app;;
Series: Star Trek.
Series' Medium: Movie.
Character: Nyota Uhura.
Age: 24.
Sex/Gender: Female.
Canon Role: Protagonist, although she likes to knock Kirk down a peg or two whenever possible.
"Real" Name: Nicole Juza.
Please give us a personal history of your character's life and explain to us in detail how they grow and develop over the course of their canon:
We aren't given much information about Uhura's life before entering Starfleet Academy when only looking at the movie canon information given, so for this section I'll be using some of TOS!Uhura's information.
Nyota Uhura was born to Alhamisi and M'Umbha Mahia Uhura, in Kenya, where she was raised speaking their native language, Swahili. Assuming she's younger than Kirk, but able to order drinks at the Iowa bar where we are introduced to her in the movie, she was born in 2234 and most likely entered the Academy at age 20. Before then, she attended public school in Nairobi (the capital of Kenya) where she learned English and sign language.
Her arrival in America marked the start of her Starfleet education, where she chose to specialize in Xenolinguistics, with a tracking towards becoming a communications officer. Her love of languages and just voice in general resulted in her becoming a very passionate student, as well as a dedicated member of the Academy's Chorale Ensemble. She was absolutely the type of student that wasn't satisfied with any grade less than outstanding, and spent a lot of her free time in the long-range sensor lab trying to perfect her communication and translating abilities. By her senior year she had received her rank as lieutenant, had become the teacher's aid for both Advanced Phonology and Advanced Acoustical Engineering, and appeared to be well on her way to serving aboard the Starship of her choice - the USS Enterprise.
In the film, we are introduced to Uhura three years prior to her senior year, as she is making her way through a bar in Riverside, Iowa, where she orders a very large number of drinks, and has her first encounter with a then local, Jim Kirk. He's arrogant, persistent, a little goofy, but also kind of cute, and certainly smarter than he lets off. She's reluctant to play along at first, but eventually she gives him her last name and they get to talking. After only a few minutes of flirting, and despite her insistence against it, four male cadets come to her (completely unneeded!) rescue and get into a bar fight with Kirk, which ultimately ends the bar retreat for all the Starfleet cadets that night. So maybe Kirk hadn't been the worst guy that tried to pick her up in a bar, but she certainly didn't expect to ever see him again.
She was proven wrong though when he made his way onto the shuttle leaving for Starfleet Academy in San Francisco that next morning.
The film pushes us forward three years, and Cadet Kirk is still very much around and bugging the hell out of her. She's learned that abrupt rejection works pretty well with him though, and that works for them. Another relationship Uhura has gained at Starfleet, and probably the most scandalous notable, is one with Commander Spock. It is implied that she has romantic feelings towards him, but I think it's very safe to assume they did not act on said feelings while she was still his student because neither of them are the type to jeopardize their positions for a relationship. They remain close though, despite this.
By this time she's also found a good friend in her roommate, Gaila, even though the Orion girl has a bad habit of bringing guys back to the room too often. This is revealed to us when Uhura comes back from a sensor lab earlier than expected, and Gaila has (of all the people) Jim Kirk hiding under her bed. She came back to their dorm with what she thinks is very exciting news - a fleet of 47 Klingon vessels around the Klingon prison planet was engaged and destroyed by an unknown Romulan ship. While Jim finds it fascinating, Uhura finds his presence there less than stellar, and kicks him out.
The next day she takes on the responsibility of being the communications officer for Kirk's third round of the Kobayashi Maru test. While she was more than sure he was going to fail, since everyone fails, he surprises everyone that is a part of the testing by somehow beating it. Later that day, all cadets are being called down to the assembly room to oversee the Academy board's trail for Kirk, revealing that he cheated in order to beat the test. Uhura isn't entirely shocked by the news, but she does seem pretty smug that it looks like Kirk's about to finally receive his just desserts. This seems like a perfectly average day at the Academy, until the hearing is interrupted by Starfleet receiving a distress call from Vulcan, and all cadets are ordered to report to their newly appointed Starships so they can immediately assist the planet.
