Janice Rand
| Janice Rand | |
|---|---|
| Portrayed by | Grace Lee Whitney |
Yeoman Janice Rand, played by Grace Lee Whitney, is a character in Star Trek: The Original Series. She subsequently appears in several Star Trek films and in an episode of Star Trek: Voyager.
Depiction
Rand serves as yeoman to Captain James T. Kirk aboard the USS Enterprise in the first half of the first season of The Original Series. A mutual attraction is suggested between her and Captain Kirk in episodes such as "The Naked Time", "The Enemy Within", and "Miri". The most noticeable confession of their "feelings they've been hiding" was in "The Enemy Within" while Kirk, Spock, and McCoy ask her about her attack. Rand disappeared halfway into the first season, appearing in eight episodes altogether.
She next appeared in the 1979 film Star Trek: The Motion Picture as a transporter operator and non-commissioned officer.[1] Her next appearance was in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home where she has been promoted to Chief Petty Officer and was stationed in San Francisco along with Christine Chapel. She served as the communications officer aboard the USS Excelsior in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and in the Voyager episode "Flashback".
Whitney had a cameo in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and was identified by fans as portraying Janice Rand, although the credits listed her as a red-haired "woman in cafeteria". Whitney, in her autobiography, maintained that she was not playing Rand in that movie.
Departure
Grace Lee Whitney was released during the filming of the first season.[2] The last episode she appeared in that was aired was "Balance of Terror"; "The Conscience of the King" was the last episode produced with Rand's character, in which she made only a brief appearance.
The reasons for Whitney's departure from the show are unclear, although the most commonly cited cause was that her character limits romantic possibilities for Captain Kirk.[3] Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's biography suggests that it was simply a budget cutback.[4]
Whitney was suffering from alcoholism at the time, and according to some sources this affected her performance, which resulted in Rand's character being written out of certain episodes. Subsequently, this led to Rand being written out of the show altogether. Whitney in the 1980s identified these as possible causes for her dismissal,[5] but in her autobiography, she steadfastly rejected the claims.
According to Whitney, in the first season, only William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy were guaranteed to appear in every episode. Of the three episodes in which she did not appear, Rand's character was not written into two ("Mudd's Women" and "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"). The only episode that Rand was deliberately written out of was "Dagger of the Mind", which Whitney said was a creative decision made because the episode's storyline put the mutual and yet repressed attraction between Kirk and Rand too much out in the open.
In her autobiography, Whitney alleges that an unnamed TV executive made a sexual assault against her, and she draws a link between this and her sacking a few days later.[6]
Star Trek novels
Vonda N. McIntyre's novel Enterprise: The First Adventure 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 novel The Captain's Daughter, Rand 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 never knew about the child. Annie became ill and died at the age of two; after this traumatic event, Rand rejoined Starfleet.
References
- ^ Roddenberry, Gene and Sackett, Susan (1980). The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Pocket Books.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Anthony Wynn (2007). Talkin' Trek and Other Stories. BearManor Media. ISBN 1593930747.
- ^ Herbert F. Solow and Robert H. Justman (1996). Inside Star Trek: The Real Story. Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-00974-5.
- ^ Alexander, David (1994). Star Trek Creator: The Authorized Biography of Gene Roddenberry. Roc. ISBN 0-451-45440-5.
- ^ Allan Asherman (1988). The Star Trek Interview Book. Titan Books. ISBN 1852861045.
- ^ Grace Lee Whitney and Jim Denney. The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy. Quill Driver Books. ISBN 1884956033.
External links
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