That's a strong point, and I wish I'd remembered it, but I feel like I should say Good Catch, because it's an exception to the rule. And a brief one. But I won't deny "you got me" with that shot of Uhura.
Yeoman Rand's Tower of Hair
- Thread starter ZapBrannigan
- Start date
That's a strong point, and I wish I'd remembered it, but I feel like I should say Good Catch, because it's an exception to the rule. And a brief one. But I won't deny "you got me" with that shot of Uhura.
Not about gotchasThat's a strong point, and I wish I'd remembered it, but I feel like I should say Good Catch, because it's an exception to the rule. And a brief one. But I won't deny "you got me" with that shot of Uhura.
This was probably the real reason:
TOS was very big on reusing FX shots. Now we tend to think about ships and planets and Rigelian castles but there was also the viewscreen.
Here is a sampling of the over-the-helm shot that appears to contain Styles in the nav seat. Look how wide it stretches across the series:
https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x14hd/balanceofterrorhd030.jpg
https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x10hd/thecorbomitemaneuverhd004.jpg
https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x06hd/thedoomsdaymachinehd0456.jpg
https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x23hd/theomegagloryhd0012.jpg
https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x13hd/elaanoftroyiushd1292.jpg
https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x10hd/thecorbomitemaneuverhd004.jpg
https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x06hd/thedoomsdaymachinehd0456.jpg
https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x23hd/theomegagloryhd0012.jpg
https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x13hd/elaanoftroyiushd1292.jpg
When Takei was unavailable do to the filming of The Green Berets, they created a new over-the-helm with Chekov
https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x15hd/thetroublewithtribbleshd0078.jpg
https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x08hd/fortheworldishollowandihavetouchedtheskyhd0138.jpg
https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x01hd/spocksbrainhd0019.jpg
Thing is they used these shots even when the odd person out was actually Sulu or Chekov.https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x08hd/fortheworldishollowandihavetouchedtheskyhd0138.jpg
https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x01hd/spocksbrainhd0019.jpg
ETA: Of course I agree with you that they could have done more but that is just hindsight talking. And to be honest, it seems on viewing the show that racial relations and The War were the more prevalent topics of the day.
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As I said the last time this came up; the female agents on Avengers kicked ass and took names (and shared top billing with the male star) at a time when Uhura was relegated to be a glorified telephone operator and never even had a single episode centered on her. So even for the time Star Trek wasn't pushing any bounderies.
Yep, people crying over Mary Sue characters have obviously never seen Cathy Gale or Emma Peel.
Yet Emma Peel left the spying game to presumably become a good "housewife" when her husband returned.
I'm thinking it was alright to have a woman femme fatale spy but you never saw a woman in charge of the spy agency until HJudi Dench in the 90s.
To give GR some credit He did have a female first officer in the Cage. OK she was crushing on the captain but she still did a competant intelligent job leading the crew when Pike was away. So this was GRs original intention. Perhaps he did get downhearted when they said they didn't want Majel in the role. I know the theory around here was that they didn't want GRs mistress in a major role. What if GR took it literally to mean no women commanding men in combination with his stresses over his marriage and wanting to have attractive female guest stars at his beck and call. In the early episodes you had Rand and Uhura man the helm and a woman engineer in charge of men, women wearing pants. After that it was mainly men in charge except on alien vessels.
My pet theory is that the PTB thought that Majel didn't have the charisma for the role. She was sort of dull and serious. I don't know how Nimoy pulled it off.
I thought that Nichele had two much charisma and that distracted from her serious role as communications officer. When Palmer took over the role I thougt communications was a busy place doing important things..
I thought you know GR didn't realise there were no woman captains or senior officers aboard the Enterprise until I heard he admitted that was his intention in the last episode of TOS and Sirtis said she nearly was fired because GR said there only needed to be 2 women in the cast TNG.
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The Man From UNCLE had a Russian character in a prominent role three years before Chekov was even introduced, with David McCallum quickly rivaling series star Robert Vaughn in popularity. And I Spy presented Bill Cosby as a equal partner to Robert Culp a year before Star Trek premiered. Roddenberry wasn't quite the trailblazer he liked to present himself as.
That's not just a theory people on the BBS have. Herbert Solow and Robert Justman confirmed it in their book Inside Star Trek: The Real Story. NBC execs thought that Majel Barrett wasn't up to such a prominent role (Justifiably, IMO -- Her performance in "The Cage" is pretty flat) and they also had big concerns about casting the producer's mistress in the role. But again, Roddenberry repeated his "The network was too sexist to accept a female first officer!" myth because it made him look good.
When Barrett popped up again in "disguise" in her blonde wig as Nurse Chapel in dailies for "The Naked Time," NBC execs quipped, "Well, look who's back." They weren't fooled for a second.