However, when Uhura receives her assignment to the USS Farragut instead of her desired USS Enterprise, she seems none too pleased. She immediately finds Commander Spock, and insists that her assignment be changed, in a way that shows us that their relationship isn't entirely like most student/professor relationships. Either way, he makes the change for her though, and she happily makes her way towards the shuttle.
The next time we see Uhura she is in the underbelly of the Enterprise being confronted by a numb-tongue'd Jim Kirk about the transmission she translated the night before. She gives him the information he needs, and once he bolts away with Doctor McCoy, she's following close behind. It ended up being good that she did though, because Captain Pike wasn't exactly open to Kirk's claims that Vulcan wasn't in need of assistance, but they were under attack by Romulans. She gives confirmation that his report is accurate, and Captain Pike orders the ship's communications lieutenant to scan Vulcan space for any transmissions in Vulcan in hopes of gaining more information. When he explains he cannot tell the Vulcan language apart from Romulan, the captain orders Uhura to relieve the current lieutenant from his position, and she gladly does so. She reports that all communication and transporter abilities are down, and soon after it's reported that the Romulans have lowered a drill that is causing it. Cadet Kirk, along with Hikaru Sulu (the ship's pilot) and Engineer Olson, are ordered to go on an abrupt mission to space jump onto the drill that the Romulan ship had suspended down to dig into the planet's core and disrupt it so they could gain communications back.
While they succeed in sabotaging the drill, they are ultimately unsuccessful in saving the planet. Vulcan is destroyed by what appeared to be a black hole implanted in the core of the planet, and among those lost was Spock's mother. This is the first time we really see Uhura break down a little, when she tries to comfort Spock in one of the turbolifts. The conversation is short, but definitely important in showing Uhura's more emotional side, and just how loyal and caring she is about those she's grown close to. She seems to completely push aside what is probably regulation against cadets and instructors having an open, romantic relationship because she wants to be there for him, knowing that he's probably feeling much more hurt than he can outwardly express. She knows better than to push it though, not only because she easily accepts that Spock won't be so quick to open up about the situation, but because... Well, they are in a turbolift, and there's only so long they can stay in there before raising suspicion.
From that point on, the story of the movie really does focus more on Kirk and Spock trying to save Earth than what is happening with the rest of the crew. During this time, they gain another member of Starfleet, Montgomery Scott, on board, and Kirk becomes acting Captain after showing that Spock is emotionally compromised by the loss of his home planet and cannot keep the position. As captain he orders the ship to head towards Earth, which is where they think the Romulans will next attack. Kirk and Spock make it their mission to go on board the Narada and steal the device that is making it possible for the Romulans to plant black holes into their targeted planets, and in successfully doing so they save Earth! Of course, one slight snag in the plan was that the red-matter that causes those black holes was ignited before the Enterprise made it a safe distance away, and starts to get sucked into the black hole forming in the center of the Narada.
What point in time are you taking your character from when he/she appears at Landel's and why?:
Near the end of the movie, once they've just pulled out of the red-matter-induced black hole that destroys the Narada.
Please give us a detailed description of your character's personality:
[Uhura's scenes are a little limiting on what her personality is like, so I'm taking a few things I've noticed from The Original Series that mesh well with the XI characterization of her.]
On first impression, Nyota Uhura comes off as focused, smart, confident, collected, and definitely a little intense. All the things she feels a Starfleet officer should embody. She likes her privacy, which is made obvious by her barely giving Kirk her name in the bar scene, but isn't afraid to lay down her opinion on something if she feels it needs to be voiced. She doesn't like mind games, nor does she ever intentionally leave room for interpretation when she needs to get a point across. Some might say she has a somewhat cold exterior, but generally only people that come across as obnoxious towards her receive that treatment. Or they have only seen her in the classroom, where she does tend to come off very serious and strictly professional. No, she's actually pretty friendly once she feels that you're actually worthy of her time.
