Gillian Taylor?

[Xenu Cruise]

I was just reading the Memory Beta article on Gillian Taylor from ST IV and I'm surprised and how little she has been used in the Trek world. It looks like only a couple of books and a short story. Is there a particular reason for this? You would think that an established character traveling from "our" time to the future would provide many more potential stories. Was she off limits for some reason?

 

[Christopher]

She's shown up in a couple of tales here and there. But there are so many different characters and concepts floating around in the Trek canon that some of them are bound to fall through the cracks. And the time period Gillian inhabits, the late TOS movie era, isn't one that's been heavily explored overall. Besides, she's a marine biologist, not the kind of character who'd have a wide range of uses in a series about space exploration.* So it's not too surprising that she hasn't been a heavily utilized character.


*A lot of people seem to assume the "ship" she was assigned to at the end of the movie was a starship, but that makes no sense to me. She's the planet's only living humpback-whale expert, so she'd be needed to take care of George and Gracie, and considering that she gave up her whole life in the 20th century to stay with them, there's no way she'd abandon them to go haring off into space. It must've been a seagoing research ship that would track the whales.

 

[kkozoriz1]

She referred to it as a "science vessel". It could be taken either way but a sea going ship makes more sense.

 

[CaseyF]

Yeah, it wouldn't really make sense for her to go zipping off into space when the main reason she went to the future was for George & Gracie. Especially considering how obsessed with them she seemed to be. I don't think I've read any of the appearances she's made in TrekLit other than Chris Claremont's graphic novel, but I would be interested to see her story revisited to further explore what happened to her after the movie. (Even though she actually kinda bugged me the last time I watched STIV.)

 

[F. King Daniel]

Maybe it's an aquaship of sorts, like the TOS aquashuttle, the Xindi pod or the Delta Flyer. Warp to planets then swim with the fishies.

I'm sure Gillian would get a huge kick out of meeting the sapient dolphins from Diane Duane's "Dark Mirror", the Aquans (and Sursnake) from TAS and the Xindi Aquatics from Enterprise. I think "OMGlolz!" would sum it up.

 

[Christopher]

Maybe it's an aquaship of sorts, like the TOS aquashuttle, the Xindi pod or the Delta Flyer. Warp to planets then swim with the fishies.

But George and Gracie are on Earth. There's no way in hell Gillian would abandon them. I mean, they're the only members of their species in what's essentially an alien ocean -- one three centuries removed from the one they knew, no doubt with changes in the distribution and abundances of species, and no doubt with newly evolved disease strains. They'll have to relearn where to go to feed themselves, and they'll be vulnerable to all sorts of dangers as they adjust. It would be criminal for Gillian to abandon them. She's the only person in the whole damn Federation who's qualified to take care of them.

 

[JarodRussell]

Maybe it's an aquaship of sorts, like the TOS aquashuttle, the Xindi pod or the Delta Flyer. Warp to planets then swim with the fishies.

But George and Gracie are on Earth. There's no way in hell Gillian would abandon them. I mean, they're the only members of their species in what's essentially an alien ocean -- one three centuries removed from the one they knew, no doubt with changes in the distribution and abundances of species, and no doubt with newly evolved disease strains. They'll have to relearn where to go to feed themselves, and they'll be vulnerable to all sorts of dangers as they adjust. It would be criminal for Gillian to abandon them. She's the only person in the whole damn Federation who's qualified to take care of them.

Though apparently any Vulcan would be able to communicate with them and simply ask them what their problems are and what they need.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I don't think I've read any of the appearances she's made in TrekLit other than Chris Claremont's graphic novel

I recall an interview with someone at DC Comics, either in the comic lettercol or a "Starlog", saying that there were plans for Kirk and Gillian to reunite (this was apart from the "Debt of Honor" appearance) but that story seemingly never came to fruition.

 

[Greg Cox]

Rumor has it she was last seen in Hunt Valley, Maryland a few weekends ago . . .

 

[Csalem]

Personally I wouldn't mind not seeing her again. After all, it is ok to let some characters go.

 

[Cybersnark]

Personally, I'd love to see an aquatic-based Trek story. Aside from TVH itself, Trek has never really touched on environmentalism (which, regardless of what side of the Global Warming Kerfuffle you happen to be on, is undeniably becoming an even more topical issue than it was in the 80s).

 

[Defcon]

Personally, I'd love to see an aquatic-based Trek story.

^There were some aquatic-based novels. Off the top of my head I remember:

Deep Domain by Howard Weinstein
Ice Trap by L.A. Graf
From the Depths by Victor Milan
The Tears of the Singers by Melinda Snodgrass (all TOS)
Over a Torrent Sea by Christopher L. Bennett (Titan)

And I'm sure I'm forgetting quite a few.

 

[F. King Daniel]

^Atlantis Station! The first Trek book (YA) I ever read
Cadet Geordi!