The Sci-Fi Cast

Contemporary science fiction fans might name Katee Sackhoff, Zoe Saldana or Jeri Ryan when asked about the genre’s hotties. They’re certainly beautiful women, but hardly the first pretty faces to step aboard a space ship. Here are some of our favorite Babes of Vintage Sci-Fi.

Elizabeth Montgomery

She’s best known for playing Samantha on Bewitched, but I enjoyed her performance as a soldier in the Twilight Zone episode, “Two.” She and Charles Bronson play the only people on Earth after a long and bloody war. The catch: they’re members of opposing armies. Eventually they learn to abandon their hate and begin life anew. It’s a fun yet predictable episode, and Elizabeth turns in some nice acting, despite the fact that her character doesn’t speak.

Anne Francis

Angelina Jolie has nothing on the lovely Anne Francis. Most famously, Anne played Altaira “Alta” Morbius in the classic Forbidden Planet. This landmark sci-fi movie was loosely based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest and was nominated for academy awards, pushed special effects forward and featured the first appearance of Robby the Robot.

That’s all well and good, but for me, Anne never looked as charming as she did in “The After Hours.” In this episode of The Twilight Zone, Anne wanders into a department store to buy a thimble for her mother. She’s brought to the mysterious 9th floor which houses just one counter, one employee and one thimble for sale. As she investigates the “rude woman” who waited on her, she becomes agitated and is asked to rest in a back room.

She wakes up after the store has closed and returns to the 9th floor, where a group of mannequins seem to call her name and surround her. At last she realizes that she herself is a mannequin who has returned after enjoying her turn living in the “real world.”

It’s a creepy episode that moves along briskly and features an absolutely beautiful Anne Francis.

Mariette Hartley

No wonder Spock fell for Zarabeth … she was played by Mariette Hartely. When he and Bones tried to follow Kirk through the atavachron in the episode “All Our Yesterdays,” Zarabeth was waiting, having been exiled there. It isn’t long before she gets a certain science officer’s green blood boiling, and we don’t blame him.

She also played Sandra Horn in The Twilight Zone’s “The Long Morrow,” in which her beauty inspired an astronaut to endure 40 lonely years in space.

Catherine Schell

Fans of Space: 1999 will remember the beautiful and talented Catherine Schell who joined the cast as a regular in season 2. She also appeared in Doctor Who in 1979 and currently runs a hotel in France. Who knew?

Now, I know what you’re thinking. “No Barbarella?!” That’s right, no Barbarella. Why? Eh, that character was too cartoonish, too over-the-top. Not that Jeri Ryan in that Starfleet uniform wasn’t silly, but you know what I mean.

Was there anyone that we missed? Let us know.