Even back in the day, I remember thinking this character was weak. The amateurish acting didn't help. Does anyone disagree with me here? Anyone thought she was a convincing Romulan. A more revealing outfit, such as the ones Bill Theiss used on the old show, might've made the character more palatable. I remember having a sinking feeling when this character was introduced, making me feel like the movie was going to be below par.
Was she the woman who was blown up in The Search For Spock? She did seem a lot less ruthless & strong as established Romulans.
Ohhhhhh yeah I know who you mean. I'd say the same actually, she seemed quite weak & transferable but then, well… she is in TFF!
The actress - Cynthia Gouw (?) - is or was a newscaster here in the Bay Area. I also saw her briefly on a fictional court or police drama years back. She's not a groundbreaking actress, but she made a pretty Romulan ambassador and did okay with the material. (And, uh, a Bill Theiss outfit wouldn't have hurt...) Sidenote: David Warner was pretty wasted - pun not intended - as the Earth ambassador...but, at least he was able to return for the next film in a meatier role.
Her romulaness (or romulanity?) was underdeveloped, but she didn't had so much screentime for that...well they could have keep the money of the three-breasted feline stripper to make her more Romulan... She wasn't there to be Romulan, but to be the young and naive woman who didn't realize she volunteered for a job into a galactic trash. Talbot was there to show how much this is a galactic trash.
None of the ambassadors were utilized at all, save for Koord growing some balls at the end of the movie, but even that was pretty meh. Only the fact that the Fed ambassador was played by David Warner gave them any sort of redeeming qualities. As for Caithlin Dar, it sounds like her lines were dubbed. Why? Who the hell knows.
Awful, awful awful. First they thought it would be cool to give her a human first name "Caithlin"----the novel tried to explain it. Then they hired a non actor to save money and then they found she couldn't act and cut the scene down by 80% to save embarrassment.
You're thinking of Valkris, played by Cathy Shirriff, previously a co-host on the first season of "Ripley's Believe it Or Not". Her last TV role was as Olga in the telemovie whodunnit, "Murder in Space". Valkris was a Klingon, although the comic adaptation gave her pointed ears. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0794399/
I think Roger Ebert's review pointed out, the Ambassadors get introduced to the story as if they're going to be major characters, but then they barely appear. I suppose that in principle this might be a good bit of misdirection, since it means the audience is fooled about what narrative role the characters serve, but the fact they were only important to their own lives needed to be folded into the story better. Still, obviously, the Ambassadors made rather an impression since I think everyone wants to know a little more about them.
Caithlin Dar was the least of STAR TREK V's problems. The actress gave the drivel she was given to regurgitate more passion than the part could ever demand of an actress - and was quite fetching, as well.
My own idea was that Nimbus III was such an unimportant an assignment that the Romulans definitely weren't going to send their best ambassador there. IMO, Dar was appointed as an ambassador more because of her looks rather than any diplomatic skills she possessed; she was eye-candy to placate the Federation and Klingon ambassadors there.
I thought she was super hot back then (I was 14), and even now I still think she's more interesting with more story potential than all of the bowl cut Romulans (aside from Sela, Tomalak, and Alidar Jarok) from TNG put together.
I've often wondered if she was supposed to be half human. Anyway, she had three lines and did fine with them. I agree that he ambassadors should have been used more, perhaps even the centerpiece of the story. Like Sybok takes them all hostage and Kirk has to work together with the Klingons and Romies to free them. You should give it a go.
Romulans have been give human names before. The first Romulan name we hear is "Decius". Spock is also a human name. As are Dax, Kira, Nerys and Kang.
Which is too bad, since the novel actually makes far better use of them and gives them distinct personalities. I think Warner could have easily done stuff with Talbot's background, given that he sort of exiled himself to Nimbus III.
Yeah, the deleted scenes illuminate this a lot better. She's genuinely enthusiastic about her new job, but when she gets there she finds out that the Federation and Klingon ambassadors are train-wrecks and that the settlement is in a state of decay. 'The Planet Of Galactic Peace' is supposed to be a failed experiment, and the implication is that the three governments send only the ambassadors they most want to get rid of for this assignment. Presumably someone on Romulus thought Caithlin Dar was annoying which is why she ended up with this job. Same goes for John Talbot and the Klingon Korrd. Being sent to 'Paradise City' is like being sent to the bum end of intergalactic diplomacy. One assumes Talbot and Koord were similarly enthusiastic upon their first arrivials on the planet, it's only as time has gone on they've realized what a s**t-hole they've ended up in. That's when they hit the bottle.
^I've never seen the deleted scenes for STV. Does she talk in her normal voice, or is it still dubbed over? To be fair, none of those names are in "every-day-sounding" use as "Caitlyn" is (or at least in every-day use in the US, which was where the film was made).
I love this character, I named a MMO character after her. I think she's hilarious with John St. Talbot.