Lt Uhura AKA Nichelle Nichols

Nichelle Nichols, beloved to generations of science fiction fans for her portrayal of Lt Uhura in the original Star Trek - is joining the cast of the second series of Heroes, where she is rumoured to be playing the grandmother of a new character. Nichelle joins a cast which already boasts her fellow classic Trek colleague George Takei who plays Hiro’s father, while in further Trek convergence Dominic Keating from Enterprise will also appear in the second series. The traffic isn’t all one way, though, since Heroe’s Zachary Quinto (who plays the villainous Sylar) will be playing the young Spock in J J Abram’s forthcoming Trek movie.
Nichelle Nichols Star Trek Uhura.jpg

Nichelle once considering leaving her iconic Trek role because she was given so few decent lines back in the 60s, only to be told by no less a figure than Martin Luther King that her mere presence as a woman - and a coloured woman at that - on primetime TV each week made her an inspiration during the turbulent Civil Rights era and so she had to stay on. Funny, we discuss the portrayal of gender in comics and science fiction (and the imbalance in female to male creators) quite often and it is easy to forget that women like Nichelle quietly helped to pave the way for improvements in that sphere decades ago (and boy do we have a ways to go yet, but we’ve also come on a good bit too). See - we Trek fans always said it was far more than just another show… How lovely to see Nichelle coming back to our screens again.

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Lt Uhura AKA Nichelle Nichols

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