Dr. Roger Korby

"What would your first duty be upon return to your vessel? Report! Do you realize the number of discoveries lost because of superstition, of ignorance, of a layman's inability to comprehend?"

- Korby, to Kirk

Dr. Roger Kirby is a one-shot character appearing in the Star Trek franchise, serving as the main antagonist of the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"

He is played by Michael Strong.

Korby was a Federation archaeologist, renowned as the "Pasteur of archaeological medicine," whose translations of medical records found in Orion ruins reformed immunological techniques which became required reading at Starfleet Academy. He was also a professor, and began a relationship with one of his students, Christine Chapel, who later became his fiancée.

Around 2261, Korby led an archaeological expedition to Exo III, where he was critically injured by the planet's inhospitably cold environment, losing both legs. He then found a primordial civilization of androids and used their highly advanced technology to build for himself an android body into which he then transferred his consciousness, in the process losing all the qualities that made him human.

In 2266, when the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) arrives to find any evidence that he or his team survived, Korby asks that Captain James T. Kirk beam down to Exo III alone, though he happily allows Kirk to bring Christine along with him once he learns that his former fiancée is aboard the starship.

Once Kirk and Chapel beam down and meet with him and what's left of his expedition team, Korby makes unusual requests that eventually lead to Kirk being detained by the hulking android Ruk. He then shows Chapel a machine that can create android duplicates of humans. Korby, with help from his android assistant Andrea, uses the device to create a duplicate of Kirk before revealing his plan to replace humans with androids that don't have to worry about human limitations such as hunger, disease, and death.

Korby is eventually revealed to be an android himself, much to Chapel's horror. He insists that he is still Roger Korby, but comes to recognize the flaw in his plan. When Andrea professes her love for Korby and kisses him, Korby pulls the trigger on her phaser to kill both himself and Andrea.

Quotes
"I've a rather unusual request, Captain Kirk. Beam down alone, just yourself. We've made discoveries of such a nature they may require an extraordinary decision from you."

- Korby's message to the Enterprise

"In android form, a human being can have practical immortality. Can you understand what I'm offering mankind? [...] Can you understand that a human converted to an android can be programmed for the better? Can you imagine how life could be improved if we could do away with jealousy, greed, hate? [...] No one need ever die again. No disease, no deformities. Why, even fear can be programmed away, replaced with joy. I'm offering you a practical heaven, a new paradise, and all I need is your help."

- Korby, to Kirk

"It's still me, Christine. Roger. I'm in here. You can't imagine how it was. I was frozen, dying. My legs were gone. I was, I had only my brain between life and death. This can be repaired easier than another man can set a broken finger. I'm still the same as I was before, Christine, perhaps even better."

- Korby, after being revealed as an android

"I'm the same! A direct transfer. All of me, human, rational, and without a flaw. [...] I'm not a computer. Test me. Ask me to solve any, equate, transmit. Christine, Christine, let me prove myself. Does this make such a difference? [...] I AM ROGER KORBY!"

- Korby

"No. You cannot love. You're not human."

- Korby's last words to Andrea, before killing himself and her