Love At First Light-Year

Long before sci-fi became a billion-dollar franchise machine, it ran on wild ideas, strange new worlds and women nobody watching ever forgot.

These women once filled theaters, bedroom walls and teenage daydreams. Today, most Millennial men probably couldn’t name a single one. How many do you remember?

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Anne Francis

Robby the Robot got the merchandise, but Anne Francis gave Forbidden Planet its heartbeat. As Altaira Morbius, she was beautiful, intelligent and apparently unbothered by an entire spaceship full of men suddenly arriving at her house. For countless young viewers, the future officially began right there.

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Erin Gray

Colonel Wilma Deering was a pilot, military leader and usually the most competent person in the room. Erin Gray played her with just enough authority to make the character believable—and just enough glamour to make millions of viewers suddenly care deeply about whatever happened in the 25th century.

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Mara Corday

Mara Corday had quite a run during the 50s. She faced an enormous spider in Tarantula, a prehistoric monster in The Black Scorpion and a very angry oversized bird in The Giant Claw. Clearly, Hollywood had decided normal-sized animals simply were not enough for her.

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Jane Fonda

Barbarella had flying angels, sinister dolls, bizarre machinery and costumes that appeared to have been designed during a very unusual dream. None of it mattered once Jane Fonda appeared. The movie became a cult classic, while its star became the woman an entire generation associated with outer space.

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Susan Oliver

Susan Oliver appeared in the original Star Trek pilot as Vina, but it was her transformation into a green-skinned Orion woman that became legendary. The image was later used in the show’s closing credits, meaning millions of viewers spent years wondering who that beautiful green woman actually was.

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Caroline Munro

Starcrash looked so much like the low-budget cousin of Star Wars that comparisons were inevitable, although its budget occasionally appeared to consist of spare change found behind a sofa. Caroline Munro did not seem to notice. As Stella Star, she carried the movie with complete confidence and turned a chaotic space adventure into a genuine cult favorite.

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Dana Wynter

Dana Wynter’s Becky Driscoll was smart enough to realize something was deeply wrong in Santa Mira—but unfortunately lived in a movie where almost nobody listened until it was far too late. Wynter gave Invasion of the Body Snatchers some real emotion and became considerably more memorable than the giant seed pods.

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Nichelle Nichols

Nichelle Nichols did not need to chase monsters or wear an elaborate alien costume. As Lieutenant Uhura, she sat confidently on the bridge of the Enterprise and looked completely at home. She was elegant, capable and groundbreaking—and plenty of young viewers suddenly became very interested in communications technology.

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Pamela Hensley

Princess Ardala was technically a villain, but Pamela Hensley made it extremely difficult to root against her. She returned repeatedly with another elaborate plan to conquer Earth or marry Buck Rogers. Honestly, Buck’s continued resistance occasionally seemed less heroic than simply poor decision-making.

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Yvette Mimieux

As Weena in The Time Machine, Yvette Mimieux gave George Pal’s futuristic adventure the romance it needed. She was gentle, mysterious and stranded hundreds of thousands of years in the future. Apparently, even the collapse of civilization could not stop Hollywood from finding an impossibly beautiful love interest.

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Jane Badler

Jane Badler’s Diana looked elegant, spoke calmly and once swallowed a guinea pig whole. That combination made her one of television’s greatest sci-fi villains. Millions of viewers knew she could not be trusted, yet somehow still found themselves looking forward to every scene in which she appeared.

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Raquel Welch

Most Millennials have probably heard of Raquel Welch, although they may not realize how completely she once dominated popular culture. Her appearance in Fantastic Voyage involved a miniaturized submarine travelling through a human body. Somehow, Welch still became the film’s most impressive special effect.

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Gabrielle Drake

Gabrielle Drake commanded Moonbase in UFO while wearing a silver uniform and a bright purple wig. Absolutely none of that should have worked. Somehow, it did. Lieutenant Gay Ellis became one of British television’s most memorable sci-fi characters—and made Moonbase look like a surprisingly attractive workplace.

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Faith Domergue

Faith Domergue spent much of 1955 dealing with a giant sea creature, mysterious scientists, aliens and one extremely suspicious cobra cult. This Island Earth made her one of the decade’s great sci-fi faces, although most younger viewers would probably assume the entire movie was invented for Mystery Science Theater 3000.

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Melody Anderson

Melody Anderson played Dale Arden in a movie filled with Queen songs, golden spaceships and Brian Blessed shouting at maximum volume. Remaining noticeable under those conditions was an achievement. Anderson gave Flash Gordon some warmth—and became the woman many viewers remembered long after the plot vanished.

