What happened to "The Cage" Cast

[tomalak301]

Not sure if this question get's asked a lot but it was something I was curious about after watching the episode last night. I know they wanted a more vibrant captain which explains bringing in Shatner and they wanted to keep Nimoy, but what about the other members of the cast. I'm talking of course mainly about Susan Oliver's character, Dr. Boyce, and the helmsman. I really liked Dr. Boyce and that scene in Pike's quarters really getting into how Pike was feeling and Susan Oliver's character was kinda attractive. Why didn't they keep these characters around or at least find a way to bring them back.

 

[Maurice]

Not sure if this question get's asked a lot but it was something I was curious about after watching the episode last night. I know they wanted a more vibrant captain which explains bringing in Shatner and they wanted to keep Nimoy, but what about the other members of the cast. I'm talking of course mainly about Susan Oliver's character, Dr. Boyce, and the helmsman. I really liked Dr. Boyce and that scene in Pike's quarters really getting into how Pike was feeling and Susan Oliver's character was kinda attractive. Why didn't they keep these characters around or at least find a way to bring them back.

Apparently, the network didn't like them.

According to Herb Solow, from Inside Star Trek p. 60, the network said:

Then came their [NBC's] wants and desires...

"In varying degrees, we're not too happy with some of the cast. We support the concept of a woman in a strong, leading role, but we have serious doubts as to Majel Barrett's abilities to 'carry' the show as its costar. We also think you can do better with the ship's doctor, the yeoman, and other members of the crew. We applaud the attempt at a racial mix: it's exactly what we want. Hopefully, there'll be more experienced minority actors available for next year. Jeffrey Hunter was okay, and if you want to use him again, that's fine with us.

"Leonard Nimoy isn't a problem, the role he plays is a major problem! If you want to lose Nimoy, that's also fine with us..."

Hence only Spock suriving to the next pilot, and that because the Trek staff fought for him.

 

[NCC1968]

Hunter was probably most famous for playing Jesus 5yrs before Trek, but had a couple stokes and died in 1969.
I'm glad Majel moved to nurse......

 

[Kelso]

Minority actors?

 

[Green Shirt]

Minority actors?

You know, people who act only part of the time - spending the rest of their day eating, sleeping and whatever else.

 

[btflash]

Not sure if this question get's asked a lot but it was something I was curious about after watching the episode last night. I know they wanted a more vibrant captain which explains bringing in Shatner and they wanted to keep Nimoy, but what about the other members of the cast. I'm talking of course mainly about Susan Oliver's character, Dr. Boyce, and the helmsman. I really liked Dr. Boyce and that scene in Pike's quarters really getting into how Pike was feeling and Susan Oliver's character was kinda attractive. Why didn't they keep these characters around or at least find a way to bring them back.

i read somewhere that they wanted hunter back as pike but he balked. he decided instead to focus on his movie career.

 

[Kryton]

It was Hunter's WIFE who told DesiLu he was too big a star for a sci-fi TV series (tell that to Guy Williams!)...but the story goes that she represented him because he was often too heavily intoxicated to do so himself.

Fell and hit his head on some stairs and never recovered from it.

RE: The OP...I'm reasonably certain the Vina character was never going to be a part of the series. She certainly was too old to start training for StarFleet and her physical deformities would get in the way of performing her duties. There was simply no place for her...especially if they wanted to keep the ship's captain single.

 

[KeepOnTrekking]

Didn't John Hoyt (Dr. Boyce) have a role in the 80s on Gimme a Break with Nell Carter? I think he was an uncle or grandfather (not the dad played by Dolph Sweet who died during the series).

 

[Christopher]

Minority actors?

Yes, NBC's executives at the time were making an active push to include more ethnic diversity in their series casts. The most diversity Roddenberry managed in "The Cage" was to include a helmsman who was supposedly Hispanic (Jose Tyler) but who was actually blond. So the network wanted a more diverse mix; hence Sulu and Alden in the second pilot, and Uhura later on.

As for John Hoyt, he wasn't Roddenberry's choice for the doctor, but he got talked into it. So both he and the network wanted someone different for the second pilot. But again, Roddenberry was pressed into using someone who wasn't his choice, and we got Paul Fix. Finally, when the series went ahead, GR was able to cast the actor he'd wanted from the beginning, DeForest Kelley.

