PHOTO OF THE WEEK: "NYOTA UHURA"

 

Nyota Uhura was a fictional character in  the Star Trek franchise , created by Gene Roddenberry.  Uhura was first portrayed  by Nichelle Nichols in the original series  and reprised her role in the first six Star Trek films:  Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

Nyota Uhura, who served a lieutenant  (later Lieutenant Commander) and Chief Communications officer  on the USS Enterprise, was  a ground breaking T.V character as most actresses of colour at the time played demeaning roles of  slaves, maids and prostitutes; making her and Nichelle Nichols a huge inspiration to future African American actresses, notably Whoopi Goldberg who -on seeing her for the first time as Uhura- exclaimed, "I just saw a black woman on television and she ain't no maid!" Many years later, Goldberg played the character, Guinan in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Next Generations and  Star Trek Nemesis. A young version of Uhura as a cadet  was played by Zoe Saldana in Star Trek (2009),  Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013) and Star Trek Beyond (2016); and by Celia Rose Gooding in the  2022 prequel series, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

 After hearing from Nichols she was planning to leave the show after Season 1, Martin Luther King Jr. dissuaded her, "You cannot do that, for the first time, we are being seen the world over as as we should be seen." 

Nichelle Nichols passed away on the 30th of July, 2022, at the age of 89. May she rest in peace.