Which... might make her seem conceited, or downright bitchy, but really she has just had enough of being pinned as "just a pretty face" before entering Starfleet, and doesn't want to give people the chance to see her as such now.
Once she feels comfortable around a person she definitely opens up more, showing that she does in fact have an almost cheerful and optimistic disposition. While she was pretty short in the bar with Kirk at first, we see her being easy-going with her roommate Gaila later in the film, which I think is good evidence that she has gotten to know and trust her during her time at Starfleet Academy. In The Original Series we are shown a lot more of her outgoing side, in that she's not even remotely shy about singing for the crew during their down time, and is very chatty with most members of the crew as well. Over the course of TOS we also see she is very close with each member of the bridge, even Chekov and Sulu, whom we never really see her interact with in the movie.
I think another important aspect of her personality is how she handles her feelings towards Commander Spock. Working with the assumption they did not pursue anything while she was one of his students, or even while she was a cadet at all, I think it's still very clear and believable that she has feelings for him, but would never let that get in the way of her career. Yes, she leaves her post to console him in the turbolift, but it is a brief moment and ultimately just her trying to show him that she is there if he needs the support. In the back of her mind I think she knows he won't exactly call her down to his quarters so he can cry on her shoulder, but she feels it's important that he knows. On the other hand, she was composed and smart enough not to go after him after Kirk 'emotionally compromised' Spock in order to gain captaincy. I think not only was it because she knew Spock needed time to calm down, and that his father probably wanted to speak with him, but also because she knew with Kirk in charge they would be heading into a potential battle, and had a job to do.
Uhura loves talking to people of all kinds; getting to know them and their cultures through both conversation and demonstration. She is pretty fearless when she needs to be - from being willing to try new things when experiencing a new culture, to going along with tough ideas to get out of whatever sticky situations the Enterprise crew finds themselves in. She is more than willing to take control of a situation when she needs to, but also knows when to step back and simply follow orders for the sake of getting things done efficiently.
She is also very proud, in a number of ways. She's proud of her intelligence, and her culture, as well as her accomplishments and when those around her are successful. She thinks those who earn their stripes, so to speak, deserve much more respect than anyone that cheats their way to the top. This is part of why she became a teacher's aid - in order to be giving the opportunity to help students that wanted to work hard to get high marks. It's not only for the satisfaction of helping others though, she honestly just loves being the best at things. Uhura likes being recognized for her achievements, even if she will never say so outright. She's quick to seize an opportunity, and once she's given a chance she'll do everything in her power to give it her best effort, no matter what. Uhura also made a point to learn the engineering aspects of being a Communications officer, which came into account a few times on TOS.
Please give us a physical description of your character:
Uhura is of African decent, giving her dark skin, dark brown eyes, and long, pin-straight, dark brown hair. Her eyes are more expressive than she likes at times, giving away her true emotions on things even when she's trying hard to mask them. She's tall and very slender; the physical demands of being a Starfleet officer keeping her in good shape. Plus it helps having the tiniest uniform in the galaxy as your motivation to stay fit. Her uniform consists of a short red dress with the Communications logo on the left shoulder, a black undershirt, and black knee-high boots.
What kinds of otherwordly abilities does your character have, if any?:
N/A
If present, how do you plan to tweak these powers to make your character appropriately hindered in the setting of Landel's?:
N/A
Does your character have any non-otherworldly abilities/training that surpass the norm?:
As stated a few times, Uhura is absurdly gifted when it comes to learning and speaking different languages. In her canon, she is proficient in 83% of the official Federation languages and regional dialects, and a member of the Starfleet choir. She's no Whitney Houston, but matching pitches and sounds comes easily to her, so it seemed like an appropriate club to join. As part of her training she also has some experience with basic hand-to-hand combat, and has experience with different aspects of engineering. She also has the uncanny ability to shut down any pick-up lines Kirk may try to send her way.
