AirLockAlpha.com

As soon as it was clear Jennifer Morrison of the hit Fox show "House, MD" was part of the cast of "Star Trek XI," speculation ran wild on who exactly the actress would portray.

Initial speculation focused that on Yeoman Rand, something that was later denied by director J.J. Abrams. But then attention was directed to a major love interest of Capt. James T. Kirk, Carol Marcus, who was revealed in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" to have given birth to Kirk's son.

A Airlock Alpha source, however, has a different story. New reports have surfaced that Morrison will play the first officer of the USS Enterprise under Capt. Pike.

"Gene Roddenberry wanted a woman in a high-ranking role on the show, but NBC wouldn't hear of it," the source said. "Now his wish of having a female XO under Pike is finally coming to pass."

The original role of "Number One" was credited to M. Leigh Hudec, but was actually played by Majel Barrett, who would go on to voice the ship's computer, and play a couple different roles including Nurse Chapel in the original series and Lwaxana Troi in "Star Trek: The Next Generation."

"Everyone wants to speculate on what roles these actors are taken on because of their looks, but they should actually be paying more attention to what might be meatier roles," the source said. "What's nice is that Number One will actually have a name."

Christopher Pike has already been cast with Bruce Greenwood, and both characters only appeared in two "Star Trek" episodes -- the original pilot of "The Cage," and its later bottle episode, "The Menagerie."

Of course, none of this has been confirmed by Paramount, so it should be treated as any rumor would.

"Star Trek XI" is expected to be released on Dec. 25, 2008. Variety has reported that Chris Hemsworth has been cast to play the father of Capt. Kirk while Clifton Collins Jr. will play a henchman to Eric Bana's Nero.