Character Insight No. 208: Lieutenant DeSalle

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we profile Vincent DeSalle, a lieutenant jack of all trades who appears on several episodes of TOS.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp208

DeSalle is first seen as a command division navigator in the episode The Squire of Gothos. He specifically joined a landing party which is looking for Captain Kirk and Lieutenant Sulu, and he comes into conflict with Trelane in this process. The most notable scene is where he is temporarily paralyzed when he tries to stun Trelane, and instead, Trelane uses the phaser to experiment with disintegrating some of his trophies.

Desalle appears again in a landing party in the episode This Side of Paradise, where many of the crew fall under the influence of Omicron spores. The Frenchman mutinies, but like all French revolutions, it ended quickly, specifically thanks to a subsonic transmitter.

The next time we see DeSalle at the beginning of season 2, he is placed in command of the Enterprise when the remainder of the command chain was off the ship in the episode Catspaw. He has to lead an effort to try and get through an alien barrier to send help to the crew off the ship, but he does not succeed before the alien Korob removes the barrier himself.

QUOTE (from Catspaw)
DeSalle: Mr. Chekov, recalibrate your sensors. If you need help...
Chekov: I can do it, sir. I'm not that green.

DeSalle: We know they're down there. I want them found!

Interestingly, he has a different color uniform and a different role as assistant chief engineer in the sciences division in this second appearance. This shift occurred because Gene Coon wanted there to be a backup chief whenever Scotty has to take over the bridge as part of the chain of command, so this episode was to introduce DeSalle as a recurring character in this role. Perhaps the shift in role would be typical as crews continue to develop on a long multi-year mission.

However, this was another of Coon's writing plans that went to waste as none of the scripts involving such circumstances with Scotty in charge ended up requiring communication between the bridge and main engineering. Thus, DeSalle is never seen again, in this role or otherwise.

Desalle is played by Michael Barrier. He acted throughout the 1960s, but Star Trek was one of his final roles. He can also be seen in 60's TV classics Mission Impossible, Bonanza, and the movie Angel in my Pocket.

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