The women of Star Trek

Star Trek: The Original Series (1966-1969)

Uhura

Without a doubt, the ultimate female character in the Star Trek universe - well at least from the planet Earth! Notwithstanding the historical importance of the character in science fiction and cultural history, Nyota Uhura, communications officer is a beautiful, feisty and talented individual, able to dance and sing as well as interpret alien communication, man the science station and has athletic prowess. She is acknowledged as being the one of the first, if not THE first characters of African descent to be shown on American Television. Another landmark was the first interracial kiss on American television in the 1968 episode "Plato's Stepchildren". Both these milestones say something about the poor state of racial equality in the 1960s, particularly in America at the time. It also says a lot about the role women were to play in the film industry, as it shifted from the family-based mother and wife to a more eclectic role, although this isn't to say that objectification of women ceased, as you can plainly see in the images below.

Uhura - Nichelle Nicholls

Uhura as we normally saw her in the original series.

Uhura - Alternative Universe

In the episode "Mirror, Mirror", Uhura and other members of the crew were transported to an alternative universe where her uniform changed - I prefer it!. She proved to be particularly loyal to the captain in certain danger and handled herself with great skill and courage.

Other early characters

There are many female characters in the Star Trek universe, although very few returning characters so I'll try to deal with them in some sort of order.

Vina - Susan Oliver

Susan Oliver played Vina in the pilot of the original series, a disfigured woman made beautiful by illusion.

Orion Slave Girl - Susan Oliver

Vina was made to look beautiful to entice the captain, but when this wasn't working, the aliens turned her into an Orion Slave girl, who have a magical spell over men. Green aliens? Love them!

Janice Rand - Grace Lee Witney

Janice Rand was introduced in the first episode proper and sadly appeared in only 8 episodes. She was something of a sex symbol and Captain Kirk's personal Yeoman. Known for her good looks, long legs and her beehive hairstyle! She was a friendly and an often vulnerable member of the crew.

Mudd's women

Harcourt Fenton Mudd was something of a scoundrel, peddling women to rich but lonely Di-Lithium miners. He did transport to the Enterprise with 3 special items of cargo in the episode "Mudd's Women" beautiful women who only had their good looks due to an illegal drug they were taking.

Eve McHuron- Karen Steele

Eve was a lonely character who would have preferred Kirk as a husband to a miner, and she regretted going along with Mudd in the end. It was her confidence that transformed her back into a beautiful woman after receiving a placebo.

Ruth Bonaventure - Maggie Thrett

Ruth was happy to go along with Mudd and was very sexy - especially those sparkling eyes.

Magda Kovacs - Susan Denberg

Real name Dietlinde Zechner, I've seen Susan looking better to be honest. She was a chorus girl and former playboy playmate who is probably better known for her role in the film Frankenstein created woman. I'm not sure her heavy Austrian accent worked (in fact it was dubbed out in the Frankenstein film as it was considered to be too strong).

Other babes worth a mention

Mostly one-off characters in skimpy outfits, but an alien or two.

Andrea - Sherry Jackson

The very pretty and prolific actress, Sherry Jackson played the android, Andrea. Although Andrea experimented kissing with kirk (obviously), she realised that she loved her creator, but killed him by accident (which is a pretty normal plot for this series!)

Helen Noel -Marianna Hill

As a test to see if a brainwashing machine was working whilst Kirk was in it, she suggested that he loved her, reminding him of a dance at a Christmas party. Like Kirk needed an excuse to carry a pretty girl to his room??

Lenore Karidian - Barbara Anderson

Lenore was a bit mad, killing people to protect her father who had been a mass murderer but now an actor in a travelling group. Barbara was another prolific actress in the 1970s, appearing in Ironside and Mission Impossible.

Tonia Barrows - Emily Banks

A teasing photo shoot of Emily as Tonia Barrows, another attempt at a yeoman to replace Rand. She was rather flirty with McCoy in the episode Shore Leave.

T'Pring - Arlene Martel

T'Pring was intended to be Spock's wife under a pre-arrangement, but Spock had to fight Kirk to the death to win her over. Spock dumped her in the end - because she was just a nasty scheming bitch! I'm not sure of her babe credentials - I'm just not sure if Vulcans are sexy - but I really don't think they were intended to be early on...

Carolyn Paramas - Leslie Parish

The young and very pretty lieutenant was so pretty that the god Apollo wanted to keep her. He gave her a very rauncy outfit (Greek, don't you know) and promised to make her his wife.

Shahna - Angelique Pettyjohn

Shahna was a slave - called a drill thrall - on a world called triskellion, where she was part of an elite fighting force who would battle for a bunch of space gamblers called the providers. She became Kirk's personal coach when he was kidnapped and had to fight him to the death (as usual). the problem was that Kirk was so irresistable that she couldn't kill him, and neither could he. As far as I am aware, she is the only actress to pose as a Star Trek character in the nude to sell signed photos at conventions.

