Star Trek (TOS) mystery finally solved after 40 years?

Cafe Society
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Who played the briefly glimpsed human form of Isis in “Assignment: Earth.” For years, it was believed that it was Barbara Babcock (who also did [sup]1[/sup]voice work for that ep)–despite the fact that they looked nothing alike. Even allowing that the blonde Ms. Babcock might have been wearing a dark wig, they still didn’t look alike. This was first attested, so I’ve been told, in Alan Asherman’s “Star Trek Compendium.”

However, I see now that [sup]2[/sup]Victoria Vetri is credited. I have no idea if that information has been corrobborated, but a quick comparison of the two faces (both of which are easy to find on the net does show a strong similarty. I think this mystery might finally be solved.

[sup]1[/sup]Supposedly she supplies the meow of Isis in cat form, but that first meow that the cat utters sounds (to me) just like Teri Garr, who also appeared in the ep.

[sup]2[/sup]I’ve never seen her credited as Victoria Vetri, only Angela Dorian, which is the more common credited name.

I apologize if I’m late to the party, but this is the first time I’d heard it.

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Well, here’s Isis, and here’s Angela Dorian, aka Victoria Vetri.

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She’s listed as playing the part in the IMDb.

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All Dorian needs in the linked Playboy cover is the little triangle badge and she could be a communications officer!

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Yowza!

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Don’t know why this had to be a mystery for so long. Paramount would have this information in their production records. I’ve gone through television production records from this era, and detailed cast lists were kept by the studios, often much longer than the screen credits. For example, in a courtroom scene, the name of every actor in the jury box. Reason: Screen Actors Guild requirements. Even decades afterwards, any derivative use of the actors’ work would mean royalty payments to those actors.

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Hey, I’m still trying to figure out why they filmed Barbara Babcock, at the very height of her beauty (though said “height” has lasted decades, in '67 she was 30 and PERFECT), in soft focus in “A Taste of Armageddon.”

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… because that was the style of the time, particularly in Star Trek?

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And now it seems as though she’s gotten herself into a bit of trouble.

She also had a brief role in “Rosemary’s Baby,” in which Mia Farrow chats with her in the laundry room (then acting under the name Angela Dorian), and tells her that she looks like Victoria Vetri.

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Well, he shoulda seen that coming when she starting hissing and arching her back.

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I realize I’m responding to a thread that is many years old.

Note the “mystery” might not be yet solved after all.

Yes, I know the IMDb currently lists Victoria Vetri (aka Angela Dorian) as having played Isis in the Star Trek episode “Assignment: Earth.” Other sites have picked up on this and mention it too.

But this Facebook page of hers

run by one of her friends, who apparently talks with her regularly while she is serving her time in prison, says Victoria did NOT play Isis.

I quote: “I talked to Victoria on the phone Friday…and she wanted me to tell everyone…that this picture is not her! She never was in Star Trek and hardly watched the show.”

I agree with Walloon above, that this shouldn’t be a mystery to anyone who has access to the old television production records of that era. It should be easy to look up.

I haven’t yet made up my mind what to believe. I do know that the IMDb is not without error. I also realize that Victoria might say that because (a) she believes it to be true… she doesn’t remember… or (b) for whatever reason, would rather not be associated with Star Trek, and thus chooses to deny it.

It would be fun to know for sure, one way or the other.

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I’ve written on this before.

If you compare their photos, you’ll see their eyes are different colors. IIRC, Isis’s are blue, Victoria’s are brown. Also, their faces aren’t really that similar, though Isis is admittedly heavily made up.

Watching that episode, I noticed that the only character with whom Isis interacts is Roberta Lincoln (Terri Garr), and even that shot looks like a composite. It wouldn’t surprise me if they brought in an unknown extra to sit for the camera at the very end of the last day of shooting, after everyone else had gone home.

The claim that Isis was played by Victoria was made long ago and has been repeated so often it’s become “fact.” So far as I know, no one has ever unearthed any evidence that Isis was played by either Victoria or Barbara.

I’m betting the only person still alive who could identify her is Terri Garr, and she steadfastly refuses to talk about her Star Trek experience, presumably because she was sexually harassed by someone who shall go unnamed here.

