Just recently I had finished my last review for the original Star Trek series. Watching and reviewing all the episodes was an extremely fun project and I enjoyed every minute of it. Star Trek and all of its spinoffs tend to be shows with an ensemble cast of numerous characters with unique backstories. Despite this, episodes generally will focus more heavily on one or two characters. I decided to track this by tagging each episode according to the character that it most strongly features.
For example, if an episode was
about Captain Kirk, it would tag it a “Kirk-Themed Episode.” If that same episode featured Mr. Spock as
either the second most important character of the main story or the central
character of a clear and important ‘B-plot’ then I would also tag it a “Spock
Sub-Themed Episode.” Now if the episode
was about Spock with Dr. McCoy playing the second most important or the central
character of ‘B-plot’ then the episode is tagged a “Spock Themed Episode” and
“McCoy Sub-Themed Episode” respectively. For the
purpose of this post, I’ll just be referring to these as “the Most Important
Character” and “the 2nd Most Important Character.”
Deciding who is “the 2nd
Most Important Character” is sometimes a lot harder then picking out the most
important. Often times two characters
can be competing for the role, also trying to decide how much weight to assign
a ‘B-plot’ can also be a challenge. One
important rule I have is this distinction can only be given to a member or
former member of the crew. Otherwise,
the alien threat of week would often dominate.
(When I get into the series with civilians onboard ship, I may alter
this policy slightly.)
There are a grand total of 80
episodes of the original series. That is
counting the original pilot “The Cage” and both parts of “The Menagerie” as
separate episodes. That is a bit of stretch
as we are getting three episodes out of one story, but it is what it is. This gives us one hundred sixty slots for
characters to fall into. Eighty for the
Most Important Character and eighty for the 2nd Most Important
Character.
So, let’s see the characters that
made up the core of these episodes.
Captain James T. Kirk
It
should come as no surprise that the most heavily featured character is the
Captain of the Enterprise himself, James T. Kirk. After the title card “Star Trek” the next one
we see is “Staring William Shatner.” The good Captain is the Most Important
Character in a grand total of sixty out of the eighty episodes. 75% of the
stories told in Star Trek’s original run were all about Captain
Kirk. And if the Captain having three
out of every four episodes is not enough, in the remaining twenty Captain Kirk
is the 2nd Most Important Character fourteen times. Thus, in a total of eighty episodes Captain
Kirk is one of the top two characters in seventy-four of them. Fans clearly got their fair share of Captain
Kirk.
The
Episodes Where Captain Kirk is the Most Important Character
"The Corbomite Maneuver"; "Mudd's Women"; "The Enemy Within"; "The Naked Time"; "Charlie X";
"Balance of Terror"; "Dagger of the Mind"; "Miri";
"The Conscience of the King"; "Court Martial"; "Shore Leave"; "The Squire of Gothos"; "Arena";
"The Alternative Factor"; "Tomorrow Is Yesterday";
"The Return of the Archons"; "A Taste of Armageddon";
"Space Seed"; "The Devil in the Dark"; "Errand of Mercy"; "The City on the Edge of Forever"; "Operation: Annihilate!"; "Catspaw"; "Metamorphosis"; "Who Mourns for Adonais?"; "The Doomsday Machine"; "The Changeling"; "The Apple"; "Mirror, Mirror"; "The Deadly Years"; "I, Mudd"; "The Trouble with Tribbles"; "Bread and Circuses"; "A Private Little War"; "The Gamesters of Triskelion"; "Obsession"; "The Immunity Syndrome"; "A Piece of the Action"; "By Any Other Name"; "Patterns of Force"; "The Ultimate Computer";
"The Omega Glory"; "Assignment: Earth"; "Spectre of the Gun"; "Elaan of Troyius";
"The Paradise Syndrome"; "And the Children Shall Lead";
"Spock's Brain"; "The Empath"; "Day of the Dove"; "Plato's Stepchildren"; "Wink of an Eye";
"That Which Survives"; "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"; "Whom Gods Destroy"; "The Mark of Gideon"; "The Cloud Minders"; "Requiem for Methuselah"; "The Savage Curtain"; "Turnabout Intruder"
The Episodes Where
Captain Kirk is the 2nd Most Important Character
"Where No Man Has Gone Before"; "The Man Trap"; "What Are Little Girls Made Of?”;
"The Galileo Seven"; "This Side of Paradise"; "Amok Time"; "Wolf in the Fold"; "Journey to Babel";
"Return to Tomorrow"; "The Enterprise Incident"; "Is There in Truth No Beauty?"; "For theWorld Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky"; "The Lights of Zetar"; "All Our Yesterdays"
Cmdr. Spock
The
next most featured character is the probably the most visually popular of the
whole series if not the franchise.
