The premiere of Star Trek:Strange New Worlds got me thinking about the occasional retroactive revisions that have occurred in the Star Trek universe.
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| Chapel and M'Benga |
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has a whole slew of them of retcons as do many of the recent Star Trek shows.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , is a new (2022) series about the adventures of Captain Christopher Pike's Enterprise. The character of Pike is very old one.
Pike and his Enterprise was first portrayed in the very first pilot for the original Star Trek TV show that was filmed in late 1964. Most of the material from pilot was reused in "The Menagerie" the only two-part episode from the original Star Trek series broadcast in 1967. In the early 2000's, the Pike character was portrayed in the Kelvin line Star Trek movies. Pike was brought back also in Star Trek - "Discovery" and Pike was portrayed over the course of multiple second season episodes which led the franchise bosses to give Pike his own show.
"The Cage" and "The Menagerie" had been necessary limited due to time constraints as to how much information they gave about Pike and his crew. In the Cage, Pike is a burnt out, but still quite competent, he is said to have come from the American west, enjoys horses, and is wildly respected. He is shown to be brave, and has short dark hair, with a touch of gray and striking eyes.
Most of this was retained in Anson Mount's portrayal. Mount's mild physical resemblance to Jeffrey Hunter essentially made him believable from the get-go. Pike in the new Trek, appears to have more of a sense of humor, and is more friendly to the crew. But Mount sells this revision very well. The Cage story line of the trip to Taos 4 is not only retained but was actually portrayed on Discovery. So, no major retconning there.
The second major character retained from the Cage is Number One, the second in command of the Pike's Enterprise. She was originally portrayed by Majel Barrett, and her character was a daring attempt by Gene Roddenberry to place a woman in an important non-traditional role (for the time) in a TV series. In 1964, it was rare for women to be in charge of men, especially on a ship. But Roddenberry wanted to portray a future where many things had changed. in 1964, Number One is portrayed as serious, very smart almost computer like character, who favors a long dark 1940's style haircut and wears pants. Although we do not know for sure-we assume she is from Earth.
On the new Trek, Rebecca Romjin like Mount sells her version of this old character from the beginning, using the dark hair as the calling card, Her Number One is a also a serious, very smart second in command, who it is clear Pike relies on greatly. On new trek, Number One is given a full name and it explained that she is not from Earth. Many joked that Chapel and Number One should have been portrayed by the same actress just like they were on the original show. The only real problem is that her character is not given a meaty enough role-despite Romjign being the second billed member of the cast.
The third character retained from The Cage is the Vulcan science officer, Mr. Spock, who is perhaps the best loved character, in the whole Star Trek franchise. Spock has appeared in numerous Star Trek movies and TV shows so seemingly that would make it hard to retcon his well-defined character too much. However, the makers of Discovery and Strange New Worlds have tried. As we meet Spoc on Discovery, we soon discover he has a sister, whom we never heard about before ,that he once wore a beard, and that he became out of sorts for while. By the time, we see him on Strange New Worlds, he is closer to the Leonard Nimoy portrayal of the rule. Actor Ethan Peck made an effort to instill some of Nimoy's vocal timbre, the physical mannerisms, even the raised eyebrow. The writers do however, give him a somewhat questionable rewriting of his relationship with his betrothed T'Pring, and suggest a lot more familiarity with Nurse Chapel then 1960's series ever showed. However, again the show carries it off.
Dr, Boyce (Phillip Boyce), Lt. Tyler (Peter Duryea), Yeoman Colt (Laurel Goodwin) and the remaining original crew members shown in The Cage pilot are not portrayed, and for purposes of the show, appear to be serving elsewhere or retired from the service, This disappointed me, and does not necessarily make sense, considering how Mount's Captain appears to be an exemplary officer to serve under (though of course, the crew could have rotated out by their superiors to serve on ships.) Instead on Strange New Worlds we find four crew members that were found Kirk's enterprise. This is where things get problematic.
I was surprised to see Nurse Chapel, Uhura and Dr. M'Benga portrayed on Pike's Enterprise ten years before Pike's return to Kirk's Enterprise on the Menegerie. All seem like they really shouldn't be there. Uhura is perhaps too young-and they had to go to the lengths of putting her on the ship as a cadet. However, the initial portrayal her on Strange New World's did capture some of her later portrayed characteristics, her competence, and her sass, as well as the fact that she is from Africa. Of course, nobody can capture Nichelle Nichols unique elegance and class in the role.
Nurse Chapel (also portrayed by Majel Barret) was the least interesting character in the original Star Trek. She basically had two story lines. Her attempts to relocate her husband, Roger Cory, and her crush on Mr. Spock. It's not clear how Strange New Worlds is going to retcons these inconvenient story lines. The Nurse Chapel portrayed in Strange New Worlds is ironically perhaps the show's best written character -played with humor and spunk by Jess Bush. However, I don't see much resemblance between the two versions of Chapel.
Dr. M'Benga was played in two episodes of the original Star Trek by Booker Bradshaw. The actor who played him on the original show was in his twenties, In the original show -M'Benga is seemingly portrayed as just as just an African American staff doctor who interned in the Vulcan Ward, there is no suggestion that he used to be a much older bearded doctor from Kenya who was actually was the CMO of the Enterprise. So that was clearly retconned.
In other roles we find a transporter chief Kyle, who was portrayed in the original show as Caucasian from England. In Strange New Worlds he is a younger Asian character. There is even a Lt. Mitchell, on the bridge. However, she does not have the same first name as Gary Mitchell who appeared as first officer on the second pilot. Kirk's brother's George Samuel Kirk is actually given a recurring role. In the original series we only saw him after he had died-but the one thing we note about that portrayal-that he had a moustache is retained.
In the first episode of Strange New Worlds the character of Robert April, has returned to the Star Trek universe. April, we have been told both unofficially and officially was the "first" captain of the Pike's Enterprise. On Strange New Worlds he has been promoted to admiral. In the original animated show version of Star Trek, April was portrayed as a white guy, but on Strange New Worlds he is a black guy. Not really that important, but typical of the changes that have been made. But to be fair, some things are kept the same. The uniform colors, the basic design of the bridge, and there are even communicators and tricorders.
The final retcon occurred in the last episode. James Kirk is brought back. This new version of Kirk lacks the energy, charm and charisma of other portrayals but they don't change the basic of Kirk's character.
Many Star Trek fans have great affection for the original pilot, as well as the character of Chris Pike, and so it wonderful to finally see the character given his own show,
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