Of all the weird terribleness contained in the Holiday Special, Mermeia is particularly troubling. She appears in some kind of virtual experience that Saun Dann delivers to Itchy. He enjoys it very much, but watching him watch it is uncomfortable to say the least. Diahann Carroll was a pretty big star in 1978, having already won a Tony and been nominated for each of the remaining EGOT awards. She was brought in to replace Cher who dropped out due to medical reasons. And this is how they decided to use her. What in the actual heck were they thinking?

This is a design that really doesn’t feel very Star Warsy. Mermeia is probably supposed to be an alien, but looks like a lady in a funny wig. Either way, that does nothing to make her being an old Wookiee’s fantasy girl any less disturbing. The lack of aesthetic match, along with the overall presentation of this sequence are probably enough to consign this character to the scrapheap of history. Now let us never speak of her again.