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Barbara Bain

Barbara Bain had already become famous on Mission: Impossible before taking command of the medical department on Moonbase Alpha. As Dr. Helena Russell, she brought calm authority to Space: 1999, even when the crew was encountering yet another alien capable of ruining everyone’s week.

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Julie Newmar

Before she became television’s most unforgettable Catwoman, Julie Newmar played a government-built android named Rhoda on My Living Doll. The series lasted only one season, but putting Newmar in a robot sitcom was almost unfair. Even artificial intelligence looked glamorous when she was involved.

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Persis Khambatta

Persis Khambatta shaved her head to play Lieutenant Ilia in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, creating one of the most striking looks in the franchise. The movie could be painfully slow, but Khambatta immediately commanded attention. Even the Enterprise seemed to stop and stare when she arrived.

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Allison Hayes

The special effects in Attack of the 50 Foot Woman were not exactly convincing. Allison Hayes did not need them to be. Her image towering over the landscape became one of the most famous posters in sci-fi history—and probably one of the few times teenage boys rooted for the giant.

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Faye Grant

While Diana was busy terrifying viewers, Faye Grant’s Julie Parrish was organizing the human resistance. She was intelligent, brave and considerably more practical than most people facing an alien takeover. Grant gave V someone worth rooting for—and became a major crush without needing a single reptile disguise.

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Jenny Agutter

Jenny Agutter had already earned serious acclaim before becoming Jessica 6 in Logan’s Run. But for many young viewers, the futuristic costumes made the deepest impression. She helped turn a strange movie about a society that refuses to let anyone grow older than 30 into one of the most memorable sci-fi adventures of the decade.

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Grace Lee Whitney

Yeoman Janice Rand was supposed to be a major presence on Star Trek, but Grace Lee Whitney left the original series after only eight episodes. That brief run was still enough to make her unforgettable. The elaborate basket-weave hairstyle alone probably required more engineering than several parts of the Enterprise.

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Sybil Danning

Sybil Danning played Saint-Exmin, a fearless warrior who joined a collection of heroes defending a peaceful planet. Battle Beyond the Stars was low-budget space opera at its finest, but Danning treated the material with complete seriousness. The costume department, on the other hand, had clearly abandoned restraint.

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Marta Kristen

As Judy Robinson, Marta Kristen was theoretically the family’s oldest daughter and one of the original mission’s carefully selected passengers. In practice, the writers often seemed unsure what to do with her. Young viewers had no such confusion. They knew exactly why Judy remained one of the most popular passengers aboard the Jupiter 2.

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Ornella Muti

If Dale Arden represented the sensible choice, Princess Aura represented the choice that would probably end terribly. Ornella Muti played Ming’s daughter as seductive, dangerous and wonderfully unpredictable. She stole nearly every scene she entered, which was impressive considering almost every surface in the movie was already shining.

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Catherine Schell

When Space: 1999 needed something new for its second season, it introduced Maya, a beautiful alien who could transform into other creatures. Catherine Schell immediately became the show’s most fascinating character. A shape-shifting woman from another planet was not exactly a difficult idea to sell.

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Gloria Talbott

With a title like I Married a Monster from Outer Space, subtlety was never going to be invited. Gloria Talbott still played the story remarkably straight, slowly realizing that her husband had been replaced by something very different. Marriage counselling was probably not going to fix this one.

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Maren Jensen

Maren Jensen played Athena, a skilled pilot and the daughter of Commander Adama. Unfortunately, the original Battlestar Galactica lasted only one season, and Jensen largely stepped away from acting soon afterward. That made her one of sci-fi television’s great disappearing crushes—hugely remembered, then suddenly gone.

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Laurette Spang

As Cassiopeia, Laurette Spang survived the destruction of the Colonies and quickly became one of the original Battlestar Galactica’s most recognizable characters. She also found herself at the center of a romantic triangle, proving that even while fleeing extinction, television heroes apparently still had time for dating problems.

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Catherine Mary Stewart

Catherine Mary Stewart appeared in two of the most beloved cult sci-fi movies of the 80s. She played Maggie in The Last Starfighter and one of the last surviving teenagers in Night of the Comet. For younger Baby Boomers, that was a nearly unbeatable double feature.

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The Future Isn’t What It Used To Be

Some of these movies had tiny budgets. Some of the television sets wobbled whenever anyone walked too quickly. And more than a few alien planets looked suspiciously like the same patch of California desert. But nobody watching cared. These women made those strange worlds feel real—and decades later, Baby Boomer men still remember exactly who they were.

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Sources:  1, 2, 3