Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Janice Rand

10. She Was Involved In Star Trek From The Earliest Days

Yeoman Janice Rand went through a series of developments before the character would appear on-screen, though actor Grace Lee Whitney was involved in Star Trek from the very beginning - even if it took a little longer for her to actually be shown than, say, Leonard Nimoy.

Whitney had worked with Gene Roddenberry before Star Trek, being cast in both The Lieutenant and the unsuccessful pilot Police Story. She, along with Nichelle Nichols and Majel Barrett, was one of the people Roddenberry was determined to have on the Enterprise.

The character of Yeoman Colt, played by Laurel Goodwin, and then later Yeoman Smith, played by Andrea Dromm, were both templates for Rand. Neither of these performers would return after their episodes (The Cage and Where No Man Has Gone Before, respectively) so it was Whitney, and of course, Yeoman Janice Rand, who received the coveted series order. She was contracted to appear in seven out of the first thirteen episodes, for the tidy sum of $750 per episode - which is around $7000 in 2023.