Memory Alpha
Register
Advertisement
Memory Alpha

Lieutenant Mira Romaine was a 23rd century Starfleet sciences division specialist. She was born on the Martian Colony 3 to Jacques and Lydia Romaine.

According to her psychological profile, Mira had a history of psychosomatic illness that consisted of occasional and teenage routine incidents. Mira was highly marked for her extreme flexibility and exceptional pliancy to new learning situations.

In 2269, Lt. Romaine was given her first deep space assignment aboard the USS Enterprise when she was placed in charge of supervising the transfer of equipment to Memory Alpha. While aboard the Enterprise, she became romantically involved with Montgomery Scott.

During the mission, Romaine's mind came under attack by a group of non-corporeal lifeforms called the Zetarians, at which time she fainted. She later had several premonitions, including that of the attack on the Enterprise, the attack on Memory Alpha, and finally one of Scotty's death.

Later, when the Enterprise fired its phasers at the shadowing Zetarians, Mira experienced harsh pain. After reporting to sickbay, Dr. McCoy gave her a standard Steinman analysis. The results showed that physically her readings were identical, however, two of her hyperencephalograms indicated that her brain circuitry patterns had been altered. They were eventually identified as the impulse tracking patterns of the Zetarian cloud shadowing the Enterprise.

Mira was placed in the pressure chamber where she was subjected to increased pressure. Once the pressure chamber reached roughly 35 atmospheres, the Zetarians were forced from her body.

With the help of Scott, Romaine was able to recover from the attack and served out her first deep space deployment at Memory Alpha. (TOS: "The Lights of Zetar")

Appendices[]

Background information[]

Romaine was played by actress Jan Shutan.

According to Shutan in an interview with Starlog (February 1994, pp. 58-59):

"First of all, I think Shari Lewis was supposed to get the part; she wrote it for herself," Shutan notes. "When I went in to interview, Shari was there. I didn't know she had written it or was up for it, and I got it right away. [Producer] Freddie Freiberger brought me in. because he thought I was perfect for the role and [director] Herb Kenwith and I really hit it off. I loved working with Herb: he's an angel."

[....]

"I enjoyed doing the whole show, every second of it. James Doohan was an awfully nice guy, very sweet. My take on Mira Romaine was that she was a terrifically smart woman caught in another world. I liked Mira. she was me," the actress jokes. "I hoped Mira would be a recurring character, but the series was cancelled shortly after."

One aspect of the series bothered her. "I remember being embarrassed about wearing that short costume because I had chubby thighs." she laughs. "That's why my family and I laugh so hard every time we see the show– we get hysterical at what I look like in that stupid costume. Everyone on that show had long, gorgeous legs and I only had these cute little thighs. I didn't think they belonged on television!" She had no problems with the special FX. "I really didn't work with them, they came later. They would put me in a room and tell me what was happening. For me. it was essentially the lights going in and out of my eyes. The camera would go in and out and the FX people would put it in later." She enjoyed the exorcism. "That was fun. Being in the hyperbaric chamber was kind of weird." she notes. "Lying rigid and being suspended in that thing took a long time to do." Shutan's floating in the tube was "done with a board hidden underneath me."

A deleted scene from Star Trek Beyond had Scott mentioning that he was about to have dinner with a Lieutenant Romaine.

Apocrypha[]

According to the Star Trek: The Next Generation novel Takedown, a medical facility was later named after her. It was dedicated to helping Starfleet officers who had undergone similar takeovers of their mental faculties by aliens.

She appeared in the Star Trek: The Original Series novel #42 "Memory Prime", assigned to the Memory Prime installation in support of the Pathfinders, artificial intelligences who performed the primary collation and sifting of data from the Memory network. Memory Prime acted as the "hub" of the Memory network constructed in the aftermath of the Memory Alpha disaster.

The Star Trek: The Original Series comic book "Debt of Honor" had her achieving the rank of captain and chief archivist of Memory Alpha by 2286.

"Mira" and "Romaine" are both varieties of lettuce.

External link[]

Advertisement