Janice Rand Seasons 1-3

[Pauln6]

So, I've been reading the threads about how Rand's potential role in Dagger of the Mind was re-written for Helen Noel, but also how other parts were tweaked to fit recurring characters like Lt Kelowitz, Nurse Chapel, or how Sulu's lines were gifted to Chekov when Takei was unavailable.

Despite being billed as the female lead, it was only in Charlie X that Rand was elevated above the ensemble. In the Man Trap and the Enemy Within she is no more prominent than Uhura and Sulu (although that is partly because they were given meatier scenes in some of the early episodes), and in Miri she is prominent by virtue of being on the landing party although she does nothing useful or noteworthy (her interactions with Miri are off-screen and she makes no effort to reason with the children or escape their clutches). In her remaining episodes she gets a handful of walk-ons that are nominally equivalent to Uhura announcing that hailing frequencies are open or Sulu repeating a course change, albeit that they are often a bit tongue-in-cheek for some comic effect.

I'm the first to admit that, as written, Rand's contribution was limited but I also rather enjoyed her as a character. I can't really imagine them writing many more episodes that featured her as an adjunct of the big three but she could have remained as part of the ensemble. She was the everyman who asked dumb questions for the others to explain, she was the female comic relief, and she was a woman who was not tied to one location. This got me thinking: if Janice Rand had stayed on the show, how could she have been developed, and in what episodes could she have appeared?

For this mental exercise, I set aside all the real-world politics, budgetary constraints, and scandal, and instead focused on the in-character TOS universe. Chekov and Chapel appeared in roughly thirty episodes so I thought I'd aim for that. For season one, it's really easy; you just replace every random yeoman with Rand, in addition to Helen Noel and Uhura's role in city on the Edge of Forever, taking you to fifteen appearances. Personally, I think she could have contributed to Court Martial, delivering the dialogue of the records officer, This Side of Paradise, being affected by the spores, and maybe even in the court scenes of the Menagerie, which would take her up to 18 episodes already but what about the later seasons?

It's pretty clear that Rand's loss was Uhura's gain, but it would not be right to say that she should steal all of Uhura's best moments. I avoided the inter-racial kiss in Plato's step-children, and the yeoman in By Any Other Name (although only as it was a second season episode; if it had been a third season episode I would have killed Rand - it would have been even more shocking than season one of Spooks!). I focused on episodes that had a role for someone in admin, episodes where she could provide emotional support for Kirk, fun episodes where she could have helped provide comic relief, and episodes that were too much of a sausage fest. Personally, i would have preferred to see Rand thinking for herself and acting on her own initiative more often. As a main character that might have come eventually, although it was very rare for any female guest-stars to have that kind of gumption so it's doubtful. However, some of the later yeoman did display wider training so that might have come in time. I can imagine that scenes between her and Chekov could have been fun.

I split them up into First Tier role (main character who is part of the focus of the episode), Second Tier (part of the ensemble who gets to show off some personality), Third Tier (delivers some supporting dialogue), and Cameo (blink and you'll miss her). So the list I came up with was:

1. The Corbomite Maneuver - third tier role
2. Balance of Terror - third tier role
3. The Naked Time - third tier role
4. The Man Trap - second tier role
5. The Enemy Within - second tier role
6. Miri - First tier role (barely)
7. The Conscience of the King - cameo
8. Charlie X - First tier role

9. This Side of Paradise - second tier role (among the trippy spore-ridden crew)
10. The Squire of Gothos - interchangeable yeoman, second tier role
11. The Galileo Seven - interchangeable yeoman second tier role
12. The Menagerie 1 & 2 - third tier role (admin role in court scenes)
13. The City on the Edge of Forever - second tier role (Uhura's part on the planet)
14. Shore Leave - interchangeable yeoman, second tier role (torn about this one as Barrows is a love interest for McCoy and is so darn cute)
15. Operation -- Annihilate! - interchangeable yeoman second tier role
16. Dagger of the Mind - First tier role (Noel's part)
17. Court Martial - third tier role (admin role in court scenes)
18. A Taste of Armageddon - interchangeable yeoman, second tier role