Leonard Nimoy who played Mr. Spock was also the only other actor who
appeared in the opening credits for all three seasons. Out of the twenty remaining episodes that
Captain Kirk did not have to top spot, our dear Mr. Spock takes up ten of
them. He is even more prolific when it
comes to being in the number two slot.
There Mr. Spock has thirty-four of the sixty-six spots that were
remaining, over half. It was Edith
Keeler who pointed out that Mr. Spock mostly belonged at Captain Kirk’s side.
The Episodes Where Mr. Spock is the Most Important Character
"The Galileo Seven"; "The Menagerie, Part I”; "This Side of Paradise"; "Amok Time"; "Journey to Babel"; "The Enterprise Incident"; "Is There in Truth No Beauty?"; "The Tholian Web"; "The Way to Eden"; "All Our Yesterdays"
The Episodes Where Mr. Spock is the 2nd Most Important Character
"The Enemy Within"; "Balance of Terror"; "The Conscience of the King"; "Court Martial"; "The Menagerie, Part II”; "The Squire of Gothos"; "Arena"; "The Alternative Factor"; "Tomorrow Is Yesterday"; "The Return of the Archons"; "The Devil in the Dark"; "Errand of Mercy"; “Operation: Annihilate!”; "The Doomsday Machine"; "The Changeling"; "I,Mudd"; "The Gamesters of Triskelion"; "The Immunity Syndrome"; "A Piece of the Action"; "By Any Other Name"; "Patterns of Force"; "The Ultimate Computer"; "The Omega Glory"; "Assignment: Earth"; "The Paradise Syndrome"; "Day of the Dove"; "Wink of an Eye"; "That Which Survives"; "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"; "The Mark of Gideon"; "The Cloud Minders"; "Requiem for Methuselah"; "The Savage Curtain"; "Turnabout Intruder"
Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA Bones
It is
the good country doctor who is next on our list. Deforest Kelley is the only other actor to
appear on the opening credits, joining Shatner and Nimoy in season 2. The three characters of Kirk, Spock, and
McCoy make up Star Trek’s holy trinity so it should be no surprise that
he is the next one getting our attention.
Dr. McCoy had a total of four episodes out of the ten that were
remaining where he was the most important character. He has also taken third place for the number
of episodes where he is takes the 2nd spot with a total of thirteen.
The Episodes Where Dr. McCoy is the Most Important Character
"The Man Trap"; "Friday's Child"; "Return to Tomorrow"; "For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky"
The Episodes Where
Dr. McCoy is the 2nd Most Important Character
"Mudd's
Women"; "The Naked Time"; "Miri"; "Shore Leave"; "The City on the Edge of Forever"; "Metamorphosis";
"The Deadly Years"; "A Private Little War"; "And the Children Shall Lead"; "Spock's
Brain"; "The Empath"; "The Tholian Web"; "Plato's
Stepchildren"
Captain Christopher Pike
The predecessor
of Captain Kirk, only made three appearances and all about the same story. However, he is always in the top two even
when he couldn’t walk or talk. He was
the main character in two episodes and the number two character for one.
The Episodes Where
Captain Pike is the Most Important Character
"The Cage"; "The Menagerie, Part II”
The Episodes Where
Captain Pike is the 2nd Most Important Character
Lt. Cmdr. Montgomery Scott AKA Scotty
The great engineer Star Trek’s
Scotty. The funny thing is when Scotty
is in the forefront it has almost nothing to do with his engineering
skills. The one time he is the star he
is the suspect of a murder investigation and in the six times he is in the
second slot he is normally on the bridge of the Enterprise trying to
maintain order while the Captain is on an away mission with the other stars. In
a way Scotty is king of the ‘b-plot.’
The Episode Where Mr.
Scott is the Most Important Character
The Episodes Where
Mr. Scott is the 2nd Most Important Character
"A Taste of Armageddon"; "Friday's Child"; "The Apple"; "Bread and Circuses"; "Elaan of Troyius"; “Whom Gods Destroy"
Lt. Cmdr. Gary Mitchell
The
character only made one appearance in the series and what an appearance it
was. It was so good it convinced the
network to carry the show. However, Mr.
Mitchell would not return.
