JANICE RAND

Yeoman 'Janice Rand' is a character in the original '' series, played by Grace Lee Whitney.

Contents

Overview

Departure

Guest appearances

Life in Literature and Popular Culture

References

External links

Overview

Janice Rand served as yeoman to Captain James T. Kirk aboard the USS ''Enterprise''. She was introduced when the show went into regular production. In the pilot episodes "The Cage" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before", the yeoman to the Captain was Yeoman Colt and Yeoman Smith respectively.
In some episodes she has a definite crush on Capt. Kirk. This is suggested in her grabbing Kirk on the bridge when the Romulans attack the ship ''Balance of Terror'' and in ''Miri'' when she confides to Kirk that she had long wished for him to notice her legs.
Rand appears in eight episodes, all in the first season:

★ "The Corbomite Maneuver"

★ "The Man Trap"

★ "Charlie X"

★ "Balance of Terror"

★ "The Enemy Within"

★ "The Naked Time"

★ "Miri"

★ "The Conscience of the King"

Departure

Grace Lee Whitney was fired during the filming of the first season.^[1] The last episode she filmed was "The Conscience of the King", in which Rand makes a brief appearance.
The reasons for Whitney's departure from the show are unclear. She was, at the time, suffering from alcoholism, and some sources have suggested she was fired for this reason. Whitney identified this as a possible cause in the 1980s, after her recovery,^[2] but in her autobiography, she claims she never let this interfere with her work.
The official reason given to Whitney was that the character limited romantic possibilities for Captain Kirk. Gene Roddenberry's official biography suggests that it was simply a budget cutback. In Whitney's autobiography, she alleges that an unnamed TV executive made a sexual assault against her, and draws a link between this and her sacking a few days later.^[3][4][5]

Guest appearances

Gene Roddenberry later is said to have regretted Whitney's departure from the show. Janice Rand appears in the 1979 film ''""'', as a transporter operator and non-commissioned officer,^[6] and is seen as an officer (suggesting Rand chose to enter Officer Candidate School) in ''""'' and ''""''.
In ''""'', Rand is shown to be the Communications Officer for the USS ''Excelsior'', under Captain Sulu. Some backstory events of this film are later depicted in the '' episode "Flashback", in which Whitney again reprises the role.

Life in Literature and Popular Culture

Vonda N. McIntyre's non-canon novel ''""'' suggests that Rand lied about her age in order to enlist in Starfleet and was only 17 at the start of Kirk's five-year mission. In Peter David's non-canon novel ''"The Captain's Daughter"'', Rand, while serving as communications officer aboard the ''Excelsior'', tells Captain Sulu that she left Starfleet for a period of time to raise a daughter, Annie. The child's father was a "Starfleet officer on the fast track to greatness" who was never informed of the child's existence. Annie became ill and died at the age of 2. After this traumatic event, Rand rejoined Starfleet.
Rand was lampooned by Victoria Jackson when William Shatner guest hosted Saturday Night Live.

References

1. Talkin' Trek and Other Stories, Anthony Wynn, , , BearManor Media, 2007, ISBN 1593930747
2. The Star Trek Interview Book, Allan Asherman, , , Titan Books, 1988, ISBN 1852861045
3. The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy, Grace Lee Whitney and Jim Denney, , , Quill Driver Books, , ISBN 1884956033
4. Star Trek Creator: The Authorized Biography of Gene Roddenberry, Alexander, David, , , Roc, 1994, ISBN 0-451-45440-5
5. Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, Herbert F. Solow and Robert H. Justman, , , Pocket Books, 1996, ISBN 0-671-00974-5
6. The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Roddenberry, Gene and Sackett, Susan, , , Pocket Books, 1980,

External links