Captain Nirvana is a member of the Necroton Race, the nemeses of Ork and the Orkans. Captain Nirvana is portrayed by Raquel Welch.
About Nirvana[]
Nirvana is a Captain of the Necroton Black Army, who with her Lieutenants Kama and Sutra have come to locate the Orkan Observer on the planet, and extract all the information they have on Earth, before making up whether to invade or destroy Earth. Her treatment by her superiors during her communiques indicate that they have no faith in her. And she has only been dispatched due to widespread illness with their other operatives.
She is however as vicious as other Necrotons, having turned the only other previous person she might have liked into a jacket.
At first she wants to interrogate Mork under torture, then attempts to suck out his brain to get the information he has on Earth. But she eventually develops a crush on him. Still he outwits her and he escapes. Knowing he is close to Mindy she dispatches her lieutenants to capture her to lure him back. And when he duly turns up to rescue her, she captures him again. But instead of sucking his brain out, she tries to inveigle him to come away with her, as her slave, and then when he refuses with her as his slave, but he refuses to leave Mindy.
After Mindy manages to grab a weapon and break free, she and Mork overturn the revolution Nirvana's two lieutenants have effected because of Nirvana's betrayal of her orders in her treatment of Mork, and she leaves Earth with at least the nominal intent of trying to teach both of them what Mork has taught her about friendship.
Behind the Scenes[]
Welch is notoriously regarded as the worst guest star to ever appear on the show, described by Howard Storm as any director's 'nightmare', and later by Pam Dawber as a 'terror' (see both their pages for further details). Her unprofessionalism and insecurity shone through at every level according to reports....with her female on screen co-stars coming in for the worst of it.
The actresses playing her lieutenants were both reportedly treated with utter disrespect by Welch. With Howard Storm in particular recounting how the two ladies sat alongside Welch in the read through who then asked who was playing 'her lieutenants' after the two women had departed, pretending not to have noticed either of them as they sat alongside of her. She then attempted to get the show runners to put dog masks on both women and let her lead them around by leashes for the entirety of the episode.
Her treatment of both of them, alongside that of show star Pam Dawber, who she was so openly rudely dismissive towards that Dawber began to mimic punching her in the back of the head every time her back was turned on set (making the crew laugh), indicated how much she made herself disliked.