RE: The OP...I'm reasonably certain the Vina character was never going to be a part of the series. She certainly was too old to start training for StarFleet and her physical deformities would get in the way of performing her duties. There was simply no place for her...especially if they wanted to keep the ship's captain single.

Well, since she was left behind on Talos IV at the end of the pilot, it's quite clear that she wasn't meant to be a regular. I suspect the OP may have been confusing Susan Oliver (Vina) with Laurel Goodwin (Yeoman Colt).

 

[tomalak301]

Chris:

I was talking about the Yeoman. She was kind of attractive, probably moreso than Rand.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Minority actors?

They may have meant the women, though I'm not sure that women were often yet referred to as a "minority" in 1965. There are a couple of background characters on the set who are not causcasian, I think (one guy in the transporter room).

NBC was being pretty aggressive about trying to broaden the casting of the shows they bought beyond whites, as the memo to Solow indicates - this is, of course, at variance with Roddenberry's attempts to portray them as knuckle-draggers.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Chris:

I was talking about the Yeoman. She was kind of attractive, probably moreso than Rand.

Yeoman Colt? She was a Kewpie doll. Not what I'd call attractive.

 

[mythme]

Chris:

I was talking about the Yeoman. She was kind of attractive, probably moreso than Rand.

Yeoman Colt? She was a Kewpie doll. Not what I'd call attractive.

Some of us LIKE that look, y'know. Frankly, I think Colt is hotter than Rand. Same way some like Ezri over Jadzia, or Kes over Seven

 

[Nerys Myk]

Yeoman Smith over Colt and Rand.

 

[Neopeius]

Chris:

I was talking about the Yeoman. She was kind of attractive, probably moreso than Rand.

Yeoman Colt? She was a Kewpie doll. Not what I'd call attractive.

More for us, then.

 

[mythme]

Yeoman Smith over Colt and Rand.

I'll give you that one actually

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Chris:

I was talking about the Yeoman. She was kind of attractive, probably moreso than Rand.

Yeoman Colt? She was a Kewpie doll. Not what I'd call attractive.

More for us, then.

Have fun fighting over a stick figure.

 

[Neopeius]

Yeoman Colt? She was a Kewpie doll. Not what I'd call attractive.

More for us, then.

Have fun fighting over a stick figure.

Her figure was not readily discernible under that uniform. I don't know that it was her fault.

 

[Jackson_Roykirk]

Yeoman Colt? She was a Kewpie doll. Not what I'd call attractive.

More for us, then.

Have fun fighting over a stick figure.

She (Laurel Goodwin) starred in the Elvis Presley movie Girls, Girls, Girls before she did The Cage. I think she had a descent figure in that movie, although she was never a "curvaceous" women...she was more petite. However, she was nevertheless very attractive.

Although I'd say that Susan Oliver (Vina) from the cage was the most attractive one in that episode. I would also have to go with Yeoman Jones...errr...Smith as the most attractive from WNMHGB, and possibly the best looking Yeoman in the entiree series.

Andrea Dromm (Yeoman Smith) would have probably been cast as a 'regular' instead of Grace Lee Whitney, but in the months between the pilot being shot and NBC deciding to buy that pilot, Andrea Dromm got other work that prevented her from doing Star Trek. Before Star Trek, Dromm became a overnight sensation as the sexy stewardess in TV commersials for "National Airlines". After WNMHGB she starred in the Classic cold-war dark comedy The Russians are Coming, and again became a TV commercial star as Clairol's "Summer Blonde" girl.

 

[Warped9]

Chris:

I was talking about the Yeoman. She was kind of attractive, probably moreso than Rand.

Yeoman Colt? She was a Kewpie doll. Not what I'd call attractive.

Gotta agree to an extent. With that pony tail she came across as someone barely out of high school.

Now as to those who like that virginal school girl look, well, to each his own.

But in fairness, with a different look and a little seasoning the character might have worked out rather well. In Marvel Comics' series Early Voyages the Colt character was handled reasonably well.