Charlene Masters and the Assistant Engineer

[Joel_Kirk]

The attractive specialist, Lt. Charlene Masters from 'The Alternative Factor,' and her assistant (or at least an assistant engineer) seemed to have had a 'thing' going on...

I probably wasn't, but I'll ask anyway: Was this 'relationship' followed up on in a novel, or hinted at?

 

[Therin of Andor]

The attractive specialist, Lt. Charlene Masters from 'The Alternative Factor,' and her assistant (or at least an assistant engineer) seemed to have had a 'thing' going on...

I probably wasn't, but I'll ask anyway: Was this 'relationship' followed up on in a novel, or hinted at?

No, but wasn't the Charlene Masters character supposed to have quite a major role in that episode that was lost to hasty revisions when the script wasn't translating to screen properly? It wasn't the assistant engineer she had the scenes with.

Edit: Ah, Memory Alpha's entry on the episode itself says: "There is no officer played by Larry Riddle as noted in the Star Trek Concordance. Lieutenant Larry Riddle was Charlene Masters' jealous boyfriend in the first draft of the script."

See also:
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Charlene_Masters

She is briefly referred to in the Bantam novel, "World Without End".

 

[Danny99]

I didn't like the character, but I pretty much hated the episode to begin with.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

The attractive specialist, Lt. Charlene Masters from 'The Alternative Factor,' and her assistant (or at least an assistant engineer) seemed to have had a 'thing' going on...

I probably wasn't, but I'll ask anyway: Was this 'relationship' followed up on in a novel, or hinted at?

No, but wasn't the Charlene Masters character supposed to have quite a major role in that episode that was lost to hasty revisions when the script wasn't translating to screen properly? It wasn't the assistant engineer she had the scenes with.

Edit: Ah, Memory Alpha's entry on the episode itself says: "There is no officer played by Larry Riddle as noted in the Star Trek Concordance. Lieutenant Larry Riddle was Charlene Masters' jealous boyfriend in the first draft of the script."

See also:
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Charlene_Masters

She is briefly referred to in the Bantam novel, "World Without End".

Fascinating....

I didn't like the character, but I pretty much hated the episode to begin with.

Yeah, the episode wasn't one of my favorites, but the character was okay, IMO....

 

[T'Girl]

^Compared to the original script, what made it onto the air painted her as a competent, professional officer.


T

 

[Shatmandu]

I probably wasn't, but I'll ask anyway: Was this 'relationship' followed up on in a novel, or hinted at?

During much of my formative years, I had an on-again/off-again relationship with her teeny afro.

Joe, touchy

 

[Nerys Myk]

I probably wasn't, but I'll ask anyway: Was this 'relationship' followed up on in a novel, or hinted at?

During much of my formative years, I had an on-again/off-again relationship with her teeny afro.

Joe, touchy

Charlene (I'm right Behind You)

Mike, truthy

 

[Grant]

No-one ever mentions that as one of less than 20 black actors on TOS they decided to name her 'MASTERS"

Can that really be a coincidence?

Also ironically engineering this episode is in a different place and is totally different than regular engineering.
Isn't that almost an ironic alternate 'segregated' engineering---as if she couldn't be in charge of full-size engineering--only a little adjunct.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

No-one ever mentions that as one of less than 20 black actors on TOS they decided to name her 'MASTERS"

Can that really be a coincidence?

Also ironically engineering this episode is in a different place and is totally different than regular engineering.
Isn't that almost an ironic alternate 'segregated' engineering---as if she couldn't be in charge of full-size engineering--only a little adjunct.

I like the name Masters...

Yeah, she probably could have been in charge of engineering...(However, I don't think it would have helped the story either way)...

Personally, I wouldn't mind be 'segregated' with Lt.Masters....

...or Yeoman Tamura...Yeoman Tankris....Lt. Uhura...Yeoman Martha Landon...Yeoman Teresa Ross....Yeoman Zahra Jamal...Yeoman Tina Lawton...Dr. Helen Noel...

...not at the same time, of course...

 

[Grant]

what's wrong with 'at the same time' ??

If you get tired, just recharge while watching.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

what's wrong with 'at the same time' ??

If you get tired, just recharge while watching.

'Recharge while watching'?

Hmm...

Yeah, Uhura and Noel and Tamura and Masters can amuse themselves while I...um...'recharge'...and watch....

