Trek II Myths Rhue the Day
If you look around the internet and read a little trivia about the making of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), sooner or later you’re going to encounter a variation of the following story about Star Trek II executive producer Harve Bennett and actress Madlyn Rhue, who played Marla McGivers on the Star Trek episode “Space Seed”:
Originally Marla McGivers (Madlyn Rhue), the ship’s historian seduced by Khan in the original episode, was supposed to return as Khan’s wife. Sadly, Bennett discovered the actress was confined to a wheelchair due to multiple sclerosis. Instead of re-casting her, he had her character written out of the story.[1]
But here’s the problem, Fact Trekkers...
We can’t find a reputable source of this claim, let alone a quote.
Yes, it’s all over the internet, but it’s not properly sourced, vetted or even given cursory scrutiny.
Madlyn Rhue as Marla McGivers in 1967’s Star Trek episode “Space Seed”.*
As some of you are doubtless doing right now, a cursory web search will reveal that Rhue did suffer from multiple sclerosis [henceforth MS] and was, in fact, eventually confined to a wheelchair.
But that’s a cursory web search. If you dig deeper, the story is somewhat more complicated.
So, stay tuned as we address the truth of the ill-fated Marla McGivers, “beloved wife” of Khan, being offed off-camera in Star Trek II, and the actress whose health is blamed.
On Her Feet on TV
Let’s not be coy. This myth is just that: a myth easily disproved just by looking up Rhue’s acting credits on IMDb, and then spending a couple of minutes Googling and finding video of TV shows she appeared in at the time of Star Trek II’s production, where Rhue stands and walks .
In fact, she appeared on an episode of the NBC comedy Diff'rent Strokes (3x23, “The Model”) that originally aired on November 12, 1981—just 3 days after principal photography started on The Wrath of Khan (November 9, 1981). Rhue first shows up around the ten minute mark and in all her scenes is always on her feet.[2]
Click/tap pix to see (crappy) video of this 1981 Diff'rent Strokes episode featuring Rhue on Dailymotion. She first appears about 10 minutes in and again at about 30:45.†
Furthermore—if IMDb is correct—she made 66 appearances in the role of Daphne DiMera on the soap opera Days of Our Lives from 1982-84. In video from 1983, you can see her on her feet. (Her character was offed in a plane crash in late 1984.) She did at some point appear on the soap using a cane, not a wheelchair, but this was well after Star Trek II filmed.[3]
Click/tap pix to see (crappy) video of this 1983 Days of Our Lives scene featuring Rhue on YouTube. ‡
During that same period she made eight appearances on the TV version of Fame as Angela Schwartz, mother of series regular Doris Schwartz (played by Valerie Landsburg). Seasons one and two of Fame are on DVD, and we've seen her on her feet in that role.
Coincidentally, the Fame episode "To Soar and Never Falter" (S01, E05) features a dancer with a prior diagnosis of multiple sclerosis whose minor injury causes the insurance company to decide to remove her from the school. Rhue’s first appearance on Fame was just three episodes later in “Street Kid” (S01, E08).
In fact, in her final appearance on Fame, in the episode “Who's Afraid of The Big Bad Wolf” (S4E21), aired Apr 6, 1985, in two of her three scenes she’s on her feet. This episode was likely filmed four years after TWOK commenced principal photography.[4]
Click/tap pic to see video of this Fame episode featuring Rhue on Dailymotion. “Who's Afraid of The Big Bad Wolf” (S4E21), aired Apr 6, 1985. Jump to 13:20 and again at 34:10 to see her on her feet.§
If you pay attention to the latter scene you can see Rhue walks a little oddly as she crosses the set. Whether this is due to her MS is not something we can answer.
For the record…here are the 79 shows/episodes she’s listed as having appeared in from Diff’rent Strokes through Fame in 1985.[5]
Fame (TV Series) 1982-1985
Angela Schwartz / Mrs. Schwartz
- Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? (1985) ... Angela Schwartz
- Dreams (1985) ... Angela Schwartz
- Blizzard (1984) ... Angela Schwartz
- Heritage (1984) ... Mrs. Schwartz
- Hail to the Chief (1983) ... Mrs. Schwartz
- Sunshine Again (1983) ... Angela Schwartz
- Homecoming (1982) ... Mrs. Schwartz
- Street Kid (1982) ... Mrs. Schwartz
Days of Our Lives (TV Series) 1982-1984
Daphne DiMera
- Episode #1.4838 (1984) ... Daphne DiMera
- Episode #1.4837 (1984) ... Daphne DiMera
- Episode #1.4835 (1984) ... Daphne DiMera
- Episode #1.4833 (1984) ... Daphne DiMera
- Episode #1.4832 (1984) ... Daphne DiMera
(66 episodes)
CHiPs (TV Series) 1979-1983
Mildred Sloane
- Brat Patrol (1983) ... Mildred Sloane
Games Mother Never Taught You (TV Movie) 1982
Fantasy Island (TV Series) 1982
Lillie Langtry
- The Perfect Gentleman/Legend (1982) ... Lillie Langtry
Fantasies (TV Movie) 1982 Rebecca
Diff'rent Strokes (TV Series) 1978-1986
Tina Claremont
- The Model (1981) ... Tina Claremont
So, she wasn’t “confined to a wheelchair” during the time in question. That’s absolutely certain. As we’ll see, she did use one starting in the 80s, but not as soon as the stories would lead you to believe.
