The Yeoman

[Falconer]

The writer's guide has “The Yeoman” in the list of the show’s recurring roles; this remained in the bible even after Grace Lee Whitney was gone from the series. Were scripts written with this Yeoman role, specifically, in mind, knowing that it would be given to a different (presumably one-off) actress? Examples? Colt and Smith are Rand’s obvious predecessors, but her successors are less clear to me. (Obviously there were many female guest stars, but they were usually specialists.)

 

[The Wormhole]

IIRC, early drafts of The Galileo Seven did use Rand instead of Mears.

 

[Talos IV]

Doesn't it seem like seasons 1 and 2 had plenty of successor "Yeoman (fill in the blank)" characters, while season 3 had barely any?

 

[Methuselah Flint]

Doesn't it seem like seasons 1 and 2 had plenty of successor "Yeoman (fill in the blank)" characters, while season 3 had barely any?

Yes, and also landing parties were mainly the trio, or Kirk and Spock. All probably aided by less money for additional actors.

 

[Pauln6]

I think the broad concept of the recurring yeoman would have worked if they had steered clear of the frisson between Kirk and Rand so early on. She's not tied to a station, intended to assist the captain generally, and could accompany him on diplomatic missions, while also assisting on the ship. It's a broad, versatile remit.

Where they went wrong IMO is no different to the same mistake Hollywood made for decades, which was pretty much only giving her a role if there is something in the script about her being a love interest. She is stalked, molested, or kidnapped in almost every appearance apart from her intro episode. I also think they moved towards her being more decorative as season one progressed, Barrows and Ross are still in love interest mode, Mears, Tamura, and Zahra are decorative and do nothing useful in the story (I suppose Tamura guards Mea 3, but she essentially just gives a bit of attitude to standing still).

By season two, they had moved on to other guest characters as the love interest and so only used yeomen occasionally, where needed in the plot, probably to save money. So we had Atkins needed to throw Kirk under the bus, Thompson to throw us a curveball when the black dude survives, and Landon because they need a woman to introduce sexual temptation to an innocent society.

I think if Rand had remained as an occasional guest star, her added personality could have elevated the yeoman to a useful character but without that, as purely decoration, she became superfluous.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Did anyone ever come up with a theory as to why Yeoman became such a female-dominated occupation in Starfleet?

 

[Falconer]

Some genius at Starfleet.

 

[Marsden]

I'm sorry, but every time I read this thread title I hear Spock shouting it. The Women! The Yeoman!

I found the Yeoman background info because I was wondering if it's still a current term, it's based on originally on farmers that worked for the lord so it's an old word with a new meaning.
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/yeoman-navy-enlisted-rating-job-description-3345876

 

[Timo]

Since the meaning has changed quite a bit so far already, we probably can't assume it retains its USN meaning, either. So what does it mean in Starfleet?

Knowing that might help understand the odd gender balance, too.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Harlan Ellison's drafts of "The City on the Edge of Forever" featured Yeoman Rand holding off the hostile crew in the transporter room. He started writing the script early in TOS's first season. By the time it was ready to shoot towards the end of the season, Grace Lee Whitney was gone from the series and the Rand role (and the entire subplot about the Enterprise being crewed by renegades) had been removed from the script.

 

[Pauln6]

Harlan Ellison's drafts of "The City on the Edge of Forever" featured Yeoman Rand holding off the hostile crew in the transporter room. He started writing the script early in TOS's first season. By the time it was ready to shoot towards the end of the season, Grace Lee Whitney was gone from the series and the Rand role (and the entire subplot about the Enterprise being crewed by renegades) had been removed from the script.

When I read the recent graphic novel, I thought he'd gone back and tweaked the original draft to make it more palatable for a modern audience. I was really surprised when I read the original and Rand really did rock. Then you look at what they did in the rewrites - yeoman not-Rand runs off to fetch the men, and eventually, although we get Uhura in charge of a security team of white men (deliciously subversive) she ends up just being scared instead of having some agency in the story. We still got Edith but we lost one of the only times a female crewman got to contribute as much as the men.

I think the first draft is how the yeomen should have been portrayed. Senior non-commissioned officer able to take command of junior crew, Jack of all trades, with broad technical skills and security training. Yeomen should be the Captain's personal shuttle pilots, his security back up on diplomatic missions (Pike's yeoman was killed in this capacity), and not just bending from the waist when serving coffee.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

When I read the recent graphic novel, I thought he'd gone back and tweaked the original draft to make it more palatable for a modern audience. I was really surprised when I read the original and Rand really did rock.

No, the graphic novel version of COTEOF is pretty much Ellison's original script, using the likenesses of the television actors. Any changes they made were largely a matter of shifting it from one medium to another.

