Maya was a shape-shifting character introduced in the second and final season of the
ITC space opera Space: 1999. Maya was played by actress
Catherine Schell.
In the episode "The Metamorph" (first aired in 1976), Maya was the stunningly beautiful, side-burned daughter of Mentor. Mentor and Maya were the last of a race called the Psychons. The Psychons mastered the secrets of
molecular transformation and they could shape shift. Alas all their science did not save them from the near destruction of their planet's environment. Psychon, once a beautiful verdant world, now resembled a British
sound stage complete with hunks of rock grey foam and shredded green plastic trash bags made to resemble alien foliage. So what I mean to say is Psychon was one huge
volcano. Volcano planet. You dig? It wasn't a super great place to live.
Alas, Mentor's desire to return his world to a verdant paradise knew no ethical limit. He was like a Raelian crossed with a Scientologist crossed with a Microsoft biz dev guy. He believed the citizens of
Moonbase Alpha could be turned into bio-batteries that would help power a super computer that could restore the planet's original environment. How that was all going to come about was a bit hazy but this was 1976. If a computer could understand human speech in
The Six Million Dollar Man, by 1999 a computer could certainly handle the trivial task of
teraforming a shattered planet. Know what I'm saying there,
Action Jackson?
Maya -- a sweet innocent bearded version of
Prospero's daughter
Miranda -- was made aware of her dad's
malevolent plans and helped the Moonbase Alphaians to escape by blowing up her dad and her home world. After slaughtering her father, she joined the Moonbase Alphaians and used her shape shifting, advanced scientific knowledge, pluck, and sexiness to save
Walter Koenig and crew many a time.