2010 May » Treknicalities

Whatever happened to Yeoman Rand

Characters, Star Trek TOS No Responses »

May 312010

Yeoman Janice Rand only appeared in eight episodes of the original Star Trek. In the show’s first season, only William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy were guaranteed to appear in every episode. There were three episodes in which she did not appear. Rand’s character was not written into two (“Mudd’s Women” and “What Are Little Girls Made Of?“) and Rand was deliberately written out of “Dagger of the Mind“. Grace Whitney said this was a creative decision made because the episode’s storyline put the mutual and yet repressed attraction between Kirk and Rand too much out in the open.

The reasons for her leaving the show vary, depending on who you choose to believe. Gene Roddenberry’s biography suggests that the character was dropped due to budget cuts, however other sources claim that she was dropped from the show because Yeoman Rand limited the romantic possibilities for Captain Kirk and still other sources will tell you that she was written out of the show because at the time Grace Lee Whitney was suffering from alcoholism and it was affecting her performance on the show.

Grace Lee Whitney alleges in her autobiography that her being removed from the show had something to do with an unnamed TV executive having made a sexual assault against her. She was sacked a few days later.

There was never really any explanation what happened to Yeoman Rand, she just disappeared and then showed up again in Star Trek The Motion Picture. It would have been nice if they had explained her absence in some way.

Character Profile: Spock

Characters, Star Trek TOS No Responses »

May 282010

Spock was born on the planet Vulcan in the year 2230. His parents are the Vulcan ambassador, Sarek and a human woman named Amanda Grayson.

His human half has always been something of an inconvenience when it comes to controlling his emotions, however after his experiences with V’Ger in 2271, Spock comes to realize that there is a place for a small amount of emotion. This is evidenced in The Undiscovered Country when he tells Valaris, “Logic is the beginning of wisdom, Valeris, not the end.”

Another example of Spock learning to embrace his human side is in “The Voyage Home” when he agrees that they must not abandon Checkov to 20th century medicine. Kirk asks him if that’s the logical thing to do, and his answer is, “No. But it is the human thing to do.”

At least one person has speculated that Spock’s Vulcan-Human heritage was an experiment to see if Vulcan logic and Human emotion could temper each other with positive results. If that is, in fact, the case, then the experiment was a huge success.

Jim Kirk’s hometown

Characters, Star Trek TOS No Responses »

May 252010

James Kirk was born on March 22, 2228, in Riverside, Iowa. Technically, on the original television series and in the movies, the actual town was never named. All that was mentioned about his birthplace was that it was a small town in Iowa. At some point, an “enterprising” individual in Riverside caught on to this fact and wrote to The Powers That Be at Paramount asking if Riverside might possibly be the small town in question. The folks at Paramount replied, essentially, “Sure, why not?” and even agreed to license a bronze statue of Captain Kirk for the town square, with a $40,000 price tag. Rather than come up with that much cash, the folks of Riverside put a scale model of the U.S.S. Riverside which bears a strong, but not legally indemnible, resemblance to Captain Kirk’s vessel, in the town square.

The town is also home to such businesses as “Future Designs By Carol” and “Flower Trek” and the town’s annual “Riverfest” has been renamed “Trek Fest”.

A whole town full of Star Trek fans! I know where I’m going on my next vacation – The Voyage Home Museum!

But, nobody ever really said that

Star Trek TAS, Star Trek TOS, Trivia, Trivia No Responses »

May 222010

The one quote you hear associated with Star Trek‘s original series more than any other is, “Beam Me Up, Scotty”. The problem is that nobody in the original series, the animated series, or the movies ever said that.

In the Original Series episodes “The Gamesters of Triskelion” and “The Savage Curtain“, Kirk said, “Scotty, beam us up”.

In the animated episodes “The Lorelei Signal” and “The Infinite Vulcan“, he said, “Beam us up, Scotty”.

In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Captain Kirk says, “Beam me up, Mr. Scott” and, “Scotty, beam me up.”

In Star Trek Generations the captain says, “Scotty, beam them out of there.”

Long after the phrase was permanently embedded in pop culture, it did eventually get some actual Star Trek related use, however.

William Shatner eventually used those exact words in the audio adaptation of his novel Star Trek: The Ashes of Eden.

James Doohan later chose to title his autobiography, “Beam Me Up, Scotty.”