Excerpts from an interview with Nichelle Nichols, pub 1988
I apologise if you've all seen this already, but I've just found it. It was in a book called "The Star Trek Interview Book" by Allan Asherman, published in 1988, and it pre-dates reboot by 21 years! I found it fascinating.
AA: Knowing the character of Captain Kirk, it was strange that the only time he would kiss you was when he was forced into it, although he came close to it in “I Mudd”. I always felt that the character Uhura might have had some closeness with was Mr Spock.
NN: Yes…. I felt from the original reading that Spock was my mentor, and that emotionally they were very much alike…. Many times Uhura would just turn and look, and say volumes. She was extremely loyal to Captain Kirk, and was following him to “where no man had gone before”, through thick and thin, but it was Spock who fascinated her, and inspired her mentally and professionally.
AA: Was there an effort to imply an attachment between Spock and Uhura? For instance, he let you play his Vulcan harp.
NN: He not only let me, but the Vulcan lyre is an instrument that defies the musicianship of any normal earthling, and so he taught me to play his lyre. We developed a thing where I was one of the first people to play the Vulcan game of three-dimensional chess. I took it that my mind aspired to where the greatness of where this man’s intricate mind was….
AA: Was any of this supposed to be in any script?
NN: Yes, yes. And remember the song in “Charlie X”? The spoof on Spock, the teasing of Spock? No-one else would dare. It was only she.
AA: And since he smiled at you, you had his approval.
NN: Exactly, exactly, or he’d cut her dead. And no one else would have dared. There were a couple of times during which he protected her, for instance, when there was something wrong with the electrical systems and she was repairing them…showing his great admiration and respect for her in ways that were not given to others than Kirk and McCoy.
AA: ….Including that little scene in “The Man Trap” about Vulcan having no moon and Uhura saying “I’m not surprised, Mr Spock”?
NN: That kind of thing. That almost got cut, and I screamed bloody murder.
AA: Knowing the character of Captain Kirk, it was strange that the only time he would kiss you was when he was forced into it, although he came close to it in “I Mudd”. I always felt that the character Uhura might have had some closeness with was Mr Spock.
NN: Yes…. I felt from the original reading that Spock was my mentor, and that emotionally they were very much alike…. Many times Uhura would just turn and look, and say volumes. She was extremely loyal to Captain Kirk, and was following him to “where no man had gone before”, through thick and thin, but it was Spock who fascinated her, and inspired her mentally and professionally.
AA: Was there an effort to imply an attachment between Spock and Uhura? For instance, he let you play his Vulcan harp.
NN: He not only let me, but the Vulcan lyre is an instrument that defies the musicianship of any normal earthling, and so he taught me to play his lyre. We developed a thing where I was one of the first people to play the Vulcan game of three-dimensional chess. I took it that my mind aspired to where the greatness of where this man’s intricate mind was….
AA: Was any of this supposed to be in any script?
NN: Yes, yes. And remember the song in “Charlie X”? The spoof on Spock, the teasing of Spock? No-one else would dare. It was only she.
AA: And since he smiled at you, you had his approval.
NN: Exactly, exactly, or he’d cut her dead. And no one else would have dared. There were a couple of times during which he protected her, for instance, when there was something wrong with the electrical systems and she was repairing them…showing his great admiration and respect for her in ways that were not given to others than Kirk and McCoy.
AA: ….Including that little scene in “The Man Trap” about Vulcan having no moon and Uhura saying “I’m not surprised, Mr Spock”?
NN: That kind of thing. That almost got cut, and I screamed bloody murder.