Zoe Saldana: Bringing Sexy back to Uhura

A Natural Dominican Beauty whose essence

Radiates as bright as the Caribbean sun

Unlike the industry’s mass-manufactured clones,

This West Indian Bonita is refreshing as summer breeze

With a multifaceted realness deep as the colorful seas

The character of Uhura is significant as it’s one of the roles featuring a supporting Black American character who wasn’t a servant. Nichel Nichols broke ground starring as Lt Uhura in Star Trek and Zoë Saldaña nicely fills those shoes.

Nichels considered leaving the show as she described her role as a “glorified switchboard operator”, while William Shatner’s character got the most face time than all the characters. However, it was a conversation with Martin Luther King that convinced to stay on because he felt she represented a great role model for African-Americans on major TV.

Trek cynics say that Nichols’ affair with the Star Trek creator & producer, Gene Roddenberry assured her role as Uhura. Yet nevertheless, her role is crucial to Rodenberry’s vision of the future.

Nichols high point was the infamous interracial kiss, which was forced, between her character and Shatner’s, in the episode, Plato’s Children. However, the first interracial kiss on US television was between Sammy Davis, Jr. and Nancy Sinatra on the variety program Movin' With Nancy in December 1967. Also, in a prior episode, Shatner had kissed an alien played by Vietnamese-French actress France Nuyen in the episode Elaan of Troyius.

Nichols low point was that 'erotic' fan dance Star Trek V: the Final Frontier. Then again, that whole film, directed/co-written by William Shatner, is low point of all Star Trek films (meaning JJ Abrams shouldn’t be fazed if Shatner’s cameo didn’t work out). However, Zoë Saldaña can do a fan dance for me anytime and it would always be erotic! :)

Rafiq Jennings