#elizabeth dehner

[olivrsm]

[startrektospolls]

Please reblog so others can participate

[defconprime]

Sally Kellerman as Elizabeth Dehner

[asexual-cryptid]

Watching Star Trek The Original Series for the first time ever and Where No Man Has Gone Before could not be going harder omfg

[faithful-grigori]

“#oh dang cool and terrifying”

Gary Mitchell's Eyeballs Aka more Star Trek History

Because I'm me, I needed to know how they did this in the 60s.

Turns out it's really interesting.

To begin with, for those of you youngins who don't know about old contact lenses. They were literally glass back in the day. That's why in some old movies/tvs shows, when someone loses a lense and they're panicking looking for it, you hear a crunch when they inevitably step on it.

They also had to soak in these crazy ass things:

So that's to give you some context about old contact lenses.

So in the show, they took two of these lenses and sandwiched foil with a pinhole in the center between them. And then just made the actors wear them.

Apparently they were VERY hot under the lights (I'd imagine so) and it explains why the actor for Gary is tilting his damn chin all the time, I bet the director was constantly on him about it to get the best reflection.

PS, hot damn, that man was fine.

[coolscreenshotsbro]

[chernobog13]

NBC commissioned artist James Bama, most famous for his nearly 200 Doc Savage paperback covers, to create this Star Trek art.

NBC was originally going to sell the art as a poster, but instead used it in promotional and advertising material. The words "Star Trek" were painted on a transparency, so they could be removed or repositioned as needed.

The most famous use of this art is as the cover of the first volume of science fiction author James Blish's short story adaptations of Star Trek episodes.

Bama used photo references from the second Star Trek pilot, Where No Man Has Gone Before, for his painting. Obviously, he did not see any footage from the episode of the Enterprise in flight, hence the rocket exhaust. Why no one at NBC corrected him on this is unknown, although, I suspect, no one at the network knew themselves or cared.

[countesspetofi]

Today in the Department of Before They Were Star Trek Stars, Leonard Nimoy guest stars in "Run, Killer, Run," episode 17 of the single season of A Man Called Shenandoah (original air date January 10, 1966).

Nimoy plays a world-weary hired killer who's engaged to bump off the main character while he's working on the docks in Galveston. He comes to like him, and even helps him in a brawl with a longshoreman, but that doesn't stop him from trying to do what he's been paid to do.

A Man Called Shenandoah is a weird, interesting little show, and I highly recommend watching if you can get your hands on it. A man wakes up in a frontier town with a head injury and a case of amnesia. Assuming the name "Shenandoah," he spends 34 half-hour episodes roaming the Old West, looking for clues to his real identity. The really interesting part is the growing suspicion that he wouldn't like the man he used to be, and might be better off in the long run by not remembering.

Other Trek connections:

Herbert F. Solow, executive in charge of production for The Original Series, and Lindsley Parsons, Jr., executive in charge of production for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, were both uncredited members of the MGM Television production team for A Man Called Shenandoah.

Sally Kellerman, who played Dr. Elizabeth Dehner in "Where No Man Has Gone Before," plays a ship owner's daughter in love with the main character.

Bonus: Check this out!

[staringdownabarrel]

One of the things I find interesting about the Riker-Troi dynamic is that in the first season of TNG, Riker could still pick up on Troi's telepathic communication. They hadn't seen each other in two years at this point, so their connection could have faded.

The actual authorial intent was to show that they still have that strong connection despite their time apart. However, I think it goes further than that. Troi is shown to be a strong empath, however her telepathic abilities tend to be fairly limited with people outside of her immediate family.

I think what it also implies is that Riker probably would have done well on the aperception quotient test, if they still do them in the twenty-fourth century. Maybe he wasn't doing quite as well as Gary Mitchell or Elizabeth Dehner, but he was doing well enough that he would have been in the better than average range.

If his results on that test were in the better than average range, he'd probably be just far enough into it to be in it, but not quite far enough for it to be worth bragging about, if that makes sense. That'd explain why it doesn't really come up in TNG--he's on a ship with multiple actually telepathic crew members, so being mildly more receptive to it for a human wouldn't really register as particularly interesting when there's Betazoids, Vulcans, and Napeans onboard as part of the crew at various points.

However, it would explain why he was receptive to Troi's telepathic bond while other members of the crew weren't. Yes, Riker did have a previous romantic history with her, but Worf would go on to have a short-lived romance with her too in season seven but wasn't shown to have the same receptiveness to it. Maybe that strong emotional bond plus Riker's natural receptiveness to it made it so it was possible.

I think this would also explain why Q initially latched onto Riker and temporarily gave him Q powers in Hide and Q. Maybe he could have done it with anyone, but it was just a bit easier with him because he was a touch better than average in this sense.

