What does Uhura actually do in the movie?
So picturegames post about whether Uhura is a strong or weak character got me thinking, and it came out as something that I felt was too long for just a comment. Basically I looked at what scenes Uhura was in, and what order they came in, because I didn't come away from the movie thinking her role was all about Spock, and I think this is why.
So I’ve heard it stated over and over that most of Uhura’s role in the new movie was as Spock’s girlfriend, and there’s been much discussion over whether that makes her a strong or weak character, reliant on a man, etc. But I didn’t see the movie this way. Now I try very hard to protect my self from spoilers, so I went into the movie knowing nothing except that it was about the crew back in the Academy. So maybe that is part of why I viewed it so differently.
However I went back through my crappy bootleg version (will they release the DVD all ready, I want it!) and counted all the Uhura scenes. Now to be clear, I didn’t count scenes where she was just in the background. For instance when Kirk is brought up on charges for the Kobayashi Maru. She’s there but she’s not really part of the scene. She has to have dialogue for it to count. Also because of how they cut for actions, I'm sort of combining two scenes into scene 4 because they keep going from the bridge to Kirk and Sulu on the mining platform.
Now I may have missed some because I was just quickly scanning through my crappy bootleg but I came up with 7 Uhura scenes:
1: She meets Kirk in the bar.
2: She catches Galia and Kirk together
ETA: Missed one here. The Kobyashi Maru scene. Thanks beatrice_otter
3: She forces Spock to assign her to the Enterprise.
4: Kirk seeks her out to confirm the Klingon distress signal.
5: Spock leaves the bridge to save his parents.
6: The turbo lift.
7: The transporter room.
Guess what, the turbo life scene, the scene where we find out that Spock and Uhura are in a relationship, is scene number 6. It also happens 1 hour and 3 minutes into the movie (according to timer on my bootleg) and that’s in a movie that was 1 hour 57 minutes long. So basically the first half of the movie we have no idea that she’s in a relationship, we just know she’s not interested in Kirk. On the other hand it turns out that she doesn’t get much to do once the main action of the movie starts, other than being a love interest.
Her first two scenes are all about her rejecting Kirk. Now they definitely treat her as a love interest, in that Kirk is interested, but they show that she doesn’t simply swoon like almost all other female characters do when they meet Kirk. She may be an attractive woman, but she’s simply not interested in Kirk’s attentions.
Although you could argue that the movie is still treating her as a sex object, because they are showing us Kirk’s interest, I’d argue that they are presenting something that’s part of life for women. I mean just about every woman has been hit on by some guy she’s not interested in. That doesn’t go away just because you’re a professional or in the military.
Now the next three scenes we see her in, are all about work. Even though she isn’t a huge part of any of them, her actions are important. Even in the scene where Spock leaves the bridge to save his parents, which is the most minor of them from the stand point of Uhura’s lines, she is the one who he instructs to begin the evacuation of his home world. That a pretty huge responsibility, and again treats her as a professional, not as a love interest.
So Uhura’s story arc through the movie consists of two scenes where she rejects a potential love interest. Three scenes in which she operates primarily as another member of the crew, and then two final scenes where she is Spock’s love interest.
Of course once you know that she and Spock are a couple, it changes the first scenes. Maybe she isn’t rejecting Kirk because she’s just not interested, but because she already has a boyfriend. We now realize that Spock’s worries about showing favoritism are not just about a favorite student, but about his lover. And similarly we realize that when Uhura wonders why Spock is leaving the bridge, she is concerned about him because of their relationship.
But that’s all stuff we see once we know about the relationship. I think to be fair to the movie, you have to take stuff in the order it’s presented in. They chose to establish Uhura as a woman in her own right long before they revealed she was in a relationship. So I don’t think you can say her scenes were all about Spock.
So I’ve heard it stated over and over that most of Uhura’s role in the new movie was as Spock’s girlfriend, and there’s been much discussion over whether that makes her a strong or weak character, reliant on a man, etc. But I didn’t see the movie this way. Now I try very hard to protect my self from spoilers, so I went into the movie knowing nothing except that it was about the crew back in the Academy. So maybe that is part of why I viewed it so differently.
However I went back through my crappy bootleg version (will they release the DVD all ready, I want it!) and counted all the Uhura scenes. Now to be clear, I didn’t count scenes where she was just in the background. For instance when Kirk is brought up on charges for the Kobayashi Maru. She’s there but she’s not really part of the scene. She has to have dialogue for it to count. Also because of how they cut for actions, I'm sort of combining two scenes into scene 4 because they keep going from the bridge to Kirk and Sulu on the mining platform.
Now I may have missed some because I was just quickly scanning through my crappy bootleg but I came up with 7 Uhura scenes:
1: She meets Kirk in the bar.
2: She catches Galia and Kirk together
ETA: Missed one here. The Kobyashi Maru scene. Thanks beatrice_otter
3: She forces Spock to assign her to the Enterprise.
4: Kirk seeks her out to confirm the Klingon distress signal.
5: Spock leaves the bridge to save his parents.
6: The turbo lift.
7: The transporter room.
Guess what, the turbo life scene, the scene where we find out that Spock and Uhura are in a relationship, is scene number 6. It also happens 1 hour and 3 minutes into the movie (according to timer on my bootleg) and that’s in a movie that was 1 hour 57 minutes long. So basically the first half of the movie we have no idea that she’s in a relationship, we just know she’s not interested in Kirk. On the other hand it turns out that she doesn’t get much to do once the main action of the movie starts, other than being a love interest.
Her first two scenes are all about her rejecting Kirk. Now they definitely treat her as a love interest, in that Kirk is interested, but they show that she doesn’t simply swoon like almost all other female characters do when they meet Kirk. She may be an attractive woman, but she’s simply not interested in Kirk’s attentions.
Although you could argue that the movie is still treating her as a sex object, because they are showing us Kirk’s interest, I’d argue that they are presenting something that’s part of life for women. I mean just about every woman has been hit on by some guy she’s not interested in. That doesn’t go away just because you’re a professional or in the military.
Now the next three scenes we see her in, are all about work. Even though she isn’t a huge part of any of them, her actions are important. Even in the scene where Spock leaves the bridge to save his parents, which is the most minor of them from the stand point of Uhura’s lines, she is the one who he instructs to begin the evacuation of his home world. That a pretty huge responsibility, and again treats her as a professional, not as a love interest.
So Uhura’s story arc through the movie consists of two scenes where she rejects a potential love interest. Three scenes in which she operates primarily as another member of the crew, and then two final scenes where she is Spock’s love interest.
Of course once you know that she and Spock are a couple, it changes the first scenes. Maybe she isn’t rejecting Kirk because she’s just not interested, but because she already has a boyfriend. We now realize that Spock’s worries about showing favoritism are not just about a favorite student, but about his lover. And similarly we realize that when Uhura wonders why Spock is leaving the bridge, she is concerned about him because of their relationship.
But that’s all stuff we see once we know about the relationship. I think to be fair to the movie, you have to take stuff in the order it’s presented in. They chose to establish Uhura as a woman in her own right long before they revealed she was in a relationship. So I don’t think you can say her scenes were all about Spock.