Saturday, May 13, 2017

THE HAT SQUAD - REMEMBERING STEVE SANDOR


From Wikipedia:


Steve Sandor (born October 27, 1937 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an actor who made his first television appearance on 'Star Trek', playing Lars in the second season episode "The Gamesters of Triskelion".

Having appeared in many television shows such as 'Gunsmoke', 'Ironside', 'The Streets of San Francisco', 'Starsky and Hutch', 'CHiPs', 'Charlie's Angels', 'Fantasy Island', 'Three's Company', 'The A-Team', 'Knight Rider', and 'Hardcastle and McCormick'.

Sandor also had a semi-regular role on the short-lived TV series 'The Yellow Rose', and was also part of the extensive cast of the epic 1978 TV mini-series 'Centennial'. 


Sandor died April 2, 2017 at the age of 79.

MEMORY ALPHA

Lars was a drill thrall on the planet Triskelion. He was responsible for training the new thralls.

In 2268, he was chosen to train Lieutenant Uhura after she and her crewmates were kidnapped from the starship USS Enterprise by the Providers. He was eventually "selected" for Uhura where he attempted to rape her in her thrall cage. Uhura was able to fight him off at which time Lars informed her that it was "not allowed to refuse selection". Lars died in a match with Captain Kirk where victory for him would mean reuniting him with his crew, when the Andorian thrall threw a spear at Kirk, who ducked under it. The spear impaled Lars, who was standing behind Kirk at the time. (TOS: "The Gamesters of Triskelion")



MEMORY BETA

Lars was one of the humanoid thralls of the Providers in the 23rd century. He was assigned to train Nyota Uhura in 2268 when her landing party was captured and taken to Triskelion. He attempted to rape her in her cage, but she fought him off, in which he alerted her that it was "not allowed to refuse selection." He died while fighting against James T. Kirk, when an Andorian thrall threw a spear at Kirk but missed and accidentally impaled Lars. (TOS episode: "The Gamesters of Triskelion")

It's the usual practice for me as the Monitaur of Toobworld Central to give a TV character the same life span as the actor portraying the role had, unless otherwise specified in the script.  And that is the case here.  Had Lars survived the adventure, we might have calculated that he lived comparatively for the same length of time as Sandor.  Lars died in the Terran year 2268, so if we assume that he was the same age as Steve Sandor, then he was born in 2237.  In Terran years, he was thirty/thirty-one years old when he died.  Had he lived as long as Sandor, then he might have lived until 2317.  But it was not to be.


I'm hoping readers of this post will contact me with their suggestions as to what planet Lars came from.  All we know of him is that he was a humanoid.  But where did he spend the first decades of his life?  

And feel free to suggest planets which are not found within the the TV galaxy that is bound by 'Star Trek' canon.  Any planet of humanoids from 'Babylon 5', 'Doctor Who', 'Lost In Space' or even 'Farscape' could be in play.

But not 'Space: 1999'!  After the explosion of the nuclear waste dumps, the rest of the series was a progression of coma dreams experienced by Commander John Koenig after he was injured by the blast.

Let me know!

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