"Yeah, how'd you like to have her as your own personal yeoman?"
Janice Rand was a female Human Starfleet officer in the 23rd century. She began her service career in the operations division in the mid-2260s. (TOS: "The Man Trap", "Charlie X", "Balance of Terror"; Star Trek: The Motion Picture; VOY: "Flashback")
Service career
The five-year mission
She was a non-commissioned officer serving aboard the USS Enterprise in 2266, under the command of Captain James T. Kirk. She was assigned as the captain’s personal yeoman by Starfleet Headquarters. (TOS: "The Corbomite Maneuver"} She was first quartered in room “3C 46”, on Deck 12, (TOS: "The Enemy Within"}, then she was moved to room “3F 125” (TOS: "Charlie X")
Initially, Captain Kirk was disgruntled that Starfleet had assigned a female yeoman to his command. However, after seeing Rand's efficient work ethic in action, Kirk grew to respect her as a crewmember and friend. Despite their professional relationship, an undercurrent of sexual attraction remained between the two. Under stressful situations, Kirk, however, could not requite the feelings Rand felt for him, due to his position as ship's captain. In certain crises, Kirk and Rand were instinctively drawn together or reached out for each other. (TOS: "The Corbomite Maneuver", "The Naked Time", "Balance of Terror", "Miri")
During a Romulan attack, Kirk and Rand instinctively reaching out for each other for protection (2266)
Yeoman Rand was among the most popular members of the Enterprise's crew, second only to Lieutenant Uhura, who was her good friend. (TOS: "Charlie X") She was known for her compassion and thoughtfulness toward others. Rand was regarded highly by Kirk for her hard work and diligence. In 2266, the Enterprise played cat and mouse with a Romulan ship in the Neutral Zone. When Kirk was in his quarters resting during a lull in the battle, Rand was able to enter without knocking to check up on him, and to find him lying in bed. Alone with the Captain, she was hoping to console him, as he was preoccupied by the potential for a second Romulan war. So, she offered to bring him food or coffee to help him; and Rand and Kirk were on the bridge when the Romulans fired their plasma torpedo at the Enterprise. As the torpedo got closer to the ship, Rand instinctively reached out to the Captain for protection. She walked up very close behind him; resting her chin on his shoulder. For a very brief moment Kirk protested, but as the torpedo was just seconds from hitting the ship, Kirk turned and pulled Rand into his arms for protection. (TOS: "Balance of Terror")
An artist by hobby, Janice had several paintings she created hanging in her quarters aboard the Enterprise. (TOS: "The Enemy Within")
Kirk's duplicate instinctively drawn to Rand (2266)
A duplicate of Captain Kirk was created during a transporter malfunction that contained his negative qualities, lust and violence. The evil duplicate, who was instinctively drawn to Rand, was alone with Rand in her quarters, drunk and amorous. The duplicate Kirk mentioned to her the feelings they'd been hiding, claiming she was "too beautiful to ignore," "too much woman," and that they both been "pretending too long." The duplicate Kirk suddenly grabbed Rand, yelled, "Let's stop pretending!", and starting kissing her. As she was fighting back, the duplicate Kirk pushed her to the floor and attempted to rape her, but she defended herself and left a large scratch on the duplicate Kirk's face, which helped the crew differentiate between the two Kirk "halves." The situation was resolved, and the two halves of Kirk were merged in the transporter. (TOS: "The Enemy Within")
Off-duty with her hair down (2266)
Later that year, orphaned teenager Charles Evans came aboard the Enterprise. The troubled boy drew out Rand's maternal instincts, and she quickly befriended Evans, hoping to help him ease back into regular life. Evans, the sole survivor of a transport crash, had little experience with other Humans and quickly became infatuated with Rand. She, unsure how to deal with Evans' crush, asked Captain Kirk to speak to the boy on her behalf. Soon thereafter, the Enterprise crew discovered Evans' secret - while Evans was alone on Thasus, the mysterious Thasian race had taken pity on the boy and granted Evans special powers. In a fit of anger and pique, Evans used these superhuman abilities against the crew, turning one crewwoman into a lizard and removing the faces of some junior officers. When Rand turned down Evans' advances, he literally made her disappear from the Enterprise. The Thasians intervened and quickly returned Evans to Thasus. After her return to the Enterprise, Rand was shocked and troubled by the Thasians' actions. Having seen how desperately Evans wanted to stay aboard the ship, Rand confided to Kirk her feelings of friendship for the boy. (TOS: "Charlie X")
Suffering from life prolongation complex (2266)
