UHURA

'Nyota Uhura', played by Nichelle Nichols, is a character in '' and the first six Star Trek films.
Uhura serves as the communications officer on the USS ''Enterprise'' and the USS ''Enterprise''-A.

Contents

Overview

Name

Impact

References

External links

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 ''.
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.'' ^[1]
Uhura continues to serve her post, with a promotion to lieutenant commander in 2271, under the command of Captain Willard Decker ('').
She later fulfills this role again, promoted to full commander, when circumstances place the crew in pursuit of Khan Noonien Singh in ''.
However, in '', Uhura takes an assignment at the transporter room at Old City Station. When her lone colleague there 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 (''). 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 '' and ''.

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. Roddenberry stated that she only had one name: "Uhura". 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".{Shoreleave 29,June 14 2007, during Nichols Q and A session.} 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"''. According to FASA's non-canon Star Trek RPG, Uhura's first name is "Samara".

Impact

Nichelle Nichols planned to leave ''Star Trek'' after its first season, but Martin Luther King, Jr. persuaded her to stay, stating that she was a role model for the African-American community.^[2] Whoopi Goldberg, who later played Guinan on '', identified the Uhura character as a role model for her.²
Dr. Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman to fly in the space shuttle was also inspired by Uhura.^[3]
In "Plato's Stepchildren", Uhura is involved in the first televised portrayal of an interracial kiss on United States television.

References

1. http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Barbara_Baldavin
2.
3. http://www.tv.com/nichelle-nichols/person/18959/biography.html

External links