unable to properly understand various human emotions (love, devotion, etc.) then how did it feel despair?
In addition, considering the age of the android construct, it seems odd that it started to break down. Ruk lasted for many centuries with little mental degradation. Maybe because he was made by the Old Ones?

 

[BillJ]

The problem is, that if the Korby android was unable to properly understand various human emotions (love, devotion, etc.) then how did it feel despair?
In addition, considering the age of the android construct, it seems odd that it started to break down. Ruk lasted for many centuries with little mental degradation. Maybe because he was made by the Old Ones?

But was Ruk active for all that time? There could've been something that when it detected life-forms made Ruk active again. Seems hard to imagine an android sitting their twiddling his thumbs for hundreds or thousands of years playing Tetris.

 

[Jedi_Master]

The problem is, that if the Korby android was unable to properly understand various human emotions (love, devotion, etc.) then how did it feel despair?
In addition, considering the age of the android construct, it seems odd that it started to break down. Ruk lasted for many centuries with little mental degradation. Maybe because he was made by the Old Ones?

But was Ruk active for all that time? There could've been something that when it detected life-forms made Ruk active again. Seems hard to imagine an android sitting their twiddling his thumbs for hundreds or thousands of years playing Tetris.

Dr. Korby said that Ruk had been maintaining the machines.

 

[Commander Balok]

The first time Korby presents his plan for a utopia to an outside he is met with complete rejection. Even the woman he loves is repelled by what he has become. Add to that the fact that he may have suspected (from reading the notes that the Old Ones left, or from his own introspection) that the transfer was incomplete. What notes? Well, he must have learned how to make androids somehow, so I am going to posit the existence of a turntable operator's manual of some kind.

 

[Jedi_Master]

Hmm. Well Kirk did point out to him how quickly the Robotopia had descended into violence, and Korby was unable to convince himself that a machine could love, even though Andrea did show signs of being able to understand that emotion.

 

[BillJ]

The problem is, that if the Korby android was unable to properly understand various human emotions (love, devotion, etc.) then how did it feel despair?
In addition, considering the age of the android construct, it seems odd that it started to break down. Ruk lasted for many centuries with little mental degradation. Maybe because he was made by the Old Ones?

But was Ruk active for all that time? There could've been something that when it detected life-forms made Ruk active again. Seems hard to imagine an android sitting their twiddling his thumbs for hundreds or thousands of years playing Tetris.

Dr. Korby said that Ruk had been maintaining the machines.

Right you are!

Though I wonder how much maintenance they would've really needed?

 

[Jedi_Master]

Well they did have bright shiny buttons that need polishing, and turntables that needed greasing.
But perhaps during his down time he was able to create all those rock formations that took a rather familiar shape.

 

[Metryq]

I am going to posit the existence of a turntable operator's manual of some kind.

The Old Ones did not have direct drive turntables. So Ruk had to keep changing the belts when they got dry and worn. Then there were those rap 'droids scratching all the time...zoopa-zoopa-zoopa!

 

[Dude111]

In the final scenes of "What are Little Girls Made Of?" Dr. Roger Korby, confronted by his own failings and his less than human nature now that he inhabits an android body, commits suicide while smooching the android Andrea.

If you remember... I think was a ROBOT OF DR KORBY...... Dr. KORBY himself was not ever there!!

It was quite an interesting episode!!

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

To any part of Korby left in him, that may have been too bitter a pill to live with. Perhaps realizing that he was soulless made him consider his existence irrelevant.

Good analysis. Though Korby excitedly embraced/kissed Chapel when meeting her again (implying he was fully "human"), the bigger picture proved that was merely what his copied information instructed him to do, in order to replicate a circumstance-specific human custom from Korby's memories.

The transference served as a study of the arrogance of technology--rather, those who believe it is a substitute for the whole of humanity, when in fact, it cannot copy/transfer the soul. Korby was as artificial to the real version as an online image of a celebrity is to the living version.

 

[Jedi_Master]

^ Which is funny considering how TNG embraced the concept of an android being a valued member of the crew. The implied message in "What are little girls made of?" is that androids can be hot, but they don't belong in human society.

 

[Metryq]

Korby didn't intentionally suicide. He meant to knock of Andrea, and thought she was carrying a hollow-point phaser. Turns out it was loaded with full plasma jacket ammo.

 

[Redfern]

Mentioning the turntable device, did anyone here try replicating the "Kirk cloning" sequence using an LP record player, a Mego action figure and a crudely sculpted wad of Play-Doh? A wacky friend of mine, Sam (who grew up to look like Weird Al Yankovic, yet didn't know who the performer was for the longest time), tried that in the mid 70s. He got rather decent at "paper-craft" and constructed the locking brace/censor bar to secure the doll and douh-boy lump. Of course, the clay was considerably heavier than the action figure, so the arrangement was inherently off-balance. It got up to speed and before we could do anything, the "platform" broke free of the turntable, sailed a few feet and smacked his family's cat who was standing a bit too close!

Sincerely,

Bill