Dr. Elise McKennah (2)


She makes the show close to unwatchable. Trying to FF whenever she appears...

I promise to donate if they leave her on a planet somewhere.







Hell, I can get you a toe by 3 o-clock this afternoon... with nail polish.

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No way, she's a classic trek hottie, schwing!

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She's hot, but her acting style doesn't mesh with the 1960s homage everyone else is doing.

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Oh no, my friend. SHe is very, very watchable.

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She may be a hottie, but her character is pretty much nepotistic window dressing.

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My advise to Vic was to do what Roddenberry did: stick a blonde wig on her and call her Nurse Chapel.

Fine with Marina Sirtis as the voice of the computer. Not so fine with a ship's counselor on classic Trek.

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Bob the Builder and Hadji walk into a bar...

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Troi was a glorified Licensed Therapist!

McKennah is a Psych Doctor, and makes logical sense for the era the original series is in, 2260's.





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Agree 100%. Having a ship's counselor is a bit of TNG-style Star Trek, stuck into the original series era, where it has no business being. It makes perfect sense that a ship would have a psychologist aboard as a counselor and therapist, to help maintain crew mental health and psychological well being. What never made sense to me, any more than having children aboard a starship that is part of the Federation's first line of defense, is having a therapist ever set foot on the bridge and offer input on command decisions. It's just silly, and it doesn't belong in TOS or any continuation thereof.

To me, it's yet more proof that Roddenberry had frankly lost his creative touch by the 1980s. The first two seasons of TNG, when he was in charge, were easily the weakest of the series. It wasn't until the writers could escape some of his mandates that things got better (and ejecting his Mary Sue self-insert, Wesley Crusher helped a lot too). And a lot of his ideas by then were utopian fantasies. I think the idea of a counselor on the bridge is one of them.

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Different strokes, I guess -- I really like the introduction of Dr. McKennah. As advanced/diverse as it was for its time, TOS really needed a few more strong women on board. McKennah accomplishes that. Her hair and makeup are classic 60s Trek fun. And her position creates a nice bridge b/t TOS and STNG.

She's one of the reasons I'm recommending this series to fellow Trekker friends. Also, I like her name -- does anyone else think it's a shout-out to Somewhere in Time?

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I have to disagree. Kirk doesn't need a therapist. He has McCoy and Spock for advice. McKenna takes away from that aspect, one of the best things in TOS.

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She is doing a different role than all the others--the only one who takes me out of the verisimilitude and reminds me that this was definitely made in the 2010s.

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Yes, as much as like the actress and her screen presence, there is something about her that just doesn't quite fit. I can't put my finger on it entirely. Perhaps it is because she seems like a year 2010 character beamed into a 1960's series with appropriate era Starfleet uniform.

Perhaps part of what I'm detecting is the character not really fitting what I would expect of someone assigned to a Starship. It doesn't seem like she shares the kind of career and Fleet background that one would expect even of a scientist or scholar assigned to an elite Starfleet assignment. And I would expect more of a top-of-her-field gravitas one would expect of someone achieving that position.

In no way am I denigrating the actress and the fact that she's not highly trained. (Isn't a lot of her professional career experience in makeup work?) And I do think that she is appealing enough for today's trekkies audience to like her. Frankly, I think I will like her more and more as I view additional episodes.

Perhaps I'm stumbling over the fact that the 1960's series, like most others of the era, didn't feature women who weren't of a particular body type. She is obviously a bit "heftier" than the actresses Roddenberry liked to cast--but clearly plenty of fans here like that just fine! (Indeed, it is great to see women who look like the lovely women we give a second look when we see them in daily life.)

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Elise Mckenna is the name Jane Seymour's character in Somewhere in Time.

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I like her on the show. I didn't feel like she was out-of-place. They even went as far as giving her a 60's style bee-hive hair-do, like Elvira.

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Watching Lolani, and she reminds me of Sara Rue when she was on Big Bang Theory.

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Watching Lolani, and she reminds me of Sara Rue when she was on Big Bang Theory

Good call, I hadn't thought of that, but I could see it. For the record, Sara Rue and Michhelle Specht both are hot in the same way, though I'm guessing current Hollywood standards would say they aren't. They do it for me, though
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Michele Specht was created in a top secret laboratory and I would like to buy those people a drink. She's even built like the 60's ideal of a woman, Marilyn Monroe or Tina Louise as opposed to any of the Victorias Secret starving angels.

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I don't mind the character, as long as they don't have her meddling too much, but the facial expressions of the actress make me expect her to start doing some kind of broad comedy. I get the same feeling from the guy playing McCoy. These two may be fine performers in certain types of roles, but they're miscast in Star Trek.

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