A Girl's Best Friend

Music: The Shawshank Redemption (throughout). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCtRg5RpTz0

Fade-in: a picture of Marilyn Monroe.

VO: I never thought it possible but there it is.

Camera: starts slowly moving back.

VO: If it could happen to her, it could happen to anybody.

Camera: reveals headline: Marilyn Monroe Survives Overdose.

Title Card: A Girl's Best Friend.
Coming Soon.
 
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Chapter 1

Waking up in a strange bed was nothing new. In fact, it was often a side effect of traveling to other worlds. What was strange was that this was not a hospital. In fact, it looked like someone's home.

Sitting up the man looked around him, he saw his wheelchair and his suit jacket and hat on it. Well, at least the rest of my close are on, he thought. I wonder what year it is here.

The door opened. He couldn't believe his eyes. "Marilyn Monroe?"

The woman standing before him was Marilyn alright, but older. She smiled slightly at the exclamation. "Well, you know who I am. Who are you?"

"Cyrus P. Underwood. I must have blacked out during that last jump."

"All I know was that you and your chair landed in my living room last night. Gave my grandchildren quite a fright."

"I'm sorry. I guess I should have made sure of my calculations."

Marilyn sat on the edge of the bed. It was then that Underwood realized that she was wearing blue jeans, a white shirt, a pair of small diamond earrings and no makeup.

"Where are you from, Mr. Underwood?"

"Another world."

She smiled and gave a small laugh at that. "If I didn't see you come in myself I wouldn't have believed you."

"How are your grandkids?"

"Their fine. A little shocked about what happened but fine. They are 17 after all."

"Twins?"

"Those two are. There are more coming. Anyway you rest."

As Marilyn got up to leave, Underwood put a hand on her arm. "You're taking this better than I expected."

"You should have seen me when you came in. Nearly called the cops."

"Why didn't you?"

"No idea."

Marilyn moved toward the door.

"What's today's date, by the way."

"May 7th, 2015." And she closed the door.
 
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Chapter 2

When Underwood woke up the next morning, he found that he had slept in most of his clothes. He smiled, remembering the night before. Marilyn Monroe is still alive here. And she's a grandmother. How 'bout that?

After getting into his wheelchair, he went to the door. Smelling something cooking, he also heard someone talking as he went to the kitchen.

"I know, sweetheart....If you could just keep this to yourself for the time being that would be great....Thank you....No, the twins are fine....Yes they are on their way to school....Of course....I'll be visiting your father today....I'm sure....Yes, I'll ask him....Laughter....All right....Love you, too...Give them hell, honey."

Marilyn turned around. She smiled and sat down. "You're finally up. I made you some breakfast if you want it. You must have some questions."

Underwood went to the table and saw scrambled eggs and bacon. "I do. I just don't know how to broach the big one."

Marilyn arched an eyebrow. "Which is?"

"How did you survive that night in 1962?"

"Ah...Well, I don't know exactly. I mean my roommate at the time Eunice Murray said that she happened to notice that I took a drug and the cure for it on the same day. She called the ambulance and my doctor and...here I am."

"Huh."

"What?"

"I was just expecting something else."

"Such as?"

"Don't rightly know. Just not your roommate just happening to notice that you were taking two different pills at the same time."

Marilyn shrugged.

"Who were you talking with on the phone by the way?"

"My daughter, Samantha. She's the junior Senator from California. I agreed to look after her kids while she's in D.C."

"Shouldn't that be her husband's job?"

"Carl is getting treatment for Pancreatic Cancer. Besides, Sam wants the kids to have roots somewhere other than D.C."

"I hear you on that."

"So, tell me about where you are from."
 
Chapter 3

So Underwood told her everything he knew about his world. By the time he was done it was midmorning and Marilyn was distressed by the time he was done.

"Bobby was assassinated in '68," she said. "And Joe lived until '99."

"That's right. He stayed loyal to you till the end though."

"You know, I was pregnant with my kids when Joe died. I was so happy and yet..."

"No Joe."

She nodded and started to cry.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Monroe. I didn't mean anything by it."

She wiped the tears with the back of her hand and sniffled. "It's ok. And please call me Marilyn."

"Alright. Mrs. Mon-Marilyn."

A small laugh from her. "It's just I miss Joe allot. Even now I keep thinking that he'll walk through the door. But he died nobly, in saving Bobby's life. He wasn't nominated for president that year and him and Vice President Humphrey didn't win but he did win in '72 and '76."

