Why the Change?

And that Spock was clearly intended to be the token alien at the point.

But the presence of umpteen human-looking species in the TOS universe does give us a bit of wiggle room if we want to make Pike's crew a bit more cosmopolitan, which may have been Fontana's intent when she wrote VULCAN'S GLORY. There are a lot more alien crew members, including several more Vulcans, in that book than we ever saw in "The Cage."

 

But then couldn't he have said "these two women"? That would seem to have simplified things.

 

That's okay, Discovery is bound and determined to make sure there is nothing unique about Spock.

 

It was a pilot. They were just making stuff at that point. If Number One had stuck around, who knows what kind of background they might have given her? Maybe Fontana would have written a script about her Illyrian roots . . .or not.

Just saying there's wiggle room around that '"Earth woman" line, just like with other stuff from the early days of TOS, when they were making stuff up as they went along.

 

She didn't. So what we have is "two Earth women".

 

"Vulcan's Glory" is on sale on the Amazon Kindle for $1.99. Talking about "The Cage" led me to pick it up!

 

Didn't Majel Barrett say in interviews that her conception was that Number One was from another planet?

 

One word you won’t see in Number One’s bio: human.

One word you will see: mysterious.

 

And how many other characters were explicitly described as human in "The Cage" character breakdowns? Human was the default.

 

“Mysterious” was the key word for me. Number One’s back story was intentionally vague—she didn’t even have a name!—leaving room for all kinds of exciting reveals.

Personally, I always assumed she was human, but I can live with her being another species. Absence of proof and all that.

 

If Roddenberry had recast the role of Number One, which is my understand what NBC wanted, that easily could have been what we got when Star Trek went into weekly production.

Human Captain, male.
Alien First Officer, female.
Alien Second Officer, male.

Were Boyce, Tyler or Colt specifically referred to as "Human?"

Illyrian, while a bit different, might have been too close to the popular character on the show Man From UNCLE, and a different name would have needed to be chosen.

Referring to Illya Kuryakin.

 

Pike's crew seem to reference earth quite a lot in the episode for a multi-alien contingent! I think Number One is an earth woman who has been through mental enhancement!
JB

 

It's sad thought that audiences might balk at the name of Illya Kuryakin and not at the ancient Illyrian ethnic group. To me it seems just as goofy to name aliens Illyrians as to name them Romulans, or Edo, or Ferengi, would be.

 

Nope:

 

In the episode Colt is referred to as an "Earth woman" while Boyce and Tyler don't deny being human when the old man at the crash site calls them human. Although, neither does Spock, so interpret that however you want.

 

I guess I just don't get why everyone thinks she's an alien just because Pike calls her Number One. That's a common term for a ship's first officer. Why make it any more complicated than that?

 

Well, that I can kind of understand as the novels do need to come up with a reason for why she would be referred to as "Number One" when she had been promoted and given a command of her own.

 

^ When did that happen?