1988 publicity photo of Rhue after she came out about her MS in 1987.¶
Lady McGiver(s)
The one thing verifiably true is that Marla McGivers did appear in early scripts for what would become Star Trek II and was eliminated during rewrites. The 1981 treatments and screenplays for STAR TREK: The Omega System and STAR TREK: The Genesis Project each feature the character.
NOTE: One other screenplay, Samuel A. Peeples’ The New Star Trek, reportedly dropped Khan, McGivers and their group, so we will disregard it.
So let’s talk about the documentary evidence regarding her role in those scripts and why the role might’ve been cut. As ever, we’re looking at the actual scripts and treatments, not repeating received wisdom and trivia repeated all over the web.
In both stories, the McGivers role is a supporting part, effectively replaced by Joachim (Judson Scott) in the final film. Following are excerpts that cover the entirety of the role as written in the April 10, 1981 “Final Draft” script for The Genesis Project written by Jack B. Sowards and Harve Bennett.[6] The earlier February 20, 1981 First Draft of The Omega System, written by Jack B. Sowards,[7] is called out where it differs in any substantial or interesting way.
NOTE: All these drafts get her name incorrectly as McGiver instead of McGivers, but in our notes between excerpts we’ll keep the spelling correct. All script excerpts are sic.
Excerpts from The Omega System will look like this.Excerpts from The Genesis Project will look like this.
Yes, we have the actual scripts. No “telephone game” here.
In The Omega System McGivers is introduced to us this way:
At his side is MARLA McGIVER, a solid woman, as firmly convinced as Khan that what he thinks or does is right, simply because he thinks or does it. In another place, another age, with a weaker man, she might have been Lady MacBeth.
...but in the later The Genesis Project that gets cut down to a throwaway Lady MacBeth reference...
12 INT. CAVE OF LAVA ROCK - CLOSE ON MARLA McGIVER She is in her forties now, watching intently as we PULL BACK. KHAN’S VOICE Yes, Mr. Chekov, Khan. Khan Noonian Singh, your old friend. The ANGLE WIDENS to reveal a large cavern central room of Khan's underground life space. Khan sits beside Marla in a large chair. [...] Marla, disgruntled by hardship has become his Lady MacBeth.[...] KHAN And of course you remember my wife, Marla McGiver. Chekov and Marla exchange stiff nods.[...]
Khan then discusses Kirk, questions Terrell as to why they are there, and then rants a bit about being abandoned on such a desolate rock, prompting this…
TERRELL Then how have you survived? McGIVER With his mind, Commander. Only through the power of that magnificent mind. He willed himself to live, and he kept a few of us alive with the promise that someday someone would come to free us from this place... And here you are.
After this Khan’s group puts the eels on the unlucky Starfleet men. As in the final film, we next see Khan and his followers aboard Reliant.
23 INT. BRIDGE - RELIANT The place is the same, but the faces are different. Khan is in the Captain's chair, McGiver at the helm. The crew are Khan's people, now in Starfleet uniforms. Khan's mood is high. McGIVER We are approaching Gamma Regula Four. Ready for orbital descent.
And Khan then calls Terrell & Chekov to the bridge. As he waits…
KHAN How are the control systems working? MCGIVER Very well. Command and remote functions are all tied through computer stations. How could you have designed it so quickly? KHAN This is a sister ship of Enterprise. The Enterprise manuals I absorbed fourteen years ago are still fresh in my mind. (he laughs now) MCGIVER What's funny? KHAN I was just wondering how Captain Beach and the crew of this ship are enjoying our old home on Ceti Alpha... What a fine irony.
At this point Terrell and Chekov arrive, whereupon Khan tests his control of them. Then…
McGIVER We are entering orbit for Gamma Regula Four. Khan's eyes are bright. He reaches almost unmindfully over her chair back and begins gently massaging her neck. She reacts. McGIVER (continuing) You haven’t done that in years. KHAN I haven't been so happy in years.
The next time McGivers appears is when Khan remotely manipulates Terrell in an attempt to capture the Genesis Project materials.
56 INT. BRIDGE - RELIANT Khan watching an O.S. monitor. McGiver close by. KHAN Fools... The man’s being outwitted by children. McGIVER Khan. You’d better block his communicator. KHAN He’s in panic. He needs to talk to me. McGIVER His last transmission was on an open channel. The mistake hits Khan.
We next see them when they sneak attack the Enterprise. McGivers dialog is merely “They’re still running with shields down,” and “Phaser locked on target.” Then, after their first attack...
72 INT. BRIDGE - RELIANT - FAVORING KHAN He stares at the image of the Enterprise, angry, as McGiver punches buttons on the console. KHAN How much longer? McGIVER (two last entries) We’re ready with new attack course.
