Star Trek Beginning to End: Footnote - Major Cast Changes

Before I end these posts on the five big Star Trek series that have aired over the years, I want to give a shout out to the main characters that weren't in it for very long. 

The cast pictures I used in the previous posts were of the casts that I liked best, but they don't represent every character that had more than a reoccurring part in each respective show.  They deserve their own spot of attention.

I've already mentioned Captain Pike and Number One from the original pilot The Cage.I sometimes wonder if the actor who played Pike had known what a runaway smash hit Star Trek would become, if he would've turned the role down.  He died very young at age 42, so perhaps that would've stopped the whole juggernaut short, having to select a new captain for the movies, and it's better this way, but I liked Christopher Pike.  He had a strong command presence.  I'm sure that if he'd continued they would've introduced a suaveness to his character for the sake many brief romances, but I don't think he would've been as cliched as Kirk.  I also wish to reiterate my admiration for Number One as a strong female character.  I don't know where people get the idea that in order to be perceived as strong, the woman must visibly one-up and outdo the man and then rub his face in it, albeit comically.  Number One had silent strength.  She could have been every bit of an endearing confidant to Pike as Riker was to Picard had it gone on.  I assume that if this incarnation had continued that she would be the adult to Pike's more playful nature in the way Spock was to Kirk.  Wikipedia has an interesting article on this character, the mystery of her name and other writings regarding her.  The other character who would have been a main character had the series continued as was is Dr. Phillip Boyce.

He's an old country doctor, a motif they stuck with when casting McCoy, only this one is a little more laid back.  Not as high strung as Bones.  I don't imagine he would've been as much fun either, but I have not way to tell.

Next up from Star Trek TNG is Dr. Katherine Pulaski. 

She appears in some cast photos because she was the doctor in season two.  She has history with the Star Trek franchise appearing in two episodes of TOS when she was young and beautiful.  Or if saying "in her prime" is less offensive, so be it. The fact is, she's a great actress and knew what kind of personality to bring to a Start Trek character.  Unfortunately for her brief time there, she was being built up as a copy of McCoy in relation to her fear of the transporter and the curious dynamic between she and Data as with Bones and Spock.  I blame the fact that they weren't trying to be original and creative at the time... just one of those aspects of the first two seasons that was frustrating to me.  I think she could've been developed very well had she stayed on, but again, these things work out for the best.  Dr. Crusher's presence was much more effective and versatile on the whole.  But, I really did enjoy the actress, Diane Maulder as this character.

There were two major changes in Deep Space Nine. The first was Worf                                            

as a crossover character.  This requires no real explanation, only my personal approval as a really good move.  It's hard to say what will happen with characters when they crossover, but a Klingon in the heart of a good war story is actually a can't-miss scenario.  The other is Ezri Dax who I've mentioned before but I want to expand briefly on again.  People like me who didn't approve of Ezri get labelled as "haters" a lot because we care more for the complexity of a story than those who accept all changes happily, with no apparent standards and expectations. (This doesn't just apply to characters, but also entire movies of fandoms like the new Star Trek sets, which I'll get into later, or the newest Star Wars.)  Like I mentioned before, they started Ezri out right. 

She sought out Dax's old friend Sisko first instead of Jadzia's beloved Worf.  This made sense with the way the Trill race had been developed over the previous seasons.  Then, in order to speed things up for the sake of the series coming to an end, they just kind of threw some of that out.  And I'll admit, she probably could handle her serial killer personality with skill considering her occupation.  But, her brief encounter with Worf shouldn't have happened anyway because that breaks the rules that they invented about returning to a past relationship.  Rules taken very seriously for the episode created for it.  Then she settles on Bashir, basically saying he was Jadzia's second choice.  It's disrespectful to all three characters.  I know they didn't have time to explore the fact that she was an unjoined Trill and therefore, presumably, not up for the lifestyle mentally (as a psychologist, no less) and there was endless fodder in that part alone.  The confusion with Worf and Bashir was correct.  But, ultimately, she should've been written out as either transferring or having to return to the Trill home world to pass the Dax symbiont along to someone who was prepared to be a joined trill somehow.  Exceptions can always be made in fiction. It wouldn't have been as happy of an ending, but a little more realistic and would've fit better with the themes of this show.

Forgive me for being cynical but I see the addition of 7 of 9 as the big boob hire for this show. 

As I said before, I know I've not given Voyager much of a chance and I'm sure her character had more depth than that, but you can see already a trend towards strong female characters who are also buxom and physically intimidating as more of a graphic novel heroine than an epic tale character who is, for the most part, not physically remarkable.  And I had the same wariness of T'Pol from Enterprise, to be fair.

Speaking of, I didn't see enough of Enterprise to know for sure if there were any major cast changes over the course of its run.  I'm not counting reoccurring characters in this assessment just like I'm not counting what amounts to secondary characters (as Nurse Chapel, TOS.) If anyone knows of any major cast changes in Enterprise, I'd be delighted to hear of it.