Number One - Your Take?

[Praetor]

We know almost nothing canonically about the Enterprise's enigmatic first officer from "The Cage" - know both onscreen and in background materials simply as Number One and played with cool professionalism by the late, great Majel Barrett. I always found her quite appealing.

We know Captain Pike trusted her with the ship, and that she held apparently unrequited romantic feelings for him. Also, her "logical, steel-trap mind" was given to Spock when the character was dropped due to poor test audience reaction. (And, she liked blue nail polish.)

What's your take on the character? Did she have a name? What was her deal?

Spoiler: My thoughts

I like the suggestion of Drexler's and Mandel's "Enterprise Officer Manual" that she was one Leigh Chapel, elder sister of Nurse Christine Chapel, also of course played by Ms. Barrett, nicely explaining the resemblance.

The manual also suggests that she got tired of waiting for the Captain to notice her and ended up marrying Navigator Jose Tyler. This in turn hurt Pike enough to cause him to accept transfer from the Enterprise. Some new kid named Kirk apparently took over for him...

I also used to like the idea that she was raised on Vulcan - perhaps as an orphan - explaining why she behaved, well, Vulcanly. Of course, an orphan with an all-to-human sister might be problematic.

Then again, that sister did have an affinity for a certain Vulcan...

 

[Michael]

I always was quite fond of that character, too. There was something very strong and commanding about her. She appeared to be someone of high intelligence and made a very mysterious impression on me. I would have loved to see more of her. Although I like Chapel, she was only a poor substitute for Number One.

As for her backstory: I read D.C. Fontana's Vulcan's Glory once, where she is an alien from the planet Ilyria. Number One was actually her name there, coming from a society of very intelligent beings. I'm not sure if she was genetically enhanced or something like that. (I rather stop now before I tell something completely wrong and make a fool out of myself. )

 

[Praetor]

I remember hearing that "Number One" was supposed to be her name in something, too - because she was the best of the planet or something?

I'd still like her to have a name. It's too cutesy that "Number One" is a military term for first officer.

 

[I am not Spock]

I like the 'sister of Chapel, raised in a Vulcan orphanage' idea.

Number one also lent her vocal chords to the Starfleet engineers for the computer voice, somewhere between The Cage and Where No Man Has Gone Before.

 

[CaptainStoner]

In "The Cage", I think Majel as No.1 was, performance-wise, on par with Hunter's, and even a bit better than Nimoy's. She just owns that character in an effortless sort of way and is definitely more convincing than the other bridge officers, who are stilted and 50's-ish.
In addition to the acting chops, I think she ranks right in there among the most beautiful women in Trek, and that's some company.

 

[Vulcan Princess]

I'm also a fan of the sister of Chapel idea. I'm toying with writing a fanfiction that features her. I'm either going to make her Christine Chapel's sister, or an ancestor of Lwaxana Troi. (Probably Chapel's sister, since there was no indication that Number One was Betazoid.) In my story, she's going to be offered her own ship to command, and that's why she leaves.

 

[Peter the Younger]

Yeah, I was always a big fan of the character, and was hoping (I knew it was a slim chance) that a version of her would make an appearance in the new film.

 

[Praetor]

Yeah, I was always a big fan of the character, and was hoping (I knew it was a slim chance) that a version of her would make an appearance in the new film.

Spoiler: Me too

You know, I had previously thought that perhaps she and the other "Cage" crew would be whisked away to man other ships, leaving Spock to fill in for her as XO for Pike.