"That's something."

There was silence between them for a few minutes. Finally Marilyn got up.

"Listen, Joe is buried nearby and I'm going to go visit him. Care to join me?"

"Of course."
 
Chapter 4

After getting in the car, (years of practice had allowed Underwood to know the best way to get both him and his chair into vehicles) they were on their way to the cemetery.

"I thought Joe would be buried in New York."

"Joe and I wanted to be close. Thought we didn't pick out the plots before...'68, we knew that we would be buried side by side."

Underwood grimaced. "I didn't want to bring up unpleasant memories for you, you know that fight?"

Marilyn looked at him briefly. "It's ok. I came to terms with Joe's death a long time ago. While a part of me wishes he were still here, I know that dwelling on the past is unhealthy."

Underwood smiled. "You're taking all this better than I expected."

Marilyn laughed at that. "You didn't see me when you first came in."

"True."

"Besides, it reminds me of when I did guest appearances on Star Trek."

"Star Trek? You were on Star Trek?"

"Oh yes. I had a wonderful time, all things considered. Of course, Dean Martin as Doctor Leonard Boyce was helpful too. All told I must have guest starred on...oh...14 separate occasions across 3 different series. Great fun."

"Who were you on the show?"

"Admiral Sela, a Romulan. We're here."

After getting out of the car, they made their way up to the grave.

"I still can't believe that you involved with Star Trek."

"Well, that experience did help me make the leap to my own show in 1973."

"Oh really?"

"Mm-hmm. It lasted until 1980."

"Was it also so that your kids could have a stable environment?"

"Of course. My family always comes first. Here we are."

Looking at the grave made Underwood realize how much things had changed here. Then a voice came from behind them:

"There you are."
 
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Interlude 1
This was a mid-Season 1 episode and is a few episodes after the episode Balance of Fear. Our episode begins with a message from Admiral Archer telling Pine and Spock about a Romulan defector. He says that the defector will provide critical information on the new Romulan cloaking device and a Romulan Bird of Prey. Archer tells Pine that the rendezvous will occur at Karidian IV. This mission is of the utmost importance. What makes this scene unintentionally hilarious is, of course, Shatner's performance as Admiral Archer:

Archer: Get there and get them out of there.

After Archer signs off, Dr. Boyce comes in. The friendship between the main three of Boyce, Pine and Spock is honestly one of the best parts of the show and it is all down to Dean Martin, DeForest Kelley and Leonard Nimoy respectively. Anyway, Spock voices his concerns about dealing with a Romulan defector, especially so close to the Neutral Zone. However, Boyce and Pine, while seeing Spock's point, say that it needs to be done as this might give the Alliance a level playing field.

Now you might be wondering, as I did, how this got past Gene as it had the Alliance sneaking around to get a defector. So imagine my surprise when I learned that the writer, D.C. Fontana, said that Gene was right there writing it with her, saying "take it this way, take it that way." Unless the original story involved staging a raid that killed people to get Admiral Sela out I'm not sure how this got out. I should also note that this episode was based on an actual incident from the Korean War where a North Korean pilot defected and brought a MiG with him. Of course, there are some differences, like the Alliance is not paying the defector and the Alliance and the Romulans weren't in a war that ended just prior to this episode.

So they get to Karidian IV and the Romulans arrive soon after. And now we get to the most famous part of the episode. Yes, that is Marilyn Monroe in full Romulan makeup and costume. Dean Martin, as well as being a highly successful movie star in his own right before signing onto the show, was also good friends with Monroe. According to both Martin and Monroe, they were both talking one day and Martin happened to mention signing on to do the show. Monroe was intrigued with the premise, even though her work to this point consisted mainly of musical comedies and dramas. She wanted to expand her horizons and this seemed like the perfect way to do it.

Anyway, Admiral Sela, that's her name, says that she is glad that it is the Endeavour that is picking up her and her ship and crew and she hopes that this will help the Alliance out. Captain Pine agrees and offers to beam her over so that they can talk over dinner.

Sela: And Captain.
Pine: Yes, Admiral?
Sela: I do hope that nothing happens to my ship while I'm over there.
Pine: You have our word, Admiral.

