Commodore Mendez: hidden reference to José Jiménez

[Just a Bill]

During the 1960s, a comedian named Bill Dana became popular performing one of his characters, a timid astronaut named José Jiménez. José was well known at the time, became an unofficial mascot of NASA's Mercury program, and was enough of a cultural phenomenon to have been later referenced in other works such as The Right Stuff and From the Earth to the Moon. So I think we can safely assume that José would have been known to many who worked on Star Trek TOS.

Now, I've always thought it a bit unusual that Commodore Mendez was one of the few characters in all of TOS to have a middle initial; and it's not one that exactly rolls off the tongue: José I. Mendez is rather awkward. I have to wonder if this awkwardness was a result of somebody slipping in a reference to Jiménez. If we say both names using their Spanish pronunciations, they suddenly become eerily similar since the letter "i" in Spanish has a long-e sound:

• hozay ee mendez
• hozay heemennez

If a writer or story editor wanted to make a tweak to the name of Dana's astronaut character so that it was just different enough to work as a Starfleet Commodore, but still close enough that once you notice it, it seems clear, then this just might be the most direct way to do that. It's interesting that the script had Kirk tell us his first name in Part I, and had Uhura tell us his middle initial in Part II — as if somebody wanted to quietly document the in-joke but bury the puzzle pieces to make sure the comedy reference was not so obvious that it took the viewer out of the story. In these episodes, we never hear enough of the name-parts spoken together in the right order to make us hear the reference; we have to work it all out later (decades later, in my case). Here's what we're fed:

• José alone: just once, in the opening line of Part I, Act 1, right after the opening credits.
• Mendez alone or Commodore Mendez: six times throughout Part I; once more in Part II.
• Mendez, J.I., Commodore: the middle initial/final puzzle piece comes at the very end of Part II.

I also can't help observing that each of these Hispanic characters was played by a non-Hispanic man of Hungarian ancestry.

Finally, given all the Josés that appear in the episodes and background documents of Season 1 (Ortegas, Tyler, Dominguez, Mendez), I have to wonder if Roddenberry himself was a fan of Jiménez.

Anyway, maybe it's all just a double (triple?) coincidence... or maybe not.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

He was also on The Danny Thomas Show, same character name. (Dana, not the other actor)

 

[ZapBrannigan]

During the 1960s, a comedian named Bill Dana became popular performing one of his characters, a timid astronaut named José Jiménez. José was well known at the time, became an unofficial mascot of NASA's Mercury program, and was enough of a cultural phenomenon to have been later referenced in other works such as The Right Stuff and From the Earth to the Moon. So I think we can safely assume that José would have been known to many who worked on Star Trek TOS.

Now, I've always thought it a bit unusual that Commodore Mendez was one of the few characters in all of TOS to have a middle initial; and it's not one that exactly rolls off the tongue: José I. Mendez is rather awkward. I have to wonder if this awkwardness was a result of somebody slipping in a reference to Jiménez. If we say both names using their Spanish pronunciations, they suddenly become eerily similar since the letter "i" in Spanish has a long-e sound:

• hozay ee mendez
• hozay heemennez

If a writer or story editor wanted to make a tweak to the name of Dana's astronaut character so that it was just different enough to work as a Starfleet Commodore, but still close enough that once you notice it, it seems clear, then this just might be the most direct way to do that. It's interesting that the script had Kirk tell us his first name in Part I, and had Uhura tell us his middle initial in Part II — as if somebody wanted to quietly document the in-joke but bury the puzzle pieces to make sure the comedy reference was not so obvious that it took the viewer out of the story. In these episodes, we never hear enough of the name-parts spoken together in the right order to make us hear the reference; we have to work it all out later (decades later, in my case). Here's what we're fed:

• José alone: just once, in the opening line of Part I, Act 1, right after the opening credits.
• Mendez alone or Commodore Mendez: six times throughout Part I; once more in Part II.
• Mendez, J.I., Commodore: the middle initial/final puzzle piece comes at the very end of Part II.

I also can't help observing that each of these Hispanic characters was played by a non-Hispanic man of Hungarian ancestry.

Finally, given all the Josés that appear in the episodes and background documents of Season 1 (Ortegas, Tyler, Dominguez, Mendez), I have to wonder if Roddenberry himself was a fan of Jiménez.

Anyway, maybe it's all just a double (triple?) coincidence... or maybe not.