Then, as Reliant closes in, and just before “Kirk’s Explosive reply”, the script says…
McGivers stands beside Khan, angrily staring at the screen.
The earlier The Omega System script gave McGivers a stronger moment here:
INT. RELIANT - THE BRIDGE Khan sits watching the Enterprise on the Forward Screen. McGiver stands beside Khan, angrily staring at the Screen. OFFICER She's almost dead in space, Sir. Barely maintaining headway. McGIVER She should be little pieces of tinfoil. (moves across to the Gunnery Console) Get up, you fool. The Gunnery Officer gives McGiver an ugly look. GUNNERY OFFICER Don't talk to me like that, Woman. Khan leans forward. KHAN Where are your manners, Jahmal? Get up and give the lady your seat. The Gunnery Officer rises slowly, and McGiver slides quickly into the chair, and starts punching in information. McGIVER (checking her readout) There seems to be heavy damage in the area of the Engine Room and Machine Shops... Their Shields are less than half of capacity.... Phasers locked on target. She leans forward, hand poised over the Firing Button, watching the Screen. McGIVER (to the Helm Officer, intensely) Take us closer... Slowly. Slow. Warp One....
A bit later in The Omega System, there’s this awkward Shatner-flattering dialog between Khan and McGivers as they spy Kirk on a video feed…
KHAN (pleased) He looks good, doesn’t he, Marla? She looks up from the instrument panel where she is punching buttons, and switching switches. KHAN Kirk... He’s in good shape. (thoughtfully) I never understood why people felt that just getting older was an excuse to let themselves get fat and soft. McGIVER Yes, he looks like he’s in good shape. KHAN I like that. I like that very much. There wouldn’t be any satisfaction in killing a fat, sloppy old man. (looking at the instruments) Do you have the coordinates of the caves? McGIVER I can Beam you down right next to those bombs... and they have thoughtfully provided the Freight Transporters to Beam them up to the ship.
…which is followed by the best exchange between the characters, which gets repeated in a much more apt place at the climax of The Genesis Project, but we’ll get to that.
In both scripts there is a scene where McGivers and Khan are in the Reliant torpedo room, studying the Omega/Genesis Torpedoes. The scenes are similar, with McGivers asking, “Tell me what you see, Khan,” whereupon he monologues about his ambition. In The Genesis Project, that’s really it for Marla’s involvement in the scene, but in The Omega System there’s a tiny bit more to it…
McGIVER There’s also the power to kill and destroy. KHAN That part of it does not please me, my dear, but the ends justify the means.
…And after Khan finishes his speech about how he’ll stop all the waste by uniting the Klingons, Romulans and Federation under his rule…
McGIVER It's a beautiful dream, Khan.
And that’s McGivers’ final appearance in The Omega System, vanishing from the story after page 83 of 112. Khan goes on to confront Kirk and David on the planet, then beams out of the story as well on page 97. The final space battle is played entirely from the POV of the Enterprise crew.
The Genesis Project features both Khan and McGivers in the final battle, beginning with the following as the Enterprise pursues the Reliant.
183 INT. BRIDGE - RELIANT They are watching screen of Enterprise, and various scanning devices. McGIVER Enterprise now on intercept course. KHAN The man’s suicidal. McGIVER Shall we increase speed? We can outrun him. KHAN No. (presses button) Load Genesis Torpedo and stand by for Molecular Encoding. McGIVER You’re wasting a valuable resource. KHAN We have six. One will do.
Which presages Joachim (Judson Scott) attempting to sway Khan to act sensibly in the final film. The rest of McGivers role during the final battle is to say “Target lock,” twice before Genesis Torpedoes are fired at the Enterprise, which evades them because, knowing the shields are useless against the Genesis effect, Kirk has lowered them in order to use that power for maneuvering. McGivers sees this as an opportunity.
203 RELIANT BRIDGE KHAN You can’t miss at this distance. McGIVER Their shields are down -- let me use the phasers -- KHAN No! Energize torpedoes!
When Khan finally decides to heed McGivers advice and calls for phasers it’s too late and the Reliant is done for. Then, at their story’s climax, there’s this very in-character moment for both:
211 INT. RELIANT BRIDGE Khan and McGiver, coughing through the smoke, seem to be the only ones left alive. He helps her up with some tenderness, for she is clearly injured, guides her to her seat at the console. And we hear: KIRK'S VOICE (filtered) Star Ship Reliant, this is Enterprise. Mr. Khan, your ship is crippled. I have a boarding party standing by. I call upon you to surrender. Khan thinks about it bitterly for a moment, then looks to Marla. She shakes her head firmly. McGIVER No. KHAN (nods, then:) Marla... Have I ever told you that I loved you? McGIVER Never once. KHAN (kisses her forehead) And I probably never will. He reaches out toward the console now and firmly depresses a button. Immediately, the lights in the bridge begin to dim for one second, then raise.
That’s what we referenced as the best bit between the characters in The Omega System, where this dialog happens much earlier and it’s slightly different, Khan saying, “And I probably never will... It is a Sin of Omission.”
