Kirstie Alley 1951 - 2022

2022 seems to be gaining a reputation as a most unforgiving year with news of another notable individual passing almost daily.

Already this year Star Trek alumni Nichelle Nichols and Louise Fletcher have headed to the Great Beyond now to be accompanied by Cheers star Kirstie Alley.

While the Boston bar-set TV series remains as the focal point of her career, her first movie appearance strikes more than a chord with Trek fans. Travel back 40 years to 1982 and you would find Alley donning the ears of Vulcan Saavik for The Wrath of Khan.

If ever there was a Star Trek movie to be associated with, it has to be this one. Still a classic today and just as incredible to watch on the billionth view, Star Trek II gave Alley a significant role in the production. Filling in at Navigation (since Chekov was off on the Reliant getting things put in his ear), Saavik was the young fresh face of the crew appearing in all the key scenes of the production including the eventful mission to Regula One and the Genesis cave. Saavik and Alley are in the command chair in scene one, her presence in the film is monumental as audiences would have been wondering who this new face was and why they were captaining the Enterprise. It is an unforgettably strong arrival for a character who is the first to be seen taking on the infamous Kobayashi Maru (although you didn't know that the first time through!)

Saavik wasn't a one-hit posting as she would return in Star Trek III but notoriously this would see Robin Curtis take on the role. Curtis would then make a fleeting appearance in The Voyage Home with Saavik choosing to remain on Vulcan. Stories abound that money was at the centre of the non-return for Alley however of the two I would say that her performance is the stronger.

Supposedly half-Romulan, Saavik is just about as by-the-book as you can get and adds in a touch of emotion that is both wryly and sadly displayed at times during the story. In contrast, Curtis' take on the character is far more stoic and logical in a parallel to Spock which does ultimately work based around the content of the third movie.

Is it just down to the fact that The Wrath of Khan is such a notable Star Trek film that Alley's Saavik is so widely well regarded? Are the reasons for her absence from Star Trek III also so well publicised that it has made an indelible mark on the franchise's history? Perhaps. How Alley would have taken the character had she reprised the role may well have been different in interpretation to Curtis although to understand the character beyond the screen it's well worth diving into the novelisations of II, III and IV.

Even with that "forced" recasting, Alley's arrival in Star Trek history is one oft discussed and is just one element of what makes The Wrath of Khan so seminal to fans. Indeed, her appearance marks one of the great guest/one-shot roles in the whole of the franchise, so much so we remember it to this day and is being widely noted as part of articles being written about her passing today.

Saavik remains a fan favourite whether it's in Curtis' hands or Alley's but it can be for certain that had the future Cheers star not taken that role then it would not continue to resonate to this day. For many, Saavik IS Kirstie Alley, a legacy on Star Trek that stretches to 40 years and beyond.