The uniforms,
The One Thing You Could Change, TOS Edition...
- Thread starter Farscape One
- Start date
This is so true. The three doctors are EXACTLY the same on paper. Any differences are down to the actors.
Rand is slightly different in that the other yeomen were clearly younger and inexperienced. Rand is closer to Kirk in age but her main purpose is still to be an object of lust.
As an aside, I think that the minor changes implied by this post would also cover occasional appearances by various recurring minor characters, which could have included a few appearances per season by Reilly, Noel, Rand, De Salle, Mulhall etc.
You make some good points in the abstract, but culturally at that time, that would never be Janice Rand's role. In the 1960s and somewhat beyond, having the woman drive ("pilot the shuttle") was actually a threat to a male passenger's masculinity, unless he was her small child or unconscious. The man did the driving.
Women got there in time for Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers, though, about ten years later.
Wasn't the originally idea of Rand that she be a confidant of Kirk's (which didn't pan out) rather than a potential sex partner? And really where does she come off as primarily a "object of lust" over her total time on the series?
No. From the very beginning the Doctor was planned to be the Captain's confidante. Yeoman Rand as a semi-recurring female character was an idea that just didn't pan out. It started with Yeoman Colt in "The Cage" who then became Yeoman Smith (WNMHGB) and then Rand in early TOS.
Green stalks her, Kirk pines for her while drunk, drunk crewman harasses her, Charlie stalks her, Evil Kirk sexually assaults her. If you then look at the Not-Rands, whose parts were initially written with Rand in mind, Barrows is sexually assaulted and Ross is wooed by Trelane. That's a lot of lust in a few appearances. Compare that to what the yeomen otherwise contribute in those episodes.
I've not seen many episodes of Gunsmoke but if the concept was to get to Miss Kitty and Marshall Dillane, then the ultimate goal, even if poorly implemented in the first few episodes, would have been for their relationship to mature.
The thread is about what would you CHANGE not what you would leave the same after all.
If you look at the contracts for the first year, DeForest Kelley, Grace Lee Whitney, and George Takei were all booked for 7 out of 13 shows. Kelley was paid the most out of those three ($850/show), followed by Whitney ($750/show), and then Takei ($600/show).
However, despite being paid less, Grace was usually #3 on the call sheet, with DeForest at #4.
Still, it doesn't appear to have been the intention for Rand "to be in the big 3." It's more like Rand, Sulu, and McCoy were conceived as being roughly equal in status as supporting players. Things turned out a bit differently than the intention, of course.
It's Marshall DILLON.
The relationship Dillon had with Miss Kitty was impossible to mimic with Kirk and Rand because Rand was a subordinate in Kirk's chain of command and therefore there was a power inequity that didn't exist on Gunsmoke. And on that oater the Dillon-Kitty affection/attraction was played more subtle; you knew they had a thing for each other but they never really talked about it in that "no beach to walk on" "look at my legs" way.
The relationship Dillon had with Miss Kitty was impossible to mimic with Kirk and Rand because Rand was a subordinate in Kirk's chain of command and therefore there was a power inequity that didn't exist on Gunsmoke. And on that oater the Dillon-Kitty affection/attraction was played more subtle; you knew they had a thing for each other but they never really talked about it in that "no beach to walk on" "look at my legs" way.
Aha sorry it was a bit before my time. I agree that they could never have quite got there but that doesn't mean that they couldn't have developed a more nuanced relationship than the dreadfully blunt attraction we saw in a few episodes. Alfred Pennyworth is ostensibly Bruce Wayne's butler but their relationship is occasionally peeled back to reveal far more. That was more achievable for Rand. There was a great scene in NuBsg where Adama asks Duala to speak freely and she devastates him. The rank differential could have been a story tool in its own right.
On a creepier note, I do think that putting the woman in a position where she had to do what she was told was an entirely intentional decision for this particular character but this about what we'd change in the show. She needed some soft power and character development would have been a way to get there.
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I'm not a huge fan of retconning characters to that extent! TOS without McCoy? I think not lol. McCoy as Kirk's yeoman? Could have worked I guess.
Pretty much all TOS security guards were useless in a fight but Starfleet training includes self defence. I don't think she'd need to an expert combatant to be a bodyguard; just armed, alert, and a touch paranoid.
"I don't like the way she looked at you, Captain. She's up to something." "There's only one way to find out, Yeoman." (warms hands and checks breath)
Can you imagine the problems getting the massive hair to stay on a stunt double for a fight scene?
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McCoy could've been a special civilian advisor to Kirk, so he'd get to speak his mind without worrying about protocol.
I do think that McCoy only just gets a pass for his insubordination because he's the ship's doctor in a way that, say, Trip Tucker shouldn't as the chief engineer.
Strange how we admire McCoy and hate all those bean counting jobs worth Federation representatives we get throughout the show. Stop banging on about millions of people dying if we spend 5 more minutes here. You were happy for us to pootle there at warp 5 a minute ago.
Also my favourite Flump.@Pauln6 exceptional use of the word "pootle"
It's interesting that Grace appeared in 8 shows if she was only contracted for 7 and yet her only line was cut from the final episode. It does make you think that there was some kind of sinister moves behind the scenes to get her out the door fast, doing the minimum they had to to comply with obligations already in place.
Her body language speaks more than a line but it's very interesting that even in her original scene all she did was hand Kirk a PADD and Lenore comments how lovely she is and how she was jealous. Really trivial stuff.
Instead they could have had a scene where Rand speculates with Reilly that Kirk seems to be turning on the charm a bit too hard and that she thinks something else is going on to set up his suspicions.
Would explain her presence on landing parties.
Change, Rand is revealed to be a "cone head" alien, and her hair is actually quite short.
Would require some changes to Charie X.
Lol! I'd rather they turned her into a McGyver character: galley lost power? Make coffee with a phaser. Transporter shorted out? Patch it with a hairpin. Warp core offline? Suspender belt and a couple of kicks from Kirk. Annoying children have stolen your communicators? Here's a spare one from my utility beehive. Ok, maybe a cross between Marge Simpson and McGyver.
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