Tuesday, April 29, 2014

The Rise, Fall, And Return Of Grace Lee Whitney:

This is an old article pending revision.

Grace Lee Whitney was born as Mary Ann Chase on April 1, 1930 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She began a music career when she was fourteen which led her to further acting, and is also a songwriter. She has starred in many films and television series, beginning in shows and movies sugh as Some Like It Hot, in 1959 with Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, and Marilyn Monroe. She starred in House Of Wax, The Outsider, Ironside, The Naked And The Dead, Critic's Choice, Pocket Full Of Miracles, Riding Shotgun, General Electric Theater, The New Breed, The Islanders, Mystery Range, Surfside 6, Run For Your Life, Top Banana, and A Public Affair. In The Man From Galveston, she appeared with Jeffrey Hunter, who performs the character of Christopher Pike. Others are The Untouchables, Mannix, My Favorite Martian, Batman, Bewitched, Wagon Train, Diagnosis Murder, and The Big Valley.


She has played the role of Janice Rand in Star Trek, who has only appeared in 8 episodes before being written out during the middle of the first season. The character Janice Rand was written in an early script of "The Trouble With Tribbles" but was written out by Gene Roddenberry saying that she transferred to another ship. Grace Lee Whitney left when the production staff had problems with her and when she had problems with the production staff. There were many problems both behind the scenes and with the personal life of Grace Lee Whitney, one example being a problem with a struggle with an addiction to alchohol. She has expressed problems with one of her supervisors of a sexual attack and related threats of her being fired by him. The name of this individual is not well known. The only character to star in every episode was Leonard Nimoy as Spock, with the addition of James Kirk played by William Shatner after a pilot episode "The Cage". The Menagerie was written to explain the many differences between that pilot episode and the series. A request made by her resulted in appearing in even fewer of the episodes she was supposed to appear in. This was to keep enough professional detachment between Kirk and Rand. And Gene Roddenberry explained that she might have been written out of the series anyways because of budget problems. She did not appear in any episodes of the animated series. It would be about another decade before the process of her return began.

Janice Rand returned as a transporter officer in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (and possibly was going to appear in Star Trek: Phase II). She also appeared in Star Trek III & Star Trek IV, and in Star Trek VI. She appeared in a Star Trek Voyager episode, written books involving Star Trek, and is starring in newer Star Trek Mini Series. She appears with other Star Trek actors in other series and movies, such as Diagnosis Murder with Majel Barrett, Walter Koenig, George Takei, and Wil Wheaton.

There seems to be an inconsistency with Janice Rand. Grace Lee Whitney has starred in 4 of the Star Trek film collection series, but wasn't credited as Rand in most of them. She was only mentioned directly on screen in the first movie, and was credited as Commander Rand in Star Trek IV. In Star Trek III, she appeared in Space Dock, but was credited in the films credits as Woman In Cafeteria. In Star Trek VI, her named appeared in the credits, but was next to Excelsior Communications Officer. It is obvious that the character is Janice Rand, but it is just as posisble for Whitney to have the role of a different character just as the possibility of her character in Star Trek III possibly not being Rand. She has a Commander's rank in Star Trek III. In Star Trek IV, she had a completely different uniform, but is still mentioned as Commander Rand. In Star Trek VI, she wears a Lieutennant Rank, even if she has been either seen or credited as a commander previously. Both characters Whitney portrays shows recognition and familiarity to Jim Kirk and the rest of The Enterprise crew. This makes sense sense she began her Star Fleet career as Kirk's assistant. Two examples are one in Star Trek III where she shakes her head at the condition of the battle damaged Enterprise, and another in Star Trek VI where she is almost in tears when the Excelsior crew is watching "television" and are now aware of Kirk and McCoy's arrest and death sentence. It is very unlikely for two background characters (there is two since each time there are two different ranks) to have been as concerned. In Star Trek Voyager, she was credited as Commander Rand once again.


She is continuing to write books and is working behind the scenes in Star Trek mini series, and other series with Star Trek actors. One of the series is called "Of Gods And Men". There is another series that is created by fans and was originally titled "Star Trek: New Voyages", but now appears to be called "Star Trek: Phase II" (but with a new cast of the main characters) and has a nearly identical plot which is set around the time between the animated episodes and motion picture, and even around Rand's service at U.S.S. Excelsior. It does not feature a younger crew like Star Trek: Phase II (1978), Star Trek The Motion Picture, and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan with supervision from the main characters, and uses the older look of The Enterprise. The first attempt at Star Trek: Phase two has newer additional crew members and a partially upgraded Enterprise. Janice Rand is appearing in almost all of the episodes of this series. As of 2008, There are 8 episodes, 4 being in production and also features other characters such as Denice Crosby. It is likely for this series to be expanded to a full season production. And the possible for more series about various parts of Star Trek to be created, and to be created by fans which means new writers and producers to continue the Star Trek series. This article will be updated whenever more news becomes available, and a new article about this series is also going to be created.

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