During one mission, Rand, Kirk and other members of a landing party were trapped on a planet that is an exact copy of the earth and where only children survived; adults quickly developed a wasting disease called life prolongation complex. Eventually, Rand began showing signs of the disease. Alone in the corridor with the Captain, crying and upset, she found comfort in his arms. Miri, a teenage girl whom the team had befriended, witnessed this and became jealous of Rand. She didn't like Kirk getting close towards Rand and Rand's passionate looks at the Captain. She felt that Rand was her "competition" and briefly betrayed them by having her abducted by the other children. Kirk, under stress from the disease, became preoccupied with Rand's whereabouts and in locating his "Janice." He suddenly grabbed Miri and shouted "Where is she Miri? Where is she Miri? Where is Janice? Where is she...? Has something happened to her...? I've got to find Janice!" (TOS: "Miri") And after a waterborne virus spread through the Enterprise, affecting the emotions of the crew, Kirk suddenly shouted to Spock, "I have a beautiful yeoman!" Later, in the center seat on the bridge, befuddled by the virus, he reached a hand out to his "beautiful yeoman" standing next to him looking away at the screen and whispered under his breath, "No beach to walk on." Meaning, he and Rand in other circumstances, might have had a life together. (TOS: "The Naked Time")
Sulu and Rand finding Barnhart's body aboard the Enterprise
Rand encounters Lenore Karidian on the bridge
During her service aboard the Enterprise, Rand developed a close relationship with several officers and crewmembers, including Lieutenants Uhura and Sulu. Rand will frequently strike up conversations with, and deliver meals to, Enterprise officers other than Captain Kirk, and accompany them throughout the ship. She enjoys a more informal relationship with them as compared to the professional relationship she maintains with the captain, which implies she is doing it out of friendship rather than an assigned duty as a yeoman. (TOS: "The Man Trap")
Later career
Transporter Chief in 2270s
In the mid-2270s, Chief Petty Officer Rand was a transporter chief. Before Rear Admiral Kirk assumed command of the ‘’Enterprise’’, she was under the command of Captain Willard Decker while the ship underwent a major refit in spacedock. (Star Trek: The Motion Picture)
At Starfleet Headquarters in 2286
In 2286, Rand was a communications officer assigned to Starfleet Command on Earth. When the Whale Probe began vaporizing the Earth’s oceans, she was on duty and reported that Juneau, Alaska had ninety-five percent cloud cover. (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)
In 2293, Lieutenant junior grade Rand was a communications officer on the USS Excelsior, under the command of Captain Hikaru Sulu. Sometime before this year, she had completed her officer training, and was promoted in three years to ensign. (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country; VOY: "Flashback")
That year, Captain Sulu violated his orders in order to attempt the rescue Captain Kirk and Dr. Leonard McCoy from the Klingon prison colony Rura Penthe. Rand understood his motivations and agreed with his decision. She even chided Ensign Tuvok for questioning the captain's decision. (VOY: "Flashback")
The Excelsior later played a key role in the Khitomer Peace Conference that same year, by assisting the USS Enterprise-A in its battle with General Chang's prototype Klingon Bird-of-Prey, thereby preventing the assassination of the Federation President and Klingon Chancellor Azetbur. (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)
- See also: Rank ambiguities
- See also: Woman in Cafeteria
Appendices
Appearances
- TOS:
- Star Trek films:
- VOY: "Flashback"
Background information
Serialized appearances
Grace Lee Whitney once joked that, even aged four months old, she "was already working on my Yeoman Rand beehive!" (The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy, p. 18) Janice Rand was the third find for the role of the Captain's Yeoman, following Laurel Goodwin as Yeoman J.M. Colt and Andrea Dromm as Yeoman Smith. Grace Lee Whitney was handpicked by Gene Roddenberry to portray the role. (Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, p 156) Her casting as Rand was precisely because a part she had played in Roddenberry's unsold pilot, Police Story, had been hugely popular with a test audience. (The Best of Trek, p. 177) Whitney's part in "Police Story", flirtatious Sergeant Lily Monroe, not only served as her screen test for Star Trek but was actually transferred by Roddenberry into the latter series, whereupon it became the Janice Rand character. (The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy, pp. 70-71) Herb Solow commented, "Unlike the two prior 'model-type and cute' Yeoman actresses, she [Whitney] appeared to him as what she was – pretty, sexy and vulnerable. Yeoman Janice Rand was piped aboard the USS Enterprise." (Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, p 156) Offered Whitney herself, "'By the time he had cast me in that role for the regular series, he had given a lot of thought as to how Yeoman Rand would fit into the chemistry of the Star Trek ensemble." (The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy, pp. 73-74)
In April 1966, a phone call from Grace Lee Whitney's agent which she waited at home to receive, in hope her agent would announce to her that "Police Story" had been sold, actually informed the actress that, though "Police Story" had been unsuccessful, Gene Roddenberry wanted to her to play a part in Star Trek. After she arrived at Roddenberry's office at Desilu, she learned more about the character she was to personify. "He explained the part of Yeoman Janice Rand, and how she would fit into the overall chemistry of the show as the captain's yeoman and the object of his repressed desire. It was a sexy part, with lots of possibilities. I instantly loved it. I signed the contracts without a moment's hesitation. I couldn't wait to get started [....] Finally, I had what I wanted: a continuing role on a weekly series." As such, Whitney considered herself "one of the first actors signed to do Star Trek." (The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy, pp. 72 & 10)