Hopefully, if so, Number One was at the Laurentian System, not in the fleet at Vulcan.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I created a background for the character in a Captain April based series I fooled arounf with:
LIEUTENANT j.g. MARGARET “Maggie” GARCIA- Garcia is in charge of communications and operations (comm/ops) for the ship. Tall and muscular she tends to stand out in a crowd, but is actually very shy.. Her ancestors were the genetically enhanced “supermen” who started the Eugenics Wars. She is smarter, faster and stronger than the average human, but she tries to hide this by acting clumsy and being quiet. Maggie is part of a program, headed by Dr. Goldman, to integrate Eugenics with main stream humans. Like many Eugenics, Maggie takes drugs to control the various psychosis caused by enhancement. Dr. Goldman feels a certain empathy with Maggie and was instrumental in getting her assigned to the Enterprise. Zlev is impressed by Maggie’s physical abilities and keeps trying to recruit her into security. He is puzzled by the negative reactions humans have towards Eugenics. His people have always practiced a form of eugenics. Her roommate is Ensign Llwellyn, who is constantly trying to “bring her out of her shell”. April finds the presence of a Eugenic in his crew to be unsettling. His ancestors, like most humans, suffered greatly at the hands of the Eugenics during the war. Garcia, like many women on board has a crush on Pike. Pike views her as a highly competent fellow officer.
Garcia was born and raised on Cold Station 12 by scientists involved in the study of Augments. This background has contributed to her awkwardness in social situations. She is or will become “Number One” from the TOS pilot “The Cage”.

 

[Lethe]

She really was an amazing character. Here's to hoping that they flesh her out--appropriately--in the the follow-up to the new movie.

 

[dahj]

We know almost nothing canonically about the Enterprise's enigmatic first officer from "The Cage" - know both onscreen and in background materials simply as Number One

I think Patrick McGoohan tried to find out more about her once

She really was an amazing character. It sHere's to hoping that they flesh her out--appropriately--in the the follow-up to the new movie.

Doubt it dude, the first one barely had enough time to flesh out Kirk and Spock, I kind of think McCoy, Scotty, Uhura, Sulu and Chekov would take precedence over Nuber One.

 

[JustKate]

We know almost nothing canonically about the Enterprise's enigmatic first officer from "The Cage" - know both onscreen and in background materials simply as Number One and played with cool professionalism by the late, great Majel Barrett. I always found her quite appealing.

We know Captain Pike trusted her with the ship, and that she held apparently unrequited romantic feelings for him. Also, her "logical, steel-trap mind" was given to Spock when the character was dropped due to poor test audience reaction. (And, she liked blue nail polish.)

I don't remember there being any hint of unrequited feelings during the episode itself, assuming we want to stick with what's actually on screen. Which I'm going to have to do, since I haven't read the manual you reference. The Keepers (or whatever the alien big heads were called) from "The Cage" suggested Number One as an alternative mate, but I don't remember their including her feelings for Pike among their list of her "qualifications." The other crewmember...can't remember her name...Lt. Something?...they specifically mentioned that she had a secret crush on him.

But yes, I always like the character, too. And I thought Majel looked fab as a brunette, despite the blue nail polish. I have no problem with considering her an alien of some sort, but...couldn't we have a logical, analytical human female? Such beings do exist, you know...

 

[Praetor]

I created a background for the character in a Captain April based series I fooled arounf with:
LIEUTENANT j.g. MARGARET “Maggie” GARCIA- Garcia is in charge of communications and operations (comm/ops) for the ship. Tall and muscular she tends to stand out in a crowd, but is actually very shy.. Her ancestors were the genetically enhanced “supermen” who started the Eugenics Wars. She is smarter, faster and stronger than the average human, but she tries to hide this by acting clumsy and being quiet. Maggie is part of a program, headed by Dr. Goldman, to integrate Eugenics with main stream humans. Like many Eugenics, Maggie takes drugs to control the various psychosis caused by enhancement. Dr. Goldman feels a certain empathy with Maggie and was instrumental in getting her assigned to the Enterprise. Zlev is impressed by Maggie’s physical abilities and keeps trying to recruit her into security. He is puzzled by the negative reactions humans have towards Eugenics. His people have always practiced a form of eugenics. Her roommate is Ensign Llwellyn, who is constantly trying to “bring her out of her shell”. April finds the presence of a Eugenic in his crew to be unsettling. His ancestors, like most humans, suffered greatly at the hands of the Eugenics during the war. Garcia, like many women on board has a crush on Pike. Pike views her as a highly competent fellow officer.
Garcia was born and raised on Cold Station 12 by scientists involved in the study of Augments. This background has contributed to her awkwardness in social situations. She is or will become “Number One” from the TOS pilot “The Cage”.

