In 1973, the USS Enterprise suddenly had a relief communications officer to help Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) with her workload. But, where Uhura’s voice was legendary, her colleague’s voice was literally purring. Fifty-one years ago, when Star Trek: The Animated Series debuted, we were all casually introduced to the concept of a cat-person alien in the form of M’Ress, and her sultry cat voice, provided by Trek legend Majel Barrett Roddenberry.
But, today, the visage of the coquettish cat alien isn’t quite what contemporary Star Trek is going for anymore. In fact, quite the opposite. “It was sort of that weird fetishized idea of animal,” actress Gillian Vigman — aka Dr. T’Ana on Lower Decks — tells Inverse. “She was this super big-boobed cat-looking fantasy woman. Which, of course, isn’t what I’m doing now at all.”
We caught up with, Vigman, who has played Dr. T' Ana on the animated comedy Star Trek: Lower Decks since 2020, to chat about how she feels about playing a more realistic version of this Catian (cat alien) character, channeling Deforest Kelley, and why she’s ready to dress-up like a cat IRL — right now.
Mild spoilers ahead for Lower Decks, Season 5, Episode 6.
Canonically speaking, there are actually two distinct species of cat aliens in the Trek universe, and oddly enough, both were introduced during The Animated Series. In addition to the Catians (M’Ress, T’Ana, and some live-action unnamed cat-man in The Voyage Home) you’ve also got the super-aggressive Kzinti, created by science fiction writer Larry Niven for his “Known Space” books, and then brought into the Star Trek fold in the episode “The Slaver Weapon.” We’ve seen both kinds of cat aliens in Lower Decks since then, but, philosophically, Dr. T’Ana combines the sensibilities and temperaments of both kinds of Trek cat aliens, though is much less “demure” than M’Ress.
“The idea that it was like she like she's been run over by a truck,” Vigman says. “She's had multiple fights. She looks like an alley cat. Like if she were a real cat, and you had to guess how old she was, you’d say, this cat is 27. So she’s a spirited, angry old woman from Maine and also a hardened sailor from 1866 with multiple tattoos.”
Vigman said that she felt happy and relieved when she realized the crusty direction the art team was taking the character and admits to some influence from Deforest Kelley’s Dr. “Bones” McCoy, beloved by generations of fans for his cantankerousness.
“I think what I love about her compared to Bones is that yes, they’re both ornery, but they’re also just single-minded in the work that they do,” Vigman explains. “She’s so much about her work that if you go off-topic about what she’s talking about, she’s like, oh f*ck off. She’s focused on the vaccine we need now because there’s a biological menace on the ship.”
In the sixth episode of Lower Decks Season 5, “Of Gods and Angles,” Dr. T’Ana eventually strikes up an unlikely friendship with the hapless Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) and even invites him into her book club toward the end of the episode. But, what books are cranky cat aliens even reading in the 24th century?
“I’m into dark, dystopian stuff, like Emily St. John Mandel’s Station 11. Maybe Dr. T’Ana would read some of that,” Vigman says. “But she might surprise us. Like maybe she’d love Lady Chatterley's Lover because we know she has this sort of sexual and romantic side.”
Like her fellow Lower Deckers, Vigman has mixed feelings about the ending of the series. But, unlike most of her castmates, switching to a live-action version would be a little trickier. There hasn’t been a fully recognizable live-action Catian on screen in Trek film since The Voyage Home in 1986. (Though there is some debate about the cat lady in The Final Frontier and twins with tails in Into Darkness.) The point is if Vigman were to play Dr. T’Ana in a live-action, she’d have to spend at least a little bit of time in the make-up chair, getting fur glued to her face. This eventually hasn’t happened yet, but she’s more than ready.
“Yes, I'm begging to do it,” Vigman says. “I would sit through five, or six hours in prosthetics. Absolutely. If only I could be so lucky.”