It's a shame the TNG writers never really did much with this aspect of the character. I get it to an extent--by the late '80s, humans with telepathic abilities were seen as old hat to some extent, but it'd also been canon since the beginning that this is something that could happen on Star Trek. However, there was also a lot of untapped story potential there that they never really did anything with.

[annlarimer]

Dr Elizabeth Dehner.

[electronickingdomfox]

"Strangers from the Sky" review

Novel from 1987, by Margaret Wander Bonanno. Considerably better than her first novel, "Dwellers in the Crucible", it has an interesting structure: a book inside a book, and the regular characters eventually entering the story of the fictional book (a bit like "The Neverending Story", but through less magical means).

The main story revolves around original characters: the Vulcans who first met humans some two hundred years before Kirk's time. Thus, this is the unofficial First Contact between the two races. I didn't care much for the human characters, but Commander T'Lera and her son Sorahl are portrayed in a meaningful, moving way, as strangers in a world that's more hostile than welcoming for them. The character of Parneb pushes the limits of plausibility (even by TOS sometimes crazy standards), but his surrealist story is nonetheless fascinating: a man who's living backwards through time, so his past is in the future and his future in the past. On the other hand, the villains were a bit too much like caricatures.

As for the regulars, there are appearances from "Where No Man Has Gone Before": Gary Mitchell (as annoying as always), Dr. Elizabeth Dehner, and Lee Kelso (whose extraordinary abilities in almost all fields are also a bit unbelievable). Kirk and Spock are also there, of course, and play an essential role in the story, only revealed at the very end. It's also interesting to see the beginnings of their friendship, from young Kirk's initial dislike of his new First Officer, to their later trust and respect for each other. McCoy gets the short end of the stick, though. He doesn't appear much, and it's not like he's a bad friend, but... he's obviously portrayed as the "lesser" friend, who's simply not in the same wavelength as Kirk and Spock, and presents more obstacles than help to solve the situation.

Overall it's a solid novel, more thoughtful and emotive, and less action-packed than usual. I'm just going to give a succinct summary of the plot, but nonetheless, there are spoilers under the cut:

The first half of the novel deals mostly with the contents of a book that Kirk's reading: Strangers from the Sky, the so far undisclosed account of Vulcan's true first contact on Earth, that has caused a commotion among the public. T'Lera and Sorahl are the sole survivors of a Vulcan scout mission (that wasn't supposed to contact humans at all), after their ship crashes on the Pacific. They're rescued by two humans (Tatya and Yoshi) from a nearby agricultural platform, set in the middle of the ocean to grow algaes. After the initial shock of discovering aliens, Tatya and Yoshi agree to protect the Vulcans. However, a nearby Navy ship (led by sympathetic Captain Jason Nyere and his xenophobic first officer Melody Sawyer) has received orders to investigate the unidentified object detected by sensors. After initial resistance, Tatya and Yoshi are forced to surrender the aliens to them, though they choose to follow and get aboard the ship too.

Interspersed with the history account, are some scenes set in the present (a bit before The Wrath of Khan), in which Kirk starts getting more and more affected by the book. He starts dreaming about the events as if he was part of them, and even has recollections of details that are missing in the book. His medical scans show an increasing mental instability, so McCoy decides he needs to be hospitalized in a psychiatric, before his condition worsens. But when Spock appears there, having suffered the same nightmares after reading the book, the doctors give Kirk and Spock a chance to sort their memories out through a mind-meld. They find a clue in the recurring image of a blonde woman in those dreams, that both identify as Elizabeth Dehner. Kirk had blocked the memory of Dehner as part of the landing party in a specific mission, shortly before the events of "Where No Man...". Thus, Kirk and Spock deduce that the key is to be found in that mission so many years ago: the investigation of the strange planet M-155, which appeared and disappeared randomly. They initiate a mind-meld to recover those memories.

With this technique, the second part of the novel doesn't just show the content of Strangers from the Sky, but introduces Kirk and Spock in the 21st century story, and completes it by following their adventures. The landing party which was investigating M-155, comprised of Kirk, Spock, Gary, Elizabeth and Kelso, had suddenly disappeared from the planet's surface. Upon awakening, they find themselves in Egypt around 2045, and Spock is missing. They're approached by Parneb, a strange man who was experimenting with his psychic powers to displace M-155 in time and space, in an attempt to reverse his own curse. Upon finding Kirk's party in the middle of his experiments, and fearing that the planet displacement would harm them, Parneb relocated them to this time and place. Then, Parneb uses his powers to find the missing Spock, but only detects two other Vulcans (T'Lera and Sorahl). This means that Vulcans would have visited Earth at an earlier time than previously assumed. And Kirk concludes that their presence there somehow affected this first contact, so the Federation never came to be, and Spock, child of two worlds, was never born. Unbeknownst to him, Spock is perfectly fine, though; only that he appeared in Boston instead, and took refuge with Jeremy Grayson (an ancestor of his mother), disguised as a vagabond.

