Nyota Uhura

Uhura is a character from the fictional Star Trek universe who was played by Nichelle Nichols. She appears in Star Trek: The Original Series and the first six Star Trek movies as the communications officer on the starships Enterprise (NCC-1701 and NCC-1701-A). The character is also notable for her involvement in the first televised interracial kiss on United States television (TOS: "Plato's Stepchildren"). This was not broadcast for several years after it was filmed.

Starfleet career

Template:Spoiler Uhura is from the United States of Africa and apparently a speaker of Swahili (TOS: "The Man Trap"). James Blish's non-canon novelizations—created from early versions of shooting scripts—identify her as Bantu, as does Gene Roddenbury’s novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Uhura appears in neither of the Star Trek pilots. The first episode shot to include her was "The Corbomite Maneuver".

She joined the crew of the USS Enterprise in 2266 as a lieutenant, serving as chief communications officer under the command of Captain James T. Kirk. She retains this post throughout the Enterprise's five-year mission and returns to it with a promotion to lieutenant commander in 2271 under the command of Willard Decker (Star Trek: The Motion Picture) and, later, Rear Admiral Kirk.

In 2284, Uhura had been promoted to commander while the Enterprise was reassigned for cadet training. Although not established in canon, Uhura presumably was assigned to Starfleet Command Communications and/or Starfleet Academy. She participates in an Enterprise training cruise that is sidetracked to deal with Khan Noonien Singh's highjacking of the USS Reliant and theft of Project Genesis material (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan). Her assignment to the transporter room at Old City Station enables her to beam Kirk, Leonard McCoy and Hikaru Sulu to the Enterprise so that they can steal the ship and recover Spock from the Genesis Planet (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock). Following the Enterprise's destruction, Uhura joins the rest of the crew on the hijacked Klingon Bird of Prey on a mission to save Earth by travelling through time to the 20th century in search of whales (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home). She and Pavel Chekov successfully obtain enough high-energy photons from the aircraft carrier Enterprise's nuclear reactor to recharge the ship's power supply and to complete the crew's mission.

Starfleet Command does not pursue action against Kirk's crew for their illegal activity, but Starfleet demotes Kirk himself to the rank of captain and assigns him command of the Enterprise-A. Uhura joins Kirk's crew and again serves as chief communications officer.

By 2293, Uhura had again taken up a position at Starfleet Academy. Her career following the decommissioning of the Enterprise-A that year are unknown.

In the non-canon novels "Vulcan's Heart" and "Catalyst of Sorrows", Admiral Uhura is head of Starfleet Intelligence in 2360.

Name

"Uhura" comes from the Swahili word Uhuru, which means "freedom". This is possibly an allusion on Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's part to the Uhuru African Socialist movement founded by Tanzanian leader Julius Nyerere, which attracted some U.S. citizens' attention during the 1960s. (In the early 20th century, "Uhura" is not normally a Kenyan girl's name.) Nichols states in several interviews and in her book Beyond Uhura that the name was inspired by the fact that she had with her a copy of the book Black Uhuru on the day she read for the part.

Uhura's first name, if she has one, has never been definitively established. Roddenberry stated that she only had one name: "Uhura". However, three non-canon names have been published as possible first names for Uhura: "Nyota", "(U)Penda", and "Samara".

Nyota

"Nyota", Swahili for "star", is the most quoted as Uhura's first name. The name appears in a Star Trek script from the 1960s, and is mentioned by William Shatner in his book Star Trek Memories.

Nichols says in her second-season Original Series DVD interview that a writer (identified in some books as William Rotsler) asked Roddenberry about Uhura's first name, and was told that one was never decided. The writer suggested the name "Nyota". Roddenberry liked it, but said to ask Nichols before he gave permission for the name to be used. Although the name has not appear in Star Trek canon, in many appearance at Star Trek and other genre conventions, Nichols has indicated that her preference that the character is "Nyota (U)penda Uhura".

Additionally, in "Star Trek II: Biographies" by William Rotsler, Uhura's first name is given as "Nyota", although this book is not canon, either.

Penda

The non-canon book The Best of Trek suggests that Uhura's first name is "Penda". The verb -penda means "to love" or "to like" in Swahili.

Samara

According to FASA's non-canon Star Trek RPG, Uhura's first name is "Samara".

External links

• Nyota Uhura at Memory Alpha