Based on a thread in the XI+ Movies forum, is there any on-screen evidence that M'Ress is an alien? Or could she be the equivalent of Cat in "Red Dwarf" or Rocket in "Guardians of the Galaxy"?
Onscreen evidence M'Ress is an alien?
- Thread starter SonicRanger
- Start date
She's an alien. From "Mudd's Passion":
Any other way of reading that line (e.g., that she's a human in cosplay with an alien fetish) would completely miss the point.
Any other way of reading that line (e.g., that she's a human in cosplay with an alien fetish) would completely miss the point.
Um, that's not evidence she's an alien. That's okay-ish evidence that she is not human. But an advanced or evolved or genetically engineered cat isn't a human either. Hell, Spock is half-human but usually talks about humans the same way.
Of course it's evidence that she's an alien. Anyway, this is a pretty silly topic, so I'm out.
A cat is not human. It is not an alien.
A chimp is not human. It is not an alien.
A humpback whale is not human. It is not an alien.
A chimp is not human. It is not an alien.
A humpback whale is not human. It is not an alien.
Humpback whales may be aliens... planted by the cylinder aliens in Star Trek IV. We may never know, since they felt other races were not worth a First Contact. We do know they are sentient, since Spock communicated with them.
I personally don't need to be spoon-fed the fact that she's an alien. If she was anything else, the show would have went out of its way to point that out. But because she's, well, a five-foot tall cat, it pretty much makes it clear she's an ET.
Next we'll be debating that Arex is really just a horribly deformed human.
Don't let people get you down, SonicRanger. You present a very valid point. I'm probably the most fanatical M'Ress fan on this board and even I will admit we know next to nothing about her. She's barely a cypher. Having grown up with the Foster adaptations and Trimble's Concordance, I've just come to accept the notion she's an alien whose physiology parallels some aspects of Terran felines; but for those who adhere to the philosophy of "If it wasn't presented onscreen, then it's open to debate," well, yeah, it's open to debate. Besides it's a fun exercise that beats inserting one's hand in a running blender.
Mind if I steer this thread on a tangent for a post or two?
It's been noted at Memory Alpha that Stephen Kandel included a physical description of M'Ress in the "final draft" of "Mudd's Passion". I wonder; why bother with such a detail? And why the "final" draft? That would suggest something was changed from an earlier version. Let's take a look at the situation. Kirk, Spock, Chapel and Mudd were stranded upon the planet threatened by silicon looking kaiju. To keep them in peril, they couldn't just beam back to the ship. How do you keep them stranded? Well, the production could have opted for the old standby, the comms were damaged or the signals couldn't reach the ship. But considering this was a "love potion" scenario, Kandel opted to have the crew "distracted", thus keeping with the theme.
Now, who would you need to distract so Kirk's calls are ignored? The communications officer. Who's the comm' officer? Uhura. Who would the most likely person overseeing bridge operations in Kirk and Spock's absence, the person to whom Uhura would most likely address? SCotty.
Except...this was 1973 and while primetime television had made considerable strides in racial relations, after all, it was the era of Norman Lear, children's television had always lagged behind. While I have no evidence to substantiate the following, I can easily consider someone reviewing the script and realizing, "Crap! The network will never let us air this! They'll probably argue they would lose sponsors left and right. We gotta' swap one of the characters and while I don't like it, it's probably easier to replace Uhura than Scotty in this instance."
Now, IF this was the situation, the production could have just scribbled up a "white" second shift comm' officer. Instead, Kandel's final draft described an alien cat woman, a classic sci-fi trope (read: cliche). Who knows, it might have been a subversive "dig" at the state of "standards and practices". It was not permitted to have characters of different ethnic backgrounds become romantically interested, but it was okay to have someone kiss a "cat", showing the hypocrisy.
Once "invented" for this episode, Filmation opted to include M'Ress on occasion for variety. Really, there were only two cases when M'Ress' presence was truly needed. In "The Practical Joker", Uhura was trapped within the "recreation deck" (a kind of prinitive holodeck) along with McCoy and Sulu. There was a scene on the bridge and someone had to be at that station, calling for Uhura and the others. then in "Once Upon a Planet" Uhura is trapped by the "Shore Leave" planet's master computer and once again, a scene on the bridged required someone at that station to coordinate communications. But for the four remaining instances, Uhura would have worked as well, including the scenario in "Mudd's Passion".
While Kandel is still alive, he is currently 88 years old. Even if he could be contacted, odds are he might not remember much about his brief association with the series.