The character of Janice Rand was originally thought to be elemental to the series. "The way Gene outlined the role, Janice Rand was an important character to the show," recalled Grace Lee Whitney. "Sort of a sci-fi Miss Kitty to Captain Kirk – a confidant and trusted adviser." (Star Trek: Communicator issue 119, p. 55) Whitney elaborated, "I had signed [to appear on Star Trek] as a lead, not a featured player." (The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy, p. 10) In fact, during the pre-production phase of the first season, Whitney as Rand was advertised as the show's third star, along with William Shatner as Captain Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Spock. She was featured in many promotional photographs made at the time, posing with the other two. Also, Whitney's credit for playing Rand was, in the end credits, on the same card as Doctor McCoy actor DeForest Kelley. (The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy, p. 10)
Because there was no large Women's Liberation movement at the time when the first season of TOS was produced, there was no influence from that political movement on the creation of the Rand character. "But it did upset me," expressed Grace Lee Whitney, "that she had to shake, cry, and fear so much. I suppose the only part of me that was in the character of Rand was the innocent little girl part of me." (The Best of Trek, p. 177) On the other hand, Whitney was delighted to play Janice Rand in the series. (Star Trek: Communicator issue 119, p. 56) "In Yeoman Janice Rand, I had a character of my own to explore and develop, week after week [....] I had no idea how soon it would all be ripped away from me." (The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy, p. 1)
During Grace Lee Whitney's first few weeks of filming Janice Rand's scenes in Star Trek, Leonard Nimoy was Whitney's acting coach, helping her portray Rand more believably. (The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy, p. 6)
Although Grace Lee Whitney not only acted but also sang, she was concentrating more on her acting career than her singing when she appeared as Janice Rand in TOS. In retrospect, Whitney cited this as a reason why the character never sang on the show. She also attributed the exclusion of her singing to her role lacking development time. (The Best of Trek, p. 179)
In Adrian Spies' original script for "Miri", Rand is revealed to be 24 years old at the time, suggesting a birth year of 2242. [1]
Portraying Janice Rand tied up by children in "Miri" was difficult for Grace Lee Whitney. "I was so much into the role, I found it hard to separate fantasy and reality," she remembered. "It was a genuinely scary experience, being tied up, trapped and victimized." (The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy, p. 3)
Following a day's filming midway through production on "Miri" (on 26 August 1966), Grace Lee Whitney became intrigued when an executive on the Desilu lot told her, "I think Yeoman Janice Rand has been under-utilized. The character has been developing some interesting possibilities in the past few episodes. I have some ideas–Why don't we find a place to sit down and talk about it?" After finding a private room on the lot, the man persuaded Whitney to adopt the persona of Rand in some sexually oriented role-playing, the man assuming the role of Captain Kirk. Decades later, Whitney recollected, "'You know,' he said after we'd been talking a while, 'the thing that is so fascinating about Janice Rand is her repressed desire–her hunger for sex.' 'Not sex,' I said. 'Love. She loves the Captain.' 'Same thing,' said The Executive. 'She wants the Captain so badly, but she represses it. She doesn't admit it–not even to herself. We all know what she really wants–but she herself doesn't know. She denies it. Janice Rand can't face her own desires, her own sexuality.' 'Absolutely,' I agreed. 'That's the key to the character.'" The man then insisted the sexual repression in Rand was also in Whitney and, later that night, committed a terrifying sexual assault on the actress. (The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy, pp. 1-6)
On the morning of Monday 29 August 1966, Grace Lee Whitney – with two more days of shooting "Miri" scheduled – was again made-up in preparation for playing Janice Rand, in the make-up room of Desilu Stage 9. "I sat down in the chair next to Leonard [Nimoy], so that hairdresser Virginia Darcy could attach Yeoman Janice Rand's trademark beehive wig to my head. As Virginia worked on my hair, [Makeup Supervisor] Fred Phillips looked over at me and seemed to groan a silent 'Oh, no!' He saw he had quite a reconstruction job to do on me as soon as he was through with Leonard. My face was swollen and distorted from a weekend of too much crying and too much drinking. I know I looked sick, not only from anxiety but from being hungover." Darcy finished working on Whitney's hair before Phillips started on the performer's face. (The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy, pp. 7-8)
Exclusion
