What gender was the creature from The Man Trap?

Did it have no gender?

 

Perhaps it was from a race that has more than two genders.

 

No gender was established. At the very most we can speculate on its survival strategy. As far as anybody knew, it was the last of its kind; perhaps its actions would reflect a strategy of continuing the species? In Star Trek, that's possible even between random species (of biped humanoids), and the creature might have been aware of that, depending a bit on its level of sapience.

It had paired with the male Crater after killing his wife - signs of a female trying to breed? Yet it had not bred with Crater. Prospects down on the planet might not have been good for that. After gaining access to Kirk's ship by killing several males, at least one of whom it tried to woo in the guise of a female, it settled in - and tried to woo Uhura in the guise of a male, and McCoy in the guise of a female. Does this mean that statistically, it was female, and Uhura was just food or competition like Nancy Crater? Or is this just an artifact of it being whatever its victims wanted to see, and Kirk's crew mostly consisted of heterosexual men?

Beyond all that... No telling.

Timo Saloniemi

 

I just had the slightly amusing thought that perhaps the creature's method of killing was also a form of impregnation that McCoy's instruments were unable to detect.

 

!TRIGGERED!

Did you just assume that creature's lack of gender specificity?!!

 

I wonder what a half human/half salt vampire would look like?

 

It's a Smizmar.

 

Sex (bio) or gender (societal roles)? Come to think of it we know nothing about either from the teleplay.

Pass.

 

Deep down, she's a woman trapped in the body of a salt vampire.

 

You are askin' for trouble!

 

I always interpreted the net rag that the creature was wearing as a dress. So, in the heavy-handed sort of way, I always supposed it was female. Plus, it had long hair on its head.

Finally, and more seriously, "man-trap" is a euphemism for a seductress. For example, in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), there is the line:

"He can't be left alone with that blonde man-trap."

The definite article "the" implies that the title of the episode refers to the salt vampire that we see.

So, female.

 

Ah, a Gucci vampire!

 

Too funny! LOL. I'd never seen that B&W photo -- thanks for linking, marlboro.

We never get any info so it's all pure speculation. What's bizarre is that they're intelligent and capable of sophisticated mimicry. If they can do that, well... you'd think they'd have been more careful with resources and not falling into extinction. Also, that very large planet and Professor Crater finds the last one? You know what the odds are? Sheesh...

 

I think it's very important that we settle this issue of the salt vampire's gender, in case any of us might want to date it.

 

????.?-1513.8.

Timo Saloniemi

 

And she was cute, too!
Her name, IIRC, is Sandy Gimpel and also was Bill Mumy's stand-in on Lost in Space. She's still active, I think.

 

umm..is it really important..all I know is that the first time I saw it on NBC, it scared the crap outta my 5 year old self.

 

Me too. I was 8? This and Lt. No-Face from Charlie X.