Beamed Up

[Satchmo Distel]

RIP Nichelle Nichols, 89

Nichelle wasn't her birth name; she adopted it aged 14 after a conversation with her mother, who came up with it.

[Beatle Simon]

Wonderful photo.

[Levin]

Well this isn't great. I've been on a bit of a Star Trek tear recently. I've been draughting a post for a general star trek thread but failing to make it come together.

Given how little she was given to do is amazing how much presence she had on screen.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Given how little she was given to do is amazing how much presence she had on screen.

Given the scarcity of black actors on TV back then, and the fact that she was the only woman on the bridge of the Enterprise, it's not too surprising she would be noticed.

[Satchmo Distel]

She was going to leave after the first series but MLK persuaded her she needed to stay given her unique TV presence at that time.

[Hot Pepsi]

Even in the later films and so forth, she never got to do enough, but that was still way more than most women and/or black people got to do on TV in the 60s or Blockbusters in the 80’s.
Her character, played by Zoe Saldana, gets to do a lot more in the reboot films.

Only George Takei and William Shatner are left from the original group now.

[slackster]

As an aside, after seeing the tribute pic of Nichols doing a Vulcan salute with Obama, I realised I could only do one easily with my right hand. Not exactly Earth-shattering news, but as Spock himself might say: "Fascinating is a word I use for the unexpected, in this case I would think interesting would suffice.”

[Satchmo Distel]

I wonder if that's to do with the left and right sides of the brain? Oddly I'm right-handed but can only do the salute with my left.

[hobbes]

Even in the later films and so forth, she never got to do enough, but that was still way more than most women and/or black people got to do on TV in the 60s or Blockbusters in the 80’s.
Her character, played by Zoe Saldana, gets to do a lot more in the reboot films.

Only George Takei and William Shatner are left from the original group now.

And Walter Koenig

[Hot Pepsi]

And Walter Koenig

I thought he died.

[hobbes]

Nope, still plodding along. Unless there is twitter in the afterworld.

[Uncle Ethan]

It was Anton Yelchin, the actor who played Chekhov in the revival movies, who died, not Koenig.

[Hot Pepsi]

That’s right. What a bummer.

[Logan Mountstuart]

One of my first crushes. As a young boy her legs stirred my loins.

[Guy Profumo]

And Walter Koenig

Chekhov not in first series, joined in S2

[hobbes]

Still counts as part of the original group. He was in TOS for 2 seasons and however many films.

[Hot Pepsi]

Chekhov not in first series, joined in S2

It was never clear to me what his job description was. He just seemed to do whatever needed done.

[hobbes]

He was navigation/tactical and stood in for Spock as science officer when he was unavailable.

[Satchmo Distel]

I saw James Doohan returning for an episode of a rerun of Star Trek: The Next Generation (c.1992) the other day. Early 90s hairstyles dated it a bit visually but the themes are sometimes more deeply explored than in the 60s series. Patrick Stewart is obviously a better actor than Shatner (although I sometimes think that Shatner's hammy approach actually suited the way the character was written).

[Hot Pepsi]

He was navigation/tactical and stood in for Spock as science officer when he was unavailable.

I thought Sulu was the navigator.

[hobbes]

Sulu was helm. He drove the Enterprise.

[Hot Pepsi]

It seems like those jobs could be consolidated.

[Satchmo Distel]

Why did they sometimes get beamed down on to planets if their jobs were only related to the ship?

[Southport Zeb]

They had a five year mission, so I'd imagine that all crew members were able to multiple roles in order to maintain engagement in work and to cover for illness/ planet leave/ being stuck in alternate dimensions

[Hot Pepsi]

Why did they sometimes get beamed down on to planets if their jobs were only related to the ship?

That's one of the glaring things in all of the Star Trek shows - the ship has hundreds of crew, but they send senior officers on dangerous missions all of the time. What navy runs like that?