CBS Photo Archive/CBS/Getty ImagesYou 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.How androids dressed in 1966. | CBS Photo Archive/CBS/Getty ImagesThe doctor takes his time explaining himself, but we’ll get right to it: Korby discovered the remains of an extinct civilization capable of building androids, and one of their robot progeny that had survived alone amid the ruins for centuries. Convinced that cold robot logic makes androids superior to humans, Korby used their tools to build two more, and now he wants Kirk’s help to secretly plant androids in key positions throughout the Federation. Once he’s seized power, he’ll transfer people’s minds into artificial bodies, creating an immortal race of machine-gods who never bicker or want.Kirk, of course, doesn’t see things the same way, and despite Korby’s attempt to commandeer the Enterprise with an android copy of the captain, ingenious humanity wins out over cold machinery. There are clever tricks and a final twist, and then our heroes head off on their next adventure, secure in the knowledge that they’ve saved humanity from robotic infiltrators.In isolation, it’s a fine but unremarkable adventure, one of many episodes that has the misfortune of feeling dated because sci-fi has since repeatedly reused its ideas. It’s perhaps most interesting for being written by the prolific Robert Bloch, back when crossover between genre fiction and television writing was far more common. Made a few years after Psycho — adapted from his novel — put Bloch on the map, there are hints of his old Lovecraft Circle days with his premise of a lost civilization of “Old Ones” destroyed by their rebellious creations and buried under the ice.Nurse Chapel and Dr. Korby, who will apparently age hard over the next few years. | CBS/ParamountTo modern fans, however, “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” also tells us where some contemporary characters are (probably) headed. Canon is a shifty, impossible thing that will drive you as mad as Korby if you try to keep it in pristine condition; in this episode alone, Nurse Chapel asks Mr. Spock if he’s ever been engaged, so either she somehow forgot the role she played in his engagement collapsing, or she was rudely throwing it in his face.In reality, of course, the Star Trek of 1966 couldn’t predict that the franchise would still exist in 2026, let alone that it would interpret its characters differently. Modern Trek has cheerily contradicted the minor points of old canon whenever it’s convenient, usually for the better. Chapel, one of Strange New Worlds’ main players, is far more vivacious and proactive than the sad-sack ToS incarnation defined by her unrequited crush on Mr. Spock. The Original Series was many things, but it wasn’t exactly a masterclass in writing women.Kirk gets put in the android-izer. | CBS/ParamountKorby, meanwhile, is portrayed in his SNW guest spots as a dashing, almost Indiana Jones-type figure, although there are hints of the misguided madman he’ll become when we see his selfish tendencies and his interest in ancient civilizations that supposedly mastered immortality. Maybe he’ll get a reprieve with some mirror-universe or alternate-timeline goofiness, but it seems more likely that he’s whistling toward his grave.That’s the tricky thing about writing a prequel to a 60-year-old series. The franchise’s hardcore fans have strong opinions and a knowledge base that rivals the Enterprise’s memory banks, while casual viewers know or care little about any of this, and you have to try to entertain both. There’s an understandable desire to do something fresh with old material, but no matter how often you scribble around the margins, you’re usually bound by the big picture; Korby is destined to die, and the messy but enthusiastic Nurse Chapel will become a shell of her former self. All you can do is work with the material you’re given, but who knows? Maybe, another 60 years from now, a reboot will give them different fates.Star Trek: The Original Series streams on Paramount+.