Finally, the Enterprise warps off as a Genesis Torpedo takes out the Reliant and Khan and McGivers with it.
That’s it.
That all there was to the McGivers part. A paltry 22 lines in The Genesis Project.
As is apparent, McGivers doesn’t do much in either story. She sits next to Khan, stands next to him a couple of times, sits at stations on the Reliant and stands with Khan in the torpedo room. It’s a part that Rhue probably could have played in 1984, let alone 1981.
Given how undeveloped the part, is it any wonder they would consider cutting it?
Which is just what happened when Nicholas Meyer did his uncredited rewrites. There’s no sign of McGivers as a living, breathing character by his Sept 16, 1981 “Revised Final Draft”, (we sadly don’t at this time have his earlier drafts).[8]
According to Meyer’s 2009 memoir:[9]
I had seen the television episode once and been struck by the fact that Khan had seduced one of the Enterprise’s crew, who devotedly shared his exile. The idea that she might now be dead, in addition to explaining her absence in the movie, struck me as a plausible springboard for Khan’s rage. Working backward from this premise, I built up in my mind an offstage love story that had come to tragic grief and over time shaped Khan’s monomania where Kirk was concerned.
We reached out to Mr. Meyer to ask about this, and he graciously replied to our inquiries.[10]
Everything to do with the drafts I wrote were entirely my choices, including, as I recollect, all the dialogue, with two exceptions. “Would you like a tranquilizer?” And “Captain, this is the Garden spot of Ceti Alpha [VI]” were both written by Harve Bennett. [...] Nor did anyone ask for any revisions or alterations in those choices. [...] Bennett had no hand in writing my draft til after it was complete and all my decisions were in. He made some suggestions and later added, as I recollect, two lines of dialogue.
All that remained of McGivers in Meyer’s script was Khan name-checking her in dialog deleted from the finished film.
Deleted dialog from Khan’s first scene mentions his “beloved wife,” Lt. McGivers, by name. # [11]
Rhue’s Persuasive Performance
So, what to make of the claim that the McGivers role was dropped because of Rhue’s MS, wheelchair or not?
Frankly, it doesn’t wash. It doesn’t comport with the readily available facts.
First, Harve Bennett has said in interviews that the movie almost ran into trouble because no one had thought to contact Ricardo Montalbán to check on his availability or interest in reprising the part of Khan until shortly before the movie was given a green light by Paramount. If Montalbán wasn’t high enough on the list to be contacted, it’s unlikely Rhue had been approached, given the comparative size of her part before being written out of the movie.
We got in a very precarious situation. We started writing the script, we’re going to get Ricardo. But nobody had ever bothered to say, “Ricardo, would you like to do this movie with us?” And we were getting pretty close to a greenlight when I remember we said, “We better check and see if Fantasy Island…other things will permit him to do this.[12]
Second, as has been established, Rhue was working and seen on her feet at the time Star Trek II was filming and for several years after. She even appeared on the Ricardo Montalban-starred Fantasy Island in an episode (“The Perfect Gentleman/Legend”)[13] that aired just months after Khan hit the silver screen and would have been filmed after Star Trek II wrapped. In her first scene Rhue struts into a saloon. Note that she does use a prop parasol but it’s impossible to say if she’s using it like a cane or not. If so, she’s doing a good job of not making it obvious.
Click/tap pic to see video of Madlyn strut her stuff on Fantasy Island in 1982.**
Third, Star Trek II writer/director Nicholas Meyer tells us it wasn’t so.
Fourth, and to the point, is while we can’t speak to Rhue about the situation—she passed in 2003—she is on record discussing her MS, how it ultimately impacted her career, and how she’d kept it a closely guarded secret for years.
It wasn’t until around the time Star Trek: The Next Generation hit the airwaves in 1987 that she “came out” about her condition, notably in the People magazine item “After Years of Lying, Actress Madlyn Rhue Reveals the Truth About Her Multiple Sclerosis.”[14] Here are some edited relevant excerpts.
Just before my 40th birthday, in October of 1977, I was finally diagnosed as having MS. [...] I was afraid that if anyone knew I had the disease, I might never work again. To get an acting job you have to pass an insurance company physical. If you don’t, and you’re not a big star, you don’t get hired. So I lied.“What was best for me was to pretend to be something I wasn’t, which was well,” she explains. So she kept the diagnosis from best friends, including Suzanne Pleshette and Loretta Swit, as well as from a sister to whom she had always been close.For a time Rhue’s performance was persuasive. In the early stages of her MS, which usually strikes people between the ages of 20 and 40, she made convincing excuses—an arthritic hip, a car accident—for her debilitating fatigue and weakness. Despite her eventual need for one cane, then two, she managed to keep her condition to herself. [...] But the charade could not be sustained indefinitely. [...]
