Nyota Uhura

Uhura, played by Nichelle Nichols, is a character in Star Trek: The Original Series and the first six Star Trek films. She is significant as one of the first major black characters on an American television series and one of the few who were not domestic servants. In the 2009 film, she will be portrayed by actress Zoë Saldaña.

Uhura serves as the communications officer on the USS Enterprise and the USS Enterprise-A.

Overview

Uhura is from the United States of Africa and speaks Swahili (Star Trek episode: "The Man Trap"). James Blish's non-canon novels identifies her as Bantu, as does Gene Roddenberry's novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Uhura first appears in the episode "The Corbomite Maneuver". She joins the crew of the USS Enterprise in 2266 as a lieutenant, serving as chief communications officer under Captain James T. Kirk. Inexplicably, she is replaced by Lieutenant Lisa in the communications officer chair in the final episode, Turnabout Intruder.

Uhura continues to serve her post, with a promotion to lieutenant commander in 2271, under the command of Captain Willard Decker (Star Trek: The Motion Picture).

She later fulfills this role again, promoted to full commander, when circumstances place the crew in pursuit of Khan Noonien Singh in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

However, in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Uhura takes an assignment at the transporter room at Old City Station. When her lone colleague; known as Mr. Adventure by Star Trek fans (played by Scott McGinnis) begins to condescendingly wonder why Uhura would take such a dull assignment at "the hind-end of space", her true motives for doing so are revealed. After locking her colleague in a closet, Uhura uses the transporter station 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. As planned, Uhura later meets up with her crewmates on Vulcan and witnesses Spock's successful renewal.

Following these events and the destruction of the USS Enterprise, Uhura joins her crewmates on a stolen Klingon ship, intending to return home and face their punishment. However, a crisis affecting Earth leads Uhura and her crewmates into saving their home planet by traveling back in time to the 20th century. They determine that they must locate, capture, and deliver humpback whales to the 23rd century in order to re-populate the species (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home). During their trip to 20th century San Francisco, Uhura and Pavel Chekov succeed in their mission to infiltrate the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, then use the carrier's nuclear reactor to recharge their Klingon vessel's power supply. Once this task is complete, and Kirk and Spock procure the whales, the crew returns to the 23rd century and saves Earth.

In light of their heroics, Starfleet Command exonerates Uhura and the rest of Kirk's crew for their illegal activities. Kirk is demoted to the rank of captain, however, but is assigned to command the USS Enterprise-A. Uhura joins Kirk's crew, and once again continues to serve as chief communications officer throughout the events of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

Name

"Uhura" comes from the Swahili word uhuru, which means "freedom". Nichols states 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. However, three names have been suggested as possible first names for Uhura: "(U)Penda", "Nyota" and "Samara".

Although the name has not appeared in the Star Trek canon, in many appearances at Star Trek conventions, Nichols has indicated that the character is "Nyota (U)penda Uhura".[] The non-canon book "The Best of Trek" suggests that Uhura's first name is "Penda", coined when a group of fanzine authors suggested it to her at an early convention. When writing the licensed tie-in, "Star Trek II Biographies" for Pocket Books, author William Rotsler contacted Nichelle Nichols and sought her approval for using the name "Nyota", and this name started appearing in original Star Trek novels, such as "Uhura's Song" by Janet Kagan. That "Nyota" is the Swahili word for "star" is mentioned by William Shatner in his book, "Star Trek Memories". Startrek.com uses the name Nyota on their character biography page for the Animated Series but not on the TOS biography page. According to FASA's Star Trek RPG, Uhura's first name is "Samara"

In "Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country" Uhura's name is misspelled in the credits. It is spelled Uhuru.

Impact

Nichelle Nichols planned to leave Star Trek in 1967, after its first season, but Martin Luther King, Jr. persuaded her to stay, stating that she was a role model for the black community. Whoopi Goldberg, who later played Guinan on Star Trek: The Next Generation, identified the Uhura character as a role model for her.

In "Plato's Stepchildren", Uhura is involved in an early TV portrayal of an interracial kiss. This is frequently misremembered as "first televised portrayal of an interracial kiss on United States television" even though it took place after Sammy Davis, Jr. and Nancy Sinatra had openly kissed on the variety program Movin' With Nancy in December 1967.

Uhura/Nichelle Nichols is spoofed as Tawny Madison/Gwen Di Marco in Galaxy Quest. Leicester City manager Ian Holloway has also paid homage to the character, stating "I had a massive crush on her when I was little - I think we all did. She was built to last!"

Dr. Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman to fly the space shuttle, has also cited Uhura as an enormous influence. [1]

Other Media

Lt. Uhura appeared in the Robot Chicken episode "The Munnery" voiced by Sarah Silverman. She is one of the survivors of the Enterprise's explosion only to be killed and devoured by Toby the Redshirt.

External links

• Nyota Uhura at Memory Alpha