Recasting Number One

[david kelly]

If Gene Roddenberry had wanted to keep the Number One character and recasted the role; I can think of the of the ideal candidate for the roleiane Muldaur. Her performance in Return to Tomorrow really has the qualites I see is necessary to bring to the character. She has an air of authority and gravitas that is a right fit. Also, Number One and Ann Mulhall(the character Muldaur played) are both highly intelligent, cooly rational and have a no nonsense air about them.

Who do you think would've been right for the role?

 

[UnknownSample]

DM is great, but could not handle "toughness" well... see her in Planet Earth I think it was called...

 

[Christopher]

I think Lee Meriwether would've been a good Number One.

 

[The Old Mixer]

No need to look too far...how about Nichelle Nichols?

Yeah, I know, making her second in command would probably have been too much for the era.

 

[Harvey]

A balck female co-star would have really been pushing the envelope for an action-adventure series in 1965, but wouldn't that have been something? Still, I don't think Nichelle Nichols had the range to carry a show like that.

There are two other names that seem to have been seriously considered for the role (as seriously considered as one could get, anyway, for a role that Roddenberry clearly conceived for his mistress) -- Jeanne Bal and Lee Meriwether. Both ended up on the show as guest stars, and both would have been interesting (and different) choices. Candidly, both were better actors than Majel Barrett.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Marianna Hill had impeccable beauty, plus the stage presence to carry a show, and the range needed to play strength and authority.

However, my re-casting concept would not be to make her Spock's boss. That would irritate male viewers of the period, as well as deny Spock the prominence he needed to flourish as an iconic character.

I would have cast Hill as the ship's doctor and omitted DeForest Kelley (sorry, but the mix was already very male). Then the big three would have an additional dynamic: a subtext of sexual tension and hints of a romantic triangle.

 

[Christopher]

There are two other names that seem to have been seriously considered for the role (as seriously considered as one could get, anyway, for a role that Roddenberry clearly conceived for his mistress) -- Jeanne Bal and Lee Meriwether. Both ended up on the show as guest stars, and both would have been interesting (and different) choices.

I didn't realize Meriwether had actually been considered for the role. I thought of her because she wasn't really that different from Barrett -- a very similar type in appearance, voice, and personality, but a better, more established actress (although Barrett did get much better by the TNG era) and without the personal baggage that made the network uneasy with Barrett's casting.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

How about Diana Rigg? She would've been 27 at the time, so maybe a little young but I'm sure they could've worked around that.

 

[diankra]

How about Diana Rigg? She would've been 27 at the time, so maybe a little young but I'm sure they could've worked around that.

Depending on whether you mean for The Cage or after, she was either an unknown British actress, on contract for The Avengers, or determined to get out of production line filmed TV after three years of 'life as a mole'.

 

[Nerys Myk]

How about Diana Rigg? She would've been 27 at the time, so maybe a little young but I'm sure they could've worked around that.

As I clicked this thread, that was who I was going to suggest!

 

[CrazyMatt]

I disagree with the idea of casting an actress in her 20's. Pike described her thusly:

PIKE: Sorry, Number One. With little information on this planet, we'll have to leave the ship's most experienced officer here covering us.
NUMBER ONE: Of course, sir.

I wonder if there was a mid- to late-30s actress, suitably attractive to the typical mid-60's male audience, would work better given GR's context. Any ideas on candidates?

 

[Nerys Myk]

I disagree with the idea of casting an actress in her 20's. Pike described her thusly:

PIKE: Sorry, Number One. With little information on this planet, we'll have to leave the ship's most experienced officer here covering us.
NUMBER ONE: Of course, sir.

I wonder if there was a mid- to late-30s actress, suitably attractive to the typical mid-60's male audience, would work better given GR's context. Any ideas on candidates?

Roddenberry describes hers as thus

Never referred to as anything but "Number One", this officer is female. Almost mysteriously female, in fact – slim and dark in a Nile Valley way, age uncertain, one of those women who will always look the same between years twenty and fifty.

 

[Tenacity]

A balck female co-star would have really been pushing the envelope for an action-adventure series in 1965,

I would suggest Diahann Carroll.

She would have been in her early thirties, and the right age to be seen as possible lieutenent commander naval officer. At the time of a possible recast of Number One Carroll had already won the Tony Award (in 1962), which would have made her more acceptable choice to the network. She had the acting chops. In the mid-sixties NBC sent out a memo to it's producers indicating that they (NBC) wanted more Blacks in prominent acting roles.

In 1968 (?) she would have had to leave the show after two years (no contract renew) to star in the TV series Julia, or she would have missed out on that plum role.

Nichelle Nichols mostly likely lacked the ability to help carry the show in the second billing position, and the network would have rejected her.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Diahann Carroll. Great suggestion.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I wonder if there was a mid- to late-30s actress, suitably attractive to the typical mid-60's male audience, would work better given GR's context. Any ideas on candidates?

OK, I don't think she was quite the type that Gene was going for, but since you framed your question the way that you did, and because I always wanted to see her in a Trek role: Anne Francis.

 

[Harvey]

OK, I don't think she was quite the type that Gene was going for, but since you framed your question the way that you did, and because I always wanted to see her in a Trek role: Anne Francis.

Francis was one of the names NBC suggested for the role of Vina. Roddenberry and his casting director went as far to check her availability for the role ("probably available" - she had just appeared in a Burke's Law spin-off pilot).

 

[The Old Mixer]

That would have been Honey West, which went to series but only lasted one year, the 1965-66 season...so she should have been available for the regular production series.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Francis was one of the names NBC suggested for the role of Vina. Roddenberry and his casting director went as far to check her availability for the role ("probably available" - she had just appeared in a Burke's Law spin-off pilot).

Honey West. A show I saw maybe once or twice as kid, but made a lasting impression.

 

[Harvey]

Ah, that's right. Don Ingalls worked on that show. Didn't realize it was a spin-off.

 

[The Old Mixer]

The character was based on a series of books, but they used an appearance on Burke's Law as a backdoor pilot for the TV version.