Rhue with cane on Days of Our Lives in the post-Khan era.††
[...]Two years ago [~1985] my legs became so weakened that I had to go into a wheelchair. For a period of 11 months after that I had no work.Until early last year [1986] I had been paying almost all my medical expenses myself. I had coverage through my union, the Screen Actors Guild, but I hadn’t filed all the claims for fear I’d be found out. Over the years I have spent more than $80,000. I just made it, but I used up all my savings.
Click/tap articles to enlarge. [15] [16] [17]
Another 1987 article about Rhue states “In the first few years, the symptoms came and went, enabling Rhue to conceal the disease”.[18]
Her alibis worked, and she managed to get recurring roles on the syndicated "Fame" series and the soap opera "Days of Our Lives," using furniture or other items for support.[19]
But, Rhue was ultimately correct about her condition affecting her ability to get work. Years after Star Trek II wrapped...
Word got out that she had MS, and one of her fears was realized. "I got one job in 1985. I got one job in 1986. I've had three in 1987."[20]
Rhue’s account of her condition varied a bit from interview to interview, but that’s not unusual given that people often approximate dates. For instance, in a 1989 AP piece[21] she said…
"I first knew I had MS in 1973 or '74. I didn't tell anyone because all I had was a little dropped foot. Then I had to walk with a cane. Then I had to walk with two canes. I've been in the wheelchair since 1981, but I wasn't wheelchair-bound at first. I could get up, drive, dress myself. I've been confined to the wheelchair for two years."
...which suggests she knew of her condition earlier than 1977 and started using—but was not confined to—a wheelchair the year Star Trek II was in preproduction and began production. Here she also suggested she’d been confined to the wheelchair for two years, which means back to 1987, which is the the year she was in People saying she’d been so for two years prior. So while her accounts are not entirely consistent dates-wise, the real evidence is in her TV appearances as documented above. It’s clear she was not entirely wheelchair-bound as late as her final Fame role (probably filmed in 1984) and certainly not back in 1981.
That her MS was largely unknown in the biz and that she was telling tales to hide her condition is made crystal clear in an item which appeared in Daily Variety on Nov 26, 1986.[22]
Rhue’s cover stories made the trades.
Many people suffering from MS may have symptoms increase and decrease in severity. So it’s entirely possible that Rhue could have been in a bad spot and had to pass on a role like McGivers. But given she was so diligent about hiding it, there’s no way she’d have admitted the actual reason to a potential employer.
Given all of this there's basically no way that producer Bennett—let alone director Nicholas Meyer—knew of Rhue’s MS or believed she was “confined to a wheelchair” in mid 1981 when Star Trek II was in development. Almost no one knew. And when she “came out” in 1987 there were a number of articles about the news...because it was news, not something publicly known years earlier.
Rhue speaks for herself in a 1988 segment on Entertainment Tonight that detailed her struggles with MS. ‡‡ [23]
So, even if Harve Bennett ever said he’d dropped Marla McGivers due to Rhue’s MS and wheelchair—and that’s a big if given we can’t find a source—it’s not impossible that once Rhue’s condition became public knowledge he misremembered it as the reason McGivers got offed.
But we’re still not buying he said it until there’s a reputable, citable source.
And speaking of sources… there’s one more thing to talk about...which is why we are even talking about this.
A Snake Eating Its Tail
It’s clear this myth is just that. Sure, it’s rooted in some reality—Rhue did have MS and was eventually wheelchair-bound—but it reeks of conflation: as if someone heard of Rhue’s condition once she went public and retroactively concluded that it must be why Marla McGivers was not in the film.
That stories like it pop up so often makes it worth asking just where these come from and how they propagate.
Finding the origin of this particular myth has been challenging. We started with the basics. First, we checked the validity of the “confined to a wheelchair” assertion, and finding it lacking, we moved on to finding the root of the story, looking at every interview with Harve Bennett we could find, but came up empty handed. This included ProQuest searches that turned up no confirmation, but clarified when Rhue went public about it.
Next we did numerous boolean operator web searches for “harve bennett”+”rhue” and a bunch of variations, but that mostly turned up sites and items repeating the same basic story again and again with no reliable sources cited, or—mostly—no sources at all.
So then we narrowed down the searches by date, limiting the results by year. The earliest relevant result was from the Star Trek wiki Memory Alpha, pointing to the Marla McGivers article in 2004.[24]
Case closed? Nope. Turns out that’s a search engine error, because while the article was created on May 20, 2004, if you go back through the revision history—which we did—you discover that neither Bennett nor Rhue and her MS were mentioned in the original version (nor the article about Madlyn Rhue on the same site) until four years later, when an April 24, 2008 update added this unsourced statement:
According to Harve Bennett, McGivers was to appear in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, but after he discovered Rhue to have been confined to a wheelchair due to multiple sclerosis, he wrote her out, feeling it would be unfair to recast the role.”[25]
And there it sat with zip citation for 3½ years until a November 3, 2011 update added a long overdue “citation needed” flag,[26] which remained there for another 5½ years until a July 8, 2016 update[27] when a citation was finally added, one that referenced the book Set Phasers To Stun: 50 Years of Star Trek (2016) by Marcus Berkmann,[28] which contains a footnote about Rhue and McGivers…
Set Phasers To Stun is no smoking gun.
