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Ladies of Sci-Fi

Of all of the great (and terrible) sci-fi films I have ever loved, Blade Runner may be my favorite of all. Taken from a great Philip K. Dick story and improvised by gifted people in every film-making discipline, this film still is a high water mark for the imaginative realization of a dystopian future.

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Of course, as you would expect to be the focus at PS, the women in the film are smoking hot too. Here's some images from the film showcasing the ladies in moody, noir surroundings.

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Sean Young - Rachel
Sean Young plays the love interest to Harrison Ford's anti-social detective Deckard. Unaware that she is, in fact, an artificial human called a replicant, Deckard shatters her world by sarcastically revealing the secret. Rachel may be manufactured, but with that classical beauty, she's quality workmanship!

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Daryl Hannah - Pris
Daryl Hannah plays an escaped "pleasure model" with gymnastic skills and superhuman strength.

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Joanna Cassidy (born August 2, 1945 in Haddonfield, New Jersey) is a Golden Globe-winning and Emmy Award-nominated American actress. Cassidy started her acting career on television series such as Mission: Impossible, Falcon Crest, Starsky & Hutch and Fantasy Island. In 1982, she had her first major feature film role as the replicant Zhora in Blade Runner. She guest starred on Star Trek: Enterprise as T'Les, the mother of T'Pol. In the second season of the NBC series Heroes, she is seen in a photo of the 12 senior members of the show's mysterious company. Beyond appearances in photographs, the actress first appeared as Victoria Pratt in the 10th episode of season two, "Truth & Consequences", during which her character was killed off.

Zhora is a stripper who does a stage act with a mechanical snake. She is also hardwired to be able to serve in a "kick-murder squad," so tip well and no touching!

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The question arises among Star Trek fans as to whether the original series, or it's spin-off many years later (Star Trek: The Next Generation) was the better show. The answer, in my opinion, is that they both were better than the other. That is, they had different strengths and weaknesses. TNG had better special effects (of course- it was two decades later) and better acting overall. The original series however, had greater originality because it was literally going where no show had gone before. Also, while some sets may have looked like so much papier mache, and too many planets were exactly like some historical period in our own history (cowboys, indians, nazis, gangland, etc.), the show didn't skimp when it came to providing stunning, out-of-this-world outfits for stunning women to wear. The Next Generation makes the future of fashion look like the Federation took style cues from the 1950s era Communist party in China; muted, baggy and unisex. Is it any wonder Picard would occasionally opt to get away to Rysa, the "pleasure planet?" The original series had regulars and guest stars who looked like they had sex and enjoyed it!

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'The Man Trap', if I remember correctly, was the first aired episode (not the first filmed). While the plot basically revolves around a deadly creature that can appear like anyone you think of (particularly whom you desire), the episode introduces us to several lovely women, both recurring roles and one-episode guest stars.

A three member away team goes to a planet to perform routine medical exams on an archaeologist and his wife. The woman is Dr. Leonard McCoy's ex-girlfriend he hasn't seen in ten years.

Dr. McCoy sees exactly the same girl he remembers.

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Captain James Kirk sees the older woman he expects due to Dr. McCoy's age. This version of Nancy (as the previous one was) is played by actress Jeanne Bal.

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Young crewman Darnell sees a woman that, as he comments, looks just like a girl he left behind on the pleasure planet. Smooth move, dude! You just told your two superiors that the Doctor's ex looks like a prostitute. Darnell is excused to go outside. This version of Nancy was played by lovely actress Francine Pyne.

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The lady excuses herself and walks by Darnell flirting heavily in a sort of Mae West fashion.
Dude, you are so toast!

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If only he knew she really looks like... THIS!

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(That thing scared the shit out of me at age seven. Hard to believe now, I know.)

Meanwhile, back on the Starship Enterprise bridge, Communications Officer Uhura is flirting with First Officer Mr. Spock. This episode introduces us to the very lovely Nichelle Nichols as Uhura, and Grace Lee Whitney as Yeoman Janice Rand (the blonde). It also introduces us to their usual attire: miniskirts, dark hose and gogo boots. Yum!

