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Yvonne Craig R.I.P.

Seeing so many TOS players going the past couple years makes me feel suddenly quite sad and old...
 
Her New York Times obit called her Trek character a slave girl:

In one of her more memorable roles, Ms. Craig played Marta, a green-skinned slave girl, in the “Star Trek” episode “Whom Gods Destroy.” She performed a seductive, loose-limbed dance that seemed to nearly overwhelm William Shatner’s red-blooded Captain Kirk, while Leonard Nimoy’s Mr. Spock pronounced it “mildly interesting.”

Are all Orion women slaves?
 
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Her New York Times obit called her Trek character a slave girl:

In one of her more memorable roles, Ms. Craig played Marta, a green-skinned slave girl, in the “Star Trek” episode “Whom Gods Destroy.” She performed a seductive, loose-limbed dance that seemed to nearly overwhelm William Shatner’s red-blooded Captain Kirk, while Leonard Nimoy’s Mr. Spock pronounced it “mildly interesting.”
Are all Orion women slaves?

That depends on your source.
 
I didn't realize that she was a local girl. Today's Dallas Morning News had a big obituary with her picture in her Bat Girl costume. She was born out of state but grew up in Oak Cliff, a Dallas area just South West of downtown. That explains the familiar accent. It mentioned her role in the movie "Mars Needs Women" which was shot locally. I love that movie because I can spot local landmarks that I knew as a kid. That are mostly gone now. However, they did not mention her role in "Man from Uncle".
 
Her New York Times obit called her Trek character a slave girl:

In one of her more memorable roles, Ms. Craig played Marta, a green-skinned slave girl, in the “Star Trek” episode “Whom Gods Destroy.” She performed a seductive, loose-limbed dance that seemed to nearly overwhelm William Shatner’s red-blooded Captain Kirk, while Leonard Nimoy’s Mr. Spock pronounced it “mildly interesting.”
Are all Orion women slaves?
The only other green woman we saw in the original series was Vina as the illusory Orion slave girl in "The Cage"/"The Menagerie," so it's easy to see how the non-Trek-geek media might assume Marta was one as well. For that matter, there's no onscreen evidence in "Whom Gods Destroy" that Marta is an Orion. Her race/species or native planet is never mentioned. All we know is that she's . . . well, she's green!
 
Her New York Times obit called her Trek character a slave girl:

In one of her more memorable roles, Ms. Craig played Marta, a green-skinned slave girl, in the “Star Trek” episode “Whom Gods Destroy.” She performed a seductive, loose-limbed dance that seemed to nearly overwhelm William Shatner’s red-blooded Captain Kirk, while Leonard Nimoy’s Mr. Spock pronounced it “mildly interesting.”
Are all Orion women slaves?
The only other green woman we saw in the original series was Vina as the illusory Orion slave girl in "The Cage"/"The Menagerie," so it's easy to see how the non-Trek-geek media might assume Marta was one as well. For that matter, there's no onscreen evidence in "Whom Gods Destroy" that Marta is an Orion. Her race/species or native planet is never mentioned. All we know is that she's . . . well, she's green!

She will be missed. She was my first crush as a young boy watching her as Batgirl on reruns in the 70s. Took me many years to learn she also played Marta.

I think it is a natural assumption to see her as an Orion. I think this is the first time I read where that was been questioned. Although I don't think all Orion women were slave girls.

Memory Alpha, maybe not an official source, does label her as an Orion.

http://en.memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Marta
 
The late but dearly lamented Ms.Craig did appear in good company during her career as an actress, she did several films with Elvis Presley and former Mouseketeer, Tommy Kirk.

Truly sad she never chose to appear at any conventions.
 
Her New York Times obit called her Trek character a slave girl:

In one of her more memorable roles, Ms. Craig played Marta, a green-skinned slave girl, in the “Star Trek” episode “Whom Gods Destroy.” She performed a seductive, loose-limbed dance that seemed to nearly overwhelm William Shatner’s red-blooded Captain Kirk, while Leonard Nimoy’s Mr. Spock pronounced it “mildly interesting.”
Are all Orion women slaves?
The only other green woman we saw in the original series was Vina as the illusory Orion slave girl in "The Cage"/"The Menagerie," so it's easy to see how the non-Trek-geek media might assume Marta was one as well. For that matter, there's no onscreen evidence in "Whom Gods Destroy" that Marta is an Orion. Her race/species or native planet is never mentioned. All we know is that she's . . . well, she's green!

Given that "Whom Gods Destroy" makes a point of including an Andorian and other familiar STAR TREK aliens, it seems reasonable to assume that the exotic green dancing girl is an Orion, like the only other exotic green dancing girl we'd seen on the series so far . ...

If a series has already established that sexy green Orion dancing girls are a thing . . . .
 
Truly sad she never chose to appear at any conventions.

She was scheduled to appear with West, Ward and Lee Meriwether in 2013 at a horrorcon before cancelling due to ''family health'' reasons. Would this have been her first?

My wife and I saw her about 6 or 7 years ago at DragonCon in Atlanta. As of a couple years ago I remember her website stated something to the effect she would be doing a convention and it being a sort of farewell for conventions. I can't remember where she was to appear though.
 
Truly sad she never chose to appear at any conventions.

Do you mean Trek conventions? 'Cause I'm seeing lots of photos and hearing lots of stories of her appearances at comic-book conventions.

By all accounts, she was a fun and engaging guest.
 
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] ..... Do you mean Trek conventions?

Yes, I think she had no idea how large of a fan-following her Marta character had.

It's my understanding that she was not on terms with Adam West but that's over an unsubstantiated incident that allegedly occurred during production of a Batman episode.


Sidebar- It's curious Adam West never had an appearance in Star Trek.
 
This is terrible news. :(

She was an unforgettable persona in genre TV.

Kor
 
Truly sad she never chose to appear at any conventions.

Oh yeah? She was at Sydney, Australia, conventions in 2002 and (after her US convention retirement) in 2010.

I know she definitely made other appearances over the years.


Ian with Yvonne Craig in 2002 by Ian McLean, on Flickr

By all accounts, she was a fun and engaging guest.

She was wonderful: friendly, excited to hear fan stories of their personal memories of Batgirl, Marta and her appearances in "The Man from UNCLE" and with Elvis, and very happy to sign autographs. Her sister, who acted as her merchandise assistant, was also delightful.

Yvonne Craig was also quite formidable. I would not have wanted to cross her. She was so upset about "The Killing Joke", the graphic novel that sees the Joker paralyse Barbara Gordon, and she was unimpressed by Shatner's scene stealing in TOS. (He would cross his eyes in love scenes, supposedly as a joke, but causing the female's closeups to be less usable. Grace Lee Whitney had similar stories.)

Given that "Whom Gods Destroy" makes a point of including an Andorian and other familiar STAR TREK aliens, it seems reasonable to assume that the exotic green dancing girl is an Orion, like the only other exotic green dancing girl we'd seen on the series so far . ...

If a series has already established that sexy green Orion dancing girls are a thing . . . .

Correct. The Orion dancing is the link back to "The Cage", even if her race is not mentioned in the script.

James Blish noted the scripted stage direction that Marta was green (but not realising the link to Orions) and speculated in his adaptation that Marta may have had some Vulcan heritage.
 
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