Star Trek's Nichelle Nichols closes hailing frequencies
- Reference: 1659355212
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/08/01/nichelle_nichols_obituary/
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Born in 1932, her four-octave vocal range saw her perform with Duke Ellington at the tender age of 14 and sparked aspirations to become a singer. When the chance to act on TV came up, she saw it as a stepping-stone to an eventual Broadway career.
Then Star Trek happened. She wasn't the first woman of color on American TV screens, nor even the first in a prominent role. But she was the first who wasn't playing some form of domestic servant. As chief communications officer, Uhura was a respected member of the Enterprise bridge crew even if her character was lumbered with catchphrases regarding opening and closing "hailing frequencies."
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The character was nonetheless groundbreaking. As Whoopi Goldberg famously put it:
"I just saw a Black woman on the TV, and she ain't no maid."
The name of her Trek character – Lieutenant Uhura – was Nichols's suggestion. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry hadn't come up with a name for the character, and when Nichols met with him about the role she was reading a book called "Uhuru" — a Swahili word meaning "freedom." Roddenberry feminized it a bit by changing the final letter.
After a year on the show, Nichols felt she had enjoyed the experience but wanted to move on. Broadway, after all, was calling. No less a personage than Martin Luther King Jr persuaded her not to leave. He felt her presence on the show was crucial to the nascent Civil Rights movement, because it showed that women and African Americans could achieve anything.
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Uhura became the role of her lifetime.
Though the original Star Trek TV series lasted only three years, the show became a mainstay of syndication and a touchstone of popular culture. Nichols was also involved in the short-lived animated Star Trek series in 1973, and then returned for six feature films from 1979 to 1991. Her part in the movies expanded well beyond communications. A fan favourite moment is the scene in Star Trek III when she forces a young lieutenant into a closet at phaser-point so she can beam her crewmates aboard the Enterprise.
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[5]Youtube Video
Possibly her most frustrating scene was the moment in Star Trek VI when the Enterprise crew switches off the universal translator and tries communicating with Klingon sentries using phrasebooks. It's played for laughs, but Nichols was annoyed. She felt that after such a long and distinguished career as a Starfleet communications officer, Uhura would surely have been able to speak Klingon.
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Notably, in JJ Abrams' series of Star Trek films (in which Uhura is played by Zoe Saldana) and the prequel series Strange New Worlds (in which Uhura is played by Celia Rose Gooding) the character is a xenolinguist and fluent in multiple languages. Those versions of Uhura also have a first name — Nyota. It's also a Swahili word, meaning "star." As played by Nichols, the character never had a canonical first name.
We celebrate the life of Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek actor, trailblazer, and role model, who symbolized to so many what was possible. She partnered with us to recruit some of the first women and minority astronauts, and inspired generations to reach for the stars. [10]pic.twitter.com/pmQaKDb5zw — NASA (@NASA) [11]July 31, 2022
With Star Trek having made her more of an icon than an actor, major roles became hard to come by. However, she parlayed her status into helping NASA to inspire women and people of color into the space program. Among the notable astronauts who were drawn to NASA by Nichols's efforts were Guion Bluford (the first African-American astronaut), Sally Ride (the first female American astronaut), and Judith Resnik and Ronald McNair, who were both on board the Challenger shuttle when it exploded in 1986.
If and when NASA returns to the Moon in coming years, it anticipates that a woman will be the first to land on the surface. If that does come to pass — and especially if she is a woman of color — Nichelle Nichols will have undoubtedly played her part in making it happen.
Nichols' surviving son Kyle Johnson posted [12]news of his mother's death to Facebook.
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"Last night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and passed away. Her light however, like the ancient galaxies now being seen for the first time, will remain for us and future generations to enjoy, learn from, and draw inspiration." ®
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Re: A giant
Lt. Uhura's character was a professional woman who was also highly sexy while doing her job competently. Women still can't dress like that in a professional environment and it's almost sixty years later!
UK Born in 1966
watching Star Trek (nowadays ST:TOS :) ) - I never really noticed that Lt. Uhura was black.
RIP - just Kirk and Sulu left ....
Re: UK Born in 1966
Walter Koenig (Chekov) is still with us.
Re: UK Born in 1966
Correct - He's not chekedout yet..
Re: UK Born in 1966
I did. As a pimply 17 year old she was the first woman of colour I found attractive. Or more precisely, very attractive. More importantly intelligent and the equal of anyone on the bridge. A strong contrast to the long blonde women crew members out of central casting used to, presumably, add 'male interest' to the seines.
Sorry if that sounds condescending now - but it was revolutionary, for me, at the time. And Michelle's creation still lives on - Freeview 41 (Legend) tonight at 8pm!
Re: UK Born in 1966
I have to admit, Elizabeth Adare did it for me. But I was at an age where I didn't understand what the "it" was that was being done!
Re: UK Born in 1966
George Takei is still going and staying feisty also.
Re: UK Born in 1966
Born 1960
Same, I never really noticed that Lt. Uhura was black. I only realized that when, many decades later, it was mentioned as a breakthrough. That this was a breakthrough I still cannot comprehend.
Btw, US TV generally pictured people in various shades of green in PAL countries.
Re: UK Born in 1966
US TV generally pictured people in various shades of green in PAL countries
Is that why they call foreigners aliens?
:)
Are you sure you aren't thinking of Leslie Uggams? At least as far as the Deadpool part goes. Are you thinking of Blind Al?
Her light will shine out throughout the universe until the end of days. RIP. You will be greatly missed by so many around the world.
If I'm not mistaken, that was the only Star Trek scene to feature two actors in a closet.
Science fiction I can take or leave - well, leave, really. But to have sung with Ellington - that is special.
Terribly saddening.
Beautiful woman; strong, intelligent, caring, talented.
RIP
Nichell Nichols
Lt Uhura as a character was a breakthrough role on public television at the time. I was never a huge television junkie, primarily because we didn't have a TV when I was a kid, I became a book addict very young. Star Trek was an awesome show in my books because it took a concept of how humanity should work and put it on screen. Captain Kirk was purely there as an example of what was, being surrounded by what should be.
Later, as a teenager, I bagged the opportunity to go to a ST con here in T.O. In all honesty I can't recall how old I was at the time, but I was with several other folks who had paid to have a small room session with "Kirk" and "Bones" and "Scotty". All three of them dodged the meet and greet for some unknown to me now reason. We were discussing how utterly disappointed we were with the situation when she wandered by. She sat down on a bench and chatted with us for near enough 2 hours, about an enormous range of things from the show to her own life and the world as she saw it. The woman was a serious class act, and an amazing role model for young women in general.
/Salute
Sheldon: "I believe in a gender blind society like in Star Trek. Where women and men of all races and creeds worked side-by-side as equals."
Leonard: "You mean where they were advanced enough to develop an interstellar warp drive, but a black lady still answered the space phone?"
RIP MIchelle - You pushed back boundaries but we still have a long way to go.
A giant
It was great having her in a TV program like that as a kid. She's part of the mental furniture of my life and that's a great thing. I feel sure she helped break-down many doors for many people and I admire her immensly for it. RIP