Star Trek: Discovery’s Rebecca Romijn talks becoming Number One
Rebecca Romjin speaks out about her role on Star Trek: Discovery as the iconic character Number One.
It was revealed at San Diego Comic-Con that Rebecca Romijn would be playing Number One — Captain Christopher Pike’s second in command and the first officer of the Enterprise.
It turns out when Romjin was approached for the show, she didn’t know what character they had in mind for her, only that the role would be somewhat iconic. It didn’t matter, as a proclaimed Trekkie, she jumped at the chance.
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“I was a Trekkie as a kid with the original series,” Romijn said. “After I was filled in with all the details — after I said ‘yes’ — oh man, I was floored. It was amazing.”
While I do question just how devoted a Trekkie she is if she’s calling the original series “Enterprise,” Romjin is over the moon about being on the show.
She describes stylistic throwbacks to the ’60s feel of the original series — from costumes to set design — and the joy of putting on the uniform for the first time.
“But when they fit me for that uniform, I was teary-eyed,” gushed Romjin.
She also reveals that they’ve talked about Spock but claims that fans probably know more than she knows about it — which is odd considering they’re meant to be serving on the same vessel.
The story of the character Number One is a fascinating one.
The character was originally played by Majel Barrett (later to become Majel Barrett-Roddenberry) in the first pilot of the original Star Trek series. There were, in fact, two pilots for the show because elements of this first one were too fantastic for network executives to believe.
They had two major points of contention — one was the alien character of Mr. Spock and the other was the impossibility of a woman being second in command of a Starship. There was no way that audiences would take the show seriously with a woman in a position of such high authority and responsibility.
They told Roddenberry that he could keep one of them and Mr. Spock became number one.
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This story is illuminating on multiple points.
The first is the incredible sexism in effect at the time, the idea that a woman in a position of authority would be so unbelievable to executives and general audiences.
The second point is just how progressive Gene Roddenberry was in his views for the time — it seems he truly was a visionary.
Source: comicbook.com