Beyond Uhura Book Club! Part II
Ok, we're gonna backtrack a little bit to talk in more detail about the Star Trek audition.
The Star Trek Audition
As recumbentgoat said, her agent had to bribe her to come to the audition in the first place. She was having a good time on vacation in Paris and didn't want to fly back for a part she might not get. Her agent bribed her with a first class plane ticket back to Paris if she didn't get the part. Now that's a good agent ;o)
She flew back and showed up to the audition in her Euro-chic outfit consisting a Chanel suit, dramatic makeup, and Euro-afro, which is an afro with pointy side burns and a widow's peak. She realized she wass a bit out of place with all the side eyes she gets. Since auditions can apparently take a long time, she brought an bestselling African treatise called Uhuru, which I couldn't find, to read.
She's called in ahead of everyone else that was all ready there, lol. She's surprised Gene is there, since her agent never mentioned it. The panel told her they hadn't really decided on how the character she was auditioning for should go and had her read for Spock. She skimed the script and noticed Spock's lines are kind dry, so she asked for information about the character. The panel told her that part had been cast, and she was all like I need something to go on so I can be like her. They told her Spock was male, with green blood and pointy ears. She all uh, yeah... no one can act green blood and pointy ears, I'll just read this part as a female. None of the previous actresses had asked any detailed questions about the character, so they keep prompting her to continue. She politely said "I can play this part any way from Marilyn Monroe to Sojourner Truth. If I know what the character is like, you can see if I can act and take direction." and started the read.
After she was done someone quipped they should see if Nimoy had signed his contract yet, which a black female Spock?, OMG what might have been! Then they asked her to wait somewhere else and promptly forgot about her, jackasses. She continued reading Uhuru not getting her hopes up high, and over an hour later one of the producers popped in asking her what she was still doing there. She's all duh, you told me to wait. The producer was all my bad, no one told you. She's all nope no one told me anything, while preparing for rejection and a nice plane ride to Paris. And then he says "Come on, big talent. You got the role when you first walked into the room. Let's go to lunch." I hope she made him pay for lunch for making her wait all that time!
Bullshit Nichelle Didn't Know About Until After the Show Was Canceled
The network told Gene to get rid off Uhura because she was black and had a significant role, which Gene refused to do. The studio illegally refused to honor the contract, so Gene and her agents decided to made her a day worker instead of a contract worker and increased the scope of her role. Nichelle was really hurt and pissed off to be seemingly paid like an extra because of racism, but she eventually realized how Gene socked it to the network. The network paid out and she made out with a lot more money because of the wage structure. It sounds like she got paid hourly, and she was among the first to arrive and last to leave.
Uhura's Character Development
Gene and Nichelle created Uhura together.
-Uhura is derived from the Swahili word Uhuru meaning freedom
-she is head of Communications aboard the Enterprise, which means she commands a corps of unseen communications technicians, linguists, and other specialists that work in the "comm-center"
-she is a linguistics scholar and top graduate of Starfleet Academy
-she was a protegee of Spock, whom she admired for his daring, his intelligence, his stoicism, and especially his logic.
-supposedly there was an outline for where Uhura grew up, who her parents were, and why she was chosen for the Enterprise's five year mission
-Uhura is Nichelle's great^7 granddaughter ;ob
Bullshit Nichelle Had To Put Up With While On The Show
-The security guards refused to let her in through the main gate after Grace Lee Whitney (Yeoman Rand) left the show.
-Some studio assistant said to her face "If anyone was let go, it should have been you, not Grace Lee. Ten of you could never equal one blue-eyed blonde [sic]."
-Scripts were edited while shooting, and Uhura's major story lines were frequently reduced to a few lines.
-The studio instructed the mail room not to deliver her fan mail. Luckily the mail room workers told her and said although they were instructed not to deliver her fan mail no one said anything about not giving it to her if she were to come and get it herself
Her fan mail matched Nimoy and Shatner's.
-With cancellation an all but done deal Gene refused to release Nichelle from her contract for the lead female role in Mannix, which was specifically written for her.
The MLK Story
After filming ended for the first season, Nichelle submitted her resignation to Gene. He said "If you leave they win. And if they chase you away they win double." Her thoughts were if she allowed herself to be treated as less of a person than her coworker they still win. It wasn't worth it to her. She also didn't know of Gene's workaround to keep her on the show at this time.