But that book was published in 2016, eight years after the unsourced Bennett-Rhue story was first added to Memory Alpha. So it could not be the original source for any of the above even though it’s now listed as a citation. Furthermore, the book itself cites no source for its footnote about Rhue, but its text is very close to the Memory Alpha article text...so for all we know the author got the story from Memory Alpha. If that’s the case it would be a snake eating its own tail: an unsourced claim gets repeated in a book that is then cited as a source for the unsourced claim.
The earliest confirmed reference we can find to this story goes back to 2007–2008, beginning with a few posts on the TrekBBS website.[29]
Also, before the draft script itself was being written, it was assumed that Khan would have scenes with Marla McGivers, but then Harve Bennett heard that Madlyn Rhue had MS, and was confined to a wheelchair, so that character was dropped before her scenes were written. —4 Sept 2007The main reason Marla is dead in the movie was because they found out, fairly early on, that Madlyn Rhue had MS and, although she was still acting at the time (eg. Daphne diMera in "Days of Our Lives", and she even did a "Fantasy Island" with Ricardo Montalban!), she was usually confined to a wheelchair. —30 June 2008
We contacted the author of those posts and he tells us he believes he read it in a Starlog Magazine interview with Harve Bennett, but we’ve scoured Starlog archives and not been able to locate such a thing (if anyone can find it, let us know). So it’s possible he’s misremembered where he first read/heard this.
We all do it.
But that innocent lack of a source, Fact Trekkers, illustrates a larger problem with how we receive and share history.
Hover text: I just read a pop-science book by a respected author. One chapter, and much of the thesis, was based around wildly inaccurate data which traced back to ... Wikipedia. To encourage people to be on their toes, I'm not going to say what book or author.
The brilliant xkcd webcomic gets it right.[30]
The internet is a giant “telephone game”; people repeat what they’ve heard, the stories gradually morph with those retellings, and the origin gets lost or forgotten. What we end up with is a circle of questionable sources that end up citing themselves in a daisy chain...effectively that snake eating its own tail. There’s no beginning and no end, and the myth machine just keeps on churning without scrutiny or the slightest concern for our perennial question:
“IS IT TRUE?”
In the case of Marla McGivers and Madlyn Rhue’s MS, the answer appears to be “no.”
Caveat emptor, friends…especially where pop culture “history” is concerned.
—30—
Special Thanks
To Nicholas Meyer for graciously answering our questions and doing so with all due haste. Sir, you are a mensch. Follow him on Twitter (link).
To FACT TREK Associate Ryan Thomas Riddle for his invaluable input and edits. Follow his adventures through time and space on Twitter (link) and see his work on his homepage (link).
To Mark Farinas for locating several video clips referenced and linked herein. Read his Star Trek The Webcomic (link).
As ever, much thanks to David Eversole for sharing information with us. Find his work at The Unseen Elements of the Original Series Episodes.
This week’s Jr. FACT TREKKER award goes to JSJ (find him on Twitter) for helping us verify the Set Phasers To Stun reference.
Finally Neil S. Bulk for catching a credits error and otherwise keeping us honest.
Appendix: McGivers Gets the Axe—The Many Different Versions
Here are other examples of this tale being “telephone”d around the internet.
Re-Watching Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Eugene Myers & Torie Atkinson, The Viewscreen, 13 October 2011. Per the authors of this piece, “Actress Madlyn Rhue was unable to reprise her role as Marla McGivers because she was confined to a wheelchair with multiple sclerosis.” We’ve established she was not confined to a wheelchair until years after her character was written out.
30 Surprising Facts About Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan You Didn't Know, by Maurice Mitchell, 17 March 2014 (and copied verbatim from The Geektwins.com to another site by blogger "travelingwithjim“ (link)) stated “An early draft of the script included Marla McGivers, but Madlyn Rhue was wheelchair-bound thanks to multiple sclerosis (which eventually killed her) and unable to play the role, and Meyer didn’t wish to re-cast.” Here the story has “telephone”d from Bennett to director Meyer. See how this happens?
Re-Viewing Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: Part 1, Mark’s Super Blog, 7 August 2016. Per blogger Mark Alfred: “In the original ‘Space Seed,’ the backstory of this film, Khan’s ‘wife’ was Marla McGivers, a mutinous Starfleet member who defected from Kirk’s ship because she’d never been swyved like that before (check your Chaucer if you don’t know that word). This character was also intended to be part of the film, until producer Harve Bennett discovered that actress Madlyn Rhue was suffering from MS and was wheelchair-bound. So her character was merely addressed and then dismissed through a couple of clumsy references.” Again, not yet “wheelchair-bound” and her MS was not publicly known.