Anyway, Kirk and the others take fake identities and trace a plan to infiltrate a compound in Antarctica, where the Vulcans are detained waiting for the authorities to decide their fate. Among media hysteria and a terrorist attack, Kirk gets reunited with Spock, and together they must save T'Lera and Sorahl, and convince them to not kill themselves, so the Federation has a chance to be. There's a curious twist because, unlike other time-travel stories, where they must set a wrong timeline right, here Kirk and Spock are already living in the "good" timeline. It was, in fact, their tampering with past events what saved the Vulcans and made possible further contacts between them and humans.

At the end, T'Lera and Sorahl return to Vulcan in one of the primitive 21st century ships, and Dehner erases the memories of all humans involved in the incident. And Parneb returns the landing party to the present, but accidentally erases their memories as well. The truth, however, is preserved in Sorahl's journals (minus the details about the time-travelling strangers), which would become the source of Strangers from the Sky. Kirk and Spock's insanity had been triggered by the attempt at recovering those suppressed memories, but thanks to the mind-meld, their balance is restored. Meanwhile, McCoy, who was tasked with watching over them, had fallen asleep (unsurprisingly) after witnessing 28 hours of mind-meld!!

Spirk Meter: 8/10*. A great deal is made of Jim and Spock's mind link, who at one point are described as "those whose minds have touched and been touched" (sounds familiar?). Spock is also able to reach Kirk's mind across space, to sense his turmoil and nightmares, and considers their mind Touch as unique. Their story together is said to be legendary, and Spock is defined as "the balance for everything Kirk was—shadow to his sunlight, coolness for his fire, calm against his agitation. [...]Spock was simply there, focus for Kirk’s fears, center of his immediate universe." And when Kirk gets reunited with Spock at the psychiatric, he can't resist the urge to embrace him (there were no Klingons present, after all), though he's wary of the mirrors through which the doctors could be spying on their affection.

There's a little bit of Spones too, when Spock takes the asleep McCoy in his arms to bring him to bed, and the doctor embraces his neck and smiles in dreams. Though the author immediately backpedals by telling us that McCoy is dreaming about some girl from a bar. Anyway, nobody loves McCoy here...

*A 10 in this scale is the most obvious spirk moments in TOS. Think of the back massage, "You make me believe in miracles", or "Amok Time" for example.

[startrektospolls]

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Find a link to the other polls here

Episodes that won so hard they automatically get to go to the finale under the cut:

The Corbomite Maneuver: Here & here

The Enemy Within: Here & Here

The Naked Time Here & Here

[defconprime]

Dr Elizabeth Dehner

[uss-exile-ncc-440548]

Ahr'ehraet Hru'dheno: Chapters 5 & 6

A/N: Title changed. Cover art updated. Also, the tan uniforms used in "Where No Man has Gone Before" are the red ones. Meaning Scotty, Mitchell, and Kelso are in red. Also, the "black and [color]" variant mentioned here is the one Kyle wears in SNW

Summary: With great power comes great responsibility, they say… Clearly Gary Mitchell did not get the memo

AU: Half-Romulan Leonard McCoy & a pleasant surprise

AO3 | Quotev | FFN (all link to chapter 5)

Work and cover by the Major aka @within-its-cave / @on-the-cave-walls

Characters: Leonard McCoy AKA T'Anahos Duvek, Spock, James Kirk, Scotty, Sulu, Elizabeth Dehner, & Gary Mitchell

Known ships: Spones

Warnings/other tags: Mitchell is his own warning, some angst

Taglist: @deepspacedukat

[episodicnostalgia]

Star Trek, 103 (Sep. 22, 1966) - "Where No Man Has Gone Before"

The Breakdown

Captain Kirk is having a typical space day, playing games-of-the-future such as 3D chess, when a Space probe scans everyone's brain to see if they have latent super powers; and, if it should just so happen that someone DOES have latent super powers, then the probe might just decide to just switch those on.  So that’s exactly what happens. It turns out that Gary Mitchell (Kirks long-time-friend-who-isn't-Spock, so I’m sure he won’t die) has super ESP now and he can accumulate knowledge, and control his surroundings using the power of his mind.  For all intents and purposes this guy is quickly becoming a god.

In a twist that may shock you, Gary’s power corrupts him, and he quickly becomes a murdering sociopath. Since things are getting out of hand, Kirk tries to strand his buddy on a deserted planet.  Naturally that doesn’t appeal to Gary, and he joins forces with the-hot-lady-doctor Elizabeth Dehner that he’s been negging for the whole episode (who now finds him attractive after she also starts developing powers), resolved to murder his good friend Kirk.  But thankfully Elizabeth isn’t as blood thirsty, and ultimately sacrifices herself to help Kirk crush Gary under a rock.  The day is saved, and everyone lives happily ever after …except for Gary and Elizabeth.

