Posted on 03/03/2012 12:28:47 PM PST by DogByte6RER
Rare Star Trek Photos Show Green Orion Slavegirls Like You’ve Never Seen Them
The original Star Trek pilot, "The Cage," included a lot more of the scenes where Vina is turned into a green Orion slavegirl who dances for Captain Pike — but they were cut because they were too saucy for prime time television. Now, some rare Trek behind-the-scenes pictures include a brand new look at the unshown parts of Vina's dance sequence.
Including a part where the poor slavegirl gets whipped. Turns out being an Orion slavegirl isn't all dancing and quoting poetry.
Tom Redlaw, aka Bird of the Galaxy, has collected tons and tons of behind-the-scenes Star Trek images and rare frames from the show. These were sold as 35 mm film cells at conventions and via mail order through Lincoln Enterprises, a company run by Gene Roddenberry and his wife, Majel Barrett. And now, Redlaw has been scanning and restoring these rare images and posting them on his Flickr page.
Talking to What Culture, Redlaw explains:
In the early 1970s the first Star Trek conventions happened in New York. Those, plus the original Lincoln Enterprises catalogs (you received them when you wrote to Gene Rodenberry or NBC executives) were what started me buying these. Recall, there were no VCRs, DVDs, internet. So being able to project these little slides was as close to on demand Trek images as you could get in those days. And, it was a glorious exercise trying to find your favorites. By 1975 I think I had around 2000 of these things, I guess that was the collection and really what I stopped at for 30 years. Then, one day I bought a slide and negative scanner to restore some of my own 35mm photography and just to test it out I put a scratched and red faded film clip of the Doomsday Machine into it, and I was astounded at the result. A little bit of photoshop work later and I was hooked.
Below are some of our favorite images from Redlaw's collection — dozens more are available on his Flickr page.
An unused shot from the various sensuous dance moves executed by Susan Oliver as Vina for the illusion sequence from the original filming of the first pilot, The Cage.
A clapper from the filming of the first piloit setting up Vina's dance. Susan Oliver's expression, nails, and one of the band members make this an interesting and historical shot from one of the iconic early TOS moments. From The Cage.
An unshown part of the Orion slave dance illusion from The Cage pilot. This pose and sequence was neither shown in the pilot reel nor the subsequent portions shown in The Menagerie. They involved a series of sensual, almost animal like crouching moves emphasizing the wilder side of the character. Note the long nails! Some have drawn parallels between the dance sequence and the movements of a cat (indeed in the original Rodenberry scrip Vina snarls at the servants and has to be controlled by a whip). Here we have Susan Oliver in green, this is how it all started! Filmed in December 1964.
In the Orion slave dance illusion, the script calls for an introduction that shows servants attending Pike, Vina as the slave dancer coming out and acting cat like and snarling at them to chase them away, Pike's personal servant brandishing a whip to settle her down and focus on her dance, and ultimately her doing the dance we see in the pilot. This shot shows the unshown servant whip in hand, attempting to keep Vina in check. Other unused and unshown clips from this sequence are the servants attending Pike before Vina comes out:
A servant feeds Christopher Pike fruit in the Vina as Orion slave dancer illusion from the first pilot, The Cage. This scene and the servants were not shown, even in the pilot reel. Note the multiple eyebrows!
Sean Kenney has makeup applied to his face in order to portray the disfigured and paralyzed Captain Pike for the "wrap" story The Menagerie used in the first season of Star Trek TOS. Could this be the hand of Fred Phillips applying the makeup?
back when women were shapely and accepted.
One good thing you can say about Dr. Smith is that he was a truly original and lasting character.
Everything since then (especially TNG) stunk.
> According to “Star Trek, Enterprise,” the “slave girls”
> emitted pheromones that “enslaved” the males, and the males
> actually became the slaves.
Don’t they all?
I was actually a bit perplexed why the Princess Leia slave girl costume is such a hit among female cosplayers, but the Orion slave girl look is only for the few.
Likely the green body paint is a hassle.
Importantly, TOS used the pheromone bit a few times among alien females. In “Elaan of Troyius”, the tears of a female are supposed to enslave males. Likewise, in “A Private Little War”, when Kirk is healed by a witch doctor woman, their blood intermingles so he is supposed to be in thrall to her.
Knobs INDEED!
never mind daddy...make room for ME!
However, at the top is Yvonne Craig.
And they were before the animated series. Several plot lines and alien species were taken from Larry Niven's "Tales of Known Space".
So did I.
You get your own starship and as you level up you get better ones. You have both space battle missions and ground missions where you take 4 other bridge officers as an away team down to planets and asteroids to kill Klings and Orion's as well as other baddies.
It's superbly done and I can't get enough of it. ;)
These are pretty awesome.
That explains that infamously suggestive rock Kirk was carrying around in that episode . . .
That explains that infamously suggestive rock Kirk was carrying around in that episode . . .
I played that one for a couple of months. I am playing Star Wars: The Old Republic right now, and it puts everything else to shame. Incredible storyline and good game play.
Nice picture collection!
Hmmm. I never thought about that but you're right, it doesn't make sense for an Orion to be enrolled in Starfleet academy. The biggest problems I had with the movie from a canon standpoint was they made Chekov a Weasley Crusher style 17 year old "boy genius", who was nothing like Koenig's Chekov (in TOS, it was clearly stated on screen that Chekov was 21, so since the movie was set 8 years before TOS, Chekov would be 13 at the most). As for the "Star Wars" influence, the scene with the phaser fight aboard the Romulan vessel was way off. Star Trek phasers operate completely differetly in established canon. It was like Kirk and Spock beamed onto the ship with some Star Wars ray guns. At least they didn't give them lightsabers.
Add to that, the problems with having an Orion girl in close proximity to any males at the academy and you’d have a bad situation on your hands. They should’ve substituted a Deltan female (a la Ilia from ST:TMP), who is as sexually powerful as an Orion slave girl, but can strictly control their libido (note Ilia’s line in the film that she took an “oath of celibacy”, lest she drive the males nuts). Of course, not a lot of actresses can pull off the bald look and still be hot as the late Persis Khambatta could (though she looked much better with her beautiful black hair).
“If the bitch is green, there must be something wrong with the p***y.” - Eddie Murphy
Really? Thanks, I’ll give it a shot :)
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