Jane Wyatt 1910 - 2006
The various news outlets are announcing the death of "The wholesome stay at home mom from Father Knows Best". I realized that I have never seen more than a handful of clips from that show. It went off the air before I was born and was never syndicated in my area.
To me Wyatt was Amanda, wife of Sarek, and mother to Spock. She only played the role once on TV, in the episode Journey to Babel, and once in the movies but Amanda has been a steady feature of Star Trek fanfic and profic since the very beginning.
Amanda was one of the reasons I could identify so much with Spock. She was a teacher just like my mother. She married a man from outside her own culture just like Mama did. Other than Lucy and Ricky, she and Sarek were the closest you could get to my immediate family on sixties TV.
Wyatt played the role well showing the strength and love that a woman like Amanda would need to have.
One of my all time favorite scenes in all of Trek occurs when she shares with Bones that Spock had a pet sehlat:
Bones: Mrs. Sarek, I know about the rigorous training of the Vulcan youth, but tell me, did he ever run and play like the human children, even in secret?
Amanda: Well, he, uh ...he did have a pet sehlat he was very fond of.
Bones: Sehlat?
Amanda: It's sort of a -- a fat teddy bear.
Bones: A teddy bear?
Sarek: Excuse me, Doctor. It has been a rather long day for my wife. Captain. Ambassador. [Sarek gets her out of the room]
Bones: A teddy bear.
Spock: Not precisely, Doctor. On Vulcan, the teddy bears are alive, and they have six-inch fangs.
And of course there is the great bit in sickbay after Spock and Sarek make it though complex surgery:
Amanda: Logic. Logic. I'm sick to death of logic. You know how I feel about your logic ?
Spock: Emotional, isn't she?
Sarek: She's always been so.
Spock: Indeed? Why did you marry her?
Sarek: At the time, it seemed the logical thing to do.
And Amanda laughs with love and exasperation.
To me Wyatt was Amanda, wife of Sarek, and mother to Spock. She only played the role once on TV, in the episode Journey to Babel, and once in the movies but Amanda has been a steady feature of Star Trek fanfic and profic since the very beginning.
Amanda was one of the reasons I could identify so much with Spock. She was a teacher just like my mother. She married a man from outside her own culture just like Mama did. Other than Lucy and Ricky, she and Sarek were the closest you could get to my immediate family on sixties TV.
Wyatt played the role well showing the strength and love that a woman like Amanda would need to have.
One of my all time favorite scenes in all of Trek occurs when she shares with Bones that Spock had a pet sehlat:
Bones: Mrs. Sarek, I know about the rigorous training of the Vulcan youth, but tell me, did he ever run and play like the human children, even in secret?
Amanda: Well, he, uh ...he did have a pet sehlat he was very fond of.
Bones: Sehlat?
Amanda: It's sort of a -- a fat teddy bear.
Bones: A teddy bear?
Sarek: Excuse me, Doctor. It has been a rather long day for my wife. Captain. Ambassador. [Sarek gets her out of the room]
Bones: A teddy bear.
Spock: Not precisely, Doctor. On Vulcan, the teddy bears are alive, and they have six-inch fangs.
And of course there is the great bit in sickbay after Spock and Sarek make it though complex surgery:
Amanda: Logic. Logic. I'm sick to death of logic. You know how I feel about your logic ?
Spock: Emotional, isn't she?
Sarek: She's always been so.
Spock: Indeed? Why did you marry her?
Sarek: At the time, it seemed the logical thing to do.
And Amanda laughs with love and exasperation.
posted by Ranuel | 4:21 PM
1 Comments:
I remember her as Spock's mum too. Thank you for writing this entry, I had heard that Jane Wyatt had passed away, but with all the references to "Father Knows Best" (which I've never seen) I didn't realise it was her.
A beautiful, intelligent woman who lived a marvellous long life, I bet she'll be sadly missed by a great great many people, including myself.
Post a Comment
<< Home