The Verdict

It’s easy to see why this was chosen as the (second) Pilot episode, and does tidy job of establishing Kirk and Spock’s dynamic, while also giving us a clearer understanding as to the nature of the Enterprise’s mission. Overall I like how this episode also hops along at a quicker pace than ‘the cage’, and nicely sets the tone for the show overall. If anything, it’s odd to me that the studio chose to air ‘The Man Trap’ as the official pilot.

3 Stars (out of 5)

Additional Observations:

Spock in command gold is just wrong. The man was born for Blue.

I’m assuming Gary Mitchell’s silver eyes are contact lenses, but goddamn do they look uncomfortable.

Gary is the worst offender, but Elizabeth Dehner gets enough implied flak for being career minded (instead of actively pursuing romance) to suggest that she’s become used to it. It was certainly on the writer’s minds, as if they couldn’t even fathom a utopia where a woman could focus on intellectual pursuits without being  regarded a “walking freezer unit.”  At one point Gary even asks Kirk to hook him up with a less frigid bitch than Dr. Dehner to monitor him (as a medical professional) in sickbay, and Kirk shrugs it off as giving his buddy “a challenge.” Really Classy, Kirk.

This is also Doctor Piper’s (head of medical) one-and-only appearance, so I have to assume that he was probably a few days out from retirement.  Maybe he’d just seen one-too-many space gods try to murder the crew and got himself reassigned.

[kitkatt0430]

Star Trek TOS for the fandom ask game!

Character I first fell in love with:

So this is another sci-fi series I was introduced to very young. When I was little I'd grab the VHS tapes of marathons my parents had recorded and watch them obsessively for TOS and TNG.

But first favorite character. Um... Either Spock, Scotty, or Uhura. I really don't know which. Definitely one of those three though.

Character I never expected to love as much as I do now:

Yeoman Rand. She was a quickly dropped character from the first season and I don't think she made much of an impression on young me. But older me is well aware of what happened behind the scenes and what her character was meant to be... and honestly I love this character now. Janice is a really sweet, likable woman. She's friends with Sulu, she's patient with a socially stunted teenager with a crush on her, she has this mutual attraction with Kirk that neither act on because they respect each other too much as coworkers to risk ruining that...

She's this complicated and lovely character and the actress who portrayed her deserved so much better than she got. She does show up in the movies, however, so I'm glad that Janice got to have a good career in Starfleet.

(Seriously, though, Janice was supposed to be a pretty major role and what happened to Grace Lee Whitney is appalling.)

Character everyone loves but I don’t:

I don't know that there is one?

Maybe Gary Mitchell? I don't know how well liked he'd be considered, but he's an entitled ass. Not really sure how Kirk was friends with him even pre-psionic powers/a-god-am-I breakdown, because this guy treated women kinda... badly. He set Kirk up with a woman as a distraction attempt while taking Kirk's class at the Academy. Behaved like an entitled asshole when Elizabeth Dehner shot him down - using what I recognize now as some pretty aphobic language. And he was pretty shitty to Spock too.

I would have preferred him to have been the villain played by Cumberbatch than Khan but that's in part because he would have made such a perfect foil to new!Kirk. (And then you don't have to explain why a white guy is playing an Indian character...)

There's also The Companion but if I start talking about that clusterfuck I will probably forget to answer the rest of the questions due to losing my temper over that particular... episode. (It is bad though and I'd happily... well, not happily but I would rant about it if asked.)

Character I love but everyone else hates:

Similarly, I don't know how much Elizabeth Dehner is liked, but I really love her. I read her as aspec and career focused. She gets super powers that have already made someone else (admittedly someone who was already an entitled twit) go all 'a god am I' but she still keeps her compassion. She still recognizes that no, actually, they don't have the right to rewrite reality to suit their whims.

She saves Kirk at the cost of her own life. And I will never forgive new!Trek comics for writing her off as barely a footnote, Bones' ex who won't set foot on the ship because he's there. >_<

Character I used to love but don’t any longer:

I don't know that I've got an answer to this one. All those beloved characters.

Character I would kiss:

No kissing, but I bet Uhura gives the best hugs.

Character I want to slap:

In the Galileo Seven episode I want to slap Bones and a few other minor characters for the way they treat Spock.

A pairing I love:

Kirk/Spock, but I have to admit new Trek had me taken a second look at Spock/Uhura

A pairing I hate:

Hmmm... I don't know? There are a lot of one off ships for Kirk that I'm not fond of for various reasons. Some because he's pretty clearly only manipulating the situation to protect his crew. Some because he's not actually in a position to consent and the power imbalance - memory manipulation/amnesia/external threats - makes the whole thing pretty awful.

Elaan/Kirk is one that very much sticks out because he's literally brainwashed by her tears.