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I am too a hot Romulan Relic!

The new, improved Star Trek is out. Hotter, younger and definitely better looking stars: it’s a whole new cast. I can’t wait to see it! Of course, your old SnapGlowGirl, co-starred as Romulan Ambassador, Caithlin Dar in “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier” exactly 20 years ago. How does it feel to be wholly and utterly replaced? Well, I feel Romulans, like myself, never die. We just get smaller residuals.

My fondest memories were of sitting next to Leonard Nimoy in the makeup chair for 2 hours each day. We both needed a lot of work, literally and figuratively. They shaved my eyebrows to create that quintessential Romulan arched look. My eyebrows never quite grew back. Ah, dear reader, the high price of Romulan recognition!

My lovely, silvery, flowing, metallic costume was actually a recycled look (long before it was a chic concept.) It came from the costume archives at Paramount Pictures from an old knight-in-shining-armor movie. Before I wore it for Star Trek 5, it was already 30 years old. (Yes, I am such a fashion muse. I inspire costumers to look into their dusty closets. Far, far back.) You can see the costume has that sort of gothic, man in the castle look. I believe it was one of a kind. So because there were no replacements, the head costumer used to harangue me about eating or lying down in it (long days, heavy costume/makeup. Must lie down for 10 min. nap). She was positively furious when I absconded a bicycle from lot security and took myself for a ride through Paramount. You can imagine the sight of me riding around in costume, makeup and 12 inch high hair. I was sort of E.T. looking, except the girl kind, I hope.

I don’t have that costume anymore. My mother raised me right, although I believe I was very green behind the proverbial (Romulan) ears. After 8 weeks of filming were over, I returned my glorious costume back to the costume department and the head woman gave me a very funny look. I now realize it is somewhat customary to hold on to your outfit and that it probably would have been okay if I had never returned it. Well, she took that costume off of my hands and now I found out that my same costume got auctioned off to the public. Where was I at that moment? Obviously not staying on top of my Star Trek Conventions to find out the latest memorabilia news. Later, a very cool guy named Aaron from Seattle wrote me to tell me he had my costumes in his basement  (see photo) and he was loaning them to the Seattle Sci-Fi Museum. This is a shout-out to Aaron who I know will take good care of my costumes until he feels the need to warp-speed them back in time to Caithlin Dar’s closet.  Well, being a Romulan Ambassador taught me some good lessons; stay diplomatic and stick around long enough, and you too will be a Romulan relic!