19. The Spectre of the Gun - second tier role (sausage fest - get a girl on that landing party)
20. The Apple - interchangeable yeoman, second tier role (torn about this one as Landon is a love interest for Chekov and it was the actress's own martial arts training that gave us our only kick-ass yeoman)
21. Mirror, Mirror - Evil duplicate, second tier role (not necessarily replacing Barbara Luna, I'd probably put her in as a rival who is part of Chekov's coup)
22. The Deadly Years - second tier role (support for Kirk)
23. The Changeling - second tier role (empty-headed Rand - would anybody notice?)
24. I, Mudd - second tier role (as a captive on the planet)
25. The Trouble with Tribbles - second tier role (Rand was in an early draft and she could easily have been the crewman who buys the first tribble)
26. A Piece of the Action - second tier role (Rand in gangster's moll mode could have been fun)
27. Obsession - second tier role (support for Kirk)
28. The Ultimate Computer - third tier role (support for Kirk)

29. Elaan of Troyus - second tier role (assistant to the Dollman)
30. The Enterprise Incident - third tier role (support for Kirk)
31. The Tholian Web - second tier role (the element of Uhura's role having visions of Kirk)
32. Wink of an Eye - third tier role (frozen crewman fun)
33. The Savage Curtain - First tier role (sausage fest, get a girl on that landing party)
34. Turnabout Intruder - second tier role (support for Spock)

Anyone got any thoughts on the notion?

 

[Spock's Barber]

'Mirror, Mirror' - Yeoman Rand pushes the Full Duration button on the Agony Booth.

 

[Pauln6]

'Mirror, Mirror' - Yeoman Rand pushes the Full Duration button on the Agony Booth.

Ha ha. Nice.

Just watching Live and Let Die and Rand's evolution could mimic Moneypenny's.

In the original movies, Lois Maxwell's Moneypenny's verbal fencing with Bond was as more of an equal - you could just tell she was a lot of fun at the Xmas party! In Diamonds Are Forever, she follows a guy into an office, subdues him off camera, and breezily pops back out with Bond's new passport. You just knew there was a lot more to her than met the eye.

When she was re-cast for her next two incarantions, she became an efficient but far more subservient, moon-eyed secretary, rather like Rand in TOS, right up until the latest incarnation, played by Naomie Harris, where they finally acknowledged her wider training. I think for Rand to have been a fully rounded character, they would have needed elements from the sixties and most recent Moneypenny to make her really interesting.

And maybe a pillow fight with Mea 3.

 

[BillJ]

I would've put Rand in Chekov's spot in "Mirror, Mirror".

The rest feels like cramming her in for the sake of cramming her in. The fact that we got different yeomen, navigators, helmsmen and comm officers made the Enterprise feel like it actually had 430 people aboard. It is something that was missing from the later shows.

 

[Spock's Barber]

The producers could have brought Rand back to the show at anytime, if Whitney got her life problems straightened out. They could have explained her absence by stating that she was attending technical courses at Starfleet Academy. Then she would have had more opportunity in Sciences or Engineering.

 

[StarFuryG7]

The reason Rand was there was to provide a love interest for Kirk, and had set politics and scandal not gotten in the way of Grace Lee Whitney's connection to the show, it's difficult to say how they would have treated her character as part of the ensemble cast.

And she did have an important scene in "Miri" because she actually confesses to Kirk that she had tried to get him to look at her legs on the ship, expressing a direct [sexual] interest in him. That relationship would have been developed further along those lines apparently had her character not been written out of the series.

 

[BillJ]

The reason Rand was there was to provide a love interest for Kirk, and had set politics and scandal not gotten in the way of Grace Lee Whitney's connection to the show, it's difficult to say how they would have treated her character as part of the ensemble cast.

And she did have an important scene in "Miri" because she actually confesses to Kirk that she had tried to get him to look at her legs on the ship, expressing a direct [sexual] interest in him. That relationship would have been developed further along those lines apparently had her character not been written out of the series.

We dodged an asteroid sized bullet there.

 

[Pauln6]

I would not favour developing that personally. I think flogging that horse was what limited her character development. Picard and Beverly had a frisson but Beverly's character didn't revolve around it. For Rand to develop, they could have used the aftermath of Miri to draw line under that, at least in the short term.

 

[StarFuryG7]

We dodged an asteroid sized bullet there.

I don't know ...I think there would have been times when it might have been interesting to see how Kirk's connection to her would have gotten in the way, not that I would have wanted it to become a major prominent theme in the show. Kirk's woman was always his ship after all, but that's why having kept her around for that purpose might have been somewhat interesting at times.

 

[StarFuryG7]

I would not favour developing that personally.

But that's why she was there originally --that was her purpose and intended function on the show. That's not to say the writers couldn't or wouldn't have changed it at some point if they didn't think it was good or wouldn't work for the show, but that's why she was there, which is why performing a mental exercise of contemplating where else she might have been worked into the series subsequent to her leaving strikes me as rather pointless. You would really have to begin such an exercise along the lines of why she was there in the first place and proceed from the point onward instead, if anything.

