Goodbye, Grace....

And, so close on the heels of losing Leonard, we now say goodbye to another Trek crewmember, Grace Lee Whitney. She passed on May 1st, one month after her 85th birthday. (Read an official announcement article here.) You can find out more about her work and life here; you may be surprised how many other roles she had outside of Trek.)

Initially planned to be a larger part of the show (as evidenced in the publicity photos where she was featured prominently with Shatner and Nimoy), the producers quickly realized that her character put a damper on the romantic dalliances of the Captain and put her in less and less shows. Grace's short and turbulent time as part of the show came to an end when she was unceremoniously let go during the first season (they could have at least written her out in a dramatic way, instead of not addressing it at all). The slide into depression, alchoholism and other kinds of addictions dragged her into a downward spiral that she struggled with for many years. She credited Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelly with helping her get work and help, and she openly professed that turning to Christ gave her strength to change her life. This didn't make her an angel; she was a flawed individual with issues still to be worked out, as all of us who know the Lord are. But it is only through the unmerited favor of God through Christ (which is known as grace) that any of us can find deliverance and peace.

As a believer also, I know that she is now beyond any struggles and is with Him forever. We won't forget you, Grace, and your life touched many people who are also struggling with similar troubles. Your short time on Trek made a big impact on the viewers, and you had many devoted fans who will miss you. Godspeed!

See all my other posts about Grace here.

 Below, a couple of photos of Nimoy and Whitney having some fun on set. The top is a rare photo with Nimoy and Whitney having some fun behind the scenes. And in the next one, Rand seems to be teasing Spock about his ears! She is showing the same fascination with them that many women did. And note in the bottom photo (from the filming of "The Undiscovered Country") how close Leonard's pose is to the one above it!

"Did anyone ever tell you how sexy your ears are, Mr. Spock?"

We miss them both.

Bonus link: Fellow blogger ProvidenceMine has posted her personal tribute to Grace. Read it here.

Happy Birthday to Grace Lee Whitney!

Happy Birthday to Grace Lee Whitney! As Janice Rand, she got a raw deal, unceremoniously booted to make room for other women in Kirk's life, but she will always be there in the earlier episodes for us to enjoy. Below, some nice photos showing the progression of her look; first, from before the series started, one of  a large number of promotional photos, this time in a costume left over from "The Cage" and featuring her with her long blonde hair let down.  View some of the earlier posts featuring Grace here, as there are more good photos.

(Click on images to enlarge; once open, you may have to click on it again to view full size.)

And below, Grace as Rand as we saw her in the series, basket weave intact. Saucy!
 

Below, a headshot from "The Motion Picture."

Bonus #2: Below, from Starlog, a hilarious cartoon that looks at one of the most out-of-character moments for Spock in the entire series. At the end of the great episode "The Enemy Within," Spock, while signing off on a report for Janice Rand, says the line below with an uncharacteristically creepy leer. I know the episode was an early effort, when not all the characters were nailed down yet, but the line is something that would have been unsavory coming from anyone, much less Spock. Even coming from Kirk himself it would have been weird, if not completely unexpected. But Spock? It's like he was mentioning the unpleasantness in such a slimy way in order to see if he could get in on some of that action himself. Not cool.

More Janice Rand Images

Back when the series was about to begin regular production, it was planned that Janice Rand would be one of the more prominent characters and certainly the main female to bring the sex appeal. However, Nichelle Nichols was always on the bridge in almost every shot that looked back toward Kirk's chair, and she more than amply supplied the sweet, sweet eye candy. And, it was realized that Rand cramped the Captain's style when it came to romancing the alien ladies. So, before long during the first season she was used less and less and finally -sadly- released. However, not before she got the attention of a lot of male viewers, and it is they who will appreciate these unusual promotions images, some taken before production of the series and some during.

(As usual click on the images to enlarge. You might have to click again once it opens to view full-size.)

"Mr. Spock, remind me to keep the temperature down on the bridge in the future."

Bonus: a page from one of the movie magazines back during the series third season, from February of 1969..

Bonus: the packaging of the Pocket Flix film viewer that supplied fans with their own (one-minute) clip for watching whenever they wanted! I bought one about 1978 and it was the first time I could actually "watch" a real part of an episode apart from TV. This was before videotape players were available to most, and certainly to me. It was taken from the episode "By Any Other Name," and was edited together from the scene where the two security guards were reduced to polyhedrons, and the scene of the barrier-crossing, which was very exciting to own! Such was my mania that I even dubbed those scenes from one of my cassette tapes of the episode to match the editing of the film, then would synch them up as I watched to supply sound!

Bonus link: Star Trek In Cinerama! See how scenes from various episodes of TOS look in widescreen, done without cropping the image. It's "fascinating" to coin a phrase! Except where characters are in the scene twice, then it gets a bit weird.

Happy Birthday, Grace!

