Fan Edits

This is the basic proof of concept. The key is to keep as much of the dialogue off camera as possible. If I was going all out, I'd probably manually paste Grace's head over the red-uniformed extra, Jeannie Malone, for a few frames in the wide angle shot of the crew. While it does relegate her to the same level of Lt Leslie, Conscience of the King proves that a pout from Rand can speak a thousand words. ;-p

 

People rotate off ships all the time. The idea that this one crew would stay together like some permanent unit never made any sense to me. <shrug>

 

So without providing links, can someone give big clues using words, of how to watch these?

 

That is very true. It's odd that an officer as competent and experienced as Uhura stays at the same post on the same ship for as long as she does. On the other hand, Leslie loves being on the ship so much, he cloned himself several times and some people complain that Discovery can't settle on a captain.

Not only could crew transfer, some clearly have limited postings, plus they're a bit vague on the contractual issues. It's implied that Chapel could just decide to leave after discovering Korby.

I suppose I feel about Rand the way I feel about Ro; I would have liked to see her more often if the real world hadn't intruded. I do like the fact that TOS rotates it's bridge crew more than subsequent Trek but I also do enjoy the occasions when the recurring cast pop up, even if they add nothing to the plot.

There is also the added issue for me that I watched Trek and Batman our of order as a kid, so I had no idea the Rand only appears at the start and Batgirl only appears at the end. My brain wants them to be interspersed more evenly.

 

Nice post. You stirred a question in me with your mention of Ro as I have not immersed myself in TNG/DS9 out-of-universe stuff in a while (and am reeeeally looking forward to getting back into with Picard). Did they originally intend Kira to be Ro on DS9 but Michelle Forbes didn't want to do it or something like that?

Also I agree with you about Ro. I wish she had been around more.

 

Whose?

 

In a nutshell, Michelle Forbes was looking for varied projects and got fed up of them pressuring her to reappear. They toyed with the idea of keeping her as a child in season six because they knew Michelle would not be back. That could have been fun for a few character shows.

 

Ah, no kidding. Must have also been because the young gal playing child Ro was fantastic.

 

Not that I've seen it but didn't she come back for Preemptive Strike in season seven?
JB

 

Yeah they persuaded her back one last time to give the character some closure but they were surprised when she agreed to do it. She did effectively end up doing one appearance in season 6 and one in season 7. It just feels like we could have had so much more from the character. Kira was a fabulous substitute though, so no regrets there.

I like Rand's little cameos in the movies but it would have been nice, from a character perspective, if she'd been given given just a fraction more to do here and there.

 

So after Ro's final appearance in S6, we didn't realise she was off training elsewhere until her S7 appearance. Is that right?

 

I think they might have said 6 months of advanced tactical training in the episode so for season 6 she was just on the night shift I guess!

 

Forbes wanted to focus on movies, and knew that being a regular on a series like DS9 would tie her down too much for film roles. And her film career was in pretty good place at the time, as she had major roles in 1993's Kalifornia with Brad Pitt, Juliette Lewis, and David Duchovny, and 1994's Swimming with Sharks, with Kevin Spacey and Frank Whaley. It was not unrealistic to imagine she might be going on to bigger and better things.

She'd obviously changed her mind about doing series TV just a few years later though, as she signed on as a series regular on NBC's Homicide: Life on the Street as Dr. Julianna Cox in 1996. Perhaps her film career had cooled off enough that getting a steady paycheck seemed like a more appealing option than it did in 1992-93. Or maybe she just liked the material better, as H:LOTS was one of the most critically-acclaimed shows on TV at the time. She left the show after only two years and 30 episodes, though. I'd always assumed that it was her own choice, but Wikipedia says that she was let go.

 

She did a year on True Blood as well, plus appeared several times as a deaf woman in a British TV show with Ken Stott, albeit in the supporting role of a policeman's wife - I think she liked the challenge of learning sign language.

 

So . . . was she originally supposed to be who became Kira Nerys?

 

Perhaps better phrased as Kira Nerys is who the character became when she declined to take the role, but yes.

 

“Invitation to a Shoot-Out”

 

Any interested parties, please *cough* PM me *cough*.

 

And the producers & writers of DS9 said that in the end, it was a good thing for the series. Since Ro was Starfleet, ultimately she would have to defer to Commander Sisko. Major Kira, being in a separate service, was under no such obligation, as we saw in the early episodes of DS9. It was much better for the extra conflict that Berman and Piller wanted to build into the series.

 

Yeah, I agree with this. Having Kira be part of the Bajoran Militia was fascinating, particularly in the early episodes, like The Homecoming/The Circle/The Siege. Her status as a militia member took on less importance after about S3 (and she inexplicably got a uniform that was different than every other BM member, which always bothered me), but Ro would not have functioned as well unless they had her quit Starfleet and join the BM.