Watching Monroe, Martin, Nimoy and Kelley interact is just wonderful. It just makes me wish that Monroe was willing to do more TOS episodes than the two that she did. However, the Romulans are not going to give up their technology that easily. As soon as Sela boards the Endeavour her ship blows up.

Sela immediately blames the crew of the Endeavour. But Spock shoots that down by pointing out that they had no reason to. Sela realizes how stupid that sounds and realizes that the Romulan high command must have gotten wind of what she was up to and sabotaged the ship so that she would survive knowing that she had led her men to their deaths. Sela is then lead to a room where she sits and thinks about what is going to happen to her.

Post episode follow up:

There was no annoying character this week so this episode gets a +1 bonus to the episode score.

We have a Burn Baby Burn award for the Romulan ship that explodes.

Final score for The Romulan Incident is 8 out of 10. While there was your typical TOS/'60s sexism on display this was still a good episode. The writing was good, the acting was excellent and it introduced a new character in the form of Sela.

Marilyn Monroe has said that working on TOS was a wonderful experience. She will be back on the show when we review the follow up episode.

-SFRemains review of The Romulan Incident April 14th, 2011.
 
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So.......to make sure I got it....

Kelly is captain pine?
Nimoy is still spock
Martin. Is Dr. Boyce?
Shatner is admiral archer..not a regular but a guest or recurring?

Not sure Kelly can pull off leading man/captain action hero
 
So.......to make sure I got it....

Kelly is captain pine?
Nimoy is still spock
Martin. Is Dr. Boyce?
Shatner is admiral archer..not a regular but a guest or recurring?

Not sure Kelly can pull off leading man/captain action hero

Who said Pine is the Captain Action Hero? Maybe you're right about the leading man thing. I wanted Kelley to still be with the show and I heard that he refused to play Spock. Plus I didn't see Martin playing Pine so....

As for Shatner, yes he is a recurring character.

And yes you are right on the rest.
 
Chapter 5

They turned around.

"Hello, Carl."

"Hi, mom."

They hugged. "Sam told me you would be here. Thought I'd come and see if you were still here after my treatment."

"We actually just got here."

Carl frowned at Underwood. "Yes. Of course."

Marilyn raised her eyebrows. "Something wrong?"

Carl shook his head. "No, nothing. Just wanted to pay my respects and head back to the house."

After Carl left Underwood turned to Marilyn. "That was weird."

"Not entirely. Sam and Carl don't trust you. They don't trust me either. Seem to think I'm going senile in my old age."

"Probably don't want you taken advantage of."

Marilyn smiled. "Used to do the same with Samantha and her twin brother Paul."

"And what does Paul do?"

Marilyn went to Joe's grave and knelt down next to it. "He plays center field for the Yankees like his father. I think he's going to be in town soon to play the Angels."

"I'd like to meet him. And your daughter. Maybe convince them that I'm on the up and up."

"They'll like you. Just need to get used to you."

Marilyn got up. "Let's go home. I'll fix us some lunch."
 
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Chapter 6

Over the next few days, during which Underwood managed to get a call to his mother, Underwood and Marilyn watched the movies made after 1962: 1963's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn ("I loved some of the songs in that one. I also wanted to make it up to Dean Martin after causing Something's Got to Give to founder."); 1967's Harrison's Yellow Rose ("I produced more than I acted between '63 and '67."); 1968's The Trail of Mata Hari ("Still can't believe I got nominated for an Oscar for that. I only wanted to make a statement about how people viewed me."); 1972's The Golden Girl ("I had made up with Billy Wilder by then and we had a grand time.") and Othello "Sidney Poitier was a great Othello. Got him his second Oscar."); 1981's Oh, My Darling ("My first movie after my show ended. Rock Hudson's last film. Poor Rock. I wish I had known him better."); 1983's Helena! ("I wanted to do one last period film. Jimmy Stewart was grand to work with."); 1985's King Harold's Mine ("The comedy in this one hasn't really aged well has it?") 1988's Michael's Heart ("Susan Sarandon became a great friend to me over the course of that movie and beyond."); 1993's Jody and Dusty ("Kendra Berry was a wonderful lead in that. Became the first African-American woman to win an Oscar.") and 2001's The Lonesome ("I used to hate The Misfits and my performance in it. This sequel was my way of rectifying that. I'm not I succeeded.")

Two hours after The Lonesome ended, just after dinner, there was a knock on the door. Marilyn went to answer.