Four Josés beat two pair: the Janices and the Singhs. It was the Spanish name that came right to mind for some reason. And the initials JIM make the case for me.

 

[Just a Bill]

He was also on The Danny Thomas Show, same character name. (Dana, not the other actor)

Oh yeah, he was playing that character all over the place back then, and he cut a record album as Jiménez (my parents had a copy).

Four Josés beat two pair: the Janices and the Singhs.

As long as we're counting, under Roddenberry's watch there were also at least four Roberts: Abrams, April, Tomlinson, and Wesley. But the only one of these I think I would count as a direct outside reference is Bob Wesley, which (like the more famous and even more obvious Wesley Crusher) invokes GR's middle name.

 

[Maurice]

Honestly, this smacks of looking for a connection where there isn't one.

For the record, "The Menagerie" Final Draft shooting script in the Justman papers has a cover date of Oct. 7, 1966, but has revision pages dated Oct. 10th. This script only identifies the character as "Jose Mendez" in the scene description on his first appearance, with no middle initial. The only time the "I" initial appears is when Uhura calls down from the bridge at the end of Part II, where the script gives his name as "Mendez, D.I.," not "J.I.", but it was J.I. in the finished episode. We assume the D.I. was a script typo since the de Forest Research memo for "The Menagerie" Oct. 7, 1966 has a note under Cast Comment that reads "Base Commander Jose Mendez. No conflicts."

 

[Christopher]

As long as we're counting, under Roddenberry's watch there were also at least four Roberts: Abrams, April, Tomlinson, and Wesley.

Also, every South Asian character in every Roddenberry production seems to be named Singh -- including Khan, the guy from "The Changeling," and a character from the Genesis II pilot. It could be that he reused the name José simply because he didn't know many Hispanic names.

 

[Just a Bill]

Honestly, this smacks of looking for a connection where there isn't one.

Except I wasn't "looking for a connection" at all. I merely spoke the name with correct pronunciation and the apparent connection jumped out and bit me on the nose. (I suppose it probably seems less apparent to non-Spanish speakers.)

"Hey, anybody ever notice how the slogan 'Sofa-King Good' sounds like So Fu–"​

"This smacks of looking for a connection where there isn't one."​

Whatever, my friend. I just shared an observation; there's no reason to belittle each other. (At least no good one that I can see.)

 

[Maurice]

No one's belittling anyone. I was just pointing out that it was unlikely to have been intentional.

 

[Just a Bill]

"Smacks of" is generally pejorative, but like I said... whatever. Not my first ad hominem, won't be my last, no damage done. I guess I'm just an old enough dinosaur to still wish we could stick to the argument rather than implying that the person's motives were wrong. The more reddit-like the rest of the internet gets, the worse off we all are.

 

[Christopher]

I'm generally skeptical of attempts to draw connections between similar-seeming things, but in this case the suggestion strikes me as plausibly reasoned. It could be a coincidence, of course, since both José and Mendez are fairly common names. But if the Jimenez character was that popular at the time, and that strongly associated with space travel, that increases the odds of it being intentional.

(Except, would the Spanish pronunciation of José be "hozay?" My recollection from high school Spanish is that it would be more like "hosay." As in the old punchline, "José, can you see?")

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I agree it's plausible that it was an intentional reference.

It being plausible is really only the beginning, though. It being plausible doesn't really shed any light on whether it actually was intentional. As said already, it could just as easily be a coincidence. Perhaps it was a reference made only subconsciously, without conscious intention. Was it intentional? Without evidence in the form of a responsible or knowledgeable party indicating that it was, we may never know, one way or another.

It is an interesting question, nonetheless.

 

[BillJ]

Also, every South Asian character in every Roddenberry production seems to be named Singh -- including Khan, the guy from "The Changeling," and a character from the Genesis II pilot. It could be that he reused the name José simply because he didn't know many Hispanic names.

Also had Engineer Singh from TNG’s “Lonely Amongst Us”.

 

[Just a Bill]

(Except, would the Spanish pronunciation of José be "hozay?" My recollection from high school Spanish is that it would be more like "hosay." As in the old punchline, "José, can you see?")

Hmm, yeah, fair point. I guess I was too focused on just the differences to realize I was phoneticizing what Kirk said, not what the actual Spanish pronunciation would be; shoulda been more careful. Nice catch.