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The creature kills men by sucking all of the salt out of their bodies. We never see exactly how this is accomplished (it is suggested that it is through some big octopus like suckers on the hands), but this scene suggests a different possibility to my mind... ;)

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"Charlie X" didn't bring much in the way of guest stars but again featured Lt. Uhura and Yeoman Rand quite extensively. The premise has to do with a human male who ended up orphaned and alone as an infant on an alien planet. Energy beings gave him supernatural powers as a survival mechanism, but no real interaction or parenting while he grew. So he has the temperament and social skills of a two year old, the hormones of a twenty year old, and the power of a god to reshape reality. If you do something to tick him off, you might die, or be transformed into a lizard, or have your facial features erased.

When he arrives on the Enterprise, he develops a crush on Yeoman Rand. The captain ends up having to explain to him why it's not okay to slap a woman on the ass as a way of expressing friendship.

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Yeoman Rand invites Charlie to join her in the Rec Room after her shift. This becomes a set piece for the lovely Nichelle Nichols. She does a very Eartha Kitt-like song and dance number about Mr. Spock's devilish look and heartbreaking appeal as Spock plays his Vulcan lyre. When Uhura turns her gently satirical wit to Charlie's crush on Yeoman Rand, he takes offense, gets an intense look and suddenly Uhura has laryngitis and Spock's lyre no longer can produce any sound.

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I really like how Uhura was given screen time in these early episodes; before long all she ever got to do was hold a saltshaker to her ear and say things like "hailing frequencies open."

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Growing uncomfortable with Charlie's intense crush, Yeoman Rand tries to introduce him to a crewmember closer to his age (played by Patricia McNulty) but he doesn't even talk to the girl.

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Charlie quickly starts breaking all kinds of taboos like walking in on Yeoman Rand when she's dressed informally in her locked quarters. The show's producers often used a certain technique of soft-focus shots on women's faces.It featured the eyes lit and most of the face in shadow; you can see it here used on Grace Lee Whitney.

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Eventually the energy beings come and take the horny teenager god back with them, telling Kirk that either Charlie would destroy humanity or humanity would destroy him in self-defense. One of those episodes that ended with wistful music and tears shed on the bridge. I do however believe that if a man had the powers of a god he would still think about sex every seven seconds.

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This episode features none of the regular series female stars, but has a prominent guest-starring role and a bit part that appears as though it was intended to be a recurring role. This episode was shot as a pilot before the others already covered, and there are many differences (cast, uniforms, bridge set, etc.).

First off, there is a beautiful captain's yeoman, identified only by her surname of Smith (Kirk calls her Jones by mistake). This is the only episode this character appears in, played by actress Andrea Dromm. She was far more attractive than Grace Lee Whitney IMO, but she didn't have much evidence of personality or chemistry in the slight bit of acting she gets to do here.

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Lacking in neither beauty nor chemistry is the lovely Sally Kellerman in the guest starring role of Dr. Elizabeth Dehner. Kellerman may be best known as Nurse 'Hot Lips' O'Houlihan from the original film M.A.S.H.. Here she gets to spar with a flirting crew member on the bridge, and passionately argues her points at the captain's briefings (usually to counterpoint Mr. Spock, who uncharacteristically seems to shout all of his dialogue here). Dehner is one of the people onboard who gains god-like powers (again already?) when the Enterprise runs into an energy barrier at the edge of the galaxy (apparently in the future the best way to study something is to run into it and find out what happens). The power first makes you turn into a negative image sparkler, and then makes your eyes a reflective metallic color.

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The crew decides to maroon a crewmate on an isolated planet before he kills them all. It turns into a showdown between the crazed god powered crewmember and Captain Kirk (with Dr. Dehner's god-like powered help). The result? Kirk just gets his shirt torn (funny how often that happened), and Dr. Dehner died. Which is too bad; it would have been great to see her in the miniskirts and gogo boots used in all subsequent episodes.

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I figure that Kirk was so happy to still be alive and shirtless that he had an all-night session with Yeoman Smith, who got pregnant and decided to leave the service.

