"You must be very proud."
"I don't believe so, sir."
"She's a Vulcan all right."
LieutenantValeris was afemaleVulcanStarfleetofficer of the23rd century. She served ashelmsman aboard theUSSEnterprise-A, during its mission to escort theKlingon Chancellor toEarth in2293. In that capacity, she was a key participant ina conspiracy to sabotage peace talks between theKlingon Empire and theFederation.
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History[]
Valeris wasmentored byCaptainSpock atStarfleet Academy, and became the first Vulcan to graduate at the top of her class. Spock took interest in her career with "satisfaction" as she eventually attained the rank oflieutenant.
Valeris requested to be assigned to theEnterprise-A upon learning of their need for ahelmsman. Spock, having been impressed with her, informed her of his intentions toretire subsequent to the completion of theirdiplomatic mission, and of his desire that she should fulfill his role aboard the ship.
Khitomer conspiracy[]
Valeris did not consider it logical to attempt peaceful interactions with the Klingon Empire, considering the Klingons untrustworthy. Before coming to theEnterprise, Valeris had committed to theKhitomer conspiracy on the Starfleet side. Upon establishment of contact with the chancellor's flagship,Kronos One, Valeris suggested to CaptainKirk the service ofRomulan ale during a dinner which theEnterprise crew was hosting forChancellorGorkon and his party. Later, after Kirk andDoctorMcCoy were placed underarrest for Gorkon'smurder, Valeris supplied her compatriots in the Klingon Empire with a recording from Kirk'spersonal log, in which Kirk admitted that he held the Klingons personally responsible for the death ofhis son, which became a damning piece of evidence in their subsequenttrial.
Spock ordered Valeris to conduct a search for evidence of the conspirators on the ship. She helped to uncover a few facts and the boots that the assassins wore. Covertly, she also personally murderedYeomenBurke andSamno, her fellow conspirators and Gorkon's actualassassins, in an attempt to eliminate them as witnesses.
After theEnterprise crew's successful rescue of Kirk and McCoy from the Klingon prisonplanetRura Penthe, Kirk and Spock set up a sting operation in an attempt to uncover the conspirator aboard the ship by announcing that Burke and Samno had, in fact, survived the murder attempt, and were recuperating insickbay. Their ruse proved successful, leading to a confrontation with Valeris when she made another assassination attempt.
She was taken to thebridge andinterrogated by Kirk in front of the crew for details of the conspiracy. Valeris refused to cooperate, instead appealing to Kirk's distrust of Klingons. In response, Spock forced amind meld on her, during which he was able to learn of the involvement in theconspiracy of StarfleetAdmiralCartwright, KlingonGeneralChang, andRomulanAmbassadorNanclus. She was not aware of where theKhitomer Conference was to take place, but did know of another assassination attempt that was to occur there.Hikaru Sulu instead informed them, and joined with them atKhitomer. There, Valeris was taken to the conference to show everyone they could prove the conspiracy. (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)
Appendices[]
Background information[]
Saavik was to have reprised her role inStar Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, but was replaced with Valeris, reportedly becauseGene Roddenberry was concerned that fans had become so fond of Saavik that they would react negatively to her turning out to be a traitor. In addition, no one wanted to have to cast a third actress to play the same role:Kirstie Alley had declined to return, andNicholas Meyer was not a fan ofRobin Curtis's portrayal.
While referred to as "lieutenant", Valeris wore the rank insignia of alieutenant commander. HerStarfleet uniform jacket had the gray insignia patch and wristband of asciences division officer, but her uniform undershirt was red (denoting acadet or student officer). This mismatch was caused because no new uniform pieces were being made and the wardrobe department simply found Cattrall's existing items that fit her.Robert Fletcher's uniform notes specify that an officer's collar and uniform patch should match, so a division specialty color could have been added as a strip on her shoulder patch and wristband.
Kim Cattrall designed her headband, suggested her hairstyle, and even helped in naming the character – after Eris, the Greek goddess of strife, hinting at Valeris' role in the events of the film. The "Val" prefix was added to make it sound more Vulcan, contradicting, however, the typical naming convention for female Vulcans (T'Pring,T'Pol, andT'Pau, for example). (I Am Spock) The shooting script spells the name "Val'eris", but the apostrophe doesn't appear in the closing credits, DVD subtitles, or publicity materials.
One version of the script would have revealed that Valeris was Spock's daughter with Saavik, alsonamed Saavik after her mother.[1]
Apocrypha[]
Jeanne M. Dillard'snovelization ofStar Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country mentions that her parents Sessl and T'Paal attempted to make peace overtures to the Klingons several months before theOrganian intervention. Her mother, who named Valeris for a Klingon heroine, is killed and her father becomes ill. Sessl dies when Valeris is seven, advocating that war with the Klingons is necessary.
The novelCast No Shadow depicts Valeris' life both before and afterStar Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, when she is offered a chance at relocation to a colony world under a new name, seven years after her arrest and imprisonment, in exchange for assisting in an investigation into what appears to be a new branch of the Khitomer Conspiracy as the last known living member of the scheme. During the events of the novel, she is forced to acknowledge that the real reason for her participation in the conspiracy was not her logical assessment that the Klingons would be a future threat to the Federation, but her own past trauma from a time she was taken hostage as a child by Klingons attempting to convince her ambassador father to abandon a planet that was negotiating to join the Federation. At the conclusion of the story, she risks her life to disable a bomb that would have decimated the remains of Praxis and the Klingon homeworld, and is given a pardon and a new life on a colony world under the new name T'Leris. In this novel, Valeris' parents are named Sepel (β) and T'Kio (β).
Themirror universe Valeris (β) appeared in the novelThe Sorrows of Empire. Assigned to assassinateSpock, she is killed by Saavik (β) before she can do so.
External links[]
- Valeris atMemory Beta, the wiki for licensedStar Trek works
- Valeris atWikipedia