Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we continue the "Best Of" series for The Original Series characters with a look at Pavel Chekov. Previous "Best of" segments for the Voyager crew as well as Janice Rand and Spock can be found on Archive.org and previous episodes of this show. Here are some of Chekov's best quotes and appearances.
https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp183
Chekov joined the crew in Season 2, and it did not take long for him to express his pride at his Russian heritage. In the episode The Trouble with Tribbles, he makes one of many grand claims to what his country has done:
Capt. Kirk: [handing Chekov a container] Mr. Chekov, what do you make of this?
Chekov: Oh, quadrotriticale. I've read about this, but, er, I've never seen any before.
Capt. Kirk: Does everybody know about this wheat but me?
Chekov: Oh, not everyone, Captain. It's a Russian invention.
Chekov serves many different roles on board the Enterprise, including regular bridge shifts at navigation and tactical. In the Season 3 episode Spock's Brain, he implicitly references his motherland when evaluating the climate on a planet he is scanning:
Captain James T. Kirk: Readout, Mr. Chekov.
Chekov: No structures, Captain. No mechanized objects that I can read, no surface consumption, no generation of energy. Atmosphere is perfectly all right, of course. Temperature, a high maximum of 40 - livable.
Captain James T. Kirk: [regarding Chekov] You have a thick skin.
Although Chekov did not play a large role in many episodes during his two seasons on the Enterprise, one particular episode where his character receives some development is in Season 3's Day of the Dove. During an away mission, Chekov attacks a Klingon captain for allegedly killing his brother, which shows his dedication to family even though it later turns out to be just an illusion from an entity which feeds on conflict between others.
Chekov: Filthy Klingon murderers! You killed my brother, Pyotr. The Archanis IV research outpost. A hundred peaceful people massacred! Just like you did here. My brother - you killed my brother!
Kang: And you volunteer to join him. That is loyalty.
Chekov really comes into his own in the movies, even though these appearances are often more lighthearted instead of serious. Although his most famous movie lines probably come opposite Khan on Ceti Alpha V in The Wrath of Khan, my personal preference for memorable Chekov lines is this scene from The Voyage Home:
Chekov: [to a policeman] Excuse me, sir! Can you direct us to the naval base in Alameda? It's where they keep the nuclear wessels.
[He pauses, looks at Uhura, and tries again]
Chekov: *Nuclear wessels*.
Though Chekov was brought on the show mostly for further diversity in the 1960's Cold War era and to be a Davy Jones look-alike from the band The Monkees, he quickly turns into one of the cherished members of this original crew. Despite character development being a bit thin for him, Chekov was an overall positive addition to the cast, and of course, actor Walter Koenig remains involved in Trek projects and a great ambassador to the show to this day.
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Feedback can be sent to me with future segment suggestions on Twitter @BuckeyeFitzy.
Monday, March 28, 2016
Monday, March 14, 2016
Character Insight No. 182: Amanda Grayson (and Alternate Realities)
Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we profile Amanda Grayson, a recurring character from the Star Trek films as well as the Original Series.
https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp182
Amanda Grayson is the mother of Spock and the source of his human side, which does indeed exist despite his Vulcan way of life. She was a schoolteacher when she met Sarek, who was serving as Vulcan Ambassador to Earth, and they fell in love. Her name was chosen because Amanda means "worthy of being loved."
Although she is an emotional and caring mother and woman, she represses some of this in deference to the culture of Sarek while living with him on Vulcan and while raising Spock. She does share her culture and emotion with Spock while raising him, by reading various novels from Earth novelists like Lewis Carroll and by encouraging his human side. That is most prevalent in her movie appearance, where she helps the resurrected Spock discover his human side in the movie Star Trek IV.
Outside that movie, this character's one live appearance in the prime timeline is in the TOS episode Journey to Babel, where she interacts with Captain Kirk and helps Spock and Sarek reconcile some differences on a trip aboard the Enterprise to the Babel Conference.
QUOTE
Spock: Sarek understands my reason.
Amanda: Well, I don't. It's not human. Oh, that's not a dirty word. You're human, too. Let that part of you come through. You're father's dying.
What's interesting about Amanda is the fact that half of her four appearances on Star Trek involve alternate timelines. In the Animated Series episode Yesteryear, she dies in a shuttle accident after returning to Earth following her separation from Sarek and the death of her son Spock at a young age. The other alternative reality is of course the Abrams Timeline, in which she dies during the destruction of the planet Vulcan.
While Amanda plays an important role in the background for defining the character of Spock, the use of her as central story point in two different alternative realities make it difficult to evaluate her importance as a character. On the other hand, maybe this use of the character Amanda shows infinite diversity in infinite combinations, the well-known Vulcan ideology. However, this more likely proves that it is illogical to overuse alternate realities to the extent Star Trek often does.
Amanda has been played by Jane Wyatt and Winona Rider, although Majel Barrett voiced this character in TAS. Wyatt was a three-time Emmy Award winner and she passed away in 2006 at the age of 96. Rider has been nominated for two Oscars, and has well-known movies roles over the past three decades including in Edward Scissorhands and Girl Interrupted. So everyone who plays this character has found great life and prosperity in the acting profession.
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Feedback can be sent to me with future segment suggestions on Twitter @BuckeyeFitzy.
https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp182
Amanda Grayson is the mother of Spock and the source of his human side, which does indeed exist despite his Vulcan way of life. She was a schoolteacher when she met Sarek, who was serving as Vulcan Ambassador to Earth, and they fell in love. Her name was chosen because Amanda means "worthy of being loved."
Although she is an emotional and caring mother and woman, she represses some of this in deference to the culture of Sarek while living with him on Vulcan and while raising Spock. She does share her culture and emotion with Spock while raising him, by reading various novels from Earth novelists like Lewis Carroll and by encouraging his human side. That is most prevalent in her movie appearance, where she helps the resurrected Spock discover his human side in the movie Star Trek IV.