What do you see your character doing in the scope of the game and how do you plan to use the setting of Landel's Institute to develop them and affect their psychology in a unique, interesting way?:
I think it will be REALLY cool to get to play Uhura in an environment that will test the limits of how level-headed she can be. I think even with the knowledge that some cultures/planets are more violent than others, or primitive, or whathaveyou... Being surrounded by just plain SCARY stuff and not being in a surrounding she's familiar with will bring out some of the more less-than-composed side of her. Which is always fun. She'll be faced with things she won't understand, like the unnecessary testing and experiments done on people she knows, and that will absolutely push her resolve.
As a part of her training to be a communications officer, I think she not only learned the languages, but also learned how to better communicate with different kinds of people. She knows how to read people fairly well, and because of that knows what to say and how to say it. She might not always be the perfect conversationalist, but I think it will definitely help her get to know the other patients without getting herself into any weird situations by approaching someone who would rather not be approached. I think she'll also come to learn to open up more to people instead of kind of 'testing' them first, because they're all pretty much on the same level here and there's no use in her trying to deny that fact.
Having a few fellow crew members (canonmates) will also be a good thing for her, but she won't become completely dependent on them or anything. I'm sure that Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are probably the best people to help her get acquainted with the place, and make her at least a little less uneasy about the whole situation.
Given that this RP takes place in an unsettling and outright horrific environment, how do you justify your character as being appropriate in both body and mind for this kind of setting?:
Uhura really is a strong personality type, and I think with the addition of Starfleet training she'll be able to handle showing up at Landel's alright. In TOS there were a number of times when the crew was beamed down, and trapped (oh noooes) in really strange situations that they had to work their way out of, and I think at first she'll think of it as a similar case.
In the movie she is faced with being on board one of the only Starships to make it out of the first encounter with the Narada and keeping her head even after the ship had been fired on and compromised. Going into Starfleet she knew she would have to face situations like that, so I think even while Landel's might shock her at first, she will be able to keep it together.
Series' Medium: Movie.
Character: Nyota Uhura.
Age: 24.
Sex/Gender: Female.
Canon Role: Protagonist, although she likes to knock Kirk down a peg or two whenever possible.
"Real" Name: Nicole Juza.
Please give us a personal history of your character's life and explain to us in detail how they grow and develop over the course of their canon:
We aren't given much information about Uhura's life before entering Starfleet Academy when only looking at the movie canon information given, so for this section I'll be using some of TOS!Uhura's information.
Nyota Uhura was born to Alhamisi and M'Umbha Mahia Uhura, in Kenya, where she was raised speaking their native language, Swahili. Assuming she's younger than Kirk, but able to order drinks at the Iowa bar where we are introduced to her in the movie, she was born in 2234 and most likely entered the Academy at age 20. Before then, she attended public school in Nairobi (the capital of Kenya) where she learned English and sign language.
Her arrival in America marked the start of her Starfleet education, where she chose to specialize in Xenolinguistics, with a tracking towards becoming a communications officer. Her love of languages and just voice in general resulted in her becoming a very passionate student, as well as a dedicated member of the Academy's Chorale Ensemble. She was absolutely the type of student that wasn't satisfied with any grade less than outstanding, and spent a lot of her free time in the long-range sensor lab trying to perfect her communication and translating abilities. By her senior year she had received her rank as lieutenant, had become the teacher's aid for both Advanced Phonology and Advanced Acoustical Engineering, and appeared to be well on her way to serving aboard the Starship of her choice - the USS Enterprise.
In the film, we are introduced to Uhura three years prior to her senior year, as she is making her way through a bar in Riverside, Iowa, where she orders a very large number of drinks, and has her first encounter with a then local, Jim Kirk. He's arrogant, persistent, a little goofy, but also kind of cute, and certainly smarter than he lets off. She's reluctant to play along at first, but eventually she gives him her last name and they get to talking. After only a few minutes of flirting, and despite her insistence against it, four male cadets come to her (completely unneeded!) rescue and get into a bar fight with Kirk, which ultimately ends the bar retreat for all the Starfleet cadets that night. So maybe Kirk hadn't been the worst guy that tried to pick her up in a bar, but she certainly didn't expect to ever see him again.
