Star Trek's Kim Cattrall Had One Complaint About Her Valeris Costume

Unless you're cast in one of the animated shows, being an actor in the "Star Trek" universe means you're probably going to wear some truly uncomfortable costumes over the course of your career. The super tight spandex onesies that appeared in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" were apparently painful as well as awkward, and Jeri Ryan has never been shy about how much she hated wearing her Seven of Nine costume on "Star Trek: Voyager." For many years on the "Star Trek" original series, the women wore miniskirts while the men wore tunics and pants. Sure, there were episodes where the men were put into much more revealing costumes, but for the most part only the ladies showed leg unless there were some seriously silly away team shenanigans going on.

While some might have found the miniskirts to be too revealing or uncomfortable, there was one actor who was actually disappointed to not get a chance to don a more classic-style "Star Trek" uniform: Kim Cattrall, who portrayed Spock's (Leonard Nimoy) protégé post-Saavik (Kirstie Alley). In the book "The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years," edited by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross, Cattrall revealed that while she had a lot of control with regards to her character, she wished she had a bit more control with regards to the costume. 

Starfleet uniforms have changed quite a bit over the years, and by the time Cattrall was cast in Nicholas Meyer's 1991 film "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" they had gone from the slightly silly but sleek '60s uniforms to a much more militarized style meant to be gender neutral. Having grown up with "Star Trek," Cattrall had assumed that she would get to show a bit more skin and was disappointed that wasn't the case, as she explained:

"I told Nick I really wanted to wear a skirt, like Uhura, since I have great legs. He said, 'Kim, if I put you in a skirt, people will be looking at your legs.' And I said, 'So?' The uniforms are nice, but they were made in 1982 for someone else. I really wanted a new uniform, but when they fitted me for a costume they told me they couldn't get any more material. I didn't want to sweat in someone's old jacket. I had to completely reshape it so I'd look like a woman."

Reusing costumes is nothing new in "Star Trek," but she does have a point that a costume made for someone else almost a decade earlier wasn't going to be particularly flattering. While her uniform is probably the best tailored in the whole movie (she makes William Shatner's James T. Kirk look extra unkempt by comparison), it is still rather boxy and has that weird sweater neck thing going on. The only uniform with a skirt is Uhura's (Nichelle Nichols), but maybe producers knew that taking Uhura's gorgeous gams from fans might be a step too far. 

Despite not getting to show off her legs and feeling a little frustrated by it, Cattrall did get to have quite a bit of control over her character. She had initially been hesitant to take the role because she had seen the jobs women were given in the franchise previously and had even been a bit disappointed by Saavik, but when she was given free reign to develop Valeris' backstory she decided to jump onboard. According to Cattrall she came up with Valeris' name and hairstyle, and by being allowed to create the character from scratch after a Saavik return was nixed, she was able to bring a bit of a fresh female perspective to "Star Trek." 

While Valeris is ultimately a villain, she's also one of the better early female "Star Trek" characters, and Cattrall absolutely kills it in the role. She didn't get a chance to show off her legs as the traitorous Vulcan, but would go on to star in movies like "Mannequin" and shows like "Sex and the City," giving her plenty more opportunities. Sometimes, everyone wins!