Monday, February 24, 2014

Cult-TV Theme Watch: Sirens


According to Greek Myth, a siren is a beautiful individual or creature, usually female that-- with an enticing song -- lures passing sailors to their doom on the rocky shores of remote islands.

In other words, the siren is a seductress who can lure men from the path of a the straight-and-narrow, to one of complete destruction instead.

The siren has appeared several times throughout cult-television history. 

Perhaps the best and most memorable example comes from the Gerry and Sylvia Anderson series Space:1999 (1975 – 1977). Story editor Johnny Byrne once termed the program the “origin story of a people” (meaning the Alphans). Accordingly, since the series was a space age myth, so the Alphans often encountered creatures or aliens who had corollaries in Earth mythology, such as dragons (“Dragon’s Domain”), King Midas (“Force of Life) or even sirens, as is the case in Christopher Penfold’s “Guardian of Piri.”


In “Guardian of Piri,” the Alphans -- and even Moonbase Alpha’s main computer -- are lured to the mysterious planet Piri, where an unseen Guardian (actually a super-advanced computer) helps them attain perfection.  

The siren is the lovely Servant of the Guardian (Catherine Schell), who welcomes the Alphans, and Command Koenig (Martin Landau). She promises the wandering humans perfection and beauty, but delivers a kind of lingering physical lassitude and death instead. Eventually, Koenig destroys the siren -- actually an android or robot -- and the Alphans shrug off her false promises, or in terms of the Siren myth...her song.

Although sirens appear in Homer's The Odyssey,  another variation of these beautiful (but deadly) creatures also appears in German folklore, which accounts for the title of the Star Trek: The Animated Series episode: “the Lorelei Signal.   

In Germany, "Lorelei" (or sometimes Loreley) is a rock on the eastern bank of the Rhine. It is also the name in folklore of a "feminine water spirit" associated with that rock.


In this Star Trek story by Margaret Armen, the U.S.S. Enterprise explores the Taurean solar system and hopes to investigate a long-standing mystery. Specifically, every 27 years, a starship disappears near this section of the galaxy...never to be heard from again.Soon, the Enterprise falls into the same trap. 

The lovely women of planet Taurus II transmit a signal that hypnotizes all the males aboard the Starfleet vessel.  When Kirk, Spock, Bones and a landing party of men beam down, they are immediately drugged by the beautiful, technologically-advanced sirens of this world, and then forced to wear head-bands which cause rapid aging, and which drain their life-forces.  

The women of this world thrive on that life force, and need it to survive...

On board the Enterprise, Lt. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) assumes command of the Enterprise and promotes Nurse Chapel (Majel Barrett) to the role of chief medical officer. Then, Uhura leads a landing party of female security officers to the planet to rescue the helpless males...

In the early 1990s, the second season Land of the Lost (1991 – 1992) episode “Siren’s Song” featured Marta Du Bois as an imprisoned woman who could sing an enchanted song to entrap others. In the course of the story, she beguiled the Porter children (Kevin and Annie) by taking the form of their dead mother. Eventually, Mr. Porter (Timothy Bottoms) freed his children, and was also able to save the siren from her eternity in the land of the lost.


In early 1998,Chris Carter’s Millennium (1996 – 1999) featured another fascinating take on the old siren myth in a tale penned by Glen Morgan and James Wong. Here, a Chinese freighter smuggling illegal immigrants into the United States is raided by the INS. Jordan Black (Brittany Tiplady) makes a connection with a strange Chinese woman who was chained up aboard the ship and may now possess the secret to saving Frank’s (Lance Henriksen) life. 

As Lara Means (Kristen Cloke) and Frank investigate the mysterious woman, they learn how the siren may have seduced and killed and members of the ship’s crew.  Finally, this siren attempts to seduce Frank with a tantalizing vision of his life in which the Millennium Group has no role.



“The Siren,” -- Lorelei Circes -- was also a villain on the third season of the Adam West Batman (1966 – 1969), and was played by Joan Collins.  

The mythical creature has also appeared on Red Dwarf (as Psirens), and in Supernatural.

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