After wrapping production on "Miri" (on Tuesday 30 August 1966), Grace Lee Whitney received a call from her agent, Alex Brewis, about her character of Janice Rand, while the actress was at home just a couple days into a two-week hiatus before shooting was to begin on the next episode, "The Conscience of the King". Brewis first ensured Whitney was sitting before telling her the news that the decision had been made to remove Rand from Star Trek, with Whitney about to be written out of the show and with no intent to replace her. (The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy, p. 9) In reply to Whitney asking why this choice had been made, Brewis relayed to her that he had been told Rand's romantic relationship with Captain Kirk was becoming too obvious and that – because the network NBC insisted on depicting Kirk having a more varied romantic life with numerous women played by a succession of guest-starring actresses – it would seem Rand was being cheated on by him, if her relationship with him was too intense. (The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy, p. 9; The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, p. 120; The Best of Trek, p. 178) It was obvious to Whitney that this reasoning was the opposite of what the executive who had violated her had said the previous Friday night: that Rand's relationship with Kirk could be strengthened and that many story possibilities would result from expanding the participation of the Rand character on the show. Brewis told Whitney, "You have a contract for thirteen episodes. You'll have one more episode to shoot. You can finish out your contract, and then you'll be through." (The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy, p. 9)
Although Grace Lee Whitney had been thrilled to portray Janice Rand in the series, she was utterly distraught by her character being written out of the show. (Star Trek: Communicator issue 119, p. 56) "I had lost my favorite role among all the roles I had performed," she reflected. The first person she informed about Rand's departure from the show was James Doohan, who was similarly shocked. (The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy, pp. 13 & 10) Robert Justman protested Rand leaving the series, wanting the character to at least be brought back on a guest-starring basis in future episodes, though this did not come to pass. (The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy, p. 67) Whitney at first felt bitter resentment toward Gene Roddenberry and the studio as well as feeling even suicidal, upon first learning of Rand's exclusion, but by 1976, those feelings had subsided. (The Best of Trek, p. 178) In the intervening years, Roddenberry himself repeatedly expressed regrets that, instead of keeping Rand in the series, he had given in to the pressure from the network. (The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, p. 120) In a 1998 interview, Whitney stated, "I am still often hurt when Yeoman Rand is left out of things [....] I thought I had lost a part of myself – that it was me, Grace, that had been written off, not the character." (Star Trek: Communicator issue 119, p. 56)
Grace Lee Whitney formed her own unsubstantiated theory to account for Janice Rand's expulsion from Star Trek, suspecting it was related to the incident between her and an executive. "Because those events happened just a few days apart–the Friday night sexual assault and the call informing me that I had been written out of the show–there has always been a clear cause-and-effect linkage in my mind," she related. "I have always believed that The Executive had me removed from Star Trek because he didn't want to be reminded of what he did to me that night [....] Because I never received any official explanation, there was always that faint glimmer of doubt in my mind–the nagging suspicion that maybe I was jettisoned from Star Trek for some other, unknown reason [....] A number of conflicting theories have been advanced in various Trek-oriented books and magazines to explain why I was let go from the series, yet no single, definitive, once-and-for-all answer was ever put forward. No internal memo ever surfaced that said, 'The producers of Star Trek have decided to toss Yeoman Janice Rand out the nearest airlock because...'" (The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy, p. 15) Gene Roddenberry later repeatedly expressed regrets that, instead of keeping Rand in the series, he had given in to the pressure from the network. (The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, p. 120)
The excising of the Janice Rand character happened during the making of TOS: "Dagger of the Mind". As a result, Rand's part in that outing was instead rewritten for the character of Helen Noel. (The Best of Trek, p. 178)
Grace Lee Whitney found that one of the most challenging aspects of her departure from Star Trek was having to return to the studio for her final appearance in "The Conscience of the King", in which Rand is present for about six seconds in only one scene and without any dialogue. At some point during the week of Monday 12 September 1966, Whitney arrived for her last early morning call and was offended to see that her name on the parking lot she used there had already been painted over. "I walked into Stage 9 and reported to makeup, where Fred Phillips applied my hair and makeup one last time," she said. "Then I went out to the set of the Enterprise bridge and waited to be called." (The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy, p. 11)