She was proven wrong though when he made his way onto the shuttle leaving for Starfleet Academy in San Francisco that next morning.
The film pushes us forward three years, and Cadet Kirk is still very much around and bugging the hell out of her. She's learned that abrupt rejection works pretty well with him though, and that works for them. Another relationship Uhura has gained at Starfleet, and probably the most scandalous notable, is one with Commander Spock. It is implied that she has romantic feelings towards him, but I think it's very safe to assume they did not act on said feelings while she was still his student because neither of them are the type to jeopardize their positions for a relationship. They remain close though, despite this.
By this time she's also found a good friend in her roommate, Gaila, even though the Orion girl has a bad habit of bringing guys back to the room too often. This is revealed to us when Uhura comes back from a sensor lab earlier than expected, and Gaila has (of all the people) Jim Kirk hiding under her bed. She came back to their dorm with what she thinks is very exciting news - a fleet of 47 Klingon vessels around the Klingon prison planet was engaged and destroyed by an unknown Romulan ship. While Jim finds it fascinating, Uhura finds his presence there less than stellar, and kicks him out.
The next day she takes on the responsibility of being the communications officer for Kirk's third round of the Kobayashi Maru test. While she was more than sure he was going to fail, since everyone fails, he surprises everyone that is a part of the testing by somehow beating it. Later that day, all cadets are being called down to the assembly room to oversee the Academy board's trail for Kirk, revealing that he cheated in order to beat the test. Uhura isn't entirely shocked by the news, but she does seem pretty smug that it looks like Kirk's about to finally receive his just desserts. This seems like a perfectly average day at the Academy, until the hearing is interrupted by Starfleet receiving a distress call from Vulcan, and all cadets are ordered to report to their newly appointed Starships so they can immediately assist the planet.
However, when Uhura receives her assignment to the USS Farragut instead of her desired USS Enterprise, she seems none too pleased. She immediately finds Commander Spock, and insists that her assignment be changed, in a way that shows us that their relationship isn't entirely like most student/professor relationships. Either way, he makes the change for her though, and she happily makes her way towards the shuttle.
The next time we see Uhura she is in the underbelly of the Enterprise being confronted by a numb-tongue'd Jim Kirk about the transmission she translated the night before. She gives him the information he needs, and once he bolts away with Doctor McCoy, she's following close behind. It ended up being good that she did though, because Captain Pike wasn't exactly open to Kirk's claims that Vulcan wasn't in need of assistance, but they were under attack by Romulans. She gives confirmation that his report is accurate, and Captain Pike orders the ship's communications lieutenant to scan Vulcan space for any transmissions in Vulcan in hopes of gaining more information. When he explains he cannot tell the Vulcan language apart from Romulan, the captain orders Uhura to relieve the current lieutenant from his position, and she gladly does so. She reports that all communication and transporter abilities are down, and soon after it's reported that the Romulans have lowered a drill that is causing it. Cadet Kirk, along with Hikaru Sulu (the ship's pilot) and Engineer Olson, are ordered to go on an abrupt mission to space jump onto the drill that the Romulan ship had suspended down to dig into the planet's core and disrupt it so they could gain communications back.
While they succeed in sabotaging the drill, they are ultimately unsuccessful in saving the planet. Vulcan is destroyed by what appeared to be a black hole implanted in the core of the planet, and among those lost was Spock's mother. This is the first time we really see Uhura break down a little, when she tries to comfort Spock in one of the turbolifts. The conversation is short, but definitely important in showing Uhura's more emotional side, and just how loyal and caring she is about those she's grown close to. She seems to completely push aside what is probably regulation against cadets and instructors having an open, romantic relationship because she wants to be there for him, knowing that he's probably feeling much more hurt than he can outwardly express. She knows better than to push it though, not only because she easily accepts that Spock won't be so quick to open up about the situation, but because... Well, they are in a turbolift, and there's only so long they can stay in there before raising suspicion.
