Daily Variety is reporting that Marlene Forte has landed the role as the (unnamed) Transporter Chief for the new Star Trek movie. The 40-something video store owner turned actress has appeared on many TV series such as Lost, ER, CSI, The West Wing, and Daybreak. Her film credits include Real Women Have Curves and Adrift In Manhattan. She starred in the 1997 independent film Lena’s Dreams (see clip below).
Where’s Kyle?
The name of Forte’s character isn’t known but it is pretty clear she isn’t playing Lt. Kyle who was often seen beaming the crew in and out of the NCC-1701 during Star Trek The Original Series. Kyle (played by John Winston) would also pop up in engineering, sometimes at the helm and even showed up on the bridge of the USS Reliant in Star Trek II. However, the first known transporter chief of the Enterprise would be Pitcairn who served under Captain Pike during the time of “The Cage.”
Kyle (left) and Pitcairn (right) manning their transporter station on the NCC-1701
Forte from Lena’s Dreams
For more on Forte see IMDB and an interview at About.com.
For a full list of known cast members, see our “Star Trek” cast page
Now that is nice. I actually knoe her!
Beam me up!
Oh, yeah, comments. Good casting decision. Why do I get the feeling she’ll be red-shirted by the end of the movie though? Nevermind the fact that in TOS, engineers wore red shirts, but you know what I mean.
Huh. Funny – she doesn’t look too much like John Winston to me. :)
#3 lol
#4 lol too
poor Mr. Kyle, wonder where he’s at
Man who cares?
she can energize my circuits anytime
and : 9th!!!
> it is pretty clear she isn’t playing Lt. Kyle
Is it? Kyle might be a woman this time… But wait, stop. That’s against canon! Aaaargh! We’re all gonna die! :D
A million years ago I saw John Winston (Mr. Kyle) on TV’s “The Dating Game.”
She could beam me up any day.
> it is pretty clear she isn’t playing Lt. Kyle
You never know. This could be Trek’s attempt to reach out to the transgender community. Midway through the movie, she takes a trip to sickbay and comes out a changed (wo)man…
there will be no peace ’till Mr. Kyle energizes
:D
Can’t the character’s name be Lt. Kyle?
Mr. Kyle better have his agonizer ready.
I hope she has a jump suit on and is working alongside Mr. Kyle!
And all I want to hear is Pine/Kirk holding his communicator and yelling “Energize!”
I get it! It’s an opposite universe! Like the mirror universe, everyone in this movie is opposite from what they were in Normal Trek.
She can cross-circuit to “B” with me anytime……growrr! :)
…maybe she plays Lt. KYLIE :)
How about Lt Kylea?
As in Lt. Kyle-A :-)
Perhaps she’s the transporter chief because the plot point includes an all-male landing party getting lost, refusing to ask directions, and needing to beamed out — instead.
re:22
…as a male driver I find your post sexist and funny as hell!
:)
Yet another actor whom JJ has worked with before. Well, at least he knows that they can perform. But if JJ ends up going several Trek sequels, are we going to get the entire casts of Alias, Felicity, Lost, MI:3 and Cloverfield popping up?
I don’t see why Kyle would be in the movie anyway, canon or not. The Enterprise changed transporter chiefs like socks during TOS – it just so happened that the same actor popped up to do it more often than others, and thus we had Kyle.
I don’t want no woman beaming my molecules who knows where.. everyone knows what they say about women beamers!
Remember RAND in TMP!
Wow! From that short clip she is very impressive!
It’s Ms. Kyle — he had a sex change! ;)
-Federation captain..good ideea….but..maybe..a president for Federation and.. a Starfleet..commander..sounds better…
STARFLEET is the military side of the FERDERATION..
It’s Ms Kyle – he had a gender reassignment! ;)
I wonder….who will be playing Janice Rand?
Transporter Chief Rand?
So she’ll be standing NEXT to Lt. Kyle pushing buttons on the transporter.
No speaking lines as only Kyle spoke to folks who entered and left the transporter room after all, and when the transporter went haywire of course.
Kyle ( into intercom ) : Transporter is out Mister Scott !
Scotty ( from intercom ) : Borgas Frat ! Not again….
Sorry, looked like the profanity filter ate my post.
while I’ll admit that a change like this shouldnt make or break the movie, it’s still an annoying little detail that Abrams & company seem to feel needs changed just so they can differentiate themselves from classic Trek.
why do they keep doing this? Its almost as if they’re deliberately trying to rub it in that they’re in control and it doesnt matter what longtime fans think. If they feel that way fine, but stop rubbing it in.
22 Or maybe it’s because after a long ,hard day on the planet the guys need a perky little tomato to welcome them home.
#36… it’s a big ship. We saw numerous different crewpeople operating the transporter over the series three years… why do they keep doing *what*?