Actually, the Avengers did have Mother (a man) and Father (a woman) in charge of their agency but Father was a late addition and I'm not sure if she appeared more than once, when Mother was incapacitated. That said, the portrayal of the women became increasingly tongue in cheek. Father was pathologically clinical and, as you say, Peel quit to become a housewife.
Palmer was fine but a bit of a cipher in her two episodes. Muldaur was probably best able to inject competence and personality although Charlene Masters was cool too. It's only really Rand, Smith, Landon, and Mears that have discernable personalities out of the yeomen and all four of them were involved as a love interest for another character. I think Uhura does well to project so much competence and personality while avoiding the love interest pit trap.
Roddenberry took active steps to hamper Rand's development by encouraging the writers to keep her as Kirk's valet rather than letting her man other stations. That might be why they struggled to find things for her character to do.
I almost forgot I'd done this... a little cameo for Rand in the Tholian Web...
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I always wondered if the housewife thing was just meant to be ironic and of course Emma Peel wouldn't be satified by that.
I have to confess now that while I've been a big fan of Star Trek forever but I first started watching it on re-runs and never actually realised that Rand was a regular until I started looking at Star Trek forums. I liked Rand when she was sassy and would have loved to see the proposed friendship between her and Spock keeping Kirk out of trouble.
My opinion on Rand and Chapel are that I like their characters until they started crushing. Its just embarressing to all woman-kind.
My favourite episode for Uhura was the Kzinti animated episode. Because she and Sulu were treated the same.
I've always found that recollection a bit dubious; there is almost two years between The Cage and The Naked Time, after all.
I took that just to be that Kirk wants to "drive"--pilot the shuttle himself because that's the kind of guy her is, and no woman or man would be doing it for him, except Spock for a few moments when Kirk needs to talk.
In stardate order, "Wolf in the Fold" is the episode prior, so my theory is that the "accident that threw Scotty against a bulkhead" is when he jumped to save Uhura and was "killed" by Nomad. This is why Kirk and McCoy are so worried about personality changes from Scotty's "blow to the head": they don't really know or comprehend what Nomad did to revive Scotty to his usual self...
At some point on some thread I hope to list all the times in TOS when Uhura was probably in command, but offscreen. Balance of Terror is one example. I have said before that I think that the scene in The Trouble With Tribbles where Kirk issues various ship order to Uhura and leaves the Bridge, based on who is on the Bridge at that time he must be leaving her in command, but she never sits in the chair onscreen in that episode so I did not realize it for a long time.
My take is that the makers of TOS never thought Uhura had the Conn, at any point during the series. I can't recall any Starfleet woman in that position. So you're suggesting head canon.
"The Lorelei Signal" would be the first case of Uhura taking charge, and the way she announces it, it sounds like an extreme and unprecedented course of action. Like she's a radio technician and not someone who would ever be issuing the rudder orders.
It's only really Rand, Smith, Landon, and Mears that have discernable personalities out of the yeomen and all four of them were involved as a love interest for another character.
Smith? You must be thinking of Colt from The Cage. Yeoman Smith in WNMHGB has barely one line in the entire episode and mostly just stands around looking attractive (and holding Gary Mitchell's hand in a moment of tension).
Smith? You must be thinking of Colt from The Cage. Yeoman Smith in WNMHGB has barely one line in the entire episode and mostly just stands around looking attractive (and holding Gary Mitchell's hand in a moment of tension).
You are right! I was thinking of Colt. My bad.
Don't forget efficiently dispensing coffee l, providing the male bridge crew with something to oogle at if they got bored of looking at stars and being the most "popular" of Kirk's crew. She, supposedly, did those things too.
Also, Yeoman Barrows would like a word.
Omg I meant Barrows instead of Mears. Have I reached the point in my life where Rand is the only identifiable yeoman is the one with the huge hair?
Well, there is that old joke about "memory being the second thing to go...and I don't remember the first."
I would add Yeoman Tamula to the list, if for no other reason than they hand her a weapon and put her on guard duty.
https://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x23hd/atasteofarmageddonhd686.jpg
Barrows had more personality than all of the others combined...including Rand.
Lol - nah. She was the cutest IMO, but when you re-watch the episode, she's still pretty much useless. Just watching Man Trap - my favourite Rand appearance. She has way more personality in this one that any of the other yeomen.
More disturbingly, the part was originally written for Rand and the romance plot was shifted to McCoy when Barrows replaced her. What do we see? Rand's secret fantasy is to be stalked and sexually assaulted! I think this obsession the writers had with Rand's repressed desires is all the more sinister following the actress's claims that she was probably fired to get her out of the way after she herself was sexually assaulted by one of the producers. Can't help wondering if this narrative of her character secretly wanting some man to dominate her played directly into that producer's weird fantasy. If you take another look at Dagger of the Mind where they said the script with Rand brought the Kirk relationship too much to the fore, could that have been code for, this character's plot arc is getting weirder and creepier. so we need to use a different character?