Nona - Nancy Kovack

The very sexy Nancy played Nona, a medicine woman who saved Kirk's life when he was bitten by a Mugato. She had mystical powers and could use plants to bewitch people.

Kelinda - Barbara Buchet

Kelinda was a stunning member of a trio of Kelvans who wanted to steal the Enterprise and she had a belt that had a number of powers, including freezing people and turning them into solids, having removed all of their water. Although initially tough and strong, she fell for the magnestism of Kirk, who frequently "apologised" for striking her earlier - I think you know what I mean....

Kara - Marj Dusay

When Spock's brain gets stolen, the crew find themselves looking for it on a planet inhabitedby beautiful and scantily dressed females called eymorg. Kara is their leader and has a very simple mind. The eymorg are the "bringers of pain and pleasure" - the pleasure is obvious, but the pain is made by pressing on buttons on their bracelets.

Luna - Sheila Leighton

It was Luna who mysteriously appeared on the ship just before Spock's brain went missing. A simple child-like mind could not have done it, but she had donned "the Teacher" earlier which had enhanced her brain

Romulan Commander - Joanne Linnville

The jury is still out as far as I'm concerned about romulans and vulcans. But there is something about Joanne's portrayal of the Romulan Commander that includes her on this page.Initially strong and forceful, out to get what she wants, we see a vulnerable side to her as she woos Spock into joining her.

Natira - Katherine Woodville

Unknowingly living on an asteroid/spaceship on a journey to a promised land, Natira starts to doubt her surroundings when McCoy appears on the scene with a terminal illness. A high priestess, she falls in love with Bones, but eventually comes to see senseand leads her people, the Fabrini, on their journey whilst the good doctor is miraculously cured and wants to get on with the Star Trek thing.

Philana - Barbara Babcock

Philana was actually a bad piece of work. Having god-like powers, she took pleasure in torturing the local dwarf and members of the crew for fun. Needless to say, this pretty lady found her match and stopped being so nasty when the crew were able to replicate her powers.

Marta - Yvonne Craig

Its Yvonne again, who played batgirl, but now she's a crazy Orion girl kept on a planet prison for the reallly insane beings in the galaxy. Yvonne uses her dancing skills to distract the crew and puts on a pretty mean show.

Odan - Sharon Acker

This very pretty young lady was found walking about on the Enterprise by Kirk. It was just a copy of the ship he had beamed to, and a rouse to get the captain to infect Odan with a virus that he had so that she could pass it on to her poulation, which was overcrowded and totally out of control.

Zarabeth - Mariette Hartley

When Spock and the doctor are accidentally transported to an icy world in the distant past of a planet about to be destroyed, they meet the only inhabitant, Zarabeth, played by the very georgous Mariette Hartley. she has been imprisioned there for attempting to overthrow a tyrant, but she looks pretty good in her animal-skin attire.

Rayna Kapec - Louise Sorel

Created by Flint, an immortal, to be his companion, the beautiful and intelligent Rayna was unaware of the fact that she was not human, even though she did not have emotions. Flint planned that Kirk would entice them, which he did, but she simply couldn't handle it, so she died - well,short-circuited really. Sad. As an interesting sideline, her surname was in recognitionof Karel Capek, the Czech writer who first coined the phrase "robot".

Droxine - Diana Ewing

Living on a cloud city and enjoying all the benefits of the high life: good food, art, philospy etc, Droxilla was unaware of the hardship experienced by the workers down on the planet below. She believed them to be less intelligent life forms, whilst she and her people had elevated beyond them. Only when she realised that this difference in intelligence was due to a gas produced by mining zenite, did she become troubled and offered to go down to the planet as an equal. Bless her.

My Cat - Victoria Vetri

Only she wasn't just a cat! Belonging to Gary Seven, a human from the future, who came back to save Earth from a nuclear disaster She only appears briefley, and we know nothing about her, but the stunning Victoria Vetri was some cat!

Drusilla - Lois Jewell

The stunningly beautiful Drusilla was the personal slave of a Roman-like being. She was ordered to spend the night with Kirk before he was executed the following morning.

Teresa Ross - Venita Wolf

Teresa Ross was a yeoman who was transported to the planet Gothos, where she was entertained, along with other crew members, by the Squire, Trelayne. He gave her an 18th century dancing gown and flirted with her. To be honest, she looks great in just the normal uniform - Venita was a multi-beauty contest winner in her day.

On to The Next Generation

Oh the lovely ladies of Star Trek

I'm not going to pretend that this is the best Star Trek babe site. I'm not interesting in competing with others who devote their time to this one subject, but I'd like to think I've made a decent effort in selecting the ladies that I think are worthy. Yes I've probably missed a few - but I'll get round to them one day..