- See Dupree for other articles with titles that contain, either by relationship or by coincidence, this character's surname.
Gilla Dupree was a 23rd century Human woman, a well-known senso-artist. Commander Spock equated her skill in the dramatic arts to those of William Shakespeare and Leo Tolstoy.
Biography[]
Dupree was raised in the pacifist Jain faith, which included being a vegetarian and wearing a surgical mask. She mastered the complex art of the senso-drama, composing Birth of a Living Star, a stunning three-hour performance of symphony and holographic art. By the 2260s decade, she had become a noted celebrity.
In the 2260s, Dupree's father Jacob Kell disappeared, rumored to be living in the Klingon Empire. She left Earth to reside on Luna, where she kept a small garden.
By the late 2260s, she'd developed an incurable tumor, and badly wanted to see her father before she died. A merchant named Merkle spotted Kell on the quarantined planet Heartland in the year 2269 and passed that information along to her at Starbase 13, where she also met Captain James T. Kirk and Commander Spock. Kirk was willing to help, and offered to take her to Heartland aboard the Federation starship USS Enterprise to retrieve Kell.
During the mission, Kirk and Dupree become romantically involved. Kell and the local Danons were under the mental control of a complex Great Machine which offered a type of social immortality to those who joined its consciousness. She made a deal with the intelligence that she would stay in exchange for freeing Kell, Kirk, and other crewmembers. It accepted, unaware that she had less than a month to live. (TOS novel: Devil World)
