This is my small tribute to one of the true beauties of 80s TV, a woman who has never and possibly never will be surpassed. I am, of course, talking about the wonder known as Erin Gray.
Who is Erin Gray? Well I won't admit to knowing a lot about her but I know enough to worship her like countless others. I know her as the gorgeous and sultry Colonel Wilma Dearing, sidekick of Buck Rodgers in the *wonderful* 80s TV series Buck Rodgers in the 25th Century (named so you wouldn't get confused with all the other Buck Rodgers series where he was in different centuries).
Buck was a smug, slightly overweight, self-satisfied bastard who couldn't act his way out of a local radio commercial. Wilma on the other hand made the show one of the most watchable TV shows of my 20+ years. She, with the exception of the horrible 'perm' debacle, is the most incredible woman in the history of science fiction. I'm not a total nerd, I have enough of a life to see past the pathetic attempts by Star Trek to make the likes of Counsellor "uhg, the pain, uhg" Troy or Seven of bleeding Nine seem like super-desirable uber-babes. Compared to the divine goddess-like stature of Erin, those other women are shown up as the unattractive and appalling actresses that they are. Col. Dearing was an intelligent, dedicated and an inspiration for all women (and some men). Even the most dire and horrible episode of Buck Rodgers could be saved by five or ten minutes of Erin in one of her many jump suits, or in the season when she wore the sailor suit type uniform.
I think one of the reasons I admire her so much is her ability to wear horribly designed and garishly coloured outfits and still look dignified and hot as hell. Take for instance this horrific brown number, nobody can get away with that like our wonderful Erin can.
In my limited online research into Ms Gray, I discovered she had an official web site found at www.eringray.com. This site shows that while she is a beautiful woman, she has the capacity to make very little sense and gibber on endlessly about Eastern religions and the like. What a woman. *sigh*
Here are a few more pictures of my (and I expect by know your) favourite sci-fi superbabe.
Oh my god what have I become?