Yes, there could be a call sheet in the Paramount files with the actress’s name on it, but that’s doubtful if she was an unknown extra with no speaking part. Looking at the actual Desilu call sheet for the first day of production on the second pilot,* I see that extras are listed only as “1 Transporter Technician,” “1 Woman as crew,” and so on. Only the principal players are mentioned by name.

Has Barbara ever openly denied that she played Isis? Not to my knowledge she hasn’t, and she was apparently closely related to the show. (She had two guest roles over its three seasons.)

Interestingly, Victoria Vetri *did *appear opposite Leonard Nimoy in Mission: Impossible (also produced at Desilu/Paramount) a few years later. IIRC, she played the granddaugher of a drug lord the IMF was going to put out of business.

*Reproduced in The Making of Star Trek by Stephen Whitfield and Gene Roddenberry.

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As an aside, I hope to confirm the existence of the Russian newspaper article that led to the character of Chekov when I go back to Moscow in November. I know the dates when the show debuted, when Roddenberry wrote the memo titled “NEEDED CREW TYPE,” and when the letter to Pravda was written asking for a copy of the article, so that narrows the parameters of the search considerably.

It should be noted that the article did not appear in Pravda, but (according to Whitfield) in its “youth edition,” which would be Komsomolskaya Pravda. I tried finding issues of it online at the University of Toronto, but the ones they have go back only to 1996. The only place I know of that would have all issues going back to 1966 is the Lenin Library across from the Kremlin, and I’ll need the help of a publishing friend to get me in there.

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I though that this was debunked, no?

On the Victoria Vetri / Angela Dorian as Isis issue. I have nothing of substance to add, but for my money, those two woman don’t look all that alike, and I wouldn’t have thought they were the same woman. She has 34 credits listed on IMDB. Not 134 or 234, but 34. I know it was a long time ago, and she would have been on the set for less than a day, but would she really not remember one out of 34 shows/films, especially on a TV show that has grown to this magnitude?

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Dude! You can’t leave us hangin’ like that!

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Heh. You know, someone pointed out that she doesn’t interact with any of the other characters, and could’ve just been there filmed by herself for a moment…

…so let me now add that, as far as I can tell, this episode was apparently meant to be the backdoor pilot for a series where she’d presumably do more of that same role while Gary Seven pulls off Doctor-Who-esque shenanigans, right?

Is it possible that an actress would’ve been told, hey, we’re thinking of doing a show called ASSIGNMENT: EARTH – we’re in talks with Robert Lansing to star, he seems real enthusiastic about it – and we think you’d be perfect for a minor role; we’d like to see how you look in costume, and pay you the going rate to film a few seconds of you in character; and, if this pilot episode gets the network interested enough to do an ASSIGNMENT: EARTH series, we’ll call you back in for more. How does that sound?

And then they never call her back. And she never follows STAR TREK; but she does note that no series called ASSIGNMENT: EARTH appears on primetime television.

What does she conclude?

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Not to my knowledge it hasn’t.

Walter Koenig made some remark that he doubts it’s true because TOS was not shown in the Soviet Union (and so far as I know never has been in any part of the former USSR). This is irrelevant, since the series could have been mentioned in an article on foreign TV, which is just the kind of thing KP would have featured.

I remember Martin Landau mentioning they once had a Soviet journalist on the set of M:I who complained it was obvious that the bad guys were usually meant to be Russians. Since ***TOS ***and M:I were filmed in adjacent sound stages, it’s possible this was the guy who wrote the report in question (I may actually know his son).

***TNG ***was, BTW, aired for a time in Russia starting on 1 January 2001. They got through the first 100 episodes before it was cancelled.

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And on Memory Alpha: Isis | Memory Alpha | Fandom

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^^That could be an example of citogenesis.

These pics have greater similarity: Vetri. Still uncorroborated/uncorroborated, but it seems strange that someone would dig up the name of an obscure actress with some reason to believe it was accurate.

It is not remotely close to Babcock, though.

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Very possible. Just because something’s on the Internet doesn’t mean it’s true.