The Episode Where Gary
Mitchell is the Most Important Character
"Where No Man Has Gone Before"
Nurse Christine Chapel
Normally
Nurse Chapel would be Dr. McCoy’s helper in sickbay, and what a helper she was
as don’t recall seeing many other nurses.
When she wasn’t doing that, she was carrying a torch for Mr. Spock. However, she did have a single episode that
was all her own.
The Episode Where Nurse
Chapel is the Most Important Character
"What Are Little Girls Made Of?”
Lt. Mira Romaine
The
last character to have a Star Trek episode about them is a bit of a
surprise. Like Mr. Mitchell it is her
only appearance but unlike him it is not very memorable.
The Episode Where Lt.
Romaine is the Most Important Character
Lt. Nyota Uhura
Everyone’s
favorite communications officer and many people’s childhood crush. Lt. Uhura left quite an impression. In a time where Jim Crow had only recently
been made illegal, Lt. Uhura was flying to the stars. In addition to running her station, she was
also shown to have engineering talents, and would take over the helm in
emergencies. The actress Nichelle
Nichols famously thought about leaving but was talked out of it by Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. She was never the star
of an episode but she was in the second slot for two.
The
Episodes Where Lt. Uhura is the 2nd Most Important Character
"Mirror, Mirror"; "The Trouble with Tribbles"
Ensign Pavel Chekov
Created
in the second season to answer Russian critics that the first people in space
didn’t have anyone on the Enterprise.
Ensign Chekov provided youth, enthusiasm, humor with his poor
understanding of history. Like Uhura he
never had an episode of his own but he was in the second slot for two.
The Episodes Where
Ensign Chekov is the 2nd Most Important Character
"Spectre of the Gun"; "The Way to Eden"
Number One
The
original first officer of the Enterprise was gone so fast we never
learned her name. She will get one in a later series coming out this year but
for a long time she was just “Number One.”
Yet, because of her Majel Barrett appears on this list twice.
The Episode Where “Number
One” is the 2nd Most Important Character
"The Cage"
This
poor sap got to sit in Gary Michell’s chair right after he died, no wonder he
was so nervous. One and done but the
second most important that day.
The Episode Where Lt.
Bailey is the 2nd Most Important Character
Yeoman Janice Rand
A
character gone way too soon. One of the
very few franchise characters who was reoccurring and not a commissioned
officer and the only one in this series.
After she left, Captain Kirk had revolving door of Yeoman. Before she left, she was once the 2nd
most important.
The Episode Where Yeoman
Rand is the 2nd Most Important Character
Dr. Helen Noel
Of all
the one-off characters Dr. Noel is by far my favorite. An old flame of Kirk’s who now is on his
ship—and he hates it. I always like to
see other doctors and engineers who aren’t the chief of their department. She is also as sexy as hell.
The Episode Where Dr.
Noel is the 2nd Most Important Character
Lt. Marla McGivers
Lt.
McGivers is the ship’s historian who forgets to sew on her lieutenant’s
stripes. She became the girlfriend of Khan Noonien Singh. That status would lead her into trouble.
The
Episode Where Lt. McGivers is the 2nd Most Important Character
Lt. DeSalle
Lt.
DeSalle had made a single appearance on the show before moving on to become
Scotty’s Assistant Chief Engineer. As so
he is left in Scotty’s usual place on the bridge and gets his own ‘b-plot.’
The Episode Where Lt. DeSalle is the 2nd
Most Important Character
"Catspaw”
Lt. Carolyn Palamas
Like
McGivers before her she was an historian who became the arm candy of a powerful
man. However, where McGivres fell for
superhuman, Palmas, one ups her by dating a god. Still, she is only the second most important
character in this episode.
The
Episode Where Lt. Palamas is the 2nd Most Important Character
Ensign Garrovick
Of all
the one-off characters that got to be the star or co-star of an episode this one
is my least favorite. He is given an
important connection to Captain Kirk only then we never see him again. I really think they should have given this story
to either Sulu, Chekov, or Uhura.
The Episode Where Ensign
Garrovick is the 2nd Most Important Character
POOR SULU!
I agree! However, Roddenberry's concept was that Kirk was the protagonist of the entire show, so also of EVERY episode and had to have decisive actions to take in each one. Which is a shame because as interesting as his character was, it really limited the story possibilities to always have the captain be front and centre. Later series handled the ensemble concept much better.
ReplyDeleteVery good points, the books would also open up more opportunity!
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