Out-of-this-world celebrity crushes

Here's a trio of actresses seen in TV shows set on other worlds or in another time. We lead off with a Caprica co-star who has a much longer list of credits than I'd have realized, then move on to a Scottish actress and an English actress whose earlier works are largely not available in America -- at least not right now.

Name: Alessandra Torresani
Hometown: Born in Palo Alto, Calif., to Italian immigrant parents, according to her Wikipedia profile. Her birth name was "Toreson," and she used that name until 2007.
Best Known For: Playing the mama of all Cylons (or so she appears) on Caprica, the Battlestar Galactica that also stars fellow celebrity crush Magda Apanowicz; posting regularly on Twitter; and various lewd behavior and states of undress in the works of photographer/videographer Tyler Shields.
Humble Beginnings: She got a gig at age 8 or 9 doing interviews between cartoons on The WB and appeared in some kids fare -- Even Stevens, a made-for-Disney movie called Going to the Mat and Malcolm in the Middle -- as well as appearing on more grown-up fare such as JAG and Arrested Development before she was 18.

Obligatory Edgy Stuff: Her appearance as a nude Eve-type figure -- complete with apple -- in promos for Caprica raised eyebrows. And, like I said, the Tyler Shields stuff shows her wild side.
Why Ye Olde Podcaster Likes Her: She pulls off two characters on Caprica -- dead poor-little-rich girl Zoe (mainly in flashbacks) and an artificial intelligence based on Zoe that initially exists in cyberspace and is later trapped inside a Cylon body. And her mix of brattiness, zealotry, foolhardiness and growing compassion -- at least the artificial Zoe -- is fascinating to watch. Plus, her exhibitionist streak.
Credits: Caprica - Season 1 (Amazon | iTunes) * Caprica pilot (unrated) (Amazon | iTunes) * CSI, Season 9 - Turn, Turn, Turn (Amazon | iTunes) * Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Season 1 - The Turk (Amazon | iTunes) * Bones, Season 3 - The Santa in the Slush (Amazon | iTunes) * The War at Home - The Bigger They Come (Amazon | iTunes)

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Name: Karen Gillan
Hometown: Inverness, Scotland, according to her Wikipedia profile.
Best Known For: A small, character-driven English program called Doctor Who, barely noticed here in America. I'm not sure why she's on this list. (But I should also note that the childhood version of her character on that show was played by a cousin named Caitlin Blackwood.)

Just kidding. Doctor Who is going gangbusters, and her red hair and jaw-dropping legs -- plus some decent comedic timing and eyes I choose to call "expressive," rather than characterizing them as "buggy" as my friend Kelly does -- were a major part of the appeal of the rebuilding season five of the modern series. (We'll hope the writing picks up some next year -- if Neil Gaiman's script makes it to air in there, that will help.)
Humble Beginnings: Urm ... well ... she went from modeling to ensemble sketch comedy to one of the biggest science fiction shows in the world in the space of about three years.

She appeared in the fourth (modern) series of Doctor Who, actually, playing an oracle at Pompeii in an adventure featuring Tenth Doctor David Tennant and Catherine Tate as his companion, before landing the gig as companion to Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor.

Obligatory Edgy Stuff: A few artsy lingerie photos are out there, and like I said at Facebook: Somewhere in the midst of The Doctor's travels with Amy Pond, I'm convinced they will encounter a Texas blues-rock band called ZZ Top in the late 1970s or early 1980s, leading to a song called "Legs." We might never see it on camera, but it would explain that tune's existence and indeed, that entire phase of their career.
Why Ye Olde Podcaster Likes Her: She's a young actress, just getting started, so I give her a little slack for the less than perfect moments. The red hair and those legs are probably clouding my perception a bit, but I embrace my male weak-mindedness.
Credits: Doctor Who, Season 5 (Amazon | iTunes) * New Town Killers (Amazon | iTunes) * Doctor Who, Season 4 - The Fires of Pompeii (Amazon | iTunes) * Harley Street - Pilot (Amazon | iTunes) * Rebus, Series 3 - Question of Blood (Amazon | iTunes)

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Name: Lucy Griffiths
Hometown: The English city of Brighton, according to her Wikipedia profile.
Best Known For: Griffiths is mainly known in America -- to the extent she's known at all -- for playing Marian on the most recent TV series based on the legend of Robin Hood. Her Marian was strong-willed, smart, and in many ways the best part of the series -- especially in her scenes with Jonas Armstrong's Robin Hood and, perhaps even more so, with Richard Armitage's Sir Guy of Gisborne.

After her departure from Robin Hood at the end of its second season, she appeared in a TV miniseries, Collision, that aired in America on the PBS series Masterpiece. She's also done a lot of theatre work.
Humble Beginnings: Children's theatre work included chorus appearances in Otello and La Boheme. Pre-Robin Hood TV work included the supernaturally tinged thriller series Sea of Souls.
Why Ye Olde Podcaster Likes Her: As I said: Her acting on Robin Hood impressed, especially playing the triangle between Marian and Robin and Guy. She also rocked the corset at about an 11 on a scale of 1 to 10.

But she was also quite credible as a rest stop waitress trapped in a loveless engagement in Collision, and there was nary a corset in sight, so I'm pretty sure I judged THAT performance purely on the acting.
Credits: Collision (Amazon | iTunes) * Robin Hood, Series 3 (Amazon | iTunes) * Robin Hood, Series 2 (Amazon | iTunes) * Robin Hood, Series 1 (Amazon | iTunes) * Sugar Rush, Series 2 (Amazon | iTunes)