]Even before Strange New Worlds introduced it’s new crew, the return of Captain Pike and his Number One in Discovery’s second season had already given a new lease of life to the abandoned original crew of the Starship Enterprise. Now leading their own show and diving into two characters who’d barely had a chance to shine, the show has taken the opportunity to dive further into both underdeveloped characters and unexplored background of the original Star Trek era.
Continuing the trend, the show has given a new lease of life for original series character Christine Chapel, offering a more rounded history alongside a young Lieutenant Spock, and delved into a lot more. Particularly with the Second Season bringing Lieutenant James T Kirk to watch him grow into his future command and even ended on them bumping into a young Lieutenant Scott as the sole survivor of a destroyed ship.
Bones.
Often overshadowed by the history of Kirk and Spock, a young McCoy could be an interesting addition now that we’ve seen Spock and Kirk’s first mission together. The Kelvin Timeline movies delved into their meeting and friendship in it’s self contained alternate reality, but as we explore the origins of “Spirk” and how James T learns to be a leader ahead of taking over Pike’s command, it seems obvious that at some stage we’ll need to meet the other half of Kirk’s conscience at some stage soon. And it’d be a fitting addition now we have Scotty having made an appearance…
Emony Dax
It’s a bit of a cheat as Emony was clearly not in The Original Series, but when Jadzia Dax and Sisko were back in time and loitering on the bridge, the third Dax host did come up. Emony was living as an Olympic Gymnast in the mid 23rd century where she’d met Dr Leonard McCoy while judging a competition. Alluding to there being more to the story, Strange New Worlds could explore a young Dax and McCoy. Well, as long as they figure out a reason to have a gymnast on the Enterprise, and if they bring in McCoy and of course if they can figure out if the Trill’s are hiding their symbiotic nature or not at this stage….
Harry Mudd
A big fan favourite from the original era, Harry Mudd has already seen a return to the screen with Rainn Wilson cast in the role for Discovery’s first season. Last seen pulling off a successful con and evading Starfleet in Short Treks, Harry Mudd is still out there and would blend in quite well if he turned up to annoy Captain Pike and crew.
Janice Rand
Back in the original series, Nurse Chapel didn’t really have much character outside of her role whereas now we’re seeing a lot more background. Similarly, the short time Janice Rand was on screen she was a blank canvas waiting for some character to come through. Rand’s place initially was just a love interest for Kirk before things changed and she was written out after thirteen episodes.
https://youtu.be/lGLmwljq9dg?si=yKnErJfrlts8i4-f
Marla McGivers
Let’s face it. No matter whjp’s in charge, producers of Star Trek seem to love Khan. The singular Space Seed episode from 1967 would spawn a movie sequel that became the holy grail of Star Trek films and subsequently find Khan referenced absolutely everywhere. From Deep Space Nine regarding Bashir’s secret augmentation, to Khan’s legacy and ties with the Soong Family in Enterprise and even now in Strange New Worlds where the security officer, La’an, in one of his ancestors.
Even between Picard and Strange New Worlds we’ve already seen the origins of Khan between Adam Soong moving into genetics and La’an travelling back in time d comforting him as a child. So if you look back at everyone who ever appeared in the original series and handed producer – any producer – the list, you know full well they’d slam their fist on the table and pick “The Khan one!”
McGivers was the ships historian when Kirk found Khan and his crew in a lost sleeper ship. During the time Khan was on board, she fell head over heels for him to the point of breaking protocol an d betraying her crew. Despite helping Kirk re-take the ship in the end, she chose Exile with Khan over as court martial only to die a few months later due to a catastrophic accident that spurned the Wrath of Khan sequel.
The background of McGivers was explored in some non canon “beta” works, with stories about her upbringing as an orphan to almost killing off her career by having a fling with an Academy instructor, right down to her death on Certi Alpha V. On screen she might not be the most interesting character to delve into, but with her historical knowledge and fascination with Khan, bringing her to close proximity with La’an and the baggage she carries form her family history could make for some great character building for Lt Noonien-Singh.
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