"That Which Survives" at 50

I think it’s rhe hair more than the makeup but I didn’t really appreciate how beautiful she is until seeing her in The Time Tunnel and the Batman movie.

 

That's a great comparison, and also furthers "our" point as Spock and Kirk were very supportive in that episode.

Spock was just off, there's no other way to explain his dialogue, maybe when the ship was transported he was reassembled incorrectly.

Lee Meriwether has been great in everything I've seen her in, excellent here.

And Watkins! For once someone actually said something before they got killed.

James Doohan was also very good, not just repairing the ship but when Watkins was killed.


It always bothers me that the literal description of the damage the Losira construct does to the people makes me think all that should be left is a pile of mush.

 

I don't know what it is but Droxine (Diana Ewing) just doesn't float my boat where as Charlene Polite did!
JB

 

...too bad she just couldn’t manage to sneak up on J.T. Kirk . That rest chamber scene could have had a different ending.

 

That Bill Theiss dress saved the 3rd season fabric budget.

 

+1

 

I know what you're getting at my Lord but I won't budge! I won't, I won't, I won't....
JB

 

JB Droxine/Vanna alert status: Maintain general quarters!

 

You're right; the hair wasn't a good look (on anyone) either. (IOW, if she couldn't pull off the hair and costume, I don't like many other people's chances.) As to the makeup, I always wondered if it was a subtle nod by Fred Phillips to her Catwoman days.

 

I loved Lee Meriwether in Batman 66. Trek could have used more permanent female characters, and she would have been a good choice. What if Chekov had been played by a woman? Lee already had experience with bad accents and worse wigs.

 

For us speed junkies, Enterprise was planning to go almost 1000 lys in about 11.5 hours at warp 8.4! This is the fastest documented distance and time determination on screen; over 500,000 c! Impressive.

(P.S. I prefer Droxine's costume over Losira's costume, JB. We're talking costumes, right? )

 

With all due respect to Walter, Chekov was a huge mistake. When the ship's doctor was cast it should have been a woman, but having missed that opportunity, the new crewman in Season 2 should have been a woman who could hold her own among the heroes. Any one of Celeste Yarnall, Diana Muldaur, Marianna Hill, Valora Noland, or Elinor Donahue would have fit right in and balanced out the show much better.

 

You’re forgetting, my friend, that Roddenberry heaped the whole “NBC doesn’t want a strong woman” on Majel. There was no way he was gonna cast another woman in a major ongoing role.

Also, Davy Jones was the reason for Chekov. Nope, TNG thinking was 20 years away.

 

I can't help but think NBC's thinking may have been "Maybe you shouldn't cast the mediocre actress you're schtuping as the second most important character on the show?". They did launch The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. the same year as TOS after all.

Chekov did have the Monkees wig, but I wonder if the popularity of David McCallum on Uncle was the real impetus for the introduction of the character.

 

The memos that have been published seem to only mention “that English fellow” on The Monkees. Spock was the stoic “Ilya” type on the series. So they already had him.

Yeah, apparently the network really resented Majel being cast more than the idea of Number One being a woman.

 

Side note, but I particularly remember Lee Meriweather was in the Batman movie with Frank Gorshin (Bele in "Let That Be...") and she was in the Time Tunnel with Whit Bissell (Lurry in "Tribbles").

There'll be many other connections, those just stuck in my mind.

 

What's interesting is that I'm not really sure that she couldn't act. Her performances in The Cage, WALGMO, and Amok Time aren't bad. She's also pretty good when she's in small parts of eps here and there too, particularly in S3. (Wink of an Eye jumps to mind, as does The Tholian Web.) And while I wasn't the hugest fan of the Troi's Mom episodes on TNG, I think she did pretty well there too, and the computer voice work (I can feel the jokes from here) was solid.

But I can see how the studio didn't want her carrying a show or any portion thereof. And how it was GR's interference or pushing of MB that the network resented.

 

Yeah, our strongest theory leaves GR with a surprising level of guile and hypocrisy:

- He made Number One a woman in "The Cage" to give his girlfriend Majel a good job.

- NBC liked having a woman in that spot, just not Majel (per Solow and Justman).

- GR told Majel she was out because NBC refused to have a woman in a leadership role.

- He kept up the personal deception of Majel by depriving Starfleet of strong women ever after.

- When the lie about NBC got out, GR doubled down by trumpeting it, publicly portraying himself as a brave and lonely fighter for women's rights, against the corporate ogres who were holding women down. This conceit became part of his near-cult leader status among fans in the 1970s.

- Behind the scenes, he "fought for women's equality" by cheating on his wife with Majel, cheating on Majel with Nichelle, cheating on Nichelle with any actress he could ply for sex, and never mind what happened to Grace.

 

Yeah, that's unfortunately a solid summary and not really one requiring much conjecture.

 

Nope! I think Charlene Polite was much sexier than Diana Ewing, nothing to do with costumes to be honest!
JB