From that point on, the story of the movie really does focus more on Kirk and Spock trying to save Earth than what is happening with the rest of the crew. During this time, they gain another member of Starfleet, Montgomery Scott, on board, and Kirk becomes acting Captain after showing that Spock is emotionally compromised by the loss of his home planet and cannot keep the position. As captain he orders the ship to head towards Earth, which is where they think the Romulans will next attack. Kirk and Spock make it their mission to go on board the Narada and steal the device that is making it possible for the Romulans to plant black holes into their targeted planets, and in successfully doing so they save Earth! Of course, one slight snag in the plan was that the red-matter that causes those black holes was ignited before the Enterprise made it a safe distance away, and starts to get sucked into the black hole forming in the center of the Narada.
What point in time are you taking your character from when he/she appears at Landel's and why?:
Near the end of the movie, once they've just pulled out of the red-matter-induced black hole that destroys the Narada.
Please give us a detailed description of your character's personality:
[Uhura's scenes are a little limiting on what her personality is like, so I'm taking a few things I've noticed from The Original Series that mesh well with the XI characterization of her.]
On first impression, Nyota Uhura comes off as focused, smart, confident, collected, and definitely a little intense. All the things she feels a Starfleet officer should embody. She likes her privacy, which is made obvious by her barely giving Kirk her name in the bar scene, but isn't afraid to lay down her opinion on something if she feels it needs to be voiced. She doesn't like mind games, nor does she ever intentionally leave room for interpretation when she needs to get a point across. Some might say she has a somewhat cold exterior, but generally only people that come across as obnoxious towards her receive that treatment. Or they have only seen her in the classroom, where she does tend to come off very serious and strictly professional. No, she's actually pretty friendly once she feels that you're actually worthy of her time.
Which... might make her seem conceited, or downright bitchy, but really she has just had enough of being pinned as "just a pretty face" before entering Starfleet, and doesn't want to give people the chance to see her as such now.
Once she feels comfortable around a person she definitely opens up more, showing that she does in fact have an almost cheerful and optimistic disposition. While she was pretty short in the bar with Kirk at first, we see her being easy-going with her roommate Gaila later in the film, which I think is good evidence that she has gotten to know and trust her during her time at Starfleet Academy. In The Original Series we are shown a lot more of her outgoing side, in that she's not even remotely shy about singing for the crew during their down time, and is very chatty with most members of the crew as well. Over the course of TOS we also see she is very close with each member of the bridge, even Chekov and Sulu, whom we never really see her interact with in the movie.
I think another important aspect of her personality is how she handles her feelings towards Commander Spock. Working with the assumption they did not pursue anything while she was one of his students, or even while she was a cadet at all, I think it's still very clear and believable that she has feelings for him, but would never let that get in the way of her career. Yes, she leaves her post to console him in the turbolift, but it is a brief moment and ultimately just her trying to show him that she is there if he needs the support. In the back of her mind I think she knows he won't exactly call her down to his quarters so he can cry on her shoulder, but she feels it's important that he knows. On the other hand, she was composed and smart enough not to go after him after Kirk 'emotionally compromised' Spock in order to gain captaincy. I think not only was it because she knew Spock needed time to calm down, and that his father probably wanted to speak with him, but also because she knew with Kirk in charge they would be heading into a potential battle, and had a job to do.
Uhura loves talking to people of all kinds; getting to know them and their cultures through both conversation and demonstration. She is pretty fearless when she needs to be - from being willing to try new things when experiencing a new culture, to going along with tough ideas to get out of whatever sticky situations the Enterprise crew finds themselves in. She is more than willing to take control of a situation when she needs to, but also knows when to step back and simply follow orders for the sake of getting things done efficiently.