That's pretty cool.

 

[Captain Randy Hall]

I've always taken the name "Number One" quite literally. Her somewhat cool attitude comes from the highly technical planet she came from, which is populated by clones. When Number One died, she would be replaced by an exact replica called "Number Two," who thanks to an implant in all of the people, had her predecessor's knowledge and emotions.

Send in the clones!

 

[Wingsley]

As far as I'm concerned, once Capt. Picard started referring to Riker as "Numbuh One", that pegged the term as a Roddenberryan space-age expression meaning "first officer". And I seem to recall the "Enterprise Officer's Manual" listing the character as "M. Leigh Hudec" instead of Chapel, although I do not have it in front of me and I could be wrong about that.

It would be interesting indeed if someone had linked "Number One" and Nurse Chapel. I think it's too bad ENT ran aground and Mrs. Roddenberry never had a chance to either play a campy take on a 22nd/23rd-century "Ernestine" (of one ringy-dingy fame) as the living voice that would become cyber-voice of Federation Starfleet computers, or some TMP-era flashback story of a retired "Number One" recalling some historic mission with Captain Pike.

 

[Michael]

And I seem to recall the "Enterprise Officer's Manual" listing the character as "M. Leigh Hudec" instead of Chapel, ...

If I remember correctly, it was actually the actress that was listed as M. Leigh Hudec in the credits of The Cage, not the character. It was Majel Barrett's alias.

 

[Praetor]

And I seem to recall the "Enterprise Officer's Manual" listing the character as "M. Leigh Hudec" instead of Chapel, ...

If I remember correctly, it was actually the actress that was listed as M. Leigh Hudec in the credits of The Cage, not the character. It was Majel Barrett's alias.

Si. I can post a scan if needed. The character was definitely called Leigh Chapel. I think Majel used her maiden name for the credit to avoid people noticing that she was also Nurse Chapel.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Si. I can post a scan if needed. The character was definitely called Leigh Chapel. I think Majel used her maiden name for the credit to avoid people noticing that she was also Nurse Chapel.

The "USS Enterprise Officer's Manual" lists Kirk's crew from TOS/TAS, blended with additions from TMP and "Phase II", so it includes Spock, Decker, Ilia, DiFalco, Xon, Arex and M'Ress. Pike is listed separately as a Fleet Captain, now residing on Talos IV - and Number One, referred to only in Pike's biography as "Commander Leigh Chapel", is already off-ship.

DC Comics' first TOS annual included a scene where Number One as replaced as Kirk's intended first officer when her legs are crushed in a cargo bay accident. It was an article of "Star Trek Mysteries... Solved!", in a "Best of Trek" volume, that first speculated on the "Number One is Christine Chapel's older sister" stuff. Writer Leslie Thompson also speculated several possibilities for why Number One had no name, and was rather emotionless.

In my own fanfic, in a story that came out just after ST IV, and set up as a post-ST II story, I called Number One "Admiral Leigh Certaine" (looking up a thesaurus for interesting synonyms for the term "one"), and revealed her to be Christine's sister. I also referred to mysterious alternate names, and mentioned the leg-crushing accident. (It was interesting that Peter David later decided on Morgan "Primus" for his mysterious Number One analog in the "New Frontier" novels.)

Majel Barrett's own take on the character, prepared for her own "research" in the lead-up to making the pilot, was essentially what inspired the DC Fontana take on the character in "Vulcan's Glory". It fits quite well with the idea that Ilyria is an old Earth colony where the populace experimented with an alternate lifestyle.

 

[Captrek]

the character was dropped due to poor test audience reaction.

Who was in that test audience? A bunch of television network executives with a pathological fear of anything innovative?

 

[Therin of Andor]

Who was in that test audience? A bunch of television network executives with a pathological fear of anything innovative?

The network execs are the ones who read the ratings cards. Supposedly, females in the test audience reacted with, "Who does she think she is?"

The network execs noticed more that Gene was trying to secure a well-paid acting role, in a potentially long-running series, for his mistress.