The next day she attended a NAACP fund-raising dinner, and someone said a fan wanted to speak with her. This fan turned out to be Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He told her how he and his children faithfully watched Star Trek and how much loved Uhura. She told Dr. King she was planning to leave the show, and he replied that she could not because she was the first non-stereotypical black role on television, male or female. Nichelle countered with there had been other black stars, to which Dr. King replied Beulah* and Amos 'n' Andy** were not exactly ideal representations. He told her she was not just a role model for black children but that she was also role model for everyone because she showed that world that black were as equally intelligent as everyone else on the bridge. She thought about her resignation over the weekend and showed up to work on Monday and told Gene about her conversation with Dr. King and her decision to stay.
*Beulah perpetuated the mammy stereotype, which has since evolved into the "strong black woman," "sassy black woman," and "sexless black woman" stereotypes.
**Amos 'n' Andy perpetuated the Sapphire stereotype, which is unfortunately still around.
Nichelle’s Activities From the Cancellation to the Star Trek: The Motion Picture
-1970 she hit the convention circuit and hasn’t stopped yet. She credits the conventions for keeping Takai, Doonan, Koenig, and to a lesser extent Nimoy and Shatner close friends.
-1973 voiced Uhura in the Animated Series, where Uhura assumes command of the Enterprise in episode The Lorelei Signal.
-1974 Lands the role of Dorinda in the blaxploitation film Truck Turner. Here’s a video that someone made using one of Dorinda’s monologues voiced over a TAS scene, lol.
-1975 NASA calls
-1977 Paramount decides to green light a second Start Trek television series and the whole crew miraculously agrees to it, but at the last minute Paramount decided the concept should be a movie. Oh well, everyone got paid for doing no work! I need a gig like that ;ob
-1977ish meets Jim Meechan, who was affiliated with NASA through Rockwell International and would become her music collaborator, co-composer, business partner, and all around good friend.
Nichelle and NASA
-At the 1975 Chicago Trek convention NASA sends a Dr. von Puttkamer as an official representative. His presentation resonated with her sparking her interest in NASA, but she was appaulled she realized there was no one that looked like her in the space program. It was full of white males and no women or minorities.
-In 1976 she establishes Women in Motion, Inc. which wrote and produced educational films, programs, and projects geared toward young people. The company contracted with several government agencies.
-In 1977 Nichelle is appointed to the Board of Directors of the National Space Institute a civilian organization. She gives a speech recounting the criticism she had heard from the women, minorities, and the general public of how space was not relateable to them, and then she offered broad suggestions for how to correct the image problem. John Yardley invited her to a meeting to discuss the some of the issues her speech raised. In the meeting she basically called NASA on its bullshit for not hiring any women or minorities in the five previous astronaut recruitment drives and told them they have all ready sent the message that women and/or minorities need not apply. They asked how they should correct this problem, to which she said do a media blitz with someone highly visible and credible. They asked who she would suggest for this media blitz, to which she replied John Denver or Coretta Scott King. Yardley said, "What about Lieutenant Uhura?" That's not exactly what she had in mind, since she didn't think anyone would take her seriously. They told her people would take her seriously if they listened for five minutes. She agreed if they would let her Women in Motion company handle everything. Before Nichelle and her company took over astronaut recruiting there were less than 100 applications from women and 35 applications from minorities out of 1600, Four months after they took over there were 1649 applications from women and 1000 applications from minorities out of 8400. We have Nichelle to thank for kicking NASA in the ass to get some diversity into NASA as astronauts.
General Star Trek History Tidbits
-Gene pitched Star Trek to CBS, who promptly picked his brain for stuff to use in their series Lost in Space, lol!
-Star Trek was finally sold to Desilu Studios, who rejected the original pilot called The Cage. The studio thought Spock's appearance and the very existence of female first officer Number One were "frightening" and ordered they both be removed. Gene compromised and axed Number One, played by Majel Barrett, only to recast her as Nurse Chapel, which the studio never noticed was played by the same "frightening" actress.
-Spock's heritage is an intentional allegory for biracial people.
-Gene Coon came aboard in the second season. Nichelle says he was responsible for the Spock-Kirk-Bones interplay.
-Uhura was originally supposed to kiss Spock in the first televised interracial kiss between a black woman and white man, but Shatner demanded a script change. He said, "If anybody's going to get to kiss Uhura it's going to be me - I mean, Captain Kirk." The kiss scene was shot on the last day of production for the episode, and they sabotaged all the takes except the one that aired, lol. They had to use the good take, since the episode wouldn't have made sense without the kiss scene.