Happy Birthday to Grace Lee Whitney! As Janice Rand, she got a raw deal, unceremoniously booted to make room for other women in Kirk's life, but she will always be there in the earlier episodes for us to enjoy. Below, some nice photos showing the progression of her look; first, from before the series started, one of  a large number of promotional photos, this time in a costume left over from "The Cage" and featuring her with her long blonde hair let down.  View some of the earlier posts featuring Grace here, as there are more good photos.

And below, Grace as Rand as we saw her in the series, basket weave intact. Saucy!
 

Below, a headshot from "The Motion Picture."

Bonus link: reader Jim Fourniadis sent me this link to a Youtube video that you may get a kick out of, here it is with his message:

I thought you might enjoy. It was a promo clip for our live stage production Of The Way to Eden, and its set to Gil Scott Heron's The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhQbjoDx0p8

-Jim Fourniadis

Funny! I'd like to see more of the stage production at some time. Thanks, Jim!

1986 Grace Lee Whitney interview

Our archives open up this time to feature pages of issue #51 of the "The Official Star Trek Fan Club" magazine, published in August of 1986. At this time the magazine was in a smaller digest size, handy for rolling up and shoving into your jacket pocket to read during recess. Nah, just kiddin,' I'm sure everyone saved their copies in perfect condition like I did mine.

In this interview with everyone's favorite yeoman, conducted by superfan Dan Madsen, (read the Memory Alpha entry on him here and a Trekcore.com interview here) we find out a little more about this leggy actress.

New "space-age" material lifts and separates!

"Why, captain... you so seldom come to my quarters after hours."

 

Sadly, the green flashlight did not work out as a sellable toy tie-in.*

Bonus:below is another of the Leaf 1967 cards, this time featuring our damsel in distress.

Below, my autographed photo of Grace in a memorable pose!

"Did I mention I like having my legs looked at?"

Some earliers posts with Janice Rand photos can be found by using the Grace Lee Whitney tag on the sidebar.

Bonus: below is another of the four TOS coasters in the set, this time featuring the Romulans.

Bonus #2: continuing the Romulan theme, below is another of the Skybox Masterpiece Series, depicting the famous first encounter with the Romulan Bird Of Prey.

The card back, below, is in error concerning the number of appearances in the original series; the Romulans also appeared in it in "The Deadly Years." Later, it was further depicted as one of the ships that captured the Enterprise in remastered episode "The Enterprise Incident."

*The jokey caption in no way confirms that the flashlights were or were not some kind of spec phaser by a toy manufacturer as some are speculating (see the Trek BBS post here). I just like to add funny captions and this one coincidentally seemed to back up the argument. I have no idea if they were or were not, but if I were to weigh in on it, I would say that the flashlights, as well as the other equipment that they held in this pre-series photo session, were just odd props gathered for it, and not specially prepared in any way.

Spock Speaks! 1976 Nimoy Interview

Wow, what a year 1976 was in my Trekker memories! I was living in Ft. Lauderdale, FL at the time, and the comic book/collectable store "Starship Enterprises" was my main source for genre material not found anywhere else. One of the items that they carried was the British publication "TV Sci-Fi Monthly," an excellent newspaper-format magazine printed on glossy paper, similar to the Trek poster magazines (which I'll be covering in the future also). This time we're looking at a Leonard Nimoy interview from Issue #7.

(Click on images to view full-size.)

"Once I smiled a smile so rare..."

Below, one of the neat graphic features that the magazine often included; they would use the new "Starfleet Technical Manual" as a reference and create color images of the weapons, ships, equipment and other items; this time they illustrate the flags of the various Federation civilizations. Update: to view an article from this same issue on the series "UFO," go to my other blog "Fantastic Flashbacks!"

Bonus: Below, another item purchased at the Starship Enterprises store in Ft. Lauderdale; one of the cards put out at the time by Random House. This time it features a punch-out phaser. I suppose (if you are very bored) you could print out the images from here on card stock and then cut out the images to make your own! Once completed, the phaser features exciting wiggling action as the nozzle moves when you press the trigger. Wow!

Bonus #2: Below you will find a particularly fetching pose of Janice Rand, in a large-format image; perfect for printout and hanging on the wall to admire! This lovely Yeoman is well-known for her value as bridge eye-candy, and resourcefulness in creative ways to serve hot coffee, even in power-conservation situations. Interests include walking on beaches, weaving her own wigs, and having her legs looked at (ideally, all at the same time).

"Can you see my legs in the shot? Cause I totally want the picture to show them off."

Note to my regular readers: when commenting you may notice that I now have to approve them before they are posted. This is only because I have had to deal with a spate of spambots recently, and had to go behind them and clean up their crap mess from about a 15 posts or so. I don't know how they do it when there is a test that commenters have to go through to post; but they are doing it somehow and I don't like it. So, sorry for the extra step, but it's easier for me to approve or deny a comment than have to go in and delete it from the post later.