Lt. Riley/Bruce Hyde

My kids have just finishing watch "Naked Time," and they are dancing around the house and singing "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen." Their question for the forum - why wasn't Lt. Riley in many more episodes?

 

When my fiancé was a grad student at St. Cloud State University, her office was right next door to Bruce Hyde's.

http://www.stcloudstate.edu/theatrefilmdance/theatre/facstaff/brucehyde.asp

 

Star Trek History (a great website) has an interview with Hyde about his two episodes and his life at the time: http://www.startrekhistory.com/interviews.html

 

Sure would have been cool to see him have a cameo in one of the original 6 films.

 

Riley was supposed to be a "done in one" type character like most guest stars on TOS. The character he played in "Conscience of the King" being Riley was the result of Hyde being cast, prompting a name change.

 

I liked Riley and wish he could have been a regular character at least as much as Lt Kyle, who also showed up in TWOK. As was mentioned upthread, Hyde became a professor at St. Cloud U., where he remained until his death two years ago.

 

It may only be a rumor, but I thought the producers bumped Riley off because they had a Scotsman on board.

 

Why would they do that? Riley isn't a Scot. He's just one of those Americans who get drunk on St. Patrick's Day and yells "Kiss me!! I'm Irish!

 

Because Ireland is close to Scotland, and they thought having 2 somewhat similar crewmen would be redundant. IIRC, Doohan voiced his own opinions against Riley becoming a regular character.

 

But Riley isn't Irish. That would like Doohan objecting to Kirk because "Kirk" is a Scottish name. Heck, "McCoy" is a Scottish name too. So there are three "Scots" characters on the show.

 

Memory Alpha says that Riley was born in Ireland.

 

The Naked Time had a vague reference to being "born an Irishman." That could just refer to ancestry. There was no specific indication that Riley himself was supposed to have come from Ireland, such as a stereotypical fake accent.

Kor

 

Riley says at one point in Naked Time: "You know what Joe's mistake was? He wasn't born an Irishman."

He also says at another point: "Have no fear, O'Riley's here, and one Irishman is worth ten thousand of you..." (and gets cut off by Spock).

And from Wikipedia:

"I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen" is a popular song written by Thomas P. Westendorf in 1875. In spite of its German-American origins, it is widely mistaken to be an Irish ballad.
​

(and Riley says that it is "an ancient Irish favorite")

So its kinda silly to deny that he was intended to be Irish.

PS:
SPOCK: Fascinating. A pattern is developing. First, Tormolen. Hidden personality traits being forced to the surface. Then Riley, who fancies himself a descendant of Irish kings, and now Sulu, who is at heart a swashbuckler out of your 18th century.

 

Well, he didn't claim to be Albanian.

 

"Irish Pride" is a quite different thing from actually being born and raised in Ireland. America is full of "Irishmen" who've never set foot in Ireland. Hyde didn't bother with an Irish accent in the "sober" portions of Naked Time or in Conscience of the King.

 

OIC - you must be born in Ireland (and speak with a stereotypical Irish accent) to be Irish.

True, there was no dialog to the effect: "I, Kevin Thomas Riley, was born in Ireland and lived there until my family moved to Tarsus IV when I was a child". I'm sure it was an oversight.

 

Well, being born in Ireland is pretty much a given for the most part. The accent less so.

 

Are we talking about ethnicity, residency, citizenship, or what? Those are different things that don't always intersect. Someone born outside of Ireland is entitled to Irish citizenship if at least one parent was an Irish citizen at the time. And someone with no Irish ancestry can become part of the Irish nation by naturalization.

Riley seemed to be a North American (or Tarsian) of Irish heritage, perhaps describable as an Irish-American-Tarsian.

Kor

 

I'm just glad they re-used his character name for the second appearance. I hate it when an actor comes back and plays the same exact type of character but has a different name for no reason other than the script was written by somebody else. That's as bad as when a new actor plays a part that someone else played before.