She is also very proud, in a number of ways. She's proud of her intelligence, and her culture, as well as her accomplishments and when those around her are successful. She thinks those who earn their stripes, so to speak, deserve much more respect than anyone that cheats their way to the top. This is part of why she became a teacher's aid - in order to be giving the opportunity to help students that wanted to work hard to get high marks. It's not only for the satisfaction of helping others though, she honestly just loves being the best at things. Uhura likes being recognized for her achievements, even if she will never say so outright. She's quick to seize an opportunity, and once she's given a chance she'll do everything in her power to give it her best effort, no matter what. Uhura also made a point to learn the engineering aspects of being a Communications officer, which came into account a few times on TOS.
Please give us a physical description of your character:
Uhura is of African decent, giving her dark skin, dark brown eyes, and long, pin-straight, dark brown hair. Her eyes are more expressive than she likes at times, giving away her true emotions on things even when she's trying hard to mask them. She's tall and very slender; the physical demands of being a Starfleet officer keeping her in good shape. Plus it helps having the tiniest uniform in the galaxy as your motivation to stay fit. Her uniform consists of a short red dress with the Communications logo on the left shoulder, a black undershirt, and black knee-high boots.
What kinds of otherwordly abilities does your character have, if any?:
N/A
If present, how do you plan to tweak these powers to make your character appropriately hindered in the setting of Landel's?:
N/A
Does your character have any non-otherworldly abilities/training that surpass the norm?:
As stated a few times, Uhura is absurdly gifted when it comes to learning and speaking different languages. In her canon, she is proficient in 83% of the official Federation languages and regional dialects, and a member of the Starfleet choir. She's no Whitney Houston, but matching pitches and sounds comes easily to her, so it seemed like an appropriate club to join. As part of her training she also has some experience with basic hand-to-hand combat, and has experience with different aspects of engineering. She also has the uncanny ability to shut down any pick-up lines Kirk may try to send her way.
What do you see your character doing in the scope of the game and how do you plan to use the setting of Landel's Institute to develop them and affect their psychology in a unique, interesting way?:
I think it will be REALLY cool to get to play Uhura in an environment that will test the limits of how level-headed she can be. I think even with the knowledge that some cultures/planets are more violent than others, or primitive, or whathaveyou... Being surrounded by just plain SCARY stuff and not being in a surrounding she's familiar with will bring out some of the more less-than-composed side of her. Which is always fun. She'll be faced with things she won't understand, like the unnecessary testing and experiments done on people she knows, and that will absolutely push her resolve.
As a part of her training to be a communications officer, I think she not only learned the languages, but also learned how to better communicate with different kinds of people. She knows how to read people fairly well, and because of that knows what to say and how to say it. She might not always be the perfect conversationalist, but I think it will definitely help her get to know the other patients without getting herself into any weird situations by approaching someone who would rather not be approached. I think she'll also come to learn to open up more to people instead of kind of 'testing' them first, because they're all pretty much on the same level here and there's no use in her trying to deny that fact.
Having a few fellow crew members (canonmates) will also be a good thing for her, but she won't become completely dependent on them or anything. I'm sure that Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are probably the best people to help her get acquainted with the place, and make her at least a little less uneasy about the whole situation.
Given that this RP takes place in an unsettling and outright horrific environment, how do you justify your character as being appropriate in both body and mind for this kind of setting?:
Uhura really is a strong personality type, and I think with the addition of Starfleet training she'll be able to handle showing up at Landel's alright. In TOS there were a number of times when the crew was beamed down, and trapped (oh noooes) in really strange situations that they had to work their way out of, and I think at first she'll think of it as a similar case.
In the movie she is faced with being on board one of the only Starships to make it out of the first encounter with the Narada and keeping her head even after the ship had been fired on and compromised. Going into Starfleet she knew she would have to face situations like that, so I think even while Landel's might shock her at first, she will be able to keep it together.