 

[Pauln6]

The fact that we got different yeomen, navigators, helmsmen and comm officers made the Enterprise feel like it actually had 430 people aboard. It is something that was missing from the later shows.

Up to a point, I agree with this but then that's why I pitched at involving her only as much as the other recurring characters who appear the least. Uhura appeared in all but 13 episodes or there about but I must confess, when she's not there, I do miss her.

You would really have to begin such an exercise along the lines of why she was there in the first place and proceed from the point onward instead, if anything.

Quite so, that's exactly where I would like to go with the thread. Uhura was there to answer the phones but her best episodes don't revolve around her doing that.

If anything, the reason why Chapel is such a dull character is because they failed to build anything beyond her opening episode (except her attraction to Spock for which, see my views on Rand's attraction to Kirk above). No examination as to what working alongside the 'Louis Pasteur of archaeological medicine' involved, no consideration of her qualifications as a research biologist. No agency in 'disease of the week' shows.

 

[CrazyMatt]

"The Doomsday Machine"--Yeoman Rand, having been transferred a year ago to the U.S.S. Constellation, suffers the same fate as as the rest of the crew. Kirk is saddened at the realization.

Morbid, yes I know. But that's how you write a character out of a show!

 

[Spock's Barber]

"The Doomsday Machine"--Yeoman Rand, having been transferred a year ago to the U.S.S. Constellation, suffers the same fate as as the rest of the crew. Kirk is saddened at the realization.

Morbid, yes I know. But that's how you write a character out of a show!

Crazy, man, crazy! I cringe when I think off Yeoman Rand being on the 3rd planet that was chopped into rubble and sucked into the maw of the Planet Killer. Well, she did wear a red shirt, so I guess there were worse ways to go.

 

[Pauln6]

Ha ha. I don't favour regular characters being killed off camera. I got very annoyed with X-Men - Days of future Past introducing autopsy reports for classic characters fromt eh previous movie - wtf? However, my jaw would have hit the floor if Rand had been crushed to powder by the Kevlans. That would possibly have trumped that classic death in the Serenity movie... ;-P

However, they would need to work with the character to make us really care that she died. Bumping off a bit part or a guest character just doesn't have as much impact. If they were to introduce Janice in NuTrek now to bump her off in the third movie it would have little impact compared to if they had introduced her in the first reboot movie to kill her in the third.

 

[Spock's Barber]

Ha ha. I don't favour regular characters being killed off camera but my jaw would have hit the floor if Rand had been crushed to powder by the Kevlans. That would possibly have trumped that classic death in the Serenity movie... ;-P

Yes, imagine if the Kelvans had accidentally pushed the wrong button and reconstituted Yeoman Thompson after her cube was crushed. Yucccchhhh!

 

[Pauln6]

Yes, imagine if the Kelvans had accidentally pushed the wrong button and reconstituted Yeoman Thompson after her cube was crushed. Yucccchhhh!

No worse than putting Janice in charge of transporters...

 

[Poltargyst]

I liked Rand and would have been happy to have seen her more.

But I like Helen Noel.

 

[Poltargyst]

"The Doomsday Machine"--Yeoman Rand, having been transferred a year ago to the U.S.S. Constellation, suffers the same fate as as the rest of the crew. Kirk is saddened at the realization.

Morbid, yes I know. But that's how you write a character out of a show!

Ha! I like it. What a stunning realization that would have been. And think how it might have altered how Kirk treated Decker from that point on.

 

[2takesfrakes]

I liked Rand and would have been happy to have seen her more.

... Agreed!

However, I never understood the fascination Helen Noel holds with fans. She's never done anything for me ... and I prefer brunettes! But Janice Rand was an Alpha Babe, who was way too cool for the part. She wasn't that much different, or better with Kirk the way than what Nurse Chapel was with Spock, at least on paper. But Janice just had this screen presence about her that made it play a lot better than what Majel Barrett could pull off.

 

[CrazyMatt]

... Agreed!

However, I never understood the fascination Helen Noel holds with fans. She's never done anything for me ... and I prefer brunettes! But Janice Rand was an Alpha Babe, who was way too cool for the part. She wasn't that much different, or better with Kirk the way than what Nurse Chapel was with Spock, at least on paper. But Janice just had this screen presence about her that made it play a lot better than what Majel Barrett could pull off.

Nothing against Janice, but Helen Noel was HOT! And she had a brain! A HOT BRAIN!