Sincerely,
Bill
Mind if I steer this thread on a tangent for a post or two?
It's been noted at Memory Alpha that Stephen Kandel included a physical description of M'Ress in the "final draft" of "Mudd's Passion". I wonder; why bother with such a detail? And why the "final" draft? That would suggest something was changed from an earlier version. Let's take a look at the situation. Kirk, Spock, Chapel and Mudd were stranded upon the planet threatened by silicon looking kaiju. To keep them in peril, they couldn't just beam back to the ship. How do you keep them stranded? Well, the production could have opted for the old standby, the comms were damaged or the signals couldn't reach the ship. But considering this was a "love potion" scenario, Kandel opted to have the crew "distracted", thus keeping with the theme.
Now, who would you need to distract so Kirk's calls are ignored? The communications officer. Who's the comm' officer? Uhura. Who would the most likely person overseeing bridge operations in Kirk and Spock's absence, the person to whom Uhura would most likely address? SCotty.
Except...this was 1973 and while primetime television had made considerable strides in racial relations, after all, it was the era of Norman Lear, children's television had always lagged behind. While I have no evidence to substantiate the following, I can easily consider someone reviewing the script and realizing, "Crap! The network will never let us air this! They'll probably argue they would lose sponsors left and right. We gotta' swap one of the characters and while I don't like it, it's probably easier to replace Uhura than Scotty in this instance."
Now, IF this was the situation, the production could have just scribbled up a "white" second shift comm' officer. Instead, Kandel's final draft described an alien cat woman, a classic sci-fi trope (read: cliche). Who knows, it might have been a subversive "dig" at the state of "standards and practices". It was not permitted to have characters of different ethnic backgrounds become romantically interested, but it was okay to have someone kiss a "cat", showing the hypocrisy.
Once "invented" for this episode, Filmation opted to include M'Ress on occasion for variety. Really, there were only two cases when M'Ress' presence was truly needed. In "The Practical Joker", Uhura was trapped within the "recreation deck" (a kind of prinitive holodeck) along with McCoy and Sulu. There was a scene on the bridge and someone had to be at that station, calling for Uhura and the others. then in "Once Upon a Planet" Uhura is trapped by the "Shore Leave" planet's master computer and once again, a scene on the bridged required someone at that station to coordinate communications. But for the four remaining instances, Uhura would have worked as well, including the scenario in "Mudd's Passion".
While Kandel is still alive, he is currently 88 years old. Even if he could be contacted, odds are he might not remember much about his brief association with the series.
Sincerely,
Bill
Interesting, but probably untrue. First, the simplest reason for M'Ress is probably the best. She created basically for the same reason Arex was. Since it was an animated show, it was easier to have greater alien diversity on the bridge. Animating a feline humanoid is no harder than drawing Uhura.
Second, I'd bet real money it had nothing to do with race or interracial relations being shown on kids' TV. Besides, if that was a concern, they could always explain it away as the two characters were influenced by a drug, not real feelings (kind of like some said of Kirk and Uhura and their kiss). If any thinking went into it at all, maybe having Scotty and M'Ress make eyes at each other actually added an element of humor to the whole thing. They both acted a bit ashamed afterwards, too.
Besides, by 1973, many Saturday morning cartoons had African-American characters, and in some cases, African American casts: "The Harlem Globetrotters", "The Jackson 5" and "Fat Albert" had mostly African-American characters. "Josie and the Pussycats" was a trio of women pop stars, one of whom was African-American.
TOS and TAS never revealed any kind proof of "evolved" feline (or any other animal species) on 23rd century earth. In fact, in "Assignment: Earth," Spock accepts Isis the cat as something familiar, which means that there's a more than strong chance that cats are no different in the 23rd century than that which was in the possession of Gary 7. Similarly, in "The Gamesters of Triskelion," Spock also refers to "wild, aquatic fowl"--or the goose. That's another animal which seems to be the same in the 23rd century as in the past.
Interesting Post, Bill.
I wonder if they could have substituted Lt. Palmer in that situation.
Actually, no one really had any backstory in TAS, except Mr. Spock in Yesteryear. Maybe if it wasn't just 1/2 hour format or the show went on longer, we would have gotten a "Caitian episode".
Did Arex have any backstory? (other than 'he's not Chekov)
Oh, gee, thanks. A link to Memory Alpha that cites off-screen evidence.
Where?
The fact that she's, well, a five-foot tall cat, raises the possibility that she's a cat.
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