I was so sorry to hear about the passing of Nichelle Nichols. She was definitely the coolest woman on #StarTrek (back in the days before you had to add TOS). She was someone you wanted to grow up to be.
Lt. Uhura was a strong role model, far more so than most of the other women portrayed on The Original Series.
Mr Roddenberry had tried to create a strong woman First Officer in his original concept, but that idea was too progressive even for the 1960s, so it was killed by the NBC brass.
I think Uhura was allowed to get away with being a strong woman precisely because she wasn’t one of the series’ three primary characters. She didn’t have to be a potential love interest for the Captain, (like Yeoman Rand) or the First Officer (like Nurse Chapel).
Instead, she was clearly her own woman, professional and competent. Being drop dead gorgeous, Lt. Uhura could even carry off that ridiculously sexist Star Trek uniform. But you didn’t have to see Mirror, Mirror to know nobody would dare put the moves on her without her permission.
Yet there was no doubt Lt. Uhura had a softer side when she cooed over a Tribble, or sang a song to cheer up Lt. Riley. And although she undoubtedly had a romantic life, it was nobody’s business but her own.
Much is made about “the first interracial kiss” in American prime time. Yet something I’ve never heard or read anyone talk about was the fact it was not a romantic kiss, or even voluntary.
Yet it wasn’t an ordinary case of a sexual harassment. Lt Uhura and Captain Kirk were forced to kiss by the kinetic power of a malevolent alien, and both actors played it that way. No doubt it was handled this way to get it past the network censors.
But for an older me, when I watched this episode again in reruns, what got my attention was the demonstration that sexual assault was more about power than sex.
When Nichelle Nichols came into the role of Lt Uhura, you’d never know she was a singer, not an actor. Her acting was flawless.
In the whole series, the only thing that came out of her mouth that didn’t ring true was the line from The City On The Edge of Forever, “Captain, I’m frightened.”
Not because Uhura wouldn’t have been afraid at a time anyone would have been, but because saying it aloud was totally out of character for the always professional Star Fleet officer. But even as a kid I recognized it as classic stereotyping and didn’t blame her for it.
Later as a young adult, working with my friend running the Canadian Trekkies Association and publishing two issues of our Canektion fanzine, I learned Nichelle Nichols didn’t just inspire women through her acting, in her later work she actively helped NASA recruit POC and women.
Nichelle Nichols was a real inspiration, even for little white girls like me growing up in the 1960s. She showed us women’s work could be whatever we wanted it to be.
She will be missed.
