Sunday, May 20, 2018

Rising from the dead Star Trek


Lt. Leslie - Star Trek

As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.

I may be obsessed with Star Trek the Original Series due to the fine performances of William Shatner, Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig, but I am not possessed by the series. There is something which I do not know has been written of as a fluke in the series, but it is one which is for the first time written of here in another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.

If you watch STOS you will notice a recurring background actor of Edie Paskey, who sometimes is Lt. Leslie and sometimes he is just a spearchucker filling in space.

I was watching Obsession with TL about a month ago. That is the program where Kirk is obsessed with a creature made of Dichromium, that sucks the life out of blood cells. It is a very good show in being well written and acted. In this though the first time the entity appears, you will see 3 men attacked, the one on the right is Edie Paskey.

 

Lt. Leslie on the right.

He dies which I noted to TL, but reappears in later episodes. In one of thee most interesting he is the driver who runs down Joan Collins in a tragic episode. He also was Shatner's stand in and James Doohan's hand double.

 

When his character does die in the episode "Obsession," Paskey explains his mysterious return in the next episode by describing a lost scene in the script, where Dr. McCoy administered a miracle potion that saves Leslie's life. Paskey mentioned that this scene was never filmed. Episode director Ralph Senesky also confirmed that he did not film it.
In "This Side of Paradise" his is the only character to mutiny openly against his superior, Captain Kirk, and even disobeys orders again in "And the Children Shall Lead," although under an alien influence. In "The City on the Edge of Forever," Paskey was the driver of the truck in the scene where character Edith Keeler (Joan Collins) is struck down and killed.
Paskey also appeared occasionally as a stand-in for Shatner in certain long scenes. He was the hand-double for James Doohan, who was missing a finger, in "Wolf in the Fold" and "That Which Survives." He appeared in most of the episodes from the first two seasons of the original series.

 

 Kirk with the only survivor, Jerry Ayers
the officer in the middle in the first photo


 I always liked him as a character. He was a good cast, much better than George Takei, where Paskey would have been superior in that role as he was a much better actor.
His equal was Mr. Kyle who worked in engineering and often had bit parts too, played by John Winston.




 John Winston in Mirror Mirror


That is the reality though in Paskey was the first Star Trek character to get killed off and return, and no one ever noticed it enough to make it one of the interesting conversation points of STOS.




Kirk with Ensign Garrovick played by Stephen Brooks


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