Janice and Kirk

The Dagger in the Mind

The Enterprise brings aboard a Doctor Manette-type character; a smart man who’s been ruined by wrongful incarceration.  I enjoyed this one, though our poor Doctor Manette yells too much and it quickly gets annoying.  Also, in the future, flipping a switch in the wrong manner will instantly kill you.

The Corbomite Maneuver

Classic smart-aliens-are-testing-us-scenario, in which the Enterprise faces off against a spinning Windows icon and a menacing disco ball and everyone almost dies.  Uhura is suddenly wearing gold, not red.

The Menagerie, Pt. I & II

The classic human’s-been-captured-for-the-alien-zoo plot, played out over two episodes.  Spock pulls a hugely ballsy gambit to help a former coworker, and that adds lots of artificial drama to the storytelling.  The Federation has the technology to save the life of Captain Pike, who's been burned to a crisp and should be dead, but Future Medical Miracles! Unfortunately, future tech can't give us any communication from Pike other than one beep for yes, two beeps for no. Excellent appearance from Roddenberry’s wife, Majel Barrett.

"I recorded you breathing at night
and made it my new ringtone!"

The Conscience of the King

Kirk investigates a former butchering dictator posing as a Shakespearean actor.  The actor’s great; his manic daughter is a walking crazy girlfriend meme, and Kirk’s the honey pot, using the daughter to get to the father.  Sidenote: I always love hearing Uhura sing.  

Balance of Terror

We meet Romulans (Romans with spaceships) for the first time, who are disciplined military strategy geniuses.  Kirk is effortlessly better at war than they are (because of course he is).  Also, why are there Romans in space?  Like, how could these Romulans have patterned their entire culture around Earth’s Rome?  

Janice and Kirk

"My hairdo? It's just naturally
like this when I wake up."

Might I mention that these six episodes are the last with Yeoman Janice?  I’m told that someone at the studio didn’t like Grace Lee Whitney and she got fired, though no one is owning up to being the person who wanted her gone.  I didn’t have any real problem with Janice, but it was jarring to have her replaced with no explanation whatsoever after being an important secondary character since the beginning.  

Major hair respect, Janice.  I’ll miss that basketweave hair fez you’ve been wearing.  

Janice and Kirk have a weird relationship.  Kirk’s evil transporter double tried to rape her because his id has a major thing for her.  Janice straight up admits that she wants Kirk to look at her legs in the episode Miri, when she starts getting twitchy about Kirk flirting with a prepubescent girl.  It’s obvious that the writers are setting these two up as the archetypical  OTP-will-they-won’t-they-unresolved-sexual-tension-couple.  In this set of episodes, Janice brings Kirk meals unsolicited, puts a linen napkin in his lap, stands weirdly close to him on the bridge when she thinks everyone’s about to die in Balance of Terror, and makes herself oddly scarce when Kirk’s wooing the actor’s daughter.  

Janice seems to exist to help us empathize with the loneliness of Kirk’s command - it’s totally obvious to everyone that Janice and Kirk wanna tear each other’s clothes off, but he’s not allowed to, because he’s a swell captain, dedicated to the standards of Starfleet professionalism.  Except for when he rides the elevator shirtless. (Why?  Why, Kirk?  You couldn’t put on a shirt for walking around the ship?)

"As per a yeoman's duties, I'll perform
the daily sniffing of your uniform, sir."

Janice gets credit for being feisty - every time there’s a creepy misogynist stalking someone on the Enterprise, you can safely bet that Janice is the subject of their obsession, and she does usually speak up for herself: not that anyone takes her very seriously, even when she’s been assaulted.  Still, as a feminist watching Janice, I can’t help feeling like even her feistiness is dialed way, way down, to a level acceptable to the patriarchy, leaving her pliable and easy-going enough to play opposite a real man’s man.  

Janice and Kirk, alas, were not meant to be, but that’s awfully convenient for our old-fashioned red-blooded captain, who needs to encounter a different sexy lady every week.  Still, the way Kirk’s been mooning over Janice, you expect him to at least mention why she’s suddenly gone from the Enterprise.