I have a convoluted fannish theory that allows Number One and Luxwana Troi to be the same, long-lived character. I would never try to put it forth as canonical, but I like it.

I could completely see a "Squire of Gothos" prequel in which the shapeless green blob that is Trelayne meets the Klingons long before Kirk and takes his first corporeal form imitating Koloth to have fun with the Klingon captain and his crew. Later, when he meets Kirk and co., he just happens to have the shape of Koloth already on-hand in his book of tricks...

Hey, if stuff like "Q-in-Law" can make the grade... :-)

It's nice to have a release date for this book. It's the first thing in quite some time to which I am truly looking forward.

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It's not. Merely a curiosity. As noted several years back, having picked up the first season of THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. on DVD, I was struck by how many future TREK alumni appeared on that show. When Culp showed up as a villain in one episode, it made me wonder why he had not been on STAR TREK. There were several characters that would have seemed tailor made for his talents. Richard Daystrom, Commodore Decker, Captain Tracy, Roger Korby, Dr. Adams, Captain Garth. He'd have chewed the scenery quite nicely, too, in the smaller but pivotal role of Simon van Gelder.

Merely a curiosity.

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He'd also have made a very interesting Gary Seven. Not surprising, I suppose, that a few years later he turned up in a very similar role in Roddenberry's busted pilot SPECTER.

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Part of the curse of a hyperactive imagination is that THE OUTER LIMITS used to scare the bejeebus out of me when I was in my early teens. Every week I'd watch it, and even the relatively "low key" episodes I managed to ramp up all the way to 11 in my head.

This particular episode was deemed so scary by the local (and only!) station that they blacked out the final "reveal" on the monster -- which only had the effect of making me turn it into something EVEN WORSE in my head. When I finally saw the real deal, years later, I was distinctly disappointed!

I can picture Culp in the role of Captain Christopher from "Tomorrow is Yesterday."

Culp did an episode of Bonanza, I believe, in which he played a singing cowboy on the run for a murder he didn't commit. I wonder if there wasn't some spin-off potential in that somewhere...

As much fun as it is casting Culp in episodes of Star Trek that were made, it's also fun imagining a script written with the knowledge that Culp had signed on to appear and tailored to show him off to his best effect. Not that that would have occured, given the pressure cooker environment and rapid pace at which episodes were made, but it's nice to make believe... What sort of role would he have played? Con man, ala' Cyrano Jones? Romantic lead tempting a crewmember astray? Alien agent aboard the Enterprise with a sinister agenda? Uptight Federation Commodore out to bust Kirk? Singing space rogue? So many possibilities...

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I still think Richard Daystrom and Commodore Decker would have been the best for Culp. Each has that "arc of insanity" that would have played well to his talents as an actor.