Revisiting Star Trek Continues...

[Bixby]

There was certainly some precedent for supporting cast romance episodes in TOS. Sulu lost out to Spock but Scotty had two, Chekov had two, Chapel had two (including Spock) , Rand had several (mostly Kirk and two of them were stalkers), McGyvers. The difference in TOS is that the romances were the B plot, there to service the main plot.

An Uhura romance was conspicuously avoided. She just got stalked, sexually assaulted, and mind-wiped, although she did get a crewman to fix her rattling doors.

I was meaning more like background characters who weren't part of the regular cast. More chances Mignogna would have cast seasoned actors for those one-shots...

 

[Warped9]

I was glad to see Mbenga’s reappearance. I would like to have seen Kyle again. I was glad to see a regular Security Chief, but I might have been inclined to bring back Lt. Cmdr. Giotto from “The Devil In The Dark” rather than introducing the new character of Drake. As I mentioned before McKenna should simply have been the new ship’s psychiatrist rather than counsellor. She could even been Helen Noel, or maybe Noel transferred out after messing with Kirk’s head in “Dagger Of The Mind.”

When I look at it overall it seems they were reinterpreting the characters and their relationships some. As mentioned upthread the Spock/McCoy banter was missing. Smith seemed to be getting more attention than Uhura. McKenna was being utilized in place of McCoy.

And instead of just doing episodic stories they were deliberately trying to set the stage for TMP, most blatantly in the last two episodes. And that is something TOS would never have done simply because there is no way whatsoever they could have foreshadowed what was to happen in the years to come.

 

[Bixby]

When I look at it overall it seems they were reinterpreting the characters and their relationships some. As mentioned upthread the Spock/McCoy banter was missing. Smith seemed to be getting more attention than Uhura. McKenna was being utilized in place of McCoy.

IIRC, Kim Stinger AKA NuUhura left STNV to join with Mignogna for the chance of more screen exposure on STC than she was getting. As evidenced in their first episode she did get more scenes, but almost right away her face time dwindled down drastically. I believe only 2 episodes afterward gave her more spotlight.
Sulu apart from Fairest Of Them All didn't really have that much to do at all...
The character that surprised me most of all was Boba Fett Jr who had a great introduction in Lolani, with his expertise on Tellarite ships, then poof-ed away in a cloud of smoke...