What I’d like to know is will she be wearing the old overalls above, or a nice little mini-tunic number?…
#36 CTIII –
What are you talking about? There can be only ONE transporter chief on the entire Enterprise? Nothing in the article states that Abrams & Co. are CHANGING the character of Kyle and/or that other-guy-from-“The Cage”-that-I’ve-never-heard-of.
You’re grasping at straws.
I can’t believe such a huge deal is being made about even the transporter chief… you people are maddening.
My dog could play the new transporter chief, and I still think the movie could be good, since after all, the transporter chief is about as important to the STORY as a diagnostic tool on a cart in Engineering.
Purists out there… you’re all in for one hell of a ride. I can’t wait to see your faces by the end of the movie… I hope you all make it. lol
Well, she could be Lt Marlena Moreau, a chemist and molecular transportation expert, if it weren’t for that introduction-to-Kirk scene in Mirror, Mirror. Of course, unless you take that Trials and Tribulations changed the past so that now that scene was with Benjamin Sisko. ;)
She definitely has a Barbara Luna type look though…. maybe we could go this way anyway… because I’d love to see Marlene (and what a coincidence) in a future sequel with a Mirror crossover as the mirror-Marlena :)
Another possibility is to recall that in one of the scripts of Space Seed, Lt Marla McGivers is also noted to serve not just as historian, but as a “control systems specialist”… That would be a great character to have floating around…. Perhaps she does something that annoys Kirk who decides to remove her from the posting later to “free up time for her to focus on historian duties..”
A young Yeoman DiFalco would be funny… considering Shatner’s not in the movie.
“Ensign Lisa Angela Martine Teller reporting for duty” is another option…. And would be funny in its own way if Orci stuck in a “retcon” of the ever-changing crewman’s name.
A TAS flair would be Anne Nored.
But, my first choice is that this character would be Ensign Tonia Barrows. She was a great character in Shore Leave, and a return would be fun. Especially because of the later novel by David George… and knowing Orci loves all the novels… :) Gives someone for Urban’s McCoy to play off of with his passionate hatred of having his molecules scrambled…. Imagine him falling for a yeoman who as one of her rotating duties is a transporter operator!
#23
Oh. And like there haven’t been sexist remarks about women, here… ;)
#41
I’m thinking that the sticky stuff on the floor of the theater at the end of the midnight show isn’t going to be that annoying mix of caffeinated beverages, Milk Duds, Junior Mints, and smashed popcorn… it is going to be the former contents of exploding heads. :D
I’m only going to be looking for the color of the bridge carpeting to be accurate, and the moire patterns of the Science Station’s scanners to be precisely as I recall them, or I’m going to send a strongly-worded letter to JJ about how he raped my childhood. Heh!
/sarc
#25
Especially if you (generically) got up and walked out in the middle of the night, after the romantic dinner in her cabin.
Don’t tick off the woman who has expertise with the transporter, or, you may find something has rematerialized outside the ship.
Now what? We’re lobbying fur Mr. Kyle ta be in the film?
Speaking of transporters… I saw me the evil Kirk episode with the new effects… guess it be a repeat … so ta speak… Har
And it was in the time of B.S.- Before Shuttlecraft… but if we are gunna lobby fur Mr. Kyle, then maybe we should speak up for a wee doggie in a furry sweater ta be in tha fim…
arrrr
#7
If you’re really interested, the actor that played Mr. Kyle was recently seen in an episode of James Cawley’s Star Trek New Voyages.
Man, who can forget that agonizer scene in Mirror Mirror?
I’m a fan of the West Wing, but don’t know this actress… I just hope as her first assignment she just doesn’t have the misfortune of beaming up Commander Sonak. ;-)
I think Rand’s a good possibility :D
“If we’ve never seen it before on TOS, it couldn’t have existed!”
That’s the attitude some take toward this thing. It’s a silly attitiude to have.
There’s only one transporter room in The whole enterprise? I honestly doubt it.
You can imagine Kyle is in Transporter room 2 waiting for someone to remember he is there.
Obrian was allways in transporter room 3. The poor dude in Transporter room 1 probably died of starvation waiting for the cofee he once ordered. I can see it: “Wow mom! I’ve been assigned to transporter room 1! I’m the most important transporter chief in the ship!
>48. Diabolik – January 28, 2008
>“If we’ve never seen it before on TOS, it couldn’t have existed!”
>That’s the attitude some take toward this thing. It’s a silly attitiude to have.
Well, nobody has really said that it is wrong or anti canon not to have Kyle. We are all only playing “canon wars” because of inertia, but I don’t really find anyone angry about this.