Any sexy-Trek list has to start with "those green ladies who dance all sexy and stuff." And though Susan Oliver undulated gamely enough in the show's original pilot, Yvonne Craig—yes, Batgirl herself—set the bar for moves and attitude. Watching her perfomance in the original series ep "Whom Gods Destroy," it's hard to say which was more fun: Watching her gyrations not work on Spock, or work really well on Kirk.
Nichols' brief appearance as Uhura's Orion roommate/one of the many conquests of Chris Pine's delightfully horndoggy Kirk was perhaps the most wink-wink-nudge-nudge-inducing of the 2009 film's many, many callbacks to the original series.
The Deltan race is apparently too sexy for hair. Anyway, the lovely Khambatta's role in Star Trek: The Motion Picture was really all about sex, even after her original character was killed and replaced by an exact replica. And she wouldn't stop going on about Shatner's "Kirk unit."
The Next Generation episode "The Perfect Mate" isn't one of the better ones, and Janssen's role as essentially a living, programmable sexbot is problematic to say the least. But the future Jean Grey does look absolutely stunning as this Kriosian, and you really believe that the future Professor X is doing his stoic utmost not to surrender to her charms.
Maybe it's just us, but on the right face, those ears just do...something. (Come on, has Orlando Bloom ever looked half as good as he does as Legolas?) And the original Vulcan is the only...wait for it...logical choice as sexiest pointy-eared hobgoblin in the Alpha Quadrant. Yes, even in a bathrobe.
Still hot, in any timeline.
More Vulcans? Sure! Honorable mentions to Robin Curtis and Kim Cattrall in their respective pointy-eared and plucked-eyebrow drag, but Alley wore the ears more naturally than anyone but Nimoy. Her buttoned-up Saavik had great chemistry with both Shatner and Nimoy in The Wrath of Khan.
Martel's severe beauty as Spock's scheming wife-to-be in "Amok Time" sliced right through the soft-focus lenses they seemed to use on all close-ups of women in the original series.
Moving from the soft-focus era to the tight-catsuit-in-glorious-HD era, Enterprise's Blalock looked less like a Vulcan and more like a really hot chick with a bad wig and fake ears. Which might have been why they opted for the tight catsuit...
Surprise! Not a Vulcan, but a Romulan, before The Next Generation gave them bumpy foreheads. Mark Lenard was absolutely convincing and compelling as Spock's aloof, distant father, Sarek. But he was sexy as the unnamed, passionate, conflicted Romulan commander who played U-boat skipper to Kirk's sub-hunter captain in the original series' "Balance of Terror."
The only post-bumpy-forehead Romulan to make the list. His delivery of the "Hi, Christopher, I'm Nero" line in J.J. Abrams' film gave his vengeance-driven, potentially one-note character a much-needed note of humor—always sexy.
The miniskirt uniform notwithstanding, the original series' costume designers were good at coming up with female outfits that showed some skin, but not always at making them sexy. But this alien android's strategically cut jumpsuit and oh-so-'60s hairdo in "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" totally work. (And yes, that is Ted Cassidy, better known as Lurch from The Addams Family, behind her.)
Speaking of androids, come on: Data was hot. His evil twin Lore wasn't without his charms, we suppose, though a little too snotty and, well, homicidal for our tastes. But Data? Especially in those Next Generation episodes where he got to take command and order people around and stuff? Mmmmm...
Speaking of ordering people around, who among us isn't turned on by beautiful, powerful people with complicated pasts and the steel to look impossible odds in the face and say, "If you want a war, I'll give you one"—and say it with a smile? We didn't need to see that tarted-up, alternate-universe Intendant version, Nana—your take on this Bajoran babe had us at the Deep Space Nine pilot.
We get the sense Deep Space Nine writers didn't know what to do with Dax until they settled on the Trill being a multigenerational horndog. Beautiful as Farrell is, she makes the list because of three things that happened in the original-series crossover ep "Trials and Tribble-ations": She wore the miniskirt uniform; she preferred Spock to Kirk; and one of her previous hosts had played doctor with McCoy.
Worf is not a merry man. Hot as he is through all that latex, this Klingon cutie has the worst luck with women. The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine are old news now, but it still feels like spoilers to talk about, you know, what happened. And then that other thing. That happened. But ladies, if you were thinking about consoling him? Forget it. Earth females are too fragile.
Spock was only half-Vulcan: Nimoy created the template for all Vulcans who followed, but he was doing a trapped-between-two-worlds thing. It was Mark Lenard's turn as his father that defined how a "real" Vulcan behaved. The quintessential Klingon for us is Todd as Worf's brother. His intense interpretation brings to mind his work in Candyman, only with more makeup and fewer bees.
Fresh off her run as the free-spiritied hippie big sister on The Wonder Years, the charmingly crooked-toothed beauty appeared on The Next Generation's "True Q" as a young woman who thought she was human, but was actually an all-powerful Q. She's supposedly enamored of Riker, but she actually has better chemistry with John de Lancie as Q than anyone not named Patrick Stewart.
Attempt number one to make the Borg somehow alluring, in an H.R. Giger sort of way, was a success. The Borg Queen's seduction of Data in First Contact doesn't make a whole hell of a lot of sense in terms of plot logic, but Krige's purring menace sells it.
Of course, it's a lot easier to make the Borg alluring if you lose all those cables, flashing lights and deathly pale makeup. And if you cast a gorgeous, curvaceous blonde in the role, as Ryan was cast in Voyager, and put her in a skintight catsuit instead of, oh, a Starfleet uniform or something silly like that. Assimilation never looked so good.
MORE: Stars Get Animated