Archana Punjabi

Most Americans first saw British-born Archie Panjabi as "Pinky" Bhamra, the daughter getting married in Bend it Like Beckham!
What they didn't know was that she already had an extensive resume of both film and tv work in England, including ongoing roles in several genre series!
Since Beckham, she's had supporting roles in big-budget films like A Mighty Heart and she's won an Emmy for her performance as Kalinda Sharma on The Good Wife!

Genre appearances include...
The Infidel (Saamiya Nasir)
Dead Space: Extraction [VG](Dr. Howell)
Constant Gardner(Ghita Pearson)

Life on Mars(Maya Roy)
Espion(s) (Anna)

Traitor(Chandra Dawkin
Silent Witness(Amita Joshi)

Sea of Souls(Megan Sharma)

Ivor the Invisible(Leila)

Check out...
Archie's Official Site
Archie Panjabi Central (FanSite)

Other actresses to play Maya include...
Lisa Bonet (Life on Mars[US]) and Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen (Life on Mars [US] UnAired Pilot), both as Maya Daniels

BARBARELLA 2.2

When Last We Left Our Heroine...

With Captain Dildano and the rest of his crew dead, and their ship a derelict, Barbarella is stranded on Lython...

There are more plot elements and characters who ended up in the movie, though at the flick's beginning, rather than midway through, as they do here.
Some characters like "Klill, the horrid little Martian", didn't appear in the film at all.
The explanation of why the inhabitants are dressed in mid-19th century Earth fashions was utilized a year later in the Classic Star Trek episode "Squire of Gothos".
However, the "antique-looking" clothing and technology didn't make it into the Barbarella film's version of this sequence.
More Barbarella later...

Check out the

Barbarella Collectible Corner

BARBARELLA 2.1

When Last We Left Our Heroine...

All you really need to know is that Captain Dildano's spacecraft was forced down by a gigantic jellyfish...ok, plot logic is not the strip's strong suit.

Just enjoy the kool art...

Dildano also dies in the movie, but under vastly different circumstances.
In fact, this particular sequence is not adapted into the 1960s cult classic flick!
More tomorrow!

Check out the

Barbarella Collectible Corner

Dorothy Dandridge IS Melmendi, Queen of the Ashuba!

In her only genre role, Dorothy Dandridge played Melmendi, Queen of the Ashuba in 1951's Tarzan's Peril.

An original story, not based on any of Edgar Rice Burroughs' stories, the film was the third of five movies starring Lex Barker as Tarzan and directed by Byron Haskin, who went on to A-list genre films like 1953's War of the Worlds.
It was also the first Tarzan film to have scenes shot on location in Africa.
(Previous films used existing stock footage from other movies.)

One of the scenes from the film is recreated in the biopic Introducing Dorothy Dandridge starring Fantastic Femme Halle Berry as Dorothy playing Melmendi.
Here's a comparison between a scene in the original film and the biopic's version of it.

Melmendi, nor her tribe, the Ashuba, have appeared in any Tarzan story (in any media) since...

BTW, Tarzan's Peril is airing Saturday, July 16th, at 12:00pm (EST) on Turner Classic Movies!

Set your DVRs!

Karen Jane Allen (Browne)

Karen started out doing period pieces including National Lampoon's Animal House, The Wanderers and A Small Circle of Friends.
Then she appeared in the genre classic Raiders of the Lost Ark (technically a period piece since it was set in 1936).
Karen moved on to performing on Broadway and off-Broadway, with occasional film and tv work, until Challenger where she met her future husband, Kale Brown, with whom she had a son.
In order to have more time with her son, she restricted her film / tv work to minor roles, mostly in East Coast-based projects like the Law & Order franchise and the film The Perfect Storm.
Karen also turned her longtime hobby, knitting, into a full-time business with both a brick and mortar storefront and website, and teaches acting at a local college.
She, thankfully, found time to reprise her role as Marion Ravenwood in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
I'm looking forward to her next appearance, wherever it is!
Note: though it's not genre, if you're a Karen Allen fan, you'll want to see Until September. Trust me.

Genre appearances include...
Ghost in the Machine aka Deadly Terror (Terry Munroe)
Challenger (Christa McAuliffe)
[Not "sci-fi", but "sci-fact", and IMHO, well worthy of inclusion]
Secret Weapon (Ruth)
BackFire (Mara McAndrew)
Scrooged (Claire)
Ripper [VG] (Dr. Claire Burton)
Terminus (Gus)
Voyage aka Cruise of Fear (Catherine Norvell aka Kit)
Starman [1984]
(Jenny Hayden / performer: "All I Have to Do Is Dream")
Raiders of the Lost Ark aka
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark /
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
(Marion Ravenwood)
Alfred Hitchcock Presents "The Creeper"

Check out...
Karen Allen Fiber Arts
Karen Allen: an ACME Page (FanPage)

Other actresses to play Jenny Hayden aka Karen Iseley include...

Erin Gray in Starman [1986]