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#2 on my list of the Top Ten Badass Heroines of TOS.

Who she is: In "The Menagerie," we find out that she was Spock's predecessor as first officer of the Enterprise.

Why she's cool: Because of what could have been. "The Menagerie" was a clever way of using footage from the unaired pilot that was rejected by the network. Gene Roddenberry originally meant for Number One to be second in command for the whole series. He also meant for her to be the logical, unemotional Spock character. (Spock was just going to be the token alien, I guess.) This was so utterly stereotype-defying that the network had to get rid of Number One - they thought that audiences could never sympathize with a female character who was so "cold," so Majel Barrett was recast as the somewhat wimpier Nurse Chapel.

To be fair, I wasn't alive during the sixties. But network: I totally would have sympathized with a cold, logical female character!

IMHO, a lot of people love Spock because a lot of people identify with him. Those of us who tend to value reason over emotion look at his internal struggles and think, "That's what goes on in my brain." What's great is that even though Spock clearly has some issues, Star Trek is not telling us to stop valuing reason over emotion. Spock is awesome. Spock is a genius, and a decent person, and a force to be reckoned with, and it is BECAUSE he values reason over emotion.

So imagine what would have happened if Number One had been allowed to develop into that kind of character instead. As a female, I think I would identify with Spock even more if he had been female. I think that if Number One had stayed on the show, she would have been my personal hero, and an icon for nerdy women everywhere. She would have shown us that it's okay not to be girly and emotional - that in fact it allows you to be BADASS and even a little bit SEXY. Just in her one episode, Number One proves that, like Spock, she is a genius and a decent person and a force to reckoned with. She does this mostly by calmly threatening to destroy herself and her comrades rather than live in captivity. She seems totally serious about it, but the threat finally convinces their captors to let them go.

BAD. ASS.

Number One is part of the reason that Nurse Chapel made my list, even though she's really not that badass. I kind of think of Nurse Chapel as Number One in disguise.

Description
#2 on my list of the Top Ten Badass Heroines of TOS.

Who she is: In "The Menagerie," we find out that she was Spock's predecessor as first officer of the Enterprise.

Why she's cool: Because of what could have been. "The Menagerie" was a clever way of using footage from the unaired pilot that was rejected by the network. Gene Roddenberry originally meant for Number One to be second in command for the whole series. He also meant for her to be the logical, unemotional Spock character. (Spock was just going to be the token alien, I guess.) This was so utterly stereotype-defying that the network had to get rid of Number One - they thought that audiences could never sympathize with a female character who was so "cold," so Majel Barrett was recast as the somewhat wimpier Nurse Chapel.

To be fair, I wasn't alive during the sixties. But network: I totally would have sympathized with a cold, logical female character!

IMHO, a lot of people love Spock because a lot of people identify with him. Those of us who tend to value reason over emotion look at his internal struggles and think, "That's what goes on in my brain." What's great is that even though Spock clearly has some issues, Star Trek is not telling us to stop valuing reason over emotion. Spock is awesome. Spock is a genius, and a decent person, and a force to be reckoned with, and it is BECAUSE he values reason over emotion.

So imagine what would have happened if Number One had been allowed to develop into that kind of character instead. As a female, I think I would identify with Spock even more if he had been female. I think that if Number One had stayed on the show, she would have been my personal hero, and an icon for nerdy women everywhere. She would have shown us that it's okay not to be girly and emotional - that in fact it allows you to be BADASS and even a little bit SEXY. Just in her one episode, Number One proves that, like Spock, she is a genius and a decent person and a force to reckoned with. She does this mostly by calmly threatening to destroy herself and her comrades rather than live in captivity. She seems totally serious about it, but the threat finally convinces their captors to let them go.

BAD. ASS.

Number One is part of the reason that Nurse Chapel made my list, even though she's really not that badass. I kind of think of Nurse Chapel as Number One in disguise.