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Yeoman Rand's Tower of Hair

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?
You know, that idea puts Charlie Evan's teenage stalker behavior in a new light as well.
 
You know, that idea puts Charlie Evan's teenage stalker behavior in a new light as well.
Charlie, Green (although technically he stalked everyone), Evil Kirk, Trelaine, and Don Juan were pretty much written with Rand being stalked in mind. Enemy Within, Dagger of the Mind, and Miri featured her repressed desires. I can't think why she was allowed to stay sober in the Naked Time...

Mind you, can you imagine a renaissance conical hat perched on Rand's beehive. What a missed opportunity!
 
Poor Andrea Dromm didn't even change her expression -- she shows more 'acting' in the publicity stills than in actual show itself.

NBC-1966-167-television-brochure-cover-with-William-Shatner-and-Andrea-Dromm.jpg
I love this photo, it looks like they’re holding a bunch of trash from the studio commissary.
 
Well Charlie never did get to have any positive relations (or any) with women, so that might be expected.

The 'aged up' women actress (Laura Wood, who was the similarly hyperaged Elaine Johnson in "The Deadly Years") might not have wanted to display her legs in a mini skirt.
 
I love this photo, it looks like they’re holding a bunch of trash from the studio commissary.

It was trippy seeing Dromm as the Summer Blonde model after watching Trek and The Russians are Coming!

dromm.jpg


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?

I was happy that Blish took out the bit with Helen herself implanting the false memories in Kirk's head.
 
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.
Rand is in Sturgeon's outline but Don Juan is not. And Don Juan is in the first draft script (and later drafts) but Rand is not - she is replaced with Barrows.

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?
FYI, when "Dagger of the Mind" was revised to replace Rand with Noel, they rewrote the part for the new character, they didn't just overwrite the name in the script.
 
Rand is in Sturgeon's outline but Don Juan is not. And Don Juan is in the first draft script (and later drafts) but Rand is not - she is replaced with Barrows.


FYI, when "Dagger of the Mind" was revised to replace Rand with Noel, they rewrote the part for the new character, they didn't just overwrite the name in the script.
That's interesting. Maybe one of the questions on the employment questionnaire was whether a prospective yeoman is likely to report a superior for sexual assault? At least Landon was a hard no. She should have been a security guard rather than a yeoman though.

I appreciate that Noel behaves nothing like Rand and is far more of an equal to Kirk but I think the bare bones of her implanting a romantic encounter in Kirk's mind was there initially. I think something more akin to Rand implanting a promotion would have been less creepy and more fun. Then when that gets turned sexual, it would have been a good opportunity to re-set their relationship because any feelings he might have had before were effectively corrupted. Plus it would have been nice to give Rand some training in psychology instead of just washing up. That said, I do love Noel.
 
The scriptwriters were free to use Rand in every episode of her 13-episode contract.
To be clear, her contract specified she was guaranteed pay or play on a certain number of segments out of the first 13 (I think it was 7 or 8 but I can't check the documents right now), and Bob Justman would have cried foul if she was included unnecessarily given her rate.
 
When push came to shove they didn't know how to use the Rand character, and D'Agosta stated that she was too expensive to carry under contract given how little she was utilized.
So if she had been cheaper she might have been used more and then extended perhaps? Or were the odds always that TPTB were going to get rid of her for one reason or another?
 
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