 

[Pauln6]

No, the graphic novel version of COTEOF is pretty much Ellison's original script, using the likenesses of the television actors. Any changes they made were largely a matter of shifting it from one medium to another.

I don't recall Rand blasting the door with a phaser rifle in the original. I would have been very surprised if a woman had been told to do that in the sixties. Kirk was more hands on.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I don't recall Rand blasting the door with a phaser rifle in the original. I would have been very surprised if a woman had been told to do that in the sixties. Kirk was more hands on.

She does. The exchange in Scene 41 is as follows:

KIRK
(nods understanding)
Yeoman Rand...can you hold the chamber?

RAND
(unsure)
How long, sir?

KIRK
Indefinitely.

There is a beat of silence. Everyone knows what he means. She nods. Kirk looks at Spock.

KIRK
Let's get back.

You have to remember that Ellison's draft was written very early on in the series' development, before any episodes had even aired. All Ellison had to go on were the two pilots, the series bible, some visits to the set, and perhaps some other scripts that had already been written. So Kirk's character and how stuff like how Starfleet operated hadn't been nailed down yet. (Hell, they probably hadn't even settled on the term "Starfleet" for the space service yet.) You can see this reflected in things like Kirk and Spock's slightly more prickly relationship (they get into a shouting match at one point), in Kirk's offhand reference to humans beating Vulcans into space by a couple of centuries, and even in the fact that the Enterprise sends a firing squad down to the Guardians' planet to execute Beckwith in Ellison's original treatment.

And Ellison was a pretty progressive guy for his time. I have no problem believing that he'd write something for Rand to do besides be a space secretary.

 

[Pauln6]

She does. The exchange in Scene 41 is as follows:


You have to remember that Ellison's draft was written very early on in the series' development, before any episodes had even aired. All Ellison had to go on were the two pilots, the series bible, some visits to the set, and perhaps some other scripts that had already been written. So Kirk's character and how stuff like how Starfleet operated hadn't been nailed down yet. (Hell, they probably hadn't even settled on the term "Starfleet" for the space service yet.) You can see this reflected in things like Kirk and Spock's slightly more prickly relationship (they get into a shouting match at one point), in Kirk's offhand reference to humans beating Vulcans into space by a couple of centuries, and even in the fact that the Enterprise sends a firing squad down to the Guardians' planet to execute Beckwith in Ellison's original treatment.

And Ellison was a pretty progressive guy for his time. I have no problem believing that he'd write something for Rand to do besides be a space secretary.

Yeah that bit was awesome but I meant earlier on the Enterprise to blast into the transporter room when chasing Beckworth. I didn't realise that the first draft was written so early though! I thought Ellison had written a cool role for Rand because they became friends and started dating after she left. If he just wrote for Rand as a character, that's actually more impressive that he thought the yeoman should demonstrate her training in the story. That's actually quite rare for the women in TOS.

 

[J.T.B.]

I'm sorry, but every time I read this thread title I hear Spock shouting it. The Women! The Yeoman!

Yeah I did too!

I found the Yeoman background info because I was wondering if it's still a current term, it's based on originally on farmers that worked for the lord so it's an old word with a new meaning.

Or maybe a really old word with an old meaning.

Spoiler: TMI about history of navy yeomen

In the naval sense, "yeoman" was related to the historical meaning of a retainer to a nobleman. It originally meant someone who was entrusted with certain ship's equipment or supplies for a superior, so there was a yeoman of the powder room, yeoman of the storeroom, sailmaker's yeoman etc. The yeoman responsible for a ship's signal flags in the Royal Navy eventually came to be in charge of all visual signalling, and became a very important petty officer, the yeoman of signals. The petty officer who handled a ship's correspondence and clerical work was known as the "writer." The US Navy inherited the yeoman and writer rates, basically unchanged, from the Royal Navy. In the RN the yeomen gradually faded away, but the title of writer is still used for some administrative and HR-type petty officers.

In 1893, U.S. Navy Regulation Circular No. 1 (more famous for creating the rate of chief petty officer) consolidated the engineer's yeoman, equipment yeoman and paymaster's yeoman under the single title of "yeoman," with the specialty mark of crossed keys. The writer wore crossed quill pens.
https://www.uniform-reference.net/insignia/usn/usn_ratings_1886.html

In 1896 the title of "writer" was replaced by "yeoman." This may be an indication that most of the previous yeoman's duties had been clerical and record-keeping, similar to the writer, and there was no need for a distinction between the two. The first, second and third class yeomen now wore the former writer's crossed quill pens, but the chief yeoman still wore the crossed keys, perhaps indicating the higher level of responsibility for property.

The Naval Appropriations Act of 1916 created the new rating of storekeeper in all petty officer grades. The uniform regulations were modified so all yeomen now wore the quills, and all storekeepers the keys. The rating of storekeeper was re-titled logistics specialist in 2009.

