Violence! Nudity! International Spy Syndicates! Mad Scientists! Creatures on a Rampage!

Ted V. Mikel's 1968 film The Astro-Zombies is an entertaining kitchen-sink of exploitation tropes that re-tells the Frankenstein story. Surprisingly, the feature's creatures don't appear to actually be from outer-space, but are constructed with the help of modern science and the body parts of innocent murder victims. After his dismissal from the Space Agency for creating an Astro-Man from the brain of a psychotic criminal, the deranged Dr. DeMarco decides to make another monster to hunt down the first one. In addition to getting some innocent people killed, his activity also attracts the attentions of the CIA and an international spy ring. After being treated to some scenes of lengthy expository dialog, pain-stakingly long experimental procedures (complete with lots of microscope peering, switch throwing and vial filling), this movie starts to get down to business. As the CIA and Commie-spies gun each other down in the race to find the rogue Doctor, DeMarco's former colleagues try to trap the Astro-Man by using Joan Patrick as live bait. Her boyfriend Eric Porter, is played by Tom Pace who also starred in another Mikel's exploitation film The Girl in Gold Boots (1968). They never do capture the creature, but nearly everyone ends up back in DeMarco's lab for the conclusion to this convoluted tale of super-science. In between the spy battle and zombie hunt viewers are treated to an array of horror, sci-fi and exploitation clichés not already covered including: a topless go-go dancer in full body paint, stabbings, a young women writhing away in her underwear while strapped to an operating table and hunch-backed lab assistant.



Unfortunately, all the copies I've seen feature the incredibly bad sound quality not uncommon to the period, and combined with the slow beginnings and convoluted plot viewers may find themselves having a hard time following the story, especially for the film's first third. Still, you don't need to be able to follow the events of The Astro-Zombies too closely to savor the delicious wickedness of Tura Satana's evil secret agent, Satana. It isn't incredibly easy to determine who the star of this picture actually is; Wendell Corey and John Carradine get top billing, Joan Patrick is the love interest that lives, but Tura Satana completely steals the show in every scene she enters. Whether she's throwing drinks in the faces of back-stabbing underlings, stubbing out cigarettes on her victims, or gunning down the cops with glee, Satana's sinister super-spy shines as the most memorable character in this late '60s riff on the archetypal mad science tale. As the fast-thinking and more than capable leader of an international spy ring, Satana barks orders, kicks ass, and kills without mercy, using both ruthlessness and cunning to find and enter DeMarco's lab in order to steal the knowledge of his technology and ship back the secrets to her presumably Soviet home-country. Given the absolute delight it is to watch Tura's villainous vixen tear around The Astro-Zombies, one wonders what havock she could have wrought if cast as the right villain in the right big-budget picture. Still, there's a good chance any big-budget part would have probably paled in comparison to her starring role in Russ Meyer's black and white masterpiece Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!.

NICHELLE NICHOLS

Born Grace Nichols on December 28th near Chicago in the early 1930s, Nichelle Nichols was an accomplished singer and dancer on the stage long before she became a television icon as Star Trek's Lieutenant Uhura. Touring early on in her career with such illustrious names in entertainment like Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton, Nichols' resume also included roles in several big-city musical productions by the time she reached the bridge on the Enterprise.



Before Star Trek, her television acting experiences were largely confined to guest roles on series such as Peyton Place and Tarzan. However, one television role can often lead to another. In 1963 Nichelle Nichols had a part in a series called The Lieutenant. It was working on this project that she met Gene Roddenberry, who, three years later would cast Nichols in the best remembered role of her career: Lieutenant Nyota Uhura.

While by today's standards, Uhura may not look like much more than a telephone operator or office manager in space, the role was considered quite groundbreaking at the time. As the head communications officer, Uhura was just as educated and similarly accomplished as the rest of the crew on the bridge. Like them, she was an officer and many times in the series she demonstrated that she was a highly qualified, capable if under-utilized member of the USS Enterprise's crew. Despite her lines often getting cut to little more than "Hailing frequencies open" or "Incoming transmission", Nichols was always a professional, and always committed to her character. Co-star Leonard Nimoy in his book I Am Spock noted: "... Though she was often not given many lines... she nevertheless was totally present and made an emotional investment in whatever was happening in the scene".

Despite often being regulated to such a minor role in most episodes, she was given a few moments in the sun. The most famous being: first, in The Trouble with Tribbles, as the crew member to bring the furry critters aboard the Enterprise and second, as being one-half of the first interracial-kiss in a scripted television series in Plato's Stepchildren. While NBC execs initially feared controversy, the reception to her on-screen kiss with William Shatner was overwhelmingly positive.

