Dax named him that.
Casting Pike's Number One
- Thread starter david kelly
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A good deal of phrases we use in every day speech, in English, are throwbacks to things we generally don't know the roots of. Has your room ever been a shambles? Why did you just call it a medieval meat market?
How many things we say, for instance, that are directly pulled from Shakespeare and most of us don't know it, and the rest in general speech use it without awareness. We're still speaking Elizabethan english, mostly oblivious to the context the phrases were used in, but that's fine, they still work anyway:
"one fell swoop", "wild goose chase", "in my heart of hearts", "laughing stock", "fancy free", "green eyed monster", "good riddance", "as luck would have it", "for goodness' sake", "wear my heart upon my sleeve", "break the ice" "be-all and the end-all", "give the devil his due", "love is blind"
anyway, that's the "foregone conclusion" and I "refuse to budge an inch" "in my mind's eye"
so McCoy being called Bones for various reasons, does not seem out of context to me. Seems like we're making much ado about nothing
I guess it lost even more meaning after being translated from the original Klingon.
How did we get to McCoy and Shakespeare from casting Number One? Was it the attempts to justify her name or title at being "Number One" rather than just being called that because she was the first officer of USS Enterprise. Because I sort of understood that Number One was either her name, or I name she earned, while her birth name was something long forgotten.
Keeping her name hidden also a way of creating mystique, and in context, frankly, desexing her, though paradoxically in an almost fetishistic manner.
Another example of the no-name trope in use, besides in the case of Columbo for his first name, was Agent 99. The dynamics in the case of 99 were different than they would have been for Number One, though, because Get Smart was a comedy and parody. In Star Trek, presumably it would have been played straight.
Another example of the no-name trope in use, besides in the case of Columbo for his first name, was Agent 99. The dynamics in the case of 99 were different than they would have been for Number One, though, because Get Smart was a comedy and parody. In Star Trek, presumably it would have been played straight.
You had a humour bypass?
Dax was an ignorant Trill, how dare she know not the real meaning of the name????
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I have another backstory for Number One. At a young age she was tested and shown to have a prodigious intellect. But at the same time she was diagnosed with a developmental disorder akin to Aspergers or high functioning autism that affected her emotional and social development. Through therapy she was able to improve to a certain degree. Still because of her disorder she has a strong aversion to emotion and a preference for logic. She also tends to be perfectionistic and slightly obsessive compulsive .She mostly keeps to her self and spends very little time socializing. She's very guarded about her disorder. Only the doctor and the captain are aware of it on board ship. In spite of the fact, Pike still values her highly and respects her immensely.
i've wondered for some time how long she would have remained just "number one" if the first pilot had become a series?
what would have been done when she was formally introduced to someone? or a situation like court msrtial where her full rank and name was used? at some point roddenberry or a writer would of had to of created a actual name for her.
I can testify that, when writing a Pike-era novel, avoiding her name got to be very cumbersome, particularly in prose. Which is another reason I lobbied for giving her a name in the LEGACIES books. Trying to avoid mentioning her name over the course of an entire trilogy was going to be an ongoing headache . . .
Which is better than it being based on "sawbones."
I can testify that, when writing a Pike-era novel, avoiding her name got to be very cumbersome, particularly in prose. Which is another reason I lobbied for giving her a name in the LEGACIES books. Trying to avoid mentioning her name over the course of an entire trilogy was going to be an ongoing headache . . .
In the military, sometimes they go informal. Exo, Sarge, Lou for Lieutenant, etc. Mostly as you go downward in the chain of command, except in cases where there is a very strong working relationship and mutual respect.
A good deal of phrases we use in every day speech, in English, are throwbacks to things we generally don't know the roots of. Has your room ever been a shambles? Why did you just call it a medieval meat market?
How many things we say, for instance, that are directly pulled from Shakespeare and most of us don't know it, and the rest in general speech use it without awareness. We're still speaking Elizabethan english, mostly oblivious to the context the phrases were used in, but that's fine, they still work anyway:
"one fell swoop", "wild goose chase", "in my heart of hearts", "laughing stock", "fancy free", "green eyed monster", "good riddance", "as luck would have it", "for goodness' sake", "wear my heart upon my sleeve", "break the ice" "be-all and the end-all", "give the devil his due", "love is blind"
anyway, that's the "foregone conclusion" and I "refuse to budge an inch" "in my mind's eye"
so McCoy being called Bones for various reasons, does not seem out of context to me. Seems like we're making much ado about nothing
I have always remember this one the best...
Iago:
"I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs."
(can't help it, my mind has always had to come up from the sewer, to get to the gutter)
(can't help it, my mind has always had to come up from the sewer, to get to the gutter)
Climb the steps, Jim....
or this classic from Taming of the ShrewI have always remember this one the best...
Iago:
"I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs."
(can't help it, my mind has always had to come up from the sewer, to get to the gutter)
Petruchio. Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting?
In his tail.
Katherina. In his tongue.
Petruchio. Whose tongue?
Katherina. Yours, if you talk of tales; and so farewell.
Petruchio. What, with my tongue in your tail? Nay, come again,
Good Kate; I am a gentleman.
Climb the steps, Jim....
"Some of us get off on long and dangerous climbs."
So why was it ever done at all?
Because she's part of the crew?
^ No, I mean, why keep avoiding her name? It's not like they HAVE to leave it out. @Greg Cox's post made it sound like it was a directive imposed upon the novel writers and that they had to keep working around it.
Is there any reason why a novel - ANY novel, even before the novelverse - would have been forbidden from using Number One's name? It's not like "The Cage" decreed she didn't have one. And I hate to keep harping on this, but everyone knows that "Number One" is a common nickname for a ship's first officer, so..you do the math.
Why couldn't an author writing a Pike novel just give her whatever name they felt like? And if other novels did it differently - so what? It'd be like the Romulan Commander from TOS. Before the novelverse settled on "Charvanek", in the old days there'd be like 8 different explanations for her name and what eventually happened to her. This would be no different.
Is there any reason why a novel - ANY novel, even before the novelverse - would have been forbidden from using Number One's name? It's not like "The Cage" decreed she didn't have one. And I hate to keep harping on this, but everyone knows that "Number One" is a common nickname for a ship's first officer, so..you do the math.
Why couldn't an author writing a Pike novel just give her whatever name they felt like? And if other novels did it differently - so what? It'd be like the Romulan Commander from TOS. Before the novelverse settled on "Charvanek", in the old days there'd be like 8 different explanations for her name and what eventually happened to her. This would be no different.
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Roddenberry presumably thought it would add a bit of mystique to the character. Which is why I resist the idea that it was "simply" a reference to her rank as executive officer. Roddenberry made a point of not giving her a name to make her cooler and more exotic. Otherwise he would have simply named her "First Officer Carol Williams" or whatever. (Remember, this was the Sixties: characters with no-name were a thing. Agent 99 on GET SMART, Number Six on THE PRISONER, The One-Armed Man on THE FUGITIVE, Clint Eastwood as The Man with No Name etc.)
How this would have played out on a weekly basis is anybody's guess.
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