Star Trek The Original Series Rewatch: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, by Keith R.A. DeCandido, Tor, Tue 23 May, 2017. “An early draft of the script included Marla McGivers, but Madlyn Rhue was wheelchair-bound thanks to multiple sclerosis (which eventually killed her) and unable to play the role, and Meyer didn’t wish to re-cast.” Again, she was not “wheelchair-bound” until years after the film was made. And it’s a stretch to say the MS “eventually killed her”, as obituaries state she died at age 68 of pneumonia and heart failure.[31]
12 Things You May Not Have Known About Star Trek Ii: The Wrath Of Khan, by Don Kaye, SyFy Wire, 4 June 2017. “Originally, the character of Lieutenant Marla McGivers -- the Enterprise historian seduced by Khan in ‘Space Seed,’ who ultimately joins him in exile on Ceti Alpha V -- was supposed to appear in The Wrath of Khan, and the actress who played her, Madlyn Rhue, approached to reprise the role. Sadly, however, Rhue suffered from multiple sclerosis and was confined to a wheelchair, so McGivers was written out of the movie. Khan references the death of ‘my beloved wife’ when he is first encountered by Chekov (Walter Koenig) and Captain Terrell (Paul Winfield) on the surface of the planet -- almost certainly meaning McGivers.” Again, the wheelchair story; again, not confined in 1981–82.
Madlyn Rhue was born on October 3, 1935 and passed away on December 16, 2003, The Real Nerd Herd, 3 October 2017. Blogger travelingwithjim writes, “Sadly, Rhue was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1977 and was soon confined to using a cane, then crutches, and finally a wheelchair. This is, according to Harve Bennett, what kept McGivers from appearing in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. When Bennett discovered Rhue’s condition, he wrote McGivers out of the film, feeling it would be unfair to recast the role. Coincidentally, Rhue’s ‘Space Seed’ co-star, Ricardo Montalban (who played Khan in the episode) was also confined to a wheelchair due to health issues. Like Rhue, Montalban continued to work despite his predicament.” Again, this account suggests her health issues were know to Bennett, but we’ve established she was hiding them. And, again, she was not yet restricted by canes or a wheelchair, as demonstrated by her appearance on other shows.
STILL OLD FRIEND: MUSIC FROM THE MUTARA NEBULA w/ NEIL BULK, Inglorious Treksperts Podcast, 3 September 2021, 35:23-36:12. Podcast co-host Mark A. Altman states: “You know, it’s funny, I just found out something I never knew about Marla McGivers. That actually early in—I think it was before Nick [Meyer] got involved—that Bob and Harve were interested in getting Madlyn Rhue to be in the film. And when they approached her, she was too sick to do it, so she had to turn them down. But they had actually wanted her for the film… It was interesting, because all the interviews I’ve ever read they always say, ‘No, because we want him to be so dead set on revenge, we never considered having Marla McGivers in it. We wanted her to be dead, which helps fuel his antipathy towards Kirk.’ But it was interesting to hear that, because they had tried to get Madlyn Rhue, which would have been interesting.” This account doesn’t go so far as to say she was confined to a wheelchair, but implies that “Bob [Salin] and Harve [Bennett]” found out she was “too sick to do it.” Had Rhue actually been approached for the role (again, to date there’s zero evidence to support that, and Altman cites no source) she could conceivably have turned it down, but her character was written out many months before production started, and as “the symptoms came and went” she’d have been unable to predict how she’d feel that far into the future. So this doesn’t wash, either.
As ever, should extra data points become available we will revisit this article and post a applicable #FactTrekCorrection.
Revision History
Originally posted 15 September 2021.
September 19, 2021. Correction made to the IMDb credits block to excise two CHiPs episode which were aired prior to 1981 and to clarify the language about total number of shows Rhue appeared in from 1981 through 1985.
April 6, 2024. Added xkcd comic about citations, and a paragraph about MS symptoms.
Image & Video Sources
* Photo by Harry Langdon, © 1988.
† Screengrabs from Diff’rent Strokes, episode “The Model”. Source video viewable on Dailymotion as of the date this is posted. (link)
‡ Screengrabs from Days of Our Lives, episode number and exact date unlisted, though indications are Sept, 1983. Source video viewable on YouTube as of the date this is posted. (link)
§ Screengrab from Fame, “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” Source video viewable on Dailymotion as of the date this is posted. (link)
¶ Screengrab from Star Trek, “Space Seed.” Copyright Paramount.
# Screengrab from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, via Trekcore.com. Copyright Paramount.
** Screengrab from Fantasy Island, episode “The Perfect Gentleman/Legend”. Source video viewable on YouTube as of the date this is posted. (link)
†† Screengrab of Days of Our Lives from “Madlyn Rhue's struggle with multiple sclerosis”. See ‡‡
‡‡ “Madlyn Rhue's struggle with multiple sclerosis”, Entertainment Tonight, November 9, 1988, Copyright 1988 Paramount Pictures Corp. Via the Internet Archive. (link)
§§ 1986 photo by Ron Galella.
End Notes & Sources
[1] 30 Surprising Facts About Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan You Didn't Know, by Maurice Mitchell, 17 March 2014. (link)
[2] Diff’rent Strokes, “The Model” on IMDb. (link)
[3] Days of Our Lives on IMDb. (link)
[4] Fame, “Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” on IMDb. (link)
[5] Madlyn Rhue credits on IMDb. (link)
[6] April 10, 1981 “Final Draft” Screenplay The Genesis Project written by Jack B. Sowards and Harve Bennett. From a private collection.