-The Animated Series was originally only cast with Nimoy and Shatner, but Nimoy lobbied to get the rest of cast on board instead of using voiceover actors. What a classy guy he is.
Star Trek Movie Tidbits
The Motion Picture:
-1978 The old gang is back on the set
-Nichelle credits George Lucas and Star Wars for proving to the studio that large audiences would indeed go see a film about a space adventure. She also credits Star Wars for the studio’s over-emphasis on special effects that ended up eating up a lot of the budget without returning quality special effects.
-The first take was delayed because the cast was so star struck by the director, and the director was so star struck by the cast that everyone started crying ruining their makeup. The makeup artist were pissed, lol!
-Nimoy and Shatner lobbied and won script approval.
-Director Bob Wise interpreted the Star Trek vision as unisex resulting in ugly uniforms.
-Wise thought Star Trek was a military organization and wanted Nichelle to remove her earrings, nail polish, and high heeled boots. She said ST wasn’t the military and Uhura should retain her personality. She had to take the issue to Roddenberry to keep Uhura’s personality.
-There was lots of tension between the studio and Roddenberry. The studio felt they knew how to run a movie and that Roddenberry only had some idea about how to run a television show.
-The Nichelle and most cast were disappointed with the resulting film because they didn’t think it had lived up to the potential it could have reached
-Despite lack of critical success enough fans went to go see it for Paramount to green light a sequel. Unfortunately for Roddenberry they fired him.
Wrath of Khan
-Roddenberry had very little to do with this film.
-Shatner despised Montalban from the moment he was on the set in Space Seed because he was threatened by another male character. This came in handy for this film, lol.
-Nimoy hinted publically he was A OK with leaving the character of Spock behind, so the rest of the cast figured this would be the last film together with the original cast. Nichelle didn’t like the idea and though it was a betrayal of Star Trek ideals.
-The director again though Star Trek was military complete with addressing women as Sirs. Nichelle lobbied to get most of the sirs removed, and they were all gone for the next film.
-Near the end of shooting word got out that Spock was going to be killed. Fans were pissed, but it was too late in the process to change it. Harve Bennett the producer fingered Roddenberry for the leak, which pissed off Nichelle. Apparently security was not what is today, since the studio sent the scripts to a printer off the lot…. The cast was pressured to sign confidentiality agreements, which Koenig refused to sign and Nichelle wrote “I am not now nor have I ever been a squealer on Star Trek” on hers.
Search For Spock
-Jim Meechan and producer Harve Bennett got to talking about how to resurrect Spock. Meechan is very smart and says theoretically radiation-induced mutation could be good and the planet where Spock was dead could somehow regenerate him. Bennett proclaims Meechan a genius and promises to credit him as a technical advisor for free in the movie, which he apparently forgot about… So let this be a lesson to all; get shit in writing and/or payment in advance ;ob
-Nimoy directed this film and everyone was happy, except for Shatner, because Nimoy was always protective of the integrity of the characters. Shatner was pissed because being director made Nimoy the boss. This lead to Nimoy and Shatner establishing contracts with tit-for-tat parity.
The Voyage Home
-Nimoy crafted the story but not the screenplay and directed the film
-Shatner delayed the project for months with salary negotiations
-In the meantime Bennett endorsed a Starfleet Academy film, which would center around the academy days of Kirk, Spock, and Bones, to conveniently get rid of the Shatner problem and unfortunately everyone else in the original cast. Shatner eventually got over himself, and he and Nimoy teamed up to quash that idea.
The Final Frontier
-Roddenberry was largely absent for this film also because of TNG
-Shatner directed this film and was apparently a joy to work with, which threw the entire cast for a loop, lol. Nichelle guesses control freak Shatner functions best when in undisputed control.
-Nichelle didn’t think Shatner would have taken the captain’s chair were it not for the parity agreement with Nimoy.
-Nimoy and Kelley had problems with Spock and McCoy siding with Sybok. Um did that actually happen? I’ve been told to skip this movie, lol…
-Nichelle didn’t think the scene with Uhura and Scotty about to get it on worked
-Nichelle was actually on board with Uhura’s dance scene because she wanted to showcase her voice and her still banging body. In fact she told Bennett a body double would be used “Over my dead body!” Meechan wrote a song called “Hauntingly” which incorporated Swahili phrases and a primal melody. Bennett said he would consider using it but ultimately didn’t and didn’t bother to do the courtesy of informing Nichelle himself. Instead she found out from Shatner, who didn’t know she hadn’t been informed, when she showed up to record the song. A singer from the rock group called Hiroshima recorded the song, and the audience thought it was her singing. Nichelle was embarrassed and less than pleased.
