Miranda Jones

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Character
Name: Miranda Jones
Occupation: Psychologist
Relationships: Medusan Ambassador Kollos (romance, mind link)
Fandom: Star Trek: The Original Series
Other:
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Doctor Miranda Jones is a character from Star Trek: TOS episode Is There in Truth No Beauty?, a blind human with telepathic powers.

See more information about the character on Memory Alpha.

Fan Reactions

Miranda is considered a memorable character by some fans. Some appreciate her as a female character that was unusually complex for Star Trek: The Original Series. This is sometimes attributed to being written by a woman and by a fan (Jean Lisette Aroeste, the writer of Is There in Truth No Beauty?, was a librarian whose unsolicited script got noticed by Robert H. Justman and recommended to Roddenberry). The fans that react more negatively to her cite among their reasons her harsh personality and her attempts to harm Spock; they also think that she has some traces of Mary Sue (for example, because all three leads are fascinated with her and because she studied on Vulcan despite being human).

While Miranda is an early example of a disabled character on TV, this aspect of her and the treatment of her disability in the episode are rarely analysed in the fandom.

Diana Muldaur, the actress who played Miranda, also appeared in other roles in Star Trek: as Dr. Ann Mulhall in The Original Series episode Return to Tomorrow, and, most famously, as Dr. Katherine Pulaski in Star Trek: The Next Generation. This may contribute to some of the attention paid to Miranda's character.

One of my favourite "Dame of the Hour"-ladies from Star Trek: The Original Series, Doctor Miranda Jones from the episode "Is There In Truth No Beauty?". A somewhat underappreciated character, in my opinion, because I definitely found her one of the most intriguing fictional characters I've ever encountered. She's intelligent, cool and collected, but at the same time she's got a vicious side to her, but ultimately overcomes it and helps save the day. She's blind, but also a telepath, and despite her disability she nearly seems to have a wider understanding than e.g. Kirk and McCoy regarding concepts such as beauty. She's got her own story arc, seems to lead an interesting life overall, and her backstory is interesting to ponder as well. And to point out the obvious, she's extremely pretty (though that might not be obvious from this drawing). Heck, I even got the impression Spock seemed to genuinely respect and maybe even like her as a person, which IMO isn't an easy feat to accomplish. If that was the writer's intention, then I could definitely buy the idea without reservation. [1]

One of the things I love about Miranda's character is that she's so morally gray* -- she's not a definite hero, nor is she a definite villain. She's someone who could leave the ship stuck in space because she's unwilling to share Kollos, which makes her pretty bad. But given that she's a professional woman in a 1960's environment, a telepath who's all too familiar with how evil other people are (from the things that most of us hide in our minds but which she's privvy to), and a blind person who's had to insist upon her competence all of her life, I'm sympathetic to her being terribly protective of what she has. [2]

Miranda Jones (and I say this with all love to Diana Muldaur; whom I adored in TNG) was written a bit as a Mary Sue; with the male officers all doing cartwheels every time she walked in.

Muldaur played the role (as written) well, and I liked the episode, but yeah; given Miranda's standoffish demeanor? It seemed that the male officers were unduly fawning over her. At least Spock kept his cool (though he did wear his fancy Vulcan IDIC bling-bling for her...) [3]

One reason why she might be so well written is that the script for this episode was an unsolicited script written and submitted by a woman, Jean Lisette Aroeste (a reference librarian at UCLA), and picked up by producer Robert Justman. I think that probably helped differentiate Dr Jones from most of TOS' women, who, although often progressive at the time, usually don't hold up well compared to the modern day. Of course the portrayal was helped by the fantastic acting of Diana Mulduar, thrice a Star Trek alum. Much like Dr Jones, from what I know of her I also can't imagine her taking shit from anyone. [4]

Fanfiction

Portrait of Doctor Jones by Joni Wagner in Furaha #5

Miranda rarely appears in Star Trek fanfiction. When she does, the story is usually focused on the show regulars (for example, Episode Tag stories set during or immediately after Is There in Truth No Beauty?) Nevertheless, some fics feature Miranda as a main character or one of the main characters.

Stories where Miranda is one of the main characters:

Other stories where Miranda makes an appearance:

Fanart

Zine Art

  • Illustration for the story by S.L. Anderson in Impulse #1

  • A page from Menage a Trois‎ with an illustration by Michael Eason

  • "Miranda", poem by Margaret Draper on the back cover of Alnitah #14

Online Art

References

  1. ^ Meowen, commentary to the fanart Doctor Jones, November 23, 2013
  2. ^ Comment by Corylea in the discussion of the episode, September 25, 2013
  3. ^ Comment by Sehlat Vie in the discussion of the episode, October 6, 2016
  4. ^ From the longer post Dr Miranda Jones in TOS 'Is There in Truth No Beauty?' is one of the series' strongest characters by Adamsoski on Reddit, 2018


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