I am – Hercules!!

Whitney

Nichols

Will Rachel Nichols, the towering 27-year-old former model who played the neo-Sydney in the final season of J.J. Abrams’ “Alias,” assay Janice Rand in Abrams’ new “Star Trek” movie?

From Wednesday’s Toronto Sun:

And next Christmas Nichols will board the starship Enterprise in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot, which chronicles the early adventures of a young Capt. Kirk and Mr. Spock. News broke last week that Nichols was joining the cast of the uber-secretive project.

"I'm very restricted on what I'm allowed to say," she says. "But yes, there's a good chance you'll see my shining face in the new Star Trek ... My mom even e-mailed me about it because she saw it (online) and I hadn't told her yet. There's a lot of buzz about it, but honestly, I don't even know the name of my character."

A trivial bit of casting rumor, perhaps, but fans shouldn’t forget that in the earliest episodes of “Star Trek,” Rand (played by dreamy Grace Lee Whitney) was the series’ lead female character; in the first half of season one she probably got more lines than than Scotty, Sulu and Uhura combined!