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This episode doesn't feature the ladies much. It's all about the ham in this episode, and that seems to be the specialty of the menfolk in the ST cast. An away party brings an unknown virus back to the ship that causes people to lose their inhibitions (in the future, you have to be infected by an alien virus to get a buzz). Lt. Uhura tries unsuccessfully to talk Sulu down from his Errol Flynn fantasy (it takes a Vulcan nerve pinch to take the steam out of him).

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Yeoman Rand has a comical scene where an unnamed amorous crewman gives her the Pepe LePew treatment; he is serenading her in the hallway, blocking her from reporting to the bridge. Mr. Spock sternly orders the crewman to step aside, but then as Spock leaves he jumps back in fromt of Rand again.

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Newly introduced character Nurse Christine Chapel (played by Majel Barrett) gets infected and passes the virus on to Mr. Spock, confessing her love for him. Spock goes into crybaby mode.

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But the person who gets the biggest dose of the hammy-overacting-virus is Captain Kirk. In fact, I'm not sure he ever received the cure. :)

While in the throes of virus melodramatis, Kirk speaks of his longing for his Yeoman. He explains to weepy Spock that he can't have his yeoman because of his captain's duties. Watchers of the series, however, will realize that these duties didn't keep Kirk from bedding down almost every female in the series, including raping Yeoman Rand- but that's another story.

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In this episode, a malfunction of the transporter, a teleportation device, splits Captain Kirk into two men: the high-functioning, intellectual and mild-mannered "nice" Kirk, and the animal-brain, violent, can't-keep-it-in-his-pants "naughty" Kirk. Naughty Kirk can be identified by mascara and overacting.

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Naughty Kirk immediately goes to Dr. McCoy's sickbay and demands his "medicinal" supply of Saurian brandy.

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Ranging through the ship with a buzz, Naughty Kirk gets a wicked smile on his face when he sees the quarters of his yeoman, Janice Rand. He enters, explains that she needs to stop trying to deny her feelings and proceeds to try to rape her. She gives him a good scratch on the face, and he escapes after beating up a random crewman.

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Nice Kirk gets called to explain why Yeoman Rand is accusing him of rape. She gets to give a confused testimony in smeared "victim" mascara.

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Having traded uniforms with Nice Kirk, Naughty Kirk encounters Rand in the hallway and apologizes for the actions of his "other" self. He invites himself to her quarters later to explain further...

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... but both Kirks are dying in their split state. Naughty Kirk is taken into custody (here both Kirks engage in a unique form of self-love). The captain is successfully reintegrated.

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In the finish on the bridge, Kirk and Yeoman Rand hem and haw without saying much. In a stunningly politically incorrect moment, Spock taunts Rand, implying with a smirk that perhaps she liked Naughty Kirk, which gets a frosty stare from her.

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Before her starring role on Voyager, Jeri had another (short-lived) sci-fi series role: Juliet Stuart on Dark Skies. Dark Skies was a government UFO conspiracy theory-based sci-fi drama television series which aired during the 1996-1997 season for 18 episodes, plus a two-hour pilot episode. Jeri was featured in the second half of the series. Here are some vidcaps from the spectacularly inconclusive final episode (Several of the main characters, including Juliet, are trapped on an alien spaceship; most of the other main characters are killed).

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Don't walk into the light, Carol-Anne!


Of course, we mostly know Jeri from her role as the breastacular Borg, Seven of Nine...

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Here are three HQ pics of Jeri looking natural, relaxed and lovely.

