Biggest mistake of season one was to get rid of Yeoman Rand in my opinion!
JB
JB
The roles of Uhura, Sulu & Chekov (and maybe Scotty?)
- Thread starter Danlav05
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I don't see that is exactly a mistake, but there were also extenuating circumstances. Her work environment had been poisoned.
External events aside, the mistake was generating too many stories early on where her focus was how tragic it was fancying Kirk or vice versa. However, as an occasional guest star, she could have been used in more story focused roles, like in Charlie X. Plus there were certainly episodes where landing parties could have benefitted from a familiar (or any) female presence. Majel Barrett only appeared in 3 or 4 episodes of season one. Featuring Rand in a similar number of episodes after the dust had settled would have been the better way forward for the show and for the character. I think once they had started down that path, they would probably have found it quite easy to find stories to make decent use of the character.
The biggest mistake was her hairdo!
Agree, back in the Sixties I don't recall Ilya Kuryakin's accent as being very strong or his Russianness being pushed as strongly as it is in the recent movie version.
Well I liked her anyways!
JB
JB
Bees gotta live somewhere.
BTW I think John Byrne might be planning to feature Rand again in one of his upcoming New Visions stories - beehive and all.
I know there were issues about what happened to the actress playing Rand. However, I think they initially intended a will they, won't they running plot between Kirk and Rand but it would have reduced Kirk's flexibility to meet and love other women.
For example, in City at the Edge of Forever it would have taken some of the emotional impact out of Kirk's love for Joan Collins' Edith
I wouldn't mind a thread dedicated to this type of re-imagining - what kind of threads could we draw out?
In my head canon, City on the Edge of Forever created an alternate universe, Mirror Mirror should have been the future of the Nazi-won WWII, and Alternative Factor should have dealt with the invasion from the Other Side. There are other episodes that could possibly be strung together as well; The Naked Time leading into Tomorrow is Yesterday, for instance; I wouldn't mind finding a way of explaining all the "duplicate of Earth" planets either, and between the Preservers and episodes like World is Hollow, some kind of ongoing arc could be developed. Robert Korby could have a connection to I, Mudd. I know some people hate connecting the dots, but what if it is done all within one series? What kind of serial story arcs could have come from what we have?
Hm, makes me sad that we never had a "Lower Decks" style TOS episode, focusing on the junior officers. Perhaps had the series survived for a few more seasons..
I don't see that happening in the early 70's TV landscape.
Probably not, but then again like any other long running TV series, they would have been running out of story ideas by the fifth or sixth season.
They'd probably add a cute kid, before doing a lower decks episode,
They just weren't a thing.
In the '60s, many background TV actors were just 'wallpaper'. It was nice that they used the same folks over and over again to give consistency, but really, they weren't important to the scheme of things. I think STAR TREK did a commendable job in allowing us to recognize and appreciate these underlings as they made the ship's crew seem more real.
No no nooooo... The wallpaper in Star Trek was very intentionally multi-coloured. Sulu, Uhura, Chekov (and Spock for that matter) were very much intended to be noticed and be involved and to make a statement about the political landscape at the time. The supporting players were just rarely going to be significant plot-wise.
I remember when I was really young, I assumed that Scotty was the third of TOS's "Big Three," I think on the theory that Kirk, Spock, and Scotty were each in a different color uniform. I mean, how could McCoy be that important? He was wearing the same color as First Officer Spock!
James Doohan has said that part of the reason that Scotty became more prominent than was originally planned was because it became valuable to be able to cut away to the engine room during a ship-wide crisis. So Scotty's role was expanded to "first of the supporting guys" more for technical needs than anything else. McCoy's role was expanded to full co-star status because DeForest Kelley was giving the character so much personality (a bit like what Jonathan Harris did on Lost in Space, now that I think of it).
James Doohan has said that part of the reason that Scotty became more prominent than was originally planned was because it became valuable to be able to cut away to the engine room during a ship-wide crisis. So Scotty's role was expanded to "first of the supporting guys" more for technical needs than anything else. McCoy's role was expanded to full co-star status because DeForest Kelley was giving the character so much personality (a bit like what Jonathan Harris did on Lost in Space, now that I think of it).
I hope he keeps the beehive. Changing her hairstyle via Photoshop in every panel she appears in would be a lot of time & effort towards something that would just end up being not especially convincing anyway. Why create the distraction?BTW I think John Byrne might be planning to feature Rand again in one of his upcoming New Visions stories - beehive and all.
But that just makes the Mirror Universe an alternate timeline. It's not. It's a parallel universe. Not the same thing.
As you're probably aware, tying the two episodes together in that fashion was writer D.C. Fontana's original plan. I pretty much weave them together in my head that way whenever I watch those reruns now.
How?
A parallel universe doesn't necessarily have a specific, single point where things went askew. An altered timeline does.
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