Who Plays Gloria & How Do Hardcore Star Trek Fans Know Her?

Jan Shutan had relatively few continuing TV roles in her career — CBS's "Sons and Daughters" and ABC's "Room 222" are among the few series on which she appeared across multiple episodes. But she was an extraordinarily prolific performer when it came to guest roles, and out of the many such roles she played in the sixties and seventies, her appearance on NBC's "Star Trek" stands out. Hardcore Trekkies will, of course, remember Lieutenant Mira Romaine, the Mars-born sciences division specialist who was tasked with overseeing a transfer of equipment to Memory Alpha, and developed a tryst with Lieutenant Commander Montgomery "Scotty" Scott (James Doohan) in the process.

Shutan's performance, on the original series Season 3 episode "The Lights of Zetar," is notorious among the "Star Trek" fanbase for its intensity and range. On the episode, Romaine struggles with strange symptoms and premonitions after having her mind attacked by Zetarians, a noncorporeal alien species which takes the form of bizarre flashing lights. It became a memorable enough role to be referenced by Simon Pegg's Scotty in a deleted scene from 2016's "Star Trek Beyond," which indicates that he and Romaine may have managed to find romantic bliss after all.