BEHIND-THE-SCENES : THE SALT VAMPIRE

Sandra Gimpel

Star Trek: TOS : "The Man Trap"

September 8, 1966. Star Trek: The Original Series officially kicked off not with “The Cage” and not even with "Where No Man Has Gone Before." Rather, the first episode fans saw that night was… “The Man Trap." It’s neither the best nor the worst Star Trek episode, but everyone remembers the monster, the M-113 Creature, a/k/a The Salt Vampire. That creepy thing scared the hell out of people and it holds up today, thanks to the handiwork of Wah Chang and William Ware Theiss, and the performance of the person inside the costume, namely Sandra Gimpel.

An actress, dancer and stuntwoman, Gimpel brought the character to vivid life. Intriguingly, “The Man Trap” did not mark her first Trek work; she’d played one of the veiny Talosians in the rejected pilot, “The Cage.” Gimpel went on to a long career in Hollywood as a stunt person and stunt coordinator, breaking plenty of ground for women along the way.