Her TOS performances of Janice Rand had no great lasting effect on Grace Lee Whitney's career in show business. "It was just another role," she said. "But it had a profound effect on my ego, first up, then being shattered." (The Best of Trek, p. 179)
Later appearances
When the decision to make Star Trek: The Motion Picture came about, it was also decided to include Janice Rand in the movie, again portrayed by Grace Lee Whitney. Unlike the other returning cast members from TOS, Whitney was not given a character description – from the Writers'/Directors' Guide for the ultimately aborted television series Star Trek: Phase II – to help with her performance in The Motion Picture, as she had not been intended to reappear in Phase II. The actress nevertheless found that reassuming the role for the film was not too problematic. Susan Sackett wrote, "Grace Lee left on her own in developing this character. But this was not too difficult, for the talented actress and singer had always remained close to Star Trek, delighting fans at conventions with original songs about Yeoman Janice Rand's adventures aboard the Enterprise. She and Janice are old friends." (The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, p. 120)
Janice Rand's appearance in The Motion Picture is in keeping with the fact that long hairstyles were disallowed in that film. (The Making of Star Trek, p. 142)
In the script of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Rand is referred to merely as the "Communications Officer" of the Excelsior and she – instead of an unnamed officer played by Christian Slater – was written as the character that awakens Sulu to inform him that Starfleet was looking for the Enterprise. Despite the fact this scene was rewritten to replace Rand, Grace Lee Whitney considered her role in Star Trek VI to be "better" than it had been in Star Trek IV. Whitney said of how she prepared for Star Trek VI, "I had been hired for the part a few months before the movie had been shot. As it got closer to the filming date, I still had no script. I called casting and asked for a script, wondering if it was because I had [a] no speaking part. Well, this went back and forth until the morning I went to work on Star Trek VI and I still did not have a script. They sent me a few pages of the scene they were doing on that day which I read. We then shot about half the day and [director] Nick Meyer said to me, 'Can you cry real tears on camera?' As I was talking to him, I was mentally recalling a recent event where my daughter-in-law was pregnant and got very sick and was in the hospital taking intravenous feedings in her arms because she could not retain food or fluids by mouth. I began to cry just looking at him." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 22, No. 3, p. 20)
Rand would later appear in the episode "Flashback". At one stage, Brannon Braga informed Grace Lee Whitney that the Rand character might later return, remarking, "We're not killing you off, Grace, so we can bring you back!" (Star Trek: Communicator issue 108)
Rank ambiguities
Interviews with Grace Lee Whitney have suggested that Janice Rand held the rank of chief petty officer in The Motion Picture. (citation needed • edit) In the film, her character had the chief petty officer rank insignia. This was probably also how Associate Producer Jon Povill thought of Rand. Shortly after mistaking her for an ensign, Povill sent a memo to Costume Designer Robert Fletcher that recognized the error, stating, "Rand is not an ensign. She is a transporter chief. This means there should be no sleeve on her costume. Sorry about that, Chief." (The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, pp. 126-127) The designation "Chief" was often assigned to Chief Petty Officers.
According to the script for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Rand was either a master chief petty officer or a lieutenant. [2] She was identified in the credits as “Commander Rand”.
Even though Rand was a lieutenant j.g. in Star Trek VI, the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Flashback" had her wearing lieutenant commander rank insignia.
A costume worn by Grace Lee Whitney as Janice Rand in Star Trek VI was auctioned off in the It's A Wrap! sale and auction and included two ten-year service pins and a five-year service pin, corresponding to the fact that she had served in Starfleet for around thirty years. [3]
Woman in Cafeteria
"Woman in cafeteria" from Star Trek III
Grace Lee Whitney played a command division officer in the Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. This character was a commander. The credits for the film identified the character as “Woman in Cafeteria”. The script for the film had no mention of Rand.
Apocrypha
Some of the comics set around the time of Sulu taking command of Excelsior not only supported Janice Rand's rank as a lieutenant commander, but also implied she was the Excelsior's first officer.
In the 1997 Marvel Voyager comic book "Ghosts", two prominent characters, Josh and Athena Rand, were said to be relatives of Janice. They were noted for coming from a long line of Starfleet officers.
In IDW Publishing's alternate reality adaptation of "The Galileo Seven", in the third and fourth issues of the Star Trek: Ongoing comic series, Yeoman Rand was one of several landing party members who become stranded and survived the experience on Murasaki 312.
External links
- [4]
- Template:NCwiki
- Janice Rand at Wikipedia