She has told the story many times. Also in her autobiography Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories it came by again. Actress, dancer, singer and space lobbyist Nichelle Nichols, better known to many fans as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, member of the very first science fiction series crew, died on Sunday, July 30 at the age of 89. Star Trek (79 episodes from 1966 through 1969), got an offer to do a Broadway show; her big dream.
For that, she had to hand in her role in one of the most popular television shows. A role that also paved the way for her as one of the first black actresses to star on American television. And then also in an authoritative role on the bridge of the Enterprise, the starship Star Trekwhere creator Gene Roddenberry had created a future society where discrimination was a thing of the past and humans faced alien civilizations with an open mind: to boldly go where no man has gone before!
Nichols reported her impending departure to Roddenberry, who asked if she would at least think about it for a weekend. That weekend, Nichols was a guest at a NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) banquet where she was told a fan wanted to meet her. “I thought it was a Trekkie,” she wrote in her autobiography. ‘Trekkies’ is to this day the nickname of the army of avid fans of Star Trek. But the Trekkie in question was Dr. Martin Luther King, who, when he heard that she wanted to give up the role of Uhura, urged her to stay on board anyway, if only to continue playing the role model for black children and young women.
Classic television moment
There is undoubtedly some myth-making to this anecdote, but it is clear that Nichols was a remarkable appearance on American television in the 1960s. Her elegant appearance, donned in the red mini version of the Starfleet costume will also have helped; a costume included in the collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington.
As a pioneer, she was also involved in a classic television moment often mistakenly referred to as “television’s first interracial kiss.” There were earlier moments, which have largely disappeared into the clutter of television history, but the kiss of Uhura with Captain Kirk (William Shatner) would forever ruin the reputation of Star Trek as a progressive show. Footnote to the kiss is that broadcaster NBC had cold feet, especially for the advertisers in the Deep South, but that the actors wanted to push through the scene. And there was a kind of back door built in, because in the episode Plato’s Stepchildren the actors were under the influence of alien telekinesis.
space travel
The primal cast of Star Trek (which is also in six Star Trekmovies between 1979 and 1991) could fill a career ending fan meetings, but Nichols devoted much of her time to a project to emancipate the space industry. Her organization Women in Motion successfully partnered with NASA to diversify astronaut recruitment. In old age she returned to the acting profession with a role in the long-running soap The Young and the Restlesswhich earned her an Emmy nomination.
President Biden in a statement called Nichelle Nichols a “pioneering” star, who had shown the country “a future where unity, dignity and respect are the cornerstones of any society.”