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Search Tags: Jeri Ryan, Jeri Lynn Zimmermann, Born: February 22, 1968, Munich, Germany, Caucasian, Actress

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The Day the Earth Stood Still is a 1951 black-and-white science fiction film that tells the story of a humanoid alien visitor who comes to Earth with a warning. The film stars Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Sam Jaffe, and Hugh Marlowe, under the direction of Robert Wise. Screenwriter Edmund H. North based the screenplay on the 1940 Harry Bates' short story "Farewell to the Master." The score was composed by Bernard Herrmann and used two theremin electronic instruments. (from Wikipedia)

BlackV8 sez: The Day the Earth Stood Still and War of the Worlds are two of my favorite 1950s sci-fi films. They both have good stories, are well executed and have particularly excellent, intriguing designs for the aliens and spacecraft. This is by far the better film, however. I can think of two reasons this movie dates so much better than WOTW. First, the cinematography in this one is excellent: lighting, angles, composition- looking at the screen captures below, they could be photographic publicity stills (you wouldn't even realize, for the most part, that these are cropped from widescreen format). Second, the performances here are top notch. Patricia Neal has the heft to be able to portray a young widowed mother. She is believable as a woman who both wants to take a day away with her boyfriend, and is cautious about leaving her son in the company of a man she has only just met. Her character has layers, like when she is tucking her son in, listening to his theories about "Mr. Carpenter," simultaneously dismissing them to the boy as she becomes more convinced there is something "off" about the man (he's an alien). Neal does have the ability to give a bloodcurdling scream when the moment warrants, but that isn't her whole repertoire as an actress!

I also find her appearance to be spot-on; she is a young mother who is still very attractive, but not dressed like a pin-up model (not that there's anything wrong with pin-up models). :)

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Bride of Frankenstein is a 1935 horror film, the first sequel to the influential Frankenstein (1931). Bride of Frankenstein was directed by James Whale and stars Boris Karloff as The Monster and Elsa Lanchester in the dual role of his mate and Mary Shelley.

Lanchester, who had accompanied husband Charles Laughton to Hollywood, had met with only moderate success, while Laughton had achieved fame in several films (including Whale's own The Old Dark House) and won an Academy Award for his role in The Private Life of Henry VIII. Lanchester modeled the Bride's hissing on the hissing of swans. (from Wikipedia)

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The War of the Worlds is a 1953 science fiction film starring Gene Barry and Ann Robinson. It was the first on screen depiction of the H. G. Wells classic novel of the same name. Produced by George Pal, it was the first of several adaptations of Wells' work to be filmed by Pal, and is considered to be one of the great science fiction films of the 1950s. It won an Oscar for its special effects. (from Wikipedia)

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Okay, this movie is a childhood favorite from late-night TV, but more for the ambitious effects than for the ladies. Ann Robinson is quite lovely in that '50s big hair and tight sweater way; she's easy to look at. Her performance, however, would be hard to exaggerate or spoof- it's so over the top already. Her character (Sylvia Van Buren) teaches at a local college, but you would never know she had such a position if it wasn't in the dialogue. She spends her time doing two things in this movie:

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1. Freaking out (with a capital "F")!

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2. Serving coffee to the menfolk.

I'm not sure if the fifties audiences required the lead actress to be so subservient in order to like her, or if the movie studios just routinely underestimated their audience. But it's hard to believe that there was ever a time when this didn't seem a little silly and patronizing. Ah well. Maybe that's why when Spielberg remade the film, there was no lead adult female role- it was replaced by a ten year old who could freak out every bit as much as Ann did, and not seem unbelievable. Also, Spielberg inserted Ann Robinson and her 1953 costar Gene Barry in his film in a small cameo at the end.

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Diana Van der Vlis (June 9, 1935 - October 22, 2001) was a Canadian stage, screen and television actress best known for her character ‘Dr. Nell Beaulac’ on the ABC soap opera, Ryan's Hope and her character ‘Kate Hathaway Prescott’ on the CBS soap opera, Where the Heart Is. Two other roles on soap operas that she played were Sherry Rowan on Ryan's Hope and Susan Ames Carver on The Secret Storm when she was a substitute for Judy Lewis in the role.

Van der Vlis was born in Toronto, Ontario. She passed away in Missoula, Montana (after becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen).

Van der Vlis studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) in London and acted in Canada before moving to New York in the spring of 1956. She appearing opposite Walter Pidgeon in the Broadway hit The Happiest Millionaire and numerous other productions. A prime time television role was a guest-starring appearance on Eastside, Westside on CBS.

