Reflections of a... dedicated fan

Aren't our listeners great? Here is some interesting correspondence that we weren't able to talk about completely in the podcast:


Thought you might be interested in some more material on Lee Meriwether AKA Losira AKA "Hot Lady Budget" from the TOS 3rd Season episode "That Which Survives"

Besides playing the role of Catwoman in the 1966 Batman feature film, did you know that Lee Meriwether was also Miss America 1955? Beauty definitely does survive.

What originally attracted me to "That Which Survives", or TWS for short was the "Hot Lady Budget." But, as I watched this episode repeatedly for this, I also came away with the opinion that this episode is terrific for so many other things as well. (Not that "Hot Lady Budget" wasn't the most important.)

First, Losira's island/world, was artificially created by her people, the Kalandans, as an outpost, much like a starbase for the Federation. The difference here is that her peoples' idea of a starbase is creating an entire world. The reason they needed to create a world as massive as our Earth but with only the size of our moon was that they used the magnetic field (read magnetic sweep/door opening/closing) from it to power their outpost. This included the interstellar transporter (confirmed in the REMASTERED Version of TWS with a blinking F/X) that bounced the Enterprise 990.7 light years away as well as the defense system of killer holograms used to disrupt Losira's victims to death. Although not stated, since holographic technology was just invented when this episode was shot, Losira is, in fact, a hologram, & quite a beautiful one at that for sure. This shows just how forward-thinking the writers of Trek are.

This outpost was created to expand the reach of Kalandan territory & with a space transporter that can span 1,000 light years in the blink of an eye, her people can move around & cover/explore a vast amount of new territory.

The problem was that when they engineered this planet, they also accidentally created a lethal disease that killed off everyone there, with Losira being the last to go. Fearing her Kalandan Outpost might fall into the hands of outsiders & with the defense system not yet fully operational, Losira hastily programmed a holographic defense program which used the only available image, hers, to defend the place until more of her people could arrive to take possession of the place. Equipping the holograms with the ability to kill intruders with cellular disruption & using the super interstellar transporter to magically transport these holograms to wherever they are needed makes for a very effective defense.

I know you might be thinking, how so?

Consider the Hot Lady Budget hologram as the ultimate smart bomb. She is so specific that there is no explosion/collateral damage, only complete cellular disruption of her target minus the messy goo. That's the only reason why Captain Kirk isn't dead from Losira's touch. What if the target isn't biological? She did sabotage the Enterprise's engines to go wild & speed the ship & the crew to destruction, didn't she? And, she also had the power to do so when she fused the matter-anti-matter cutoff switch, which Scotty informed Spock required all the power from their main phaser banks to accomplish. Also remember that the Losira holograms were totally immune to phaser fire, as Sulu found out when she came for him. Reading minds while tossing starships zillions of miles away? That's a pretty nasty defense system that Losira was able to put together on the fly. When you include the fact that the hologram, like Losira, were drop-dead gorgeous, it's a wonder how any man could have resisted/survived her attacks.

The question then becomes, how & why did Kirk & company survive their encounter with Losira?

You said it yourself.

"The defense system did maintain ideas of right & wrong from the original woman such as it's not OK to kill."

This explanation makes perfect sense. Why knock a starship a 1,000 light years away when you can just transport it inside a planet or sun? Why not simply overload the warp core of the ship?

As Captain Kirk explained at the end, "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 we needed to destroy it."

Don't you see? When Losira transferred her likeness into the base computer, it also received this as well. The only reason why Kirk & Company are still alive is because the real Losira within the computer was stalling & buying enough time for Captain Kirk to successfully shut down the computer. What you have is defense computer that has gone schizo. Losira successfully convinces the computer to transport the Enterprise 990.7 light years away instead of just destroying the ship on the spot. The price for this action is that the computer gets to use Losira to succesfully kill the redshirt operating the transporter. Instead of blowing up the Enterprise immediately when she begins warping back to her planet, Losira successfully damages the ship so it would take 20 minutes to be destroyed, knowing it can be fixed while increasing it's speed to the point where it can get back in time to save the landing party. In response, the computer succeeds in forcing her to kill/attempt to kill a whole lot of people such as Engineer Grade 4 John B. Watkins, Senior Geologist D'Amato, Kirk, & the rest of the landing party.

I just feel that if enough fans had stuck with the story that they could have figured all this out. But then again, it's very hard when you have such a hot babe like Lee Meriwether playing such an exotic creature such as Losira.

Please feel free to respond to my conclusions since this is my favorite TOS episode for all these reasons & more. Also, can you tell me why you thought Losira is so hot? I have my reasons & I would like to know yours. She, as you can tell, is also my favorite TOS babe. Was it her costume as well as her physical attributes? makeup/hairdo?

Let me know & I'm glad that I'm not the only person who feels this way about her.;)


Thank you for your time!

Trent