Star Trek's Celeste Yarnell With Malachi Throne: On William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, And Her Life Today.

Celeste Yarnell is someone such that you may be caused to think "I've seen her before," but aren't sure why, unless you are a Trekker. Fans of Star Trek, The Original Series (TOS) remember and celebrate Ms. Yarnell for her one appearance as 'Yeoman Martha Landon' on an episode called "The Apple."

 "The Apple," which aired on NBC October 13, 1967, was known only to avid fans until improvements in digital media after the turn of the century led to its wide availablity, thus giving Yarnell's character, and her, a kind of second life.

For example, here's a review of the episode on YouTube, which opens with Yarnell and Walter Koenig:



Now, Yarnell is regularly called on to reminisce about her time with Star Trek's cast and crew, as we did during her second WonderCon appearance.

Asked what is was like to be on the set, Yarnell revealed a secret: until her work in 1967, she'd never seen the show. "I had no idea what Spock was or Captain Kirk," she said. "I walk on to this set with paper-mache rocks and my initial reaction was 'This must be a great cinematography crew to make this stuff look good."

After being offered the role of Martha Landon, Yarnell was asked if she wanted a part with more substance, and she said "no." She was happy with what she was asked to do in playing a Yeoman, and even asked to have her dress shortened "because mini-skirts were hot in those days," she said.

Yarnell said shortening her dress, which she thinks may have been used by Grace Lee Whitney who played "Yeoman Rand" caused some on the Star Trek crew to fear a conflict should Ms. Whitney return to the show. But the costume designer ruled out that possibility and told her people to make the dress fit Celeste.

How did she like working with the Star Trek cast? Of all, Yarnell gushes about William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk, and made the character part of American Mythology. "I adored Will," she said, and who she described as "The colossal jokester." But Celeste was afraid of Nimoy because he "stayed in character. He was so stern. He never smiled." between shootings for the episode. For the few who don't know, Mr. Spock is a Vulcan humanoid who's emotions are buried deep and controlled by a culturally-induced ethic of logic. A practice made diffcult for Spock because he's half-human.

Celeste and Malachi Throne

As we talked about Star Trek and her life today, a television legend this blogger met at last year's WonderCon was just next to us, and behind us on the video: Malachi Throne (pronounced "MA-LACK-Hi").

Mr. Throne played in Star Trek's flagship episode "The Cage" as the irracible Commodore Jose I. Mendez, and has appeared on perhaps every major science-fiction, secret agent, or comic-book based television show of the 1960s, from Batman to The Outer Limits, and starred with Robert Wagner in It Takes A Thief. Yarnell and Throne are friends to this day, as was obvious during the segment of our video where we went over to include Mr. Throne, thus pairing two legends from the World of Star Trek.

What She's Doing Today

On Saturday as she was at WonderCon, Celeste and her husband celebrated their 8th month of marriage. The two, Celeste and Nazim, enjoy life to the fullest, and are in business together in something called "Holistic Health Care" and have something called The Art Of Wellness Collection, and a series of websites on everything from supplements to "Hollistic Cat Care" at www.celestialpets.com.

Celeste Yarnell. Making the most of her Star Trek experience.