Why were most of the women Yeomen?

[Gotham Central]

Why were so many of the female characters yeomen instead of actual officers?

Its even more peculiar given that both Pike and Kirk made note of how odd it was to have female yeomen. In fact, I don't think that we EVER saw a male yeoman.

 

[seigezunt]

Because it was made in the 1960s?

And if you follow the Early Voyages comic, Pike's first yeoman was a man...

 

[sbk1234]

Personally, I would have HATED to see any man in one of those miniskirts!

But that's just me.

 

[sbk1234]

Seriously, though, on a similar thought, why haven't any other captains been shown having yeomen? With all the administrative duties involved in running a ship, you'd think they'd all have them.

 

[Wingsley]

GR & co. obviously regarded the title of yeo-man was fitting for a wo-man.

It was their play on words, like a play on letters: you know, T... A... why not add a Y?

 

[Christopher]

Because it was made in the 1960s?

Indeed. That's also why we almost never saw a female Starfleet officer above the rank of lieutenant (I think Anne Mulhall was the only exception).

And if you follow the Early Voyages comic, Pike's first yeoman was a man...

That's implicit in "The Cage" itself.

NUMBER ONE: She's replacing your former yeoman, sir.
PIKE: She does a good job, all right. It's just that I can't get used to having a woman on the bridge. (At Number One's reaction) No offense, Lieutenant. You're different, of course.

The implication is that Pike isn't accustomed to having a female yeoman.

Similarly, in "The Corbomite Maneuver," Kirk says:

When I find the headquarters genius that assigned me a female yeoman...

Again indicating that yeomen aren't uniformly female. Although that's not the way it ultimately worked out on the show. Perhaps the original idea was for a female yeoman to be somewhat unusual, but then came all the casting changes. NBC didn't care for any of the cast in "The Cage," so everyone was replaced, and in the second pilot, the yeoman du jour, Smith, had only one or two lines and was only there at all because Roddenberry wanted to sleep with the actress. Then the series came along and Rand was there as basically a retooled Colt, a yeoman who was a romantic interest for the captain. For a while, she was the yeoman. But then she left the show, and various female guest stars were cast in her place, never for more than one episode. So the show kind of got into a habit, I guess.

 

[Shaw]

Actually, part of the reason for all the female yeomen (specially in the first season) seems to have been based on the fact that one of the primary characters was a female yeomen and the writers were writing scripts to include her. With the departure of Grace Lee Whitney what we got was the female yeomen of the week.

 

[Pauln6]

Actually, part of the reason for all the female yeomen (specially in the first season) seems to have been based on the fact that one of the primary characters was a female yeomen and the writers were writing scripts to include her. With the departure of Grace Lee Whitney what we got was the female yeomen of the week.

Yes, that's the impression I get. It was partly to replace Rand in the scripts and partly because they couldn't bring themselves to have female security officers.

 

[Orcus]

NBC didn't care for any of the cast in "The Cage," so everyone was replaced, and in the second pilot, the yeoman du jour, Smith, had only one or two lines and was only there at all because Roddenberry wanted to sleep with the actress.

Are you sure that's the reason she was there...? Has this story been corroborated elsewhere...?

 

[Shazam!]

Why were so many of the female characters yeomen instead of actual officers?

Because actual officers either crash the ship or get you stranded in the Delta quadtrant.

 

[Christopher]

NBC didn't care for any of the cast in "The Cage," so everyone was replaced, and in the second pilot, the yeoman du jour, Smith, had only one or two lines and was only there at all because Roddenberry wanted to sleep with the actress.

Are you sure that's the reason she was there...? Has this story been corroborated elsewhere...?

Hey, I didn't make it up. It's asserted in Inside Star Trek by Solow & Justman, p. 75, where Solow writes:

Model Andrea Dromm... came aboard for the second pilot, as Yeoman Smith. Actually, it was a non-part. But during the casting process, director Jimmy Goldstone overheard Gene say, "I'm hiring her because I want to score with her." It was not only a non-part, I'm sure it was a non-score as well.

Okay, so it's a secondhand, apocryphal account. But it would certainly be in character. Roddenberry cast his mistress Majel Barrett in everything he ever did. It's a confirmed fact that he had an affair with Nichelle Nichols. He was a classic 1960s Hollywood producer, which means he made liberal use of the casting couch.

And it's not as if Andrea Dromm was much of an actress. She was a model best known for her commercial work, and has a very short acting resume. Her only line in the entire episode was "The name's Smith, sir," and she was basically just there to look pretty (which she did very well). Ironically, she was played up as a major cast member in an NBC promotional brochure, appearing on the cover with Shatner as if she were one of the leads.

 

[mb22]

According to the book Drive in Dream Girls Justman and Solow's statement "surprises Dromm, who says of Roddenberry. I had no problems with Gene at all. I thought he was a very nice man." According to a 1988 People magazine article, After retiring from acting and modeling she has been living off her real estate investments and splitting her time between homes in The Hamptons and Palm Beach.

 

[Orcus]

According to the book Drive in Dream Girls Justman and Solow's statement "surprises Dromm, who says of Roddenberry. I had no problems with Gene at all. I thought he was a very nice man." According to a 1988 People magazine article, After retiring from acting and modeling she has been living off her real estate investments and splitting her time between homes in The Hamptons and Palm Beach.

Well... if that's where her homes are - she's done very well...

 

[Christopher]

According to the book Drive in Dream Girls Justman and Solow's statement "surprises Dromm, who says of Roddenberry. I had no problems with Gene at all. I thought he was a very nice man."

Hm. So I guess Solow was right that it was a non-score.

I didn't want to give the impression that GR was going around forcing himself on women. From what I've read and gathered, he was someone that had a lot of natural charisma, so that women responded to him without him having to be aggressive. Much like Jim Kirk, in fact. So I don't think he would've caused problems for any woman who wasn't interested, even if he did only cast them in the hopes of a "score." So I don't see any contradiction between the two statements.

 

[seigezunt]

From the profits of Come Spy With Me?

That looks so awesome...

 

[I am not Spock]

Wasn't the PR line for their getting rid of Rand that 'they didn't want Kirk tied down to one love interest'? So they gave him a new female yeoman just about every week.

 

[mb22]

According to the book Drive in Dream Girls Justman and Solow's statement "surprises Dromm, who says of Roddenberry. I had no problems with Gene at all. I thought he was a very nice man." According to a 1988 People magazine article, After retiring from acting and modeling she has been living off her real estate investments and splitting her time between homes in The Hamptons and Palm Beach.

Well... if that's where her homes are - she's done very well...

Who said all blondes are dumb?

 

[SiorX]

Why were so many of the female characters yeomen instead of actual officers?

Because actual officers either crash the ship or get you stranded in the Delta quadtrant.

Or blow up a Borg cube with a couple of paperclips and a skeleton crew of learner drivers.

 

[Christopher]

I get so sick of that sexist, unfunny joke about Deanna "crashing the ship." The ship was crashing anyway; she managed to bring it down without a single fatality, which is astonishingly good piloting that deserves commendation. So all the chauvinist idiots snickering about "women drivers" need to wake up and join the goddamn 21st century.

 

[Pauln6]

I get so sick of that sexist, unfunny joke about Deanna "crashing the ship." The ship was crashing anyway; she managed to bring it down without a single fatality, which is astonishingly good piloting that deserves commendation. So all the chauvinist idiots snickering about "women drivers" need to wake up and join the goddamn 21st century.

It had nothing to do with being a woman. She was drunk on duty again and didn't expect to have to drive. We know this because it is her counselling technique as evidenced in First Contact!