[7] February 20, 1981 “First Draft” Screenplay of The Omega System, written by Jack B. Sowards. From a private collection.
[8] September 16, 1981 “Revised Final Draft” of Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country [the working title for the film released as The Wrath of Khan, not to be confused with the latter film of that title], uncredited screenplay written by Nicholas Meyer although the cover page credits read as Written by Harve Bennett, Participating Writers Jack B, Sowards [and] Samuel A. Peeples. From a private collection.
[9] Nicholas Meyer, The View From The Bridge: Memories of Star Trek And A Life In Hollywood (2009), Page 107.
[10] Nicholas Meyer, via private correspondence with FACT TREK, August 29–Sept. 12, 2021.
[11] Star Trek II Workprint ("Pisces Project"), UCLA Film & Television Archive, Inventory No. DVD4324 M. Per the UCLA catalog: "A videotape of a b&w work print of work in progress, sent to the outside vendor who was cutting the theatrical trailer and TV spots; sent under the code name Pisces Project for the purpose of maintaining secrecy prior to the film's release."
[12] “The Captain's Log,” Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan [documentary extra, DVD] Prod. Mark Rance, Jennifer Peterson, Paramount Home Video, United States, 2002, 27 mins (12:15-12:35).
[13] Fantasy Island, “The Perfect Gentleman/Legend” on IMDb. (link)
[14] After Years of Lying, Actress Madlyn Rhue Reveals the Truth About Her Multiple Sclerosis, Updated Nov. 16, 1987. (link)
[15] Stricken With MS, Madyln Rhue Still A Working Actress, Howard Rosenberg for The LA Times, Aug. 14, 1987, p.G1, 36
[16] She fights for roles while fighting MS, Edited by Al Cohn for Newsday, Aug. 20, 1987, p.9.
[17] Obituary: Madlyn Rhue, 68; TV Actress Kept Working With Multiple Sclerosis, by Dennis Mclellan, Dec. 18, 2003. (link)
[18] Madlyn Rhue Finds Acting Career Can Include Wheelchair, by Diane Duston, Associated Press, Oct. 11, 1987. (link)
[19] [20] Newsday, ibid.
[21] Actress Madlyn Rhue doesn't let MS slow her, by Jerry Buck, The Associated Press. The Springfield News-Leader, Springfield, Missouri, September 28, 1989, Thu, p18.
[22] Army Archerd, Just for Variety, Daily Variety, Weds., Nov. 26, 1986
[23] Madlyn Rhue's struggle with multiple sclerosis, Entertainment Tonight, November 9, 1988, Copyright 1988 Paramount Pictures Corp. Video located on the Internet Archive. (link)
[24] Marla McGivers on Memory Alpha, Revision as of 04:33, 20 May 2004. (link)
[25] Marla McGivers on Memory Alpha, Revision as of 22:24, 24 April 2008. (link)
[26] Marla McGivers on Memory Alpha, Revision as of 22:57, 3 November 2011. (link)
[27] Marla McGivers on Memory Alpha, Revision as of 15:22, 8 July 2016. (link)
[28] Marcus Berkmann, Set Phasers To Stun: 50 Years of Star Trek, 2016 Little Brown, p159. No sources are cited in the work for the claim about Rhue. It reads:
† Marla McGivers, the Starfleet officer who had accompanied Khan into exile, was originally supposed to have been there too, until Harve Bennett discovered that the actress who had played her, Madlyn Rhue, had multiple sclerosis and was now confined to a wheelchair. (She eventually died of complications from the disease.) Bennett thought it would be unfair to recast, so the character was written out.
[29] STII Original Version?, reply #5, Sept. 4, 2007 and The Wrath Of Khan Questions??, reply #39, 2008
[30] xkcd #978: Citogenesis (link). A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.
[31] Madlyn Rhue obituary, Variety, Dec 19, 2003, (link)
Other References
Photoplay, Sept, 1961, Vol. 60, No. 3, p86. Dick Beymer (mentions Rhue). (link)
“Disabled Handicapped In Showbiz Job Search,” Daily Variety, Monday, November 30, 1992
Army Archerd “Just for Variety,” Daily Variety, Weds., July 9, 1997 (mentions Rhue having an accident with her wheelchair lift).
Obituaries
Madlyn Rhue, 68, Television Actress, By The Associated Press, Dec. 20, 2003. (link)
Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2003, Film, Television, Radio, Theatre, Dance, Music, Cartoons and Pop Culture by Harris M. Lentz, III, p325–326. (link)
The Last Farewells: Madlyn Rhue, Starlog Magazine #320, March 2004 (December), p6 (link)
[#TVTropes]Their page on The Wrath of Khan mirrors our line of questioning. (link)
Rhue at the Women in Show Business' 26th Anniversary Celebrity Ball (Oct. 19, 1986 at the Beverly Hillton). Note the two canes in the chair next to her, indicating she could still stand with some assistance. §§