[Note: This thread has a bit of innuendo suddenly...lol]

 

[Nerys Myk]

No-one ever mentions that as one of less than 20 black actors on TOS they decided to name her 'MASTERS"

Can that really be a coincidence?

Also ironically engineering this episode is in a different place and is totally different than regular engineering.
Isn't that almost an ironic alternate 'segregated' engineering---as if she couldn't be in charge of full-size engineering--only a little adjunct.

Wasn't the character named prior to being cast?

 

[Red Ranger]

Masters was cute, and being a season one ep, there were some inconsistencies, like her sleeves didn't have lieutenant's stripes, and she was in sciences blue. Oh, well! The ep is confusing, but I still enjoy the technobabble behind it, the idea of the anti-matter universe, and the threat represented by the insane version of Lazarus. -- RR

 

[Orcus]

No-one ever mentions that as one of less than 20 black actors on TOS they decided to name her 'MASTERS"

Can that really be a coincidence?

Also ironically engineering this episode is in a different place and is totally different than regular engineering.
Isn't that almost an ironic alternate 'segregated' engineering---as if she couldn't be in charge of full-size engineering--only a little adjunct.

FFS, some people see conspiracy in almost everything, don't they?

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Masters was cute, and being a season one ep, there were some inconsistencies, like her sleeves didn't have lieutenant's stripes, and she was in sciences blue. Oh, well! The ep is confusing, but I still enjoy the technobabble behind it, the idea of the anti-matter universe, and the threat represented by the insane version of Lazarus. -- RR

Yeah, it's one of those episodes that had a good idea, but wasn't executed well.

And yes, I recall reading about the Lieutenant's strips...lol

Maybe she was recently promoted, and didn't get around to adding her stripes?

 

[FalTorPan]

No-one ever mentions that as one of less than 20 black actors on TOS they decided to name her 'MASTERS"

Can that really be a coincidence?

Can it really be a coincidence that the less than 19 other black actors on TOS played characters who weren't named "Masters?" Or that this character wasn't named "Servant?" It's too bad that we'll never know the truth, since the documents describing the casting decisions were stolen by the same people who invented the menstrual cycle in a conspiracy against women.

Also ironically engineering this episode is in a different place and is totally different than regular engineering.
Isn't that almost an ironic alternate 'segregated' engineering---as if she couldn't be in charge of full-size engineering--only a little adjunct.

Considering that it costs real money to build a new set, as was done in this episode, as opposed to reusing the standing set, don't you think a racist producer would have been going to great lengths just to be racist? Isn't it just possible that the events of this episode -- stealing multiple dilithium crystals, etc. -- couldn't be supported in the standing set at that time? (At that point the engineering set's main floor was bare and didn't have that crystal housing, which even once built could hold only one crystal.)

 

[Wil has a posse]

My personal theory has always been that Masters was put in a blue uniform to keep viewers from mistaking her for Uhura.

 

[DarKush]

My personal theory has always been that Masters was put in a blue uniform to keep viewers from mistaking her for Uhura.

Of course because all black people look alike. Right?

 

[Grant]

Why do you assign the possible motives of 1966 executives to the poster?

I actually believe that the big-shots in 1966 might have held the idiotic notion of 'all blacks looking alike' to white viewers.
They forbid Uhura from wearing the gold command uniform after episode 4---she was never allowed to sit in the center seat even when they had to throw a nondescript extra in it instead. She had to cry and scream and act scared all the time because that's what the powers thought a female should act like.

So we are to totally exclude the possibilty that some clown would say that the other black female should be in blue?

Also in one episode mentioned recently here they had Uhura in her comm. chair for the whole episode except one scene where they put in another black lady (in red) for one shot.

I think it is very likely that they thought 'from a distance, who'll notice"

In fact they only had 3 female black speaking parts in the whole series as opposed to about 15 male.

And yeah, guys who would name a character 'Lethe'---the river of forgetfulness---who happens to have lost her memory of her past misdeeds---would also be sly enough to make a 23rd century black female have the name 'Masters' as indication that she was 'in charge' as oppsed to being a victim as her racial ancestors sometimes were.

 

[Sir Rhosis]

^^^Have no desire to get involved in this back and forth, but will point out that the character was named Masters in the first draft where she is described (more or less, see the link in my sig) as white.

Sir Rhosis