-----

Author's note: I can't draw worth a damn so if someone were to make posters for these films that are period appropriate I'd greatly appreciate it.
 
Interlude 2
This was an early season 2 episode and was the episode right before The Doomsday Device. It's also one of the few episodes to take place on Earth, even if an earlier version. Yes, it's time for another time travel episode!

We start with the Endeavour returning to Earth after some time away. Upon reaching Star Fleet headquarters they are greeted by Admiral Sela. Monroe had just finished filming of her Oscar nominated turn in The Trial of Mata Hari and when this script went to her she saw this an opportunity to explore Sela in a similar fashion.

The result is a mixed bag. This episode was written by Gene Roddenberry himself. And boy does it show. Of course, you would not see this kind of naked patriotism in later series. Anyway, back to the episode.

When Pine, Spock and Boyce address her, she says that since she is no longer an Admiral, she should not be addressed by that rank. She is now a civilian scientist, working on a special project. That's why Pine and the Endeavour were called back, Sela wants to test her device and Pine and the Endeavour are the only ship and crew that she can trust, in spite of what happened last time.

Sela: This device will change a lot of lives, captain.
Pine: If you say so.

Then Admiral Archer comes in to say that, the device has been beamed aboard. And then he just walks off with an expression on his face that says "Well, at least I got a paycheck this week." The reason for this was that Shatner was filming a TV movie about the Civil War called Gone to Glory. Makes you almost wonder why he decided to turn up here at all.

Anyway, on board the Endeavour, the device is tested, but it doesn't seemed to have worked other then making the ship's model turn around. Once they beam down to Earth:

Sela: Is this Earth?
Boyce: It is. Just not the right century.

Yep, Sela has invented a time machine. She explains that she created it to go back in time to save the lives of her crew and the ship. It's interesting that she puts her reasons in that way, seeing as how Romulans are usually portrayed as uncaring and cold.

This is also the first episode that both the Romulan and Vulcan languages are used. Both Nimoy and Monroe could speak Yiddish, though obviously Nimoy more than Monroe. Apparently, they both created some very basic conversations for this episode, which was later built upon by fans. Both languages are different, yet similar, like Hebrew and Yiddish.

As Spock and Sela get into their argument, Boyce finds a newspaper. It's 1967. Seems that they landed in Los Angeles just before an anti-Vietnam War rally. At the time America was really escalating it's involvement.

This is where Gene really goes off the deep end in terms of his patriotism, and also on damn stinking, dirty hippies. Because, right after saying that they stay out of sight, Sela goes right up to the protesters and gives them a piece of her mind. Pine, Boyce and Spock have to physically pull her back to prevent her from getting mobbed.

Returning to the ship, they find that the device just overheated and they return home. There's a little epilogue at the end about trying to go back in time to change something but let's just get out of here.

Post episode follow up:

Annoying character goes to Sela, though that was mainly due to Gene than Sela herself.

We have an Ancient Chinese Secret, Huh? for calling the Vietnam War ancient.

Final score for Once Again is four out of ten. The only thing keeping this from getting a lower score is the performances of the actors. What really hampered this episode was that Gene didn't know what he wanted to do with the episode. It would have been so easy to make the episode better.

For example, Sela wants to go back in time to save her crew. Fine let her. But let the twist be that she either can't or does something that inadvertently causes the explosion. Either way she'll come back to the present even more guilt ridden than she already was.

Like I said before, this was the last episode Monroe ever did on TOS, whether it was due to this episode or her hiatus after her husband, Joe DiMaggio, was killed is uncertain. What is certain is that she would not appear in anything Star Trek related for over 20 years.

-SFRemains review of Once Again, December 4th, 2012.
 
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A few questions--

did Joe DiMaggio die in 1969 or 1999?- i thought you said 99 but implied he died shortly after trying to save Bobby Kennedy in 1968

Its 2015 and Joe DiMaggios son is playing baseball- wouldnt his son be in his late 40s if he died in 1969? is that his grandson?

Who was elected president in 72 and 76?

I know its supposed to be a stange moment from Roddenberry but why would Sela start yelling at Vietnam protestors/ She is a Romulan - would she know anything about Earth/US history of the 20th century? Or care?

maybe some debate between Sela and Spock arguing over the logic of the war or the protesters instead with Sela arguing for the power of central goverment and need to obey and spock arguing about expressing opposition in a democracy/
 
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