The Off-Center Seat: 55 Years of Myth Making
In today’s post-truth, fact-challenged world, just what, in fact, is a fact?
And what happens when the people who have direct and personal experience/memories of an event are no longer with us? Absent their first-hand accounts must we depend on second-, third- or nth-hand accounts by people who weren’t there?
With that in mind, let’s rip through the upholstery of “Lucy Loves Star Trek,” the debut episode of the recent docuseries The Center Seat, and see how close the oral tradition on display in this documentary conforms to historical documents, first-person accounts, and contemporaneous media coverage.
Trek II Myths Rhue the Day
Was Marla McGivers offed because of actress Madlyn Rhue’s health issues?
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 on the following:
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.