Outside that movie, this character's one live appearance in the prime timeline is in the TOS episode Journey to Babel, where she interacts with Captain Kirk and helps Spock and Sarek reconcile some differences on a trip aboard the Enterprise to the Babel Conference.
QUOTE
Spock: Sarek understands my reason.
Amanda: Well, I don't. It's not human. Oh, that's not a dirty word. You're human, too. Let that part of you come through. You're father's dying.
What's interesting about Amanda is the fact that half of her four appearances on Star Trek involve alternate timelines. In the Animated Series episode Yesteryear, she dies in a shuttle accident after returning to Earth following her separation from Sarek and the death of her son Spock at a young age. The other alternative reality is of course the Abrams Timeline, in which she dies during the destruction of the planet Vulcan.
While Amanda plays an important role in the background for defining the character of Spock, the use of her as central story point in two different alternative realities make it difficult to evaluate her importance as a character. On the other hand, maybe this use of the character Amanda shows infinite diversity in infinite combinations, the well-known Vulcan ideology. However, this more likely proves that it is illogical to overuse alternate realities to the extent Star Trek often does.
Amanda has been played by Jane Wyatt and Winona Rider, although Majel Barrett voiced this character in TAS. Wyatt was a three-time Emmy Award winner and she passed away in 2006 at the age of 96. Rider has been nominated for two Oscars, and has well-known movies roles over the past three decades including in Edward Scissorhands and Girl Interrupted. So everyone who plays this character has found great life and prosperity in the acting profession.
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Feedback can be sent to me with future segment suggestions on Twitter @BuckeyeFitzy.
Monday, March 7, 2016
Character Insight No. 181: Private Hamboyan
Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we profile Private Hamboyan, a recurring MACO solider in the Enterprise series.
https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp181
Edward Hamboyan is one of the Military Assault Command Operations crewmen (aka MACOs)assigned as extra security forces during the Xindi conflict of the third season of Enterprise. As with most of the MACOs, Hamboyan does not speak on screen but instead serves to protect various visitors of the ship and the ship's officers on certain away missions.
For example, Hamboyan escorts Captain Archer to away missions on the planet Triannon, to Cold Station 12 where Arik Soong's augments are located, as well as the negotiations in the series finale These Are The Voyages. We also often see Hamboyan guarding sickbay, regardless of whether the patient is a hostile or a protected guest of the ship.
It's not all quiet guard and escort duties though, as he sees plenty of live action and combat in this role on Archer's Enterprise. He is one of the front line soldiers that repels an attack of Klingon augments from taking over this ship in the episode Affliction. While other MACOs boarded the Xindi weapon in the episodes Countdown and Zero Hour, Hamboyan stays on board the Enterprise and fights with invading Sphere Builders to prevent the loss of the Enterprise.
The Private avoids the fate of many security personnel and redshirts, as he is not seriously wounded or killed in action during his seasons on the show. Not bad for one of the most prolific recurring characters on this show.
However, the fact that this is a relatively generic security officer that does not have any real character development, and the fact that he ends up as one of the most prolific recurring characters, shows some weakness in the depth of world that Enterprise provided to the audience. We should expect and demand a little more from such recurring characters in the next version of Trek.
Private Hamboyan was played by regular background actor Andrew MacBeth. He also appeared in the background of the movie Star Trek Nemesis around the same time. In his non-Star Trek acting career, he has played roles in the soap opera General Hospital as well as small roles in movies The Day After Tomorrow and The Proposal. He has also participated in the cast of a Playboy Video Centerfold project, but I suppose that's par for the course for a studly background actor and writer.
------------
Feedback can be sent to me with future segment suggestions on Twitter @BuckeyeFitzy.
https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp181
Edward Hamboyan is one of the Military Assault Command Operations crewmen (aka MACOs)assigned as extra security forces during the Xindi conflict of the third season of Enterprise. As with most of the MACOs, Hamboyan does not speak on screen but instead serves to protect various visitors of the ship and the ship's officers on certain away missions.
For example, Hamboyan escorts Captain Archer to away missions on the planet Triannon, to Cold Station 12 where Arik Soong's augments are located, as well as the negotiations in the series finale These Are The Voyages. We also often see Hamboyan guarding sickbay, regardless of whether the patient is a hostile or a protected guest of the ship.
It's not all quiet guard and escort duties though, as he sees plenty of live action and combat in this role on Archer's Enterprise. He is one of the front line soldiers that repels an attack of Klingon augments from taking over this ship in the episode Affliction. While other MACOs boarded the Xindi weapon in the episodes Countdown and Zero Hour, Hamboyan stays on board the Enterprise and fights with invading Sphere Builders to prevent the loss of the Enterprise.
The Private avoids the fate of many security personnel and redshirts, as he is not seriously wounded or killed in action during his seasons on the show. Not bad for one of the most prolific recurring characters on this show.
However, the fact that this is a relatively generic security officer that does not have any real character development, and the fact that he ends up as one of the most prolific recurring characters, shows some weakness in the depth of world that Enterprise provided to the audience. We should expect and demand a little more from such recurring characters in the next version of Trek.
Private Hamboyan was played by regular background actor Andrew MacBeth. He also appeared in the background of the movie Star Trek Nemesis around the same time. In his non-Star Trek acting career, he has played roles in the soap opera General Hospital as well as small roles in movies The Day After Tomorrow and The Proposal. He has also participated in the cast of a Playboy Video Centerfold project, but I suppose that's par for the course for a studly background actor and writer.
------------
Feedback can be sent to me with future segment suggestions on Twitter @BuckeyeFitzy.
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