Monday, March 9, 2009

MILLER'S SON'S TALE

John Harmon was one of those character actors you saw all the time and probably never knew his name. In "The Storm Riders", an episode of 'Cheyenne', he played Miller the shopkeeper:
Miller was a weaselly little snit who couldn't wait to tell Storm's hired gun Swallow that Cheyenne was riding into town and looking for him. And later,even though he claimed that he had nothing personal against Cheyenne, he was the second loudest voice calling for the cowboy to be lynched (after Mr. Storm, that is).

As it is with a lot of supporting TV characters in one-shot appearances, we didn't learn anything of Miller's background, whether or not he had a family, for example. But I'm thinking that he did have a wife and at least one child, a son. And if so, then it's my contention that Miller's son grew up and moved back East to New York, where he fell on hard times when the Great Depression hit (as seen in the 'Star Trek' episode "City On The Edge Of Forever").
And as he scrabbled for his existence in Manhattan, Miller Junior was known by the other down-and-outers as "Rodent" - probably the personality quirks of the weaselly father rubbed off on the son.

For Toobworld, "Rodent Miller" is a fascinating character when it comes to the chronology for Earth Prime-Time. In the original 'Star Trek' timeline, "Rodent" stole a phaser and tried it out, which caused his disintegration. Behind the scenes, this was eliminated from the restored and enhanced version which can be seen in syndication today. Those in charge of the restoration realized that such an action would only cause problems with the timeline if Rodent's future actions were erased.

(Within the "reality" of Toobworld, the enhanced series of 'Star Trek' is due to Nick Cutter, who somehow changed the entire history of Earth Prime-Time while in the 'Primeval' past.)

Like all my theories of "Relateeveety", the father-son relationship between Miller and "Rodent" can't be proven. But like I always say, it can't be disproved either.

BCnU!
Toby O'B

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