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X (also known as X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes) is a 1963 science fiction/horror motion picture. Directed by Roger Corman, X stars Ray Milland as Dr. James Xavier. A world renowned scientist, Dr. Xavier experiments with X-ray vision and things go horribly wrong. Shot in a mere three weeks on an ultra-slim budget of $300,000, Corman described the film's success as a miracle. The movie was notable for its use of visual effects to portray Dr. Xavier's point of view. While crude by later standards, the visuals are still effective in impressing upon the audience the bizarre viewpoint of the protagonist. Diane Van der Vlis plays Dr. Diane Fairfax, who becomes emotionally involved with Dr. Xavier.

The film won the 1963 Best Film Award, The Silver Spaceship, at the First International Festival of Science Fiction Films. In his book Danse Macabre, Stephen King notes a strong H. P. Lovecraftian quality to X, based on Xavier's near-insanity when he cannot comprehend the god-like being he sees at the center of the universe. Rock band Pere Ubu composed an original underscore for the film in 2004, which they have performed live at various concerts and film festivals. The band Bauhaus used the film as inspiration for the song "The Man With the X-Ray Eyes" on their second album Mask.(actress bio and film facts from Wikipedia)

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This film is a cheesy delight typical of Corman's on-the-cheap films. Ray Milland was charismatic even in a silly story like this.

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Diane Van der Vlis holds her own, playing a love interest who seems intellectually and charismatically the equal of Dr. Xavier.

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Dr. Fairfax takes Dr. Xavier to a doctor party (where they use syringes to mix the "perfect" martini). An associate asks Dr. Fairfax to a dance, whereupon a lovely blonde (played by gorgeous Lorrie Summers) invites Dr. Xavier to dance. Unknown to the blonde, Dr. X's x-ray vision has kicked in, and he amuses himself looking around at everyone who appear to be nude to him. Of course we only get to see what he sees from the neck up, knees down or above the waist from behind. He reveals his condition to Dr. Fairfax by complimenting several of her physical features covered by clothing (!).

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Dr. X starts to become unhinged by his condition, and his temper leads to the negligent, accidental death of a fellow doctor.

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Dr. X ends up working in a carnival sideshow as a mind-reader, where some of the lovely fellow attractions are shown discussing what his "gimmick" must be and why he was so antisocial.

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Dr. Fairfax finds Dr. X and takes him away from the lowlife who is selling Dr. X's ability to "heal." As the word gets out about the murderer on the loose, she can't really help him avoid the self-destruction he seems intent on.

Battlestar Galactica made a splash over the past few years with Grace Park and Tricia Helfer as gorgeous women who, it turned out, were secretly robots. Here's the original old-school movie that used that idea 80 years before.

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Metropolis is a really amazing film, but you have to be prepared for how different it is from today's movie going experience. The camera was undercranked, so everyone moves like monkeys on crack. The technology of movie cameras was still pretty primitive, and images flicker through scratches, film grain and poor focus. The narrative is allegorical or symbolic, and the theme of the film is laid on thickly. The performances are so broad that even young children should be able to understand the intent of each character.

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Freder, son of the man who runs the whole city, is up to no good at a resort for the wealthy with a bunch of loose women (I keep trying to find that job at Monster- no success so far!). Maria has brought a bunch of poor workers' children to the resort so they could see "these are your brothers." They are rushed out of the exclusive area, but not before Freder has fallen hard for Maria.

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Freder decides to visit the work areas below the city to see how his "brothers" live. His vivid imagination turns a giant machine that blows up into a lurid altar where the workers are being sacrificed to a pagan god.

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Meanwhile, up above in his city, Freder's father has heard about a woman who is giving the workers funny ideas. His men don't seem to know what's going on, so he decides to visit Rotwang.

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Rotwang is the maddest of mad scientists. He has built a robot to replace his lost wife, who had left him to marry the industrialist and died giving birth to Freder.

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Freder has traded places with a worker and been invited to a secret religious ritual for the workers led by... Maria! Freder and Maria embrace and he promises to be the mediator between the city's master (his father) and the workers.

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When Maria leaves the underground chapel, she is menaced and kidnapped in the dark by Rotwang.