The old title of writer lives on in the USN with the "captain's writer," a yeoman who works directly for the CO, and the "flag writer," the equivalent for an admiral and a very select position.

I think the first draft is how the yeomen should have been portrayed. Senior non-commissioned officer able to take command of junior crew, Jack of all trades, with broad technical skills and security training. Yeomen should be the Captain's personal shuttle pilots, his security back up on diplomatic missions (Pike's yeoman was killed in this capacity), and not just bending from the waist when serving coffee.

I agree about the coffee as well as the gender-imbalanced portrayals, but why the rest? Why should the yeoman be a jack of all trades? There are surely people who already specialize as shuttle pilots and security operators. What would be wrong with someone specializing in record-keeping being part of a landing party? In missions with diplomatic implications, they could be among the most important members of the party.

 

[Pauln6]

Yeah I did too!



Or maybe a really old word with an old meaning.

Spoiler: TMI about history of navy yeomen

In the naval sense, "yeoman" was related to the historical meaning of a retainer to a nobleman. It originally meant someone who was entrusted with certain ship's equipment or supplies for a superior, so there was a yeoman of the powder room, yeoman of the storeroom, sailmaker's yeoman etc. The yeoman responsible for a ship's signal flags in the Royal Navy eventually came to be in charge of all visual signalling, and became a very important petty officer, the yeoman of signals. The petty officer who handled a ship's correspondence and clerical work was known as the "writer." The US Navy inherited the yeoman and writer rates, basically unchanged, from the Royal Navy. In the RN the yeomen gradually faded away, but the title of writer is still used for some administrative and HR-type petty officers.

In 1893, U.S. Navy Regulation Circular No. 1 (more famous for creating the rate of chief petty officer) consolidated the engineer's yeoman, equipment yeoman and paymaster's yeoman under the single title of "yeoman," with the specialty mark of crossed keys. The writer wore crossed quill pens.
https://www.uniform-reference.net/insignia/usn/usn_ratings_1886.html

In 1896 the title of "writer" was replaced by "yeoman." This may be an indication that most of the previous yeoman's duties had been clerical and record-keeping, similar to the writer, and there was no need for a distinction between the two. The first, second and third class yeomen now wore the former writer's crossed quill pens, but the chief yeoman still wore the crossed keys, perhaps indicating the higher level of responsibility for property.

The Naval Appropriations Act of 1916 created the new rating of storekeeper in all petty officer grades. The uniform regulations were modified so all yeomen now wore the quills, and all storekeepers the keys. The rating of storekeeper was re-titled logistics specialist in 2009.

The old title of writer lives on in the USN with the "captain's writer," a yeoman who works directly for the CO, and the "flag writer," the equivalent for an admiral and a very select position.

I agree about the coffee as well as the gender-imbalanced portrayals, but why the rest? Why should the yeoman be a jack of all trades? There are surely people who already specialize as shuttle pilots and security operators. What would be wrong with someone specializing in record-keeping being part of a landing party? In missions with diplomatic implications, they could be among the most important members of the party.

I think all enlisted crew are required to be jacks of all trades. Officers will have specialised pilots and highly qualified engineers and scientists. Enlisted crew have broad training and learn to specialise on the job. So you might not pick a yeoman to navigate the Briar Patch or lead an attack force but ferrying the Captain to starbase 12 or leading a search party of security guards would be fine.

 

[Maurice]

Ellison himself removed the Renegades in some undated revisions, and with it much of a role for Rand. Thus the business of beaming up is struck out, and replacement pages have Rand trying to contact the Enterprise but finding it gone...basically what Uhura did in the final episode minus the "I'm frightened" nonsense.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Ellison himself removed the Renegades in some undated revisions, and with it much of a role for Rand. Thus the business of beaming up is struck out, and replacement pages have Rand trying to contact the Enterprise but finding it gone...basically what Uhura did in the final episode minus the "I'm frightened" nonsense.

Uhura's entire role in this episode is pretty pointless. She makes recordings, calls the ship to say nothing's happening, and then flat out lies when she says "I was talking to them when suddenly it went dead." She clearly opened her communicator after McCoy went through the guardian's hole. I assume the director let us down there, but still, that always stood out. I'm surprised the nameless Yeoman on the bridge didn't go down and assume the same duties. Probably would have saved them a little money.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Uhura's entire role in this episode is pretty pointless. She makes recordings, calls the ship to say nothing's happening, and then flat out lies when she says "I was talking to them when suddenly it went dead." She clearly opened her communicator after McCoy went through the guardian's hole. I assume the director let us down there, but still, that always stood out. I'm surprised the nameless Yeoman on the bridge didn't go down and assume the same duties. Probably would have saved them a little money.

I interpret it as speaking in shorthand. "I was talking to them" a few seconds ago. "Suddenly" when I call them this time, the line is dead.