Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Star Trek Women in Gold

Steve of Shadows & Light asked about the photo collage of captains Kirk & Janeway (below, left) that I'd posted yesterday.
It's a manipulation of a 1966 publicity photo for the original (1966) Star Trek, with Kirk and yeoman Janice Rand.


In the aired episodes, Rand's uniform is a red mini-dress, but initially Bridge crew wore command gold, including Uhura (below).
I think (?) they changed the colors for the sake of better visuals--Star Trek was part of NBC's first all-color season.


NBC pressured the show's creators to change the women's roles too--to get rid of the original pilot's woman First Officer, "Number One"--below in gold, with the original captain, Pike (Jeffrey Hunter).
Execs also said to get rid of the guy with the ears.
He survived, she didn't.
(Majel Barrett, who'd played Number One, was then terribly miscast as the simpering-over-Spock Nurse Chapel.)

Sally Kellerman, below, guest-starred in the recast pilot--she's wearing science-blue because she's a psychiatrist: "Where are you pointing that big gun, Captain?"


1 comment:

  1. Have you seen this on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx0xOgFDXFg

    John Belushi did a wonderful Kirk!

    Kirsten

    ReplyDelete