Characters who were supposed to end up as more than they were.

[johnnybear]

I'm glad that Joanna didn't end as love interest for Kirk.

I'm happy too as Kirk falling for Joanna wouldn't have been a good idea and as seen with Miri Kirk wasn't really attracted to her and knew his boundaries but an affair with Joanna would have made an unrepairable rift with McCoy I'm sure and would have upset the balance of the following episodes!
JB

 

[johnnybear]

That's a good point. Hyde surely remembered, but he may have simply accepted the idea that his character would be different as just the way things were done. Heck, Star Trek itself brought back guest actors numerous times to play different roles (Morgan Woodward, Mark Lenard, etc.).

The Invaders and many other shows of that era did the same! Suzanne Pleshette played an alien woman called Vikki who had emotions in The Invaders episode The Mutation and the following year played Anne Gibbs, an alien woman who had emotions in the penultimate episode of the series!
JB

 

[Grendelsbayne]

I'm happy too as Kirk falling for Joanna wouldn't have been a good idea and as seen with Miri Kirk wasn't really attracted to her and knew his boundaries but an affair with Joanna would have made an unrepairable rift with McCoy I'm sure and would have upset the balance of the following episodes!
JB

I agree it's better it didn't happen, but you're overestimating the showrunners' willingness to put continuity over consistency. The following episodes would have shown Kirk and McCoy's relationship exactly as it always was, likely without ever even mentioning Joanna, no matter what happened between them in the episode she was in. That's just the way TOS worked.

 

[Kilana2]

That would have been yukky for Kirk hitting on his best friend's daughter...
Hitting on a 19 year old in Conscience of the King was bad enough.

In one of the novels Kirk had a cadet as love interest. WTF

 

[1001001]

Says the guy who once called me "Grandpa" for preferring Sixties music....

What's that?

You want us to get off your lawn?

 

[Nyotarules]

In one of the novels Kirk had a cadet as love interest. WTF

You can join Starfleet at any age. Kelvin Kirk joined at 22, McCoy at 28, Chekov at 14 so how old was the cadet in the novel?

 

[Timo]

In any case, that was one creepy cadet, having Kirk as her (?) love interest.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[marlboro]

This was the same era where Gunsmoke (and other Westerns) would reuse guest stars multiple times in the same season, sometimes in the same outfits in a similar role, all as different characters. Things were a little more theatrical with how they approached casting.

Gunsmoke, imo, is one of the top 5 tv shows of all time. Endlessly rewatchable. The radio version was awesome, too.

Morgan Woodward, who had two memorable TOS appearances, was a guest star in 17 different Gunsmoke episodes playing mild mannered farmers, railroad tycoons, crazed mountain men, and everything in between. Those were the days of the great tv character actor; you could watch an actor playing a mad dog killer on one show, and see them play a kindly parish priest the next and the audience would buy in completely both times.

 

[johnnybear]

I agree it's better it didn't happen, but you're overestimating the showrunners' willingness to put continuity over consistency. The following episodes would have shown Kirk and McCoy's relationship exactly as it always was, likely without ever even mentioning Joanna, no matter what happened between them in the episode she was in. That's just the way TOS worked.

Yep I know and that's why I loved episodic television shows of that era and still do! But if Kirk had of got involved with Joanna, logically it would have been ridiculous for McCoy and Kirk to have carried on as before! No Father ever wants a man to touch his daughter and especially if that man is one of his best friends so it's great that it was never made even if we lost something crucial about the McCoy character in the process!
JB

 

[marlboro]

Kirk: So, Bones, when is your daughter supposed to beam aboard?

McCoy: Oh, any minute now. She was supposed to visit last month but I was busy attending that medical conference on Qo' noS. Y'know there was a Klingon physician there who claimed he could perform a vasectomy with a disruptor.

Kirk: ...um...really? That's fascinat-

McCoy: - I'm not sure I could do it with a Federation phaser, but theoretically I could do it. If I had to.

Kirk: Point taken, doctor.



/Bones spends the next 48 minutes of the episode repeatedly phasering Kirk in the crotch.

 

[Kilana2]

You can join Starfleet at any age. Kelvin Kirk joined at 22, McCoy at 28, Chekov at 14 so how old was the cadet in the novel?

She seemed to be quite young, but not outrageously so. It was in Fearful Summons. I googled it at Memory Beta. No age of the cadet was stated, though.

 

[Shaka Zulu]

Harry Mudd actually is alive in the 24th century in the novel continuity.

What are the specifics of that?

 

[Phoenix219]

As far as I can recall, the early scenario was basically what eventually evolved into the episode 'The Neutral Zone', with the plot being the Enterprise-D finding a ship with a bunch of people from the past in suspended animation, one of them being Harry Mudd. This was indeed from the very early conceptual stages of The Next Generation, before Carmel's death saw them rethink the idea (ultimately resurrecting it, alongside the Romulans, for the first season finale).

Quite a few of the 'early outlines' of TNG first season episodes featured more explicit links to TOS and her crew. Only 'The Naked Now' really reflects that in the finished season as aired, but for just one example, 'Code of Honor' originally was about a planet visited (in an off screen adventure) by Kirk and his crew, who still held a blood vengeance for the people of the USS Enterprise for something Kirk had done 100 years before, and to which they still held the crew of the new Enterprise responsible. Which on paper sounds hella more interesting than what we eventually got instead

That reminds me of the idea that Too Short a Season was meant for Shatner as a sequel to A Private Little War.

 

[johnnybear]

Yes I read that years ago but I could never have seen them killing Kirk off on TV plus the producers and writers were very wary of using any references to the original series in the first few seasons! Mentions of the events in The Naked Time and of Spock in the episode Sarek were all we really got if you don't include Klingons and the Romulans from The Neutral Zone!
JB

 

[Phoenix219]

Yes I read that years ago but I could never have seen them killing Kirk off on TV plus the producers and writers were very wary of using any references to the original series in the first few seasons! Mentions of the events in The Naked Time and of Spock in the episode Sarek were all we really got if you don't include Klingons and the Romulans from The Neutral Zone!
JB

I'm sure if it had happened, they would have reversed/stopped the process around the proper age for Shatner to be afterward able to play his normal aged 1987 self. I doubt they would have killed him. They didn't want that to all overshadow the TNG crew so early in its development, so it never happened. As a TOS guy, I love the thought - a rejuvenated Kirk and long lived Spock teaming up for the occasional guest spots on TNG over the years? Awesome! It would also destroy the possibility of the later butchering of the character in Generations.

 

[Farscape One]

Cutler on ENTERPRISE. The actress died in 2003. But she could have been used more in the first 2 seasons. I liked her... her scenes with Phlox were great.

 

[johnnybear]

Not sure why everyone hates Generations? I thought it was good if not great! But then I liked the spirituality behind living in the Nexus ribbon so maybe I missed the point?
JB

 

[The Wormhole]

What are the specifics of that?

Cybernetic enhancements.

 

[marlboro]

Not sure why everyone hates Generations? I thought it was good if not great! But then I liked the spirituality behind living in the Nexus ribbon so maybe I missed the point?
JB

Have you ever read the follow-up novella "The Stuff of Dreams"? It's pretty good, imo.

 

[Phoenix219]

Not sure why everyone hates Generations? I thought it was good if not great! But then I liked the spirituality behind living in the Nexus ribbon so maybe I missed the point?
JB

I will never forgive them.... for the death of my hero; for the death of James Kirk. Let that movie die.



For the big budget movie spectacular that it should have been, the entire movie was a disappointment, and the nexus rules were inconsistent, and the idea never fully realized or capitalized on.