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Acknowledgements
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(Grace Nichols 1932– ). American actress.
Provided voice for animated films: Star Trek (animated
tv series) (1973-1975); Star Trek: 25th Anniversary Enhanced (video
game) (1992); "Commander Toad in Space" (1993), episode of ABC Weekend Specials;
Star Trek: Judgment Rites (video game) (1993); "Avatar" (1994), episode
of Batman; "Deadly Force" (1994), "Her Brother's Keeper," "The Cage"
(1995), "Mark of the Panther" (1996), episodes of Gargoyles; "Partners
in Danger, Chapter 7: The Vampire Queen," "Secret Wars, Chapter 2: The Gauntlet
of the Red Skull" (1997), episodes of Spider-Man; Gargoyles: Brothers
Betrayed (animated short) (Saburo Hashimoto and Kazuo Terada 1998); "Anthology
of Interest" (2000), "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" (2002), episodes of Futurama;
"The Yukari Imprint" (2000), episode of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command;
"Simple Simpson" (2004), episode of The Simpsons. Hosted: Inside Space (tv series) (1992-1999). Appeared in documentaries: Star Trek 25th Anniversary
Special (Donald R. Beck 1991); Star Trek: A Captain's Log (Michael
Mahler 1994); Last Angel of History (John Akomfrah 1995); William
Shatner's Star Trek Memories (Mahler 1995); Star Trek: 30 Years and
Beyond (Louis J. Horvitz 1996); Trekkies (Roger Nygard 1997); The
Stars of Star Wars: Interviews with the Cast (Kent Hagen 1999); "Star
Trek" (2003), episode of After They Were Famous; How William
Shatner Changed the World (Julian Jones 2007); Star Trek: Beyond the
Final Frontier (John Logsdon 2007).
Consider the most prominent piece of evidence—the
television series Star Trek, which featured Nichols in every
episode—and recognize that its general failure to provide her with any genuine
challenges was largely a matter of cause and effect: as a series progresses,
performers who distinguish themselves (like James DOOHAN and Walter KOENIG) are
given more and more to do, while those who fail to distinguish themselves (like
Nichols and George TAKEI)
are given less and less to do. Only on three occasions I can recall was Nichols
allowed to step out of her routine, and two of them were disastrous: that
excruciating scene in "Charlie X" when Uhura sang in the Enterprise
lounge while Leonard NIMOY's
Spock played the Vulcan harp, and that equally excruciating image of Uhura and
William SHATNER's Kirk
kissing in "Plato's Stepchildren"—heralded, perhaps incorrectly, as
television's first interracial kiss—though one must admit that the sequence
didn't work mainly because Shatner so badly misplayed it (I don't care if
sinister aliens are forcing you to do it—a man kissing a beautiful woman,
especially one so notoriously promiscuous as Kirk, should still try to enjoy the
experience). One cherishes