If Nurse Chapel has been cast and is in this movie, she would have shot her scenes/publicity shots (read: reference material for artists) for the film months ago. Seems to me there's no reason the comic wouldn't be the place to reintroduce her before the film comes out. Or is even that too much of a peek behind the Gold-Pressed-Latinum Curtain for JJ? And is anyone else getting the bad feeling Yeoman Rand's going to go the way of Tasha Yar in the comic before we reach the events of the next movie?
I really don't have any thoughts either way about whether or not she's in the movie. But if she is, they could be waiting to introduce her closer to the release of the movie.
Exactly, but they aren't finished teasing us with who is and isn't in the film yet. It's very unusual for licensed tie-ins to start using an actor's image before the parent film is due for release; in fact, contractually, they probably wouldn't do it until the film was imminent. DC Comics did once use Janice Rand, sharing a scene with Admiral Cartwight, in a comic that was leading into their ST IV adaptation, but it was only a few issues before the theatrical premiere. It ended up being an easter egg that revealed that she was in ST IV, and based on Earth in a new role.
I agree that it's very likely that the reason we haven't seen Chapel is because when they do introduce her they will want her to resemble the actress. I also agree that, if they decided to kill a 'regular' Rand would be right up there at the top. However, I think it would be a waste to kill her before they have established her fully. At the moment, she's a glorified extra. She's been used more like a security guard, although she is still a yeoman. They should put in a few scenes to establish her as Kirk's Yeoman and cement a relationship between the two in the next 12 issues, maybe give her something useful to do in a few episodes, give her some time working with transporters, give her a couple of niches, maybe even start to play up Kirk's relationship to her. Then, in a year's time do an adaptation of Enemy Within and have evil Kirk kill her in a fit of jealous rage. Much as I love Janice and want her to be around for as much as possible and for as long as possible, that would be quite cool...
I don't see that working unless they radically change the nature of what "evil Kirk" is. The point in the original is that both halves of Kirk are parts of who he is normally, that he needs them both to be the effective leader and whole person that he is. So anything that his "dark side" did would be part of his own potential and nature. If half of him committed murder, that would taint him irredeemably as a character.
Kirk the Jerk? It's sort of the same double standard used in the A-Team though isn't it? The characters engage in combat all the time and people die from hitting their heads on the ground, bleeding on the brain, or being blown up by a makeshift bazooka. I take your point though - I just think if Janice has to die, make it really controversial!
^Err, what? That's a complete non sequitur, and it's also completely counterfactual, since hardly anybody ever died on The A-Team.
Sorry if my point wasn't clear! People die in car accidents all the time. The A-team blew up lots of cars but people just got out unharmed. However, realistically, they could never have known that those people would be unharmed. They could be found guilty of attempted murder. If Kirk punches Rand and she falls awkwardly how is that more heinous than punching a mook in a bar. Any one of them could fall awkardly and die.
^Again, that has absolutely nothing to do with my point. Turning half of Kirk into a murderer, accidental or not, makes all of Kirk a murderer, and that's not an acceptable place to take his character. They'd have to change the story altogether so that the "duplicate" turned out to be an impostor or his Mirror self or something.
Oh I dunno, he's already a cheat, a user, and a summary executioner. If evil Kirk were to cross that line in the Nu Universe, who'd even notice? Even NuSpock believes in summary executions.
Huh? They were supposed to save Nero (and his big, dangerous ship?) at the last minute and put him on trial?
I made no judgment on what they were supposed to do; I merely observed what they did do and that NuSpock was in favour of summary execution. Judging by Scotty's harsh punishment in the comic I'm sure evil Kirk would have his diminished responsibility defence handy too... Still, the upshot of this conversation is that everybody thinks Janice must LIVE! It's a relief I can tell you.
Well, yes, Kirk's dark side obviously attempted to rape Janice, but he didn't succeed. An attempted crime doesn't taint a fictional character as irrevocably as a completed crime does. There are a number of TOS episodes where characters were driven into a killing rage against their shipmates by some force or other -- "Amok Time," "Day of the Dove," "The Tholian Web," "All Our Yesterdays" -- but they didn't actually kill, so the attempt was excused. If they actually had succeeded in the attempt, though, that would be a lifechanging act and there'd be no going back from it.
I don't think (if it happens) that it's going to be anything like that. I drew the Tasha Yar parallel for a reason - I think (again, if it happens) that Janice will simply be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and suffer the fate of many a redshirt. Maybe she gets crushed to powder by Rojan of "By Any Other Name," for example, or joins "Cupcake" Hendorff as part of the security team casualties of "The Apple." It obviously won't bother our heroes quite as much as it would in the Prime Universe since they didn't really get a chance to know her (though Kirk will of course be mourning the death of "one of my crew"). But for us readers, and longtime Trekkers, it'll be one heck of a nasty blow.
It's difficult to know at this point. Hendorff may be scheduled for termination in the sequel so I think he's safe in the comic for now. The only other recurring characters so far are Rand, Boma, Zahra, and Keenser. I think they should give them all some more time to develop as individuals before killing any of them but that won't be easy in the limited space of the comics. I do think that the only way to start to establish Janice as more than a cipher is to portray her properly as Kirk's Yeoman with him and her on a landing party for some one-on-one dialogue.
TOS precedent aside, is there any real reason for a yeoman -- essentially a secretary/clerk -- to be on a landing party? Well, come to think of it, I guess maybe so, since a yeoman would be the logical one to keep the logs and records of the mission, to handle regular check-ins with the ship, and stuff like that. Although unfortunately I don't think we ever really saw that in the show. The job duties of yeomen on landing parties in TOS seemed to be nebulous and limited mainly to being romantic interests or damsels in distress.
On diplomatic missions, I'd say yes. On general exploration missions it would make far more sense to have scientists in charge of recording data. I also expect every crewman goes on a landing duty rota so that everyone gets off the ship once in a while. If you look at it too closely, most of the crew on landing parties had no logical reason to be there - Kirk included!