The (Non) Women Of Star Trek: Kalandan "Losira"

by Laura Goodwin

Kalandan Losira:  the lady regrets  (Lee Meriwether)

We encountered "Losira" in That Which Survives. Losira kept appearing and killing Kirk's people one by one, via a deadly touch that disrupted their body cells...but she was not the real Losira.

The real Losira, it turned out, was the last survivor at a remote Kalandan outpost. Their population was killed by a deadly microorganism 10,000 years before. After Losira's death, the outpost's computer system used Losira's image to protect the outpost against invaders. Android-type replicas of her invaded the Enterprise and killed by touching a specific victim. Each replica was matched to an individual's chromosome pattern, and would kill via cellular disruption. Obviously, she seemed like an enemy figure, but it was really the computer, not Losira herself, who was responsible for the deaths.

At the end of the episode, Kirk and party triggered a recording that the living Losira had left behind for her fellow Kalandans, and Captain Kirk was impressed with her apparent noble qualities. She was not actually an evil person at all, she was (to her own people) a heroine, and a great lady - who had served her people well, and died bravely.

At the end, our guys have this conversation:

Spock: "To do the job of defense, the computer projected a replica of the only image available - Losira's."

Kirk: "The computer was too perfect. It projected so much of Losira's personality into the replica that it felt regret... guilt... at killing. That bought us the time needed to destroy it. (pause) She must have been... a remarkable woman."

McCoy: "And beautiful!"

Spock (dryly): "Beauty is transitory, Doctor. However, she was evidently highly intelligent."

Kirk (opening communicator): "Kirk to Enterprise. Five to beam up." (to Spock) "I don't agree with you, Mr. Spock!"

Spock (surprised): "Indeed, Captain?"

Kirk: "Beauty...(nodding with respect at Losira's image) survives."

Kirk is not referring to Losira's physical beauty as he says that, but of the timeless beauty of her courageous spirit - which is the part of her that survived the millenia.


All site contents Copyright L. Goodwin 1990 - 2003

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