Janice Rand

Janice Rand was born in 2232, joined Starfleet at a relatively young age, and continued to serve for almost thirty years. In 2266, she served aboard the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) under the command of Captain James T. Kirk as the captain's yeoman. Rand's quarters were first in room "3C 46" on Deck 12, and later room "3F 125." 

The five-year mission
Initially, Captain Kirk was disgruntled that Starfleet had assigned a female yeoman to his command. However, after seeing Rand's efficient work ethic in action, Kirk grew to respect her as a crew member and friend. Despite their professional relationship, an undercurrent of sexual attraction remained between the two. Kirk, however, could not requite the feelings Rand felt for him, due to his position as ship's captain. 

Yeoman Rand was among the most popular members of the Enterprise's crew, second only to Lieutenant Uhura, who was her good friend. She was known for her compassion and thoughtfulness toward others. Rand was regarded highly by Kirk for her hard work and due diligence. In 2266, the Enterprise played cat and mouse with a Romulan ship in the Neutral Zone. When Kirk was in his quarters resting during a lull in the battle, Rand was able to enter without knocking to check up on him, and to find him lying in bed. Alone with the Captain, she was hoping to console him, as he was preoccupied by the potential for a second Romulan war. She offered to bring him food or coffee; and Rand and Kirk were on the bridge as the Romulans fired their plasma torpedo at the Enterprise. As the torpedo got closer to the ship, Rand instinctively sought out the Captain for protection from the imminent attack by getting up very close behind him. When the torpedo was just seconds from hitting the ship, Kirk pulled Rand into his arms for protection. 

An artist by hobby, Janice had several paintings she created hanging in her quarters aboard the Enterprise. 

A duplicate of Captain Kirk was created during a transporter malfunction that contained his negative qualities, lust and violence. The evil duplicate was now instinctively drawn to Rand. Alone with Rand in her quarters, drunk and amorous, the duplicate Kirk mentioned to her the feelings they'd been hiding, claiming she was "too beautiful to ignore," "too much woman," and that they both been "pretending too long." The duplicate Kirk suddenly grabbed Rand and starting kissing her very hard and rough. As she was fighting back, the duplicate Kirk pushed her to the floor and attempted to rape her, but she defended herself and left a large scratch on the duplicate Kirk's face, which helped the crew differentiate between the two Kirk "halves." The situation was resolved, and the two halves of Kirk were merged together in the transporter. 

Later that year, orphaned teenager Charles Evans came aboard the Enterprise. The troubled boy drew out Rand's maternal instincts, and she quickly befriended Evans, hoping to help him ease back into regular life. Evans, the sole survivor of a transport crash, had little experience with other Humans and quickly became infatuated with Rand. Unsure how to deal with Evans' crush, Rand asked Captain Kirk to speak to the boy on her behalf. Soon thereafter, the Enterprise crew discovered Evans' secret - while Evans was alone on Thasus, the mysterious Thasian race had taken pity on the boy and granted Evans special powers. In a fit of anger and pique, Evans used these superhuman abilities against the crew, turning one crewwoman into a lizard and removing the faces of some junior officers. When Rand turned down Evans' advances, he literally made her disappear from the Enterprise. The Thasians intervened and quickly returned Evans to Thasus. After her return to the Enterprise, Rand was shocked and troubled by the Thasians' actions. Having seen how desperately Evans wanted to stay aboard the ship, Rand confided to Kirk her feelings of friendship for the boy. 

Kirk and Rand repeatedly felt an attraction for one another, but resisted discussing or acting on their feelings openly. But, under stressful situations, Kirk's strong feelings for Rand came to the surface. During one mission, Rand, Kirk and other members of a landing party were trapped on a planet that is an exact copy of the earth and where only children survived; adults quickly developed a wasting disease called life prolongation complex. Eventually, Rand began showing signs of the disease. Alone in the corridor with the Captain, crying and upset, she sought comfort in his arms. Miri, a teenage girl whom the team had befriended, witnessed this and became jealous of Rand. She didn't like Kirk getting close towards Rand and Rand's romantic looks at the Captain. She felt that Rand was her "competition" and briefly betrayed the landing party by letting the other children abduct her. Kirk, under stress from the disease, became obsessed with Rand's whereabouts and in finding his "Janice." He suddenly grabbed Miri and shouted "Where is she Miri? Where is she Miri? Where is Janice? Where is she...? Has something happened to her...? I've got to find Janice!" And after a waterborne virus spread through the Enterprise, affecting the emotions of the crew, Kirk suddenly shouted to Spock, "I have a beautiful yeoman!" Later, in the center seat on the bridge, befuddled by the virus, he reached a hand out to his "beautiful yeoman" standing next to him looking away at the screen and whispered under his breath, "No beach to walk on." Meaning, he and Rand in other circumstances, might have had a life together. 

Later career
In 2273, Rand was serving aboard the Enterprise, which was now under the command of Captain Willard Decker, as transporter chief while the ship underwent refit in spacedock. 

After the Enterprise returned to Earth in 2278, Rand decided to undergo officer training. She was promoted to ensign after three years. She transferred to Earth Spacedock in 2285. When an alien probe menaced Earth in 2286, she was working at Starfleet Command. 

In 2290, Lieutenant Rand was assigned as communications officer to the USS Excelsior, under the command of Captain Hikaru Sulu.

In 2293, Captain Sulu violated his orders in order to attempt the rescue Captain Kirk and Dr. Leonard McCoy from the Klingon prison colony Rura Penthe. Rand understood his motivations and agreed with his decision. She even chided Ensign Tuvok for questioning the captain's decision. 

The Excelsior later played a key role in the Khitomer Peace Conference that same year, by assisting the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A) in its battle with General Chang's prototype Klingon Bird-of-Prey, thereby preventing the assassination of the Federation President and Klingon Chancellor Azetbur. 

Background information
Janice Rand was portrayed by Grace Lee Whitney.

In Adrian Spies' original script for, Rand is revealed to be 24 years old at the time, suggesting a birth year of 2242. 

Janice Rand was the third find for the role of the Captain's Yeoman, following Laurel Goodwin as Yeoman J.M. Colt and Andrea Dromm as Yeoman Smith. Grace Lee Whitney was handpicked by Gene Roddenberry for the role (she previously appeared in Roddenberry's failed pilot, Police Story). Herb Solow commented, "Unlike the two prior 'model-type and cute' Yeoman actresses, she appeared to him as what she was – pretty, sexy and vulnerable. Yeoman Janice Rand was piped aboard the USS Enterprise." (Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, p 156)

The character of Janice Rand was originally thought to be elemental to the series. "The way Gene outlined the role, Janice Rand was an important character to the show," recalled Grace Lee Whitney. "Sort of a sci-fi Miss Kitty to Captain Kirk – a confident and trusted adviser." (Star Trek: Communicator, Issue #119, p. 55) In fact, during the pre-production phase of the first season, Whitney as Rand was advertised as the show's third star, along with William Shatner as Captain Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Spock. She was featured in many promotional photographs made at the time, posing with the other two.

During the making of, Grace Lee Whitney was dropped from the series and Janice Rand's part in "Dagger of the Mind" was instead rewritten for the character of Helen Noel. (The Best of Trek, p. 178)

According to The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (p. 120), Janice Rand was written out of the original Star Trek series because, by the second season of TOS, Desilu maintained that Kirk was to have many romances with numerous females played by a succession of guest-starring actresses. Also according to the same book, Gene Roddenberry later repeatedly expressed regrets that, instead of keeping Rand in the series, he had given in to the pressure from the network. Grace Lee Whitney was told, at the time she left the series, that the reason for her character being excluded from the show was a change in its direction. (Star Trek: Communicator, Issue #119, p. 55)

Although Grace Lee Whitney had been thrilled to portray Janice Rand in the series, she was utterly distraught by her character being written out of the show. In a interview, she stated, "I am still often hurt when Yeoman Rand is left out of things [....] I thought I had lost a part of myself – that it was me, Grace, that had been written off, not the character." (Star Trek: Communicator, Issue #119, p. 56)

Unlike the other returning cast members from TOS, Grace Lee Whitney was not given a character description – from the Writers'/Directors' Guide for the ultimately aborted television series Star Trek: Phase II – to help with her performance in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, as she had not been intended to reappear in Phase II. The actress nevertheless found that reassuming the role for the film was not too problematic. (The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, p. 120)

Janice Rand's appearance in The Motion Picture is in keeping with the fact that long hairstyles were disallowed in that film. (The Making of Star Trek, p. 142)

Interviews with Grace Lee Whitney have suggested that Janice Rand held the rank of chief petty officer in The Motion Picture. This is probably also how associate producer Jon Povill thought of Rand. Shortly after mistaking her for an ensign, Povill sent a memo to costume designer Robert Fletcher that recognized the error, stating, "Rand is not an ensign. She is a transporter chief. This means there should be no sleeve on her costume. Sorry about that, Chief." (The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, pp. 126-127) The designation "Chief" is often assigned to Chief Petty Officers.

According to the script of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Rand was a master chief petty officer. At first glance, this seems to contradict Grace Lee Whitney's appearance in, when she wore an officer's uniform and the rank insignia of a full commander. The credits for that film, however, did not specify that Whitney's character was Janice Rand. She was merely credited as "Woman in Cafeteria." To add further confusion, the on-screen credits for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home call her character "Commander Rand."

In the script of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Rand is referred to merely as the "Communications Officer" of the Excelsior and she (instead of the unnamed officer played by Christian Slater) was written as the character that awakens Sulu to inform him that Starfleet was looking for the Enterprise. However, Christian Slater was a huge fan of the show and his mother – Mary Jo Slater, the movie's casting director – petitioned heavily to get him a part. (audio commentary, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (Special Edition) DVD)

The Voyager episode "Flashback" incorrectly depicted Rand as a lieutenant commander, even though she was a lieutenant j.g. in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Some of the comics set around the time of Sulu taking command of Excelsior not only support this, but imply that she was the Excelsior's first officer.

A costume worn by Grace Lee Whitney as Janice Rand in was auctioned off in the It's A Wrap! sale and auction and included two ten-year service pins and a five-year service pin, corresponding to the fact that she had served in Starfleet for around thirty years.

Apocrypha
In the Marvel Voyager comic book "Ghosts," two prominent characters, Josh and Athena Rand, are said to be relatives of Janice. They are noted for coming from a long line of Starfleet officers.

In IDW Publishing's alternate reality adaptation of (in the third and fourth issues of IDW's ongoing range of comics), Yeoman Rand is one of the several landing party members who become stranded on Murasaki 312 but survive the experience.