Nichelle Nichols (In Memoriam 1932-2022) and Her Implicit Connections to a Larger Discussion of Diversity, Science, and Speculative Fiction

     Truly, honor is due to the late, great Nichelle Nichols.  Born December 28, 1932 in Robbins, IL.  Nichols passed recently on Saturday, July 30th.  Honestly, this website would not exist without her presence in the original Star Trek television series, where she played the incomparable Nyota Uhura, one of the first—and now quite popular—images of an African/Person of African-descent in SciFi.   
   

    When Star Trek aired in September of 1966, it had an ambitious vision.  First, it was an important technicolor endeavor for Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball’s Desilu Productions, and over the decades, it has become one of their most popular shows.  The list includes I Love Lucy, Mission Impossible, Mannix, and The Untouchables--with Star Trek, of course, reigning at the top in syndication (Lucy Desi Museum).  Second, Star Trek aired on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC).  With its iconic peacock logo—appearing in 1956 (CGHNCY)—which was apropos for its technicolor features, Star Trek, ostensibly, fit quite neatly into a niche that both Desilu and NBC were forging, innovative television programming that could also embrace multiculturalism while presenting powerful leading ladies.  Such efforts were obvious in the comedic antics at play in Lucy’s relationship with her Cuban husband, Ricky (I Love Lucy),[NOTE1] important and successful depictions that persisted in Mission Impossible and its cast of diverse action heroes:  Cinnamon Carter (Barbara Bain), Jim Phelps (Peter Graves), and Barney Collier (Greg Morris), for example.[NOTE2]  In addition, NBC—with its peacock insignia—included shows with stunning sets and colorful costuming.  Again, Star Trek led, in this respect, capturing diversity as an ideal with the  Federation of Planets representing all nations on the earth along with interstellar species and the crew wearing color-coded uniforms.  Another, visually thrilling text was the original Batman series:  with its cadre of visually distinct villains, examples being the Joker (chalk-white skin), Penguin (wobbly, round-figure), and Catwoman (played by a Black woman, Eartha Kitt, in the last season).  Arguably, Kitt’s rendition laid the foundation for the 2004 film, starring Halle Berry, and Zoe Kravitz’s reprisal of the antihero in the recent, 2022, film, The Batman, starring Robert Pattison.[NOTE3]  Irrefutably, Kitt’s Catwoman (debuting in 1968) and Nichols’s Uhura (first seen on tv screens in 1966) are muses to many.  (For more information, see Catwoman discussion in Chapter Two of Jeffrey-Legette's Watch It!.) 


    These are the first, enduring renderings of Black women in speculative roles, and just as they have been inspirational to me, I have no doubt that others have been inspired by their legacies:  writing Speculative Fiction (SF) for the page, the screen and the stage;  pursuing careers in theatre/performance;  arduously working behind the scenes as directors, producers, costumers, etc.; and even compiling individuals to not only consider but seek experiences in S.T.E.A.M. fields as animators, engineers, architects, physicists, and the like.  In this regard, it is so very important to remember Nichols’s training as a singer, dancer, and actress, as well as her efforts to recruit for NASA (uhura.com).  I am reminded of the astronauts who have trained for and/or have actually endeavored to “go (or do) what no [hu]man has done before!”  I smile when visualizing her face and thinking about how pivotal Uhura was, whose very presence advocated for greater media representation, in an industry that could reflect the experiences of People of Color, women, other marginalized groups, especially when imagining the future.  In a retrospective, Nichols wrote:  “the universe of Star Trek…lay the groundwork for what we might actually achieve by the 23rd Century,” “…[a] vision of a bright future for humanity,” one that was initially a “fantasy” but something she was able to help conceive and develop when portraying Uhura (uhura.com).  Now, it is not uncommon to imagine People of Color traveling to space, nor is it unusual to see their innovations behind the scenes, working for NASA or appearing on shows like Nova, The Discovery Channel, National Geographic, and the like, sharing insights about current and developing S.T.E.M. innovations.[NOTE4]  I think about the plethora of female writers who have developed interstellar tales with African-descended leading ladies and men (ex., Okorafor’s Binti).  I see the faces of actors, producers, and directors who are broadening the nature of visual narratives (ex., Duvernay’s A Wrinkle in Time).  What a sphere of influence?  What tremendous dividends for a life lived well! Yet, what might have transpired had Uhura not been written or if Nichols had left the part, as she initially desired?

    Many of us have heard about her encounter with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1967 at a fundraiser in Beverley Hills for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (N.A.A.C.P.).  Days before this chance meeting, Nichols had given her letter of resignation to Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek’s creator.  She was frustrated by the underdeveloped character, who was silent in far too many of the first season’s episode,[NOTE5] and she was ready to return to her first love, a passion for music and Broadway/ live theater.  Disheartened, Roddenberry took the letter, without accepting her resignation, and asked her to take the weekend to reconsider and talk with him the following Monday.  He wanted her to comprehend his vision for Star Trek:  “You can’t, Nichelle. Don’t you see what I’m trying to do here?”  At the N.A.A.C.P. event, Nichols met King, “her biggest fan,” and it was in this moment Roddenberry’s hesitation resounded with her.  King expressed:  

          "Don’t you see what this man is doing..? This is the future. He has established us 
          as we should be seen…. When we see you, we see ourselves, and we see ourselves as 
          intelligent and beautiful and proud.” “Three hundred years from now, we are here[, 
          so we keep] marching. And this is the first step….You turn on your television and
          the news comes on and you see us marching and peaceful, you see the peaceful civil 
          disobedience, and you see the dogs and see the fire hoses, and we all know they 
          cannot destroy us because we are there in the 23rd century.” 
          (“Nichelle Nichols Remembers Dr. King”)

    So, today, I salute Nichelle Nichols, a trained performer, who took a chance with a forward-thinking show, sponsored by a diversity-minded production company, that aired on an innovative broadcasting platform.  Even though the original Star Trek series only debuted for three years, Gene Roddenberry’s imagination created a franchise that continues to garner favor with viewers.  Currently, Paramount+ carries two spinoffs:  Star Trek:  Picard and Star Trek: Discovery (in its fourth season).  What better way to pay homage to Nichols and the legacy of Uhura’s character than to have the Star Trek series finally debut a Black female lead in Michael Burnham?!?! 

    For the reasons stated above, I had to acknowledge Nichols’s extraordinary contribution to Black SF, not only for me as a fan and scholar, but also as an educator, who, for the past three years, has had students complete research projects on African-descended actors/characters in the Star Trek franchise.  I am indebted to them, from whom I learned much about Nichols/Uhura and her enduring legacy. 


Works Cited 
“About Nichelle.  Uhura.com.  Nichelle Nichols.  https://uhura.com/about/.  Accessed 8 August 2022.

“Actresses Who Have Played Catwoman Through the Years.”  People.com.  Dotdash Meredith.                  September 1, 2022.  https://people.com/movies/actresses-who-have-played-catwoman/.  Accessed     5 August 2022.

Batman:  The Original TV Series.  Creator Lorenzo Semple Jr., William Dozier. With Adam West, Burt Ward, Alan Napier, Neil Hamilton.  1966-1968.

“Desilu Studios History.”  Lucy Desi Museum.  2022.  https://lucy-desi.com/desilu-studios-history/.  Accessed 1 August 2022.

“The Development of Radio.”  American Experience.  Public Broadcasting Station.  WGBH Educational Foundation.  1996-2022.  https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/rescue-development-radio/.  Accessed 5 August 2022.

“Elaan of Troysius Turns 50.”  Star Trek.com. CBS Studios Inc., Paramount Pictures Corporation, and CBS Interactive Inc.,  2022.  https://www.startrek.com/article/elaan-of-troyius-turns-50.  Accessed 10 August 2022.

“The Fabric of the Cosmos: Quantum Leap.”  Director Brian Greene.  Nova.  Public Broadcasting Station.  WGBH Educational Foundation, 1996-2022.  https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/the-fabric-of-the-cosmos-quantum-leap/.  Accessed 8 August 2022.

I Love Lucy.  Creator Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.  1951-1957.

Mannix.  Creator Richard Levinson and William Link.  1967-1975.

Mission Impossible.  Creator Bruce Geller.  1966-1973.

“Mission Impossible.”  Paramount+.  Paramount, 2022.  https://www.paramountplus.com/shows/                mission-impossible/.  Accessed 6 August 2022.

“National Broadcasting Company.”  Cgynyc.com.   Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv.    
    https://cghnyc.com/work/project/nbc.  Accessed 5 August 2022.

“Nichelle Nichols Remembers Dr. King.”  Startrek.com.  CBS Studios Inc., Paramount Pictures                 Corporation, and CBS Interactive Inc., 2022.  https://www.startrek.com/news/nichelle-nichols-            remembers-dr-king.  Accessed 8 August 2022. 

“NOVA Universe Revealed: Alien Worlds.”  Nova.  Public Broadcasting Station.  WGBH Educational Foundation. 1996-2022.  https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/?                            s=“NOVA%20Universe%20Revealed:%20Alien%20Worlds.” Accessed 8 August 2022.

“NOVA Universe Revealed:  Black Holes.”  Nova.  Public Broadcasting Station.  WGBH Educational Foundation. 1996-2022.  https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/?                            s=“NOVA%20Universe%20Revealed:%20%20Black%20Holes.”  Accessed 8 August 2022.

Okorafor, Nnedi.  Binti.  Tordotcom, 2015.  

Star Trek:  Discovery.  Creators Bryan Fuller; Alex Kurtzman.  2017-2022.

Star Trek:  The Original Series.  Creator Gene Roddenberry.  1966-1969.

Star Trek:  Picard.  Creators Akiva Goldsman; Michael Chabon; Kirsten Beyer; Alex Kurtzman,                 2020-2022.

The Untouchables.  1959-1963.

A Wrinkle in Time.  Director Ava Duvernay.  Legend3D, Walt Disney Pictures, Whitaker EntertainmentI, 2018.

Endnotes
1 I Love Lucy debuted in 1951 and ran for six seasons (Lucy Desi Museum).  Ironically, spanning a transition in American Popular Culture from the Golden Age of radio (late 1920s to the early 1950s) to the watching of colorized programming on televisions sets at home as a daily pastime.  (The Development of Radio)


2 The original Desilu Mission Impossible ran for seven seasons, from 1966 until 1972 (“Mission Impossible”).


3 Julie Newmar was first cast in the role, appearing in the televised show for the first two seasons.  She was followed by Lee Meriwether, who carried the part in the first, Batman featured film.  However, in the final season of the tv show, Kitt was imfamous villainess.  (“Actresses who have played Catwoman Through the Years”)


4 I want to call attention to shows like “Nova Universe Revealed:  Black Holes,” “NOVA Universe Revealed: Alien Worlds,” “The Fabric of the Cosmos: Quantum Leap” and the cast of scientists/astrophysicist contributing to the content:  Hakeem Oluseyi (George Mason University), Tana Joseph (University of Amsterdam), Sylvester James Gates (Brown University).


5 If you don’t recall the token ways in which Uhura was initially depicted, rewatch some of these earlier episodes.  It is impossible to ignore the ways in which director’s framed Nichols/Uhura in various scenes, even though the focus was not on her.  Rather, attention was directed towards Captain Kurt and his antics/adventures.  However, Uhura was consistently positioned behind (or near) the Captain’s chair, or she was framed in the scene another way.  Even with the dearth of speech, her presence was absolute and her placement in the chain of command, as the lead Communications Officer, underscored her value as more than a pretty face.  Thus, her inclusion in landing party missions and the development of Uhura’s character and culture in subsequent seasons was not only apropos but welcomed.  I think about the “Elaan of Troyius” episode (Season 3-Episode 13), for example, where African masks, tapestries, and other artifacts are on display in her quarters.

---