Grace Lee Whitney as Yeoman Janice Rand
"Children who never age. Eternal childhood, filled with play, no responsibilities. It's almost like a dream."
Grace Lee Whitney's Yeoman Rand helped define Star Trek early in Season One and quickly became a fan favorite. She was perfectly cast as Rand and was an excellent actor, possessed of beauty, charm, and a playful wit. Grace played each scene with the confidence and authenticity of a film star and the talent to portray the character's quiet vulnerability and brassy confidence with ease. Whitney's allure and natural charisma created pitch-perfect chemistry with her co-stars which helped make Rand so memorable.
In "MIRI," Rand largely plays a supporting role for much of the episode, making helpful observations and suggestions as the landing party discovers the children and the disease that has made them incredibly long-lived. Almost immediately, the crew begins showing signs of being infected by the same disease which, if untreated will become fatal. As the affliction progresses it affects their personalities, making them more aggressive, and also more desperate as the time to discover a cure dwindles.
Rand and Kirk's most memorable scene occurs when tempers flare in the laboratory, and Rand reaches an emotional boiling point. Overwhelmed, she runs out of the room with Kirk not far behind.
KIRK: Haven't you found a thing yet?
MCCOY: Would you like to take a crack at it?
RAND: No! No! No!
Kirk catches up to Rand out in the corridor while Miri watches nearby.
RAND: I'm upset, so upset. Back on the ship, I used to try to get you to look at my legs. Captain, look at my legs.
KIRK: We're all frightened.
Whitney's performance here is excellent. She helps us to understand and feel Rand's fear and hopelessness with the despair in her eyes and the fatalistic pain in her voice. Her comments suggest that she believes the playful flirtation they used to share during happier times may never happen again as the disease rapidly overtakes them.
Misunderstanding their relationship, Miri kidnaps Rand to eliminate her as a romantic rival for Kirk's affections setting up the final act where Kirk must save Rand and retrieve their stolen communicators before time runs out to save himself and the rest of the landing party, except Spock who is at the very least a carrier of the disease. Kirk ultimately triumphs, McCoy injects himself with the untested cure but survives and everyone is saved.
In every scene in which she appeared, Grace Lee Whitney's performance as Yeoman Rand stood out among those of her equally talented co-stars. Her contributions added to the excellence that the Star Trek production crew had been striving for, in order to make TOS one of the finest series of its kind on television.
