The Ladies of Star Trek

Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant/Lieutenant Commander Nyota Uhura

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Lieutenant/Lieutenant Commander Nyota Uhura, Chief Communications Officer of the USS Enterprise NCC 1701 and NCC 1701-A.  Lieutenant Uhura was born in 2239 in the United States of Africa, on Earth, a member of the Bantu tribe.  Her last name is derived from uhuru, which means "freedom" in Swahili, her native tongue.   Her first name, Nyota, means "star" in Swahili.  Star of Freedom.  Her father was a physician and her mother, M'Umbha, an artist.  She is a talented musician who likes to serenade her fellow crew members with song.  She was called "The Lovely Lady" by Cyrano Jones, the Tribble salesman in The Trouble with Tribbles.  She attended Starfleet Academy from 2257 to 2361, training in communications. Nyota was assigned to the USS Enterprise in 2266 as Chief Communications Officer under Captain James T. Kirk, where she served with distinction during the Enterprise’s entire five-year mission. It was not at all unusual to see Uhura rewire or repair her own communications board during a crisis. She also has a beautiful singing voice and has been known to entertain members of the crew with song, sometimes with Commander Spock accompanying her on the Vulcan harp, sometimes accompanying herself. She has shown some romantic interest in Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott "Scotty", the Chief Engineer, but she never pursued a relationship. Her mind (and memory) was wiped clean in 2267 by the space probe Nomad, and she spent considerable time being completely reeducated. Nyota was promoted to lieutenant commander in 2271 and assigned to Starfleet Academy cadet training and Starfleet Command communications when Captain Kirk was promoted to Admiral and assigned as Starfleet’s Director of Operations. She also participated in the refit of the USS Enterprise under Captain Wil Decker, Kirk’s hand-picked replacement. Commander Uhura, along with the rest of the original crew, rejoined the Enterprise when Kirk resumed command to combat V-Ger (Star Trek I: The Motion Picture). She remained on the Enterprise during the battle with Khan , the creation of the Genesis planet, and the loss of Captain Spock (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan), the theft of the Enterprise, the rescue of Genesis development team, and location of Spock’s body on the Genesis planet, the destruction of the Enterprise, and the theft of a Klingon Bird of Prey (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock), the exile on Vulcan and the return to Earth by way of the past to save Earth from the alien probe (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home), the search for , Shaka-Ri, the God-planet (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier), and the assassination of the Klingon chancellor, the imprisonment and rescue of Captain Kirk and Doctor McCoy, and the saving of the Khitomer Peace Conference (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

See Some Pictures of Nyota Uhura

Nichelle Nichols played Lieutenant Uhura for three seasons on television and Lieutenant Commander Uhura in the first six Star Trek feature films.  Nichelle, born in Robbins, Illinois, on 28 December 1936, grew up in the theater; acting, musicals, and ballet.  Her first professional job was in a big show in Chicago when she was 14.  Duke Ellington saw the show and liked her.   Later, when she was 17, he asked her to create a ballet for his new musical suite.   She did, and performed in it, and traveled with the show.  She also filled in when the singer got sick.  Gene Roddenberry gave Nichelle her first job in television, in a show called The Lieutenant, three years before Star Trek.  She and Gene had a brief, but intense affair around this time; a secret from everyone but them and Majel Barrett for many years.  Gene, determined to change the face of television, hired her and put her in Star Trek.  No one but his closest associates knew at that point.  He told network and studio executives after the first pilot that "I'm going to make a change on the bridge, in the command crew.  It's not a significant change.  I just want to add a little color."   They thought he was referring to the wardrobe, and tried to fire Nichelle when they found out the "color" was her skin, not the wardrobe.  Star Trek did change television; Nichelle and William Shatner as Captain Kirk shared the first interracial kiss on network television (Plato's Stepchildren).  Well, not actually.  The scene was shot with Kirk's back to the camera and there was no actual lip contact.  She became, as Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr, would later tell her, the inspiration for other black women (who were girls at that time); astronaut Doctor Mae Jemison and actress/comedienne Whoopi Goldberg, among others.  She became unhappy that her role consisted mainly of lines such as, "Hailing frequencies open, Sir," and told Gene Roddenberry that she was ready to leave the series, when she met Doctor King, who was a fan.  This meeting convinced her to stay.  He told her, "You must not leave your show.  Not only is there a little black boy or a little black girl who's looking and will be inspired, but there are all the people who are not our color who will see us for the first time.  You're more important to people who are not of color, because for the first time they will see us on an equal basis as we should be seen.  This is not a black role, and it's not a female role, and you do it with dignity.  You have opened a door that can never be closed again.  You have changed the face of television.  You cannot leave."  She went back and told Gene the story, and also told him she would stay.  Tears came to Gene's eyes and he said,  "Someone knows what I'm attempting.  God bless Doctor King."  Needless to say, Nichelle stayed with the series to the end and went on to join the cast in the first six feature films.  Nichelle Nichols is a great favorite at the many Star Trek conventions she attends.

See Some Photos of Nichelle Nichols

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