Star Trek (2009) gave us an alternate reality with the characters of the TOS (The Original Series) era. One of the characters who features prominently in the film is Nyota Uhura. At the movie’s beginning, she has a green woman as a roommate at Starfleet Academy who is seen making out with the future Captain Kirk. So, who was this lady?
The green woman is Gaila, who is later assigned to an unknown ship. While not stated on-screen, Gaila was an Orion, a species known, according to Star Trek: Lower Decks, as a species who loves to pirate.
The Orions In Star Trek
The Orions have appeared in almost every Star Trek series to date. However, they have not appeared in The Next Generation, Voyager or Deep Space 9. Of all the films, they have only ever appeared in the Star Trek (2009), Into Darkness and Beyond, better known as the Kelvin Timeline.
Gaila’s fate is unknown in the Kelvin timeline. However, a non-canon comic series reunites the Enterprise with Gaila, revealing she has a brother named Kai. Their dad dies during the story. However, this does not count towards canon material.
Gaila was also one of the few known Orions to have red hair, whereas many others had black hair.
Uhura was mentioned to have an Orion roommate at the academy in the Pocket TOS book, Living Memory. This might have been the inspiration for Gaila.
Suppose Tendi’s mentions of her species in Lower Decks are accurate. In that case, there are not many Orions in Starfleet, possibly in the alternate reality and the Prime Timeline, in which Lower Decks sits in the timeline.
