One of the interesting things about the TOS movies was that Rand kept making random appearances without ever being made a part of the films. The question is why?
Gene Roddenberry carried a lot of guilt when he realized, years later, that Grace Lee Whitney had sunk further into her losing battle with alcohol and diet pills after her contract was not renewed for TOS. After the series ended, the cast encouraged her to rejoin the convention circuit and Roddenberry wrote her character into the "Star Trek: Phase II" writers' bible. The "In Thy Image" script even puts her on the bridge, as Uhura's relief at Communications.
She could have been given a bigger role and more screen time...say replacing Ilia at the Navigation position instead of De Falco.
Perhaps, but De Falco was played by Marcy Lafferty. William Shatner had fought for her to be cast in the movie. She was his
wife.
There is no reason she could not have been in STII
Yes there is. Grace Lee Whitney was incredibly disappointed that Nick Meyer and Harve Bennett weren't interested in sandwiching her into the script. But she was also not very well at the time, grappling with alcoholism. Grace was a guest at an Australian convention a few days after ST II premiered Down Under. (I was there, on the Guest of Honor table for the banquet!) She had such a great time reconnecting with Aussie fans, she went teetotal from that weekend. As far as I know, she still is. (She related all this in "Starlog".)
Note that Vonda McIntyre put Rand into her ST II novelization, still as transporter chief, but this wasn't scripted.
Not long after ST II, now a born-again Christian, Grace was interviewed on "Entertainment Tonight", discussing her lowest points in her life, and she took the interviewer on a walk down the sleaziest parts of Hollywood Boulevard at night, pointing out the doorways where she'd once worked... as a prostitute.
(she was after all in Spacedock when the Enterprise returned).
At Director Nimoy's request, after principal photography had ended. The Cafeteria scene was filmed on ILM's SPFX sound stage. Grace calls Nimoy "my hero"; they were kindred spirits in the alcohol battles.
Keep in mind that, at the time, Grace had a full-time job as a clerical officer for an actors' agency. She would have had to leave this job, or arrange leave, if her ST movie roles were too frequent or too extensive.
She turns up again in STVI, but does not have much to do.
Yep, although at the last minute, some of her lines were given to Christian Slater for his cameo. She also got to play this version of Rand in "Flashback" (VOY), but she is very stilted in that.
You omitted her role in ST IV. She and Majel Barrett got together at Majel's house for their own private rehearsal of their lines.
I'm just wondering why, on the one hand, they kept bringing her in for cameos...yet never made her one of the team? It would have been nice to have another woman as part of the main group.
They also had to drop Saavik back to a cameo in ST IV because there simply
wasn't enough material to spread out to include Chapel or Rand more regularly than they did.
Re ST VI poll:
We did? Now, THAT'S something I never knew.
It was at a big convention. The unit publicist conducted the hands-up survey. The runner-up was Bruce Hyde to return as Kevin Riley.
I understood why she got a small role in the movies when she was in the VOY episode. She's not a good actress.
There were, no doubt, other factors happening in that week of filming. You can almost hear George Takei whispering to her that this was their big chance at a backdoor pilot for the "Captain Sulu" TV series!
I don't think the director got the best out of
anyone in that episode. Grace can be excellent. Look back at TOS, or some of her non-ST roles.