After TOS wrapped in 1969, Nichols experienced the frustrations of being thought of as Uhura first and Nichelle second. Still, despite her understandable grievance with this type-casting, she never deserted the franchise or her fans and continued to appear regularly at Star Trek conventions over past several the years. Nichelle has also attended many NASA events and helped the organization to recruit women and minorities for the space program. According to Great Images in NASA (GRIN), some of her recruits include Sally Ride, and Guion Bluford.

Though Star Trek and outer space activity remain a part of her life, Nichols has been involved with a wide variety of projects over the past four decades. In 1974, she appeared in Truck Turner as the successful, fierce and foul-mouthed Madam, Dorinda. Dorinda may not be the most progressive role ever written for a Black woman, but the intensity and commitment with which she plays the character that is the very antithesis of the distinguished space officer she for which she is known is impressive. It would have been easy to reject the role entirely as another unflattering exploitation stereotype, but Nichols plays Gator's wicked woman with such a fire and flair that you don't question her decision to have accepted it.

More recently, Nichelle Nichols has done some voice work for several animated series. In addition to having recurring roles on Gargoyles and Spider Man, she also guest starred twice on highly acclaimed prime-time series, Futurama. Voicing herself on both occasions, she and most of the rest of the core cast of Star Trek: TOS appear in a full episode with Fry, Leela, and Bender for an adventure in outwitting the Trek-obsessed energy being Melllvar. This episode threw a shout-out to her and Shatner's historic on-screen kiss with the following dialog:

Nimoy: Hey! We've done heroic things too.

Nichols: Yeah! In the third season I kissed Shatner!

Other current activity includes: a recurring role the TV series Heroes in 2007, starring in and producing 2008's Lady Magdalene's and roasting William Shatner on Comedy Central (2006).

Suggestions for additional viewing and further reading:

Lady Magdalene's Offical Site, complete with trailer, photo gallery and videos.
A collection of some of Nichols' scenes from Truck Turner.
Nichelle Nichols at IMDB.com
GRIN's profile on Nichols further detailing her work with the space program.
Nichols, Nichelle (1995). Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories. New York: Boulevard Books.

DEY YOUNG

Dey Young may not be the most prominent actress on television or even in science-fiction, but she's certainly been prolific over the past thirty years. Born on July 28, 1955 in Bloomfield Hills, MI Young began her acting career in 1979, after studying at Kingswood School. Apparently the theater and film trade runs in the family; in addition to once being married to David Ladd, Dey Young is sister to actress Leigh-Taylor Young.

One of Young's earliest and best-remembered roles, was co-starring with fellow Foxy Lady P.J. Soles in the made-to-be-a-cult-hit, Rock n' Roll High School (1979). In addition to starring Dey Young, P.J. Soles, Mary Woronov, Vince Van Patten, and Clint Howard, the film also features seminal punk-band and rock folk-heroes, The Ramones!



In case you can't tell from the trailer... In this particular Roger Corman Classic, Young plays the fairly-nerdy best friend Kate Rambeau. Don't be deceived by her good-girl shirtwaists, Young's Rambeau is brainy but hot-blooded and even gets her own sub-plot! Just as into the boys as her gal-pal Riff, Kate's girlish lust sits on Van Patten's clueless blond-jock, Tom. While Kate's efforts to hook it up with the object of her desire are often played for laughs, everything in Rock n' Roll High School is played for laughs. In the end, Young's Rambeau not only gets her man, she gets to go to the Ramones concert and then later watch them (SPOILER ALERT) blow up Vince Lombardi High. Are these not the things of which a teenager's dreams are made?

One of Young's most widely seen appearances to date may have been a fairly small one; a few years after starring in Rock n' Roll High School she appeared in Mel Brooks' Spaceballs (1987) as the saucy space-diner waitress. Some of Dey Young's other Sci-Fi roles include: Carol Martin in The Outer Limits (1998), Judy Bishop in The X Files (1994), and Amy in The Running Man (1987). She's also appeared on Star Trek several times, making appearances in four of the franchise's different series. Young is still acting today and has appeared in What Just Happened (2008), The Young and the Restless (2008) as well as AMC's runaway-hit MadMen (2007).

Dey Young's artistic inclinations are not limited to acting, she's also been sculpting since 1977. Working in stone, bronze and terracotta, her work often features or is highly reminiscent of the curved contours of the feminine physique. Young has had exhibitions at the University of Judaism, Arcona Studio, and the Earl McGrath Gallery. See her sculpture for yourself here!

ADDITIONAL SUGGESTED VIEWING/READING:
-Back to School: A Retrospective - 'Rock 'N' Roll High School' Rock on Edition DVD (2005)
-Dey Young's extensive list of credits at IMDB.com