-No one was all that enthused with the finished product
The Undiscovered Country
-Roddenberry was involved on a daily basis again
-Nimoy developed the story and produced the film. Good riddance Bennett.
-Nicholas Meyer was back to write and direct
-The original script called for Uhura to be introduced as hosting a trashy Howard Stern like talk show, which Nichelle demanded be rewritten. Uhura didn’t work her entire life to end up hosting intergalactic trash. All the other supporting characters had similar less than stellar and equally ridiculous introductions that also got rewritten.
-Nichelle refused to say racist lines such as "They all look alike" and "only top of the line models can talk" in reference to Klingons, so they are given to Koenig.
She felt the lines were racist because she had heard similar sentiments about blacks her entire life, and she felt they when against the original philosophy of Star Trek. The issue went to Roddenberry and most, but not all, of the racist lines were removed.
-The film is dedicated to Roddenberry since he died before it was released
Nichelle and Gene
-Started dating while he was separated from his wife and before Star Trek was fully conceived.
-Gene had the bright idea to introduce Nichelle and Majel to each other to let them know he was seeing both of them. The joke was on him because they were all ready acquaintances.
-Nichelle called it quits and fled to Europe to nurse a broken heart. Gene was stunned she left him
. My how fragile the male ego is
, but they remain friends. Nichelle is one hell of classy lady.
-Gene torpedoed her career when he refused to release her from her Star Trek contract so she could star in Mannix, a role specifically written for her.
-Gene continued to ask her how she could have left him over the years.
-In the 80s people started a few people started asking if it was true about her and Gene.
-At a Lockheed ceremony Nichelle surprised Gene with an award to which he responded "Nichelle's always surprising me. That's why I've always loved her. All these years, she's been a woman who is not only a great actress but a great lady. And what most people don't know is that if she had played her cards right, she might have been Mrs. Gene Roddenberry." Nichelle rights this off as a moment of indiscretion, but the inquires keep coming throughout the 80s. She finally asks him if he's been openly talking about their relationship. He's hurt and said he wasn't ashamed. Nichelle all like I'm not ashamed either but uh you're married with a young kid use some discretion, and he told her the kid all ready knows. Dude was a trip.
After the Star Trek Movies
-1991 Meechan and Nichelle conceived a one woman show in honor of Ethel Waters for the University of California at San Bernedino. The concept was for Nichelle to "become" various legendary black female singers such as Pearl Baily, Lena Horne, Mahalia Jackson, Eartha Kitt, and of course Ethel Waters. The show was so successful they expanded it into Reflections a two act musical to include homages to Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, dancer Katherine Dunham, and Leontyne Price.
-1992 hosted thirteen episode of Inside Space for the new SciFi Channel.
-1992 received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
-1992ish? Has a falling out with Shatner after he takes her quotes about Roddenberry out of context attributing them to her relationship with Roddenberry to hawk his autobiography.
-2006 Says to Shatner at his Comedy Central Roast "Let's make TV history again ... and you can kiss my black ass!"
-2007 Had a recurring role as Micah's great aunt during the second season of Heroes.
-2008 She starred in the film The Torturer, playing the role of a psychiatrist.
-2009 she joined the cast of The Cabonauts, a sci-fi musical comedy that debuted on the internet. Playing CJ, the CEO of the Cabonauts Inc, Nichelle is also featured singing and dancing.
Discussion Questions
-For those of you that watched the series as it aired, did the biracial allegory come through? Does anyone remember any media commentary on it at the time?
-Was anyone inspired by Uhura professionally?
-For the hardcore sci-fi/fantasy fans among us, how do you think the character of Uhura has impacted the genre both positively and negatively?
-Does anyone have any fun Nichelle convention stories or photos to share?
-I’ve heard Uhura’s dance scene in The Final Frontier referred to as requiring brain bleach. Opinions?
If anyone else wants to discuss something else specifically, comment and I'll add it.
Did someone request a fan mail address? XD
I found an address here. If you write, let us know if you get a response!
ETA:
Check out the picspam from the book over at ontd_startrek!