I Think I'm Getting Over My Biggest 'Strange New Worlds' Fear
Celia Rose Gooding's Uhura doesn't suck
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is playing in my “home” corner of Star Trek, you could say.
I fell in love with Star Trek at about the age of 10 years old, with reruns of the original series running on a seemingly endless loop on TV after school.
(The first episode which really made an impression on me? That would be “The Galileo Seven,” and the dramatic interplay between Leonard Nimoy's Spock and guest star Don Marshall's Lt Boma.)
So, needless to say, I should be absolutely thrilled about the new series, Strange New Worlds, seeing as it's set back in my “home” era, more or less.
And, for the most part, I absolutely am.
In particular, I'm so excited that we finally get to see Captain Pike, whom I very much regard as the all-around best captain of the Enterprise. (Yes, it's true that I have never really held either Jim Kirk or Bill Shatner in particularly high esteem. But that's certainly the subject for another time.)
We had already seen Anson Mount step into the shoes that the late Jeffrey Hunter had left as Captain Pike — and do so more than admirably during his run on Star Trek: Discovery.
Ditto Rebecca Romjin who more than proved — in the Short Treks episode “Q&A” — that she could well portray the role of Number One, originated by Majel Barrett.
And, although I had some initial misgivings in Ethan Peck's take on Spock, I think that he finally grew into the part. The result? While Leonard Nimoy will always be the definitive Spock, I do believe that Peck has made the Vulcan science officer his own.
Probably my biggest question mark — and deepest apprehension — involved Celia Rose Gooding and her takeover of the portrayal of Nyota Uhura.
I feel not only a deep affinity for the character of Uhura, but also for the actor who originated the role, Nichelle Nichols.
More than that, in recent years I have come to feel more than a little protective of Nichelle and her legacy.
There are several reasons for that, I suppose.
Like me, she's always been a “true believer,” in that she's believed in both the positive future which Star Trek has always represented, as well as the power of Star Trek itself to help lead us to that future.
She’s been — for decades — such a positive and inspiring role model for myself and generations of young women.
And, now at nearly 90 years old — after having given the world so much — she’s had to endure both a slide into dementia and an ugly conservatorship battle over her and her estate.
At any rate, I want to see things now done right by both Nichelle and the character that she spent so many years nurturing and bringing to life.
Much of the focus among fans in the difference between Nichelle and Gooding — too much, I would say — has been on the contrast in the hairstyles of the two women. Gooding wears her hair as a close crop, where Nichelle originally wore hers in the style typical of the 60s: bouffant style.
The hair thing is overdone — and kind of irrelevant — when you consider that Nichelle herself wore her hair differently as Uhura as the years progressed through the various Star Trek movies starring the original series cast.
It was a more typical 70s look in the first movie, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, in 1979; before evolving further through the 80s as Nichelle aged (well!) through middle age.
So, for me, the hair’s not really an issue.
But there are certain things which are at issue.
We know that that — although she didn't seem to have more to do on-screen during the original series, other than announce, “Hailing frequencies open, Captain” — that Uhura was visible enough for Dr Martin Luther King Jr to persuade Nichelle to stay with the series for the sake of the burgeoning civil rights movement at the time, when she was thinking about quitting.
In those three seasons, Uhura has only a handful of scenes which really define who she is as a woman, and a person.
Let's look at few of the most important — and one moment that Strange New Worlds writers and producers should never, ever repeat.
“Naked Time”
This first-season episode finds members of the crew overcome by an alien infection which causes them to substantially lower their inhibitions.
Lt Sulu, who’s always fancied himself a bit of a swashbuckler, enters the bridge shirtless and brandishing a rapier.
He grabs Uhura and shouts, “I’ll save you, fair maiden!” to which she dryly retorts, “Sorry, neither,” before wresting herself free from Sulu's grip.
I've always found it a little remarkable that a little quip like Uhura's would have made it on the air in the 1960s, but the fact is that — in that one short line — she declares her independence, pride in her ethnicity and the fact that as not a “maiden,” clearly her own woman.
“The Search for Spock”
This one is not from the series and rather from the third movie, but — in dealing with “Mr Fantasy” — Uhura demonstrates an easy sense of humor and a comfort in her own skin that she is not to be trifled with and can handle herself in danger when it presents itself.
“Charlie X”
This is from another first-season episode.
The specific story, in this case, is less important than the fact that before Star Trek, Nichelle enjoyed a very successful career as the great Duke Ellington's backup singer.
This is one of those times when Uhura enjoys a love of singing and music which comes directly from Nichelle's own experience.
And there's the moment for Uhura that we would all be better off forgetting.
It's from the otherwise classic episode, “City on the Edge of Forever.”
Uhura is a member of the landing party on the planet with the Guardian of Forever when a drug-induced Dr McCoy unintentionally changes time such that the Federation — and the Enterprise — cease to exist.
And, at one point, Uhura turns to Captain Kirk and says tentatively, “Captain, I’m frightened.”
That's the kind of sexist writing that might have gotten by in the mid 1960s, but no Starfleet officer — man or woman — is going to melt like that in front of their commanding officer.
The Uhura we see in Gooding is obviously much younger, and many of these character traits maybe have not yet had time to fully emerge and evolve.
However, Gooding ought to show us where these wonderful character traits and parts of Uhura's personality come from.
She seems to be on her way; she’s certainly got the singing covered.
Gooding's own professional background includes musical theatre on Broadway, and she's already let us see Uhura humming a tune in the second episode of Strange New Worlds, “Children of the Comet.”
So, with all of this, my trepidation has turned to anticipation: I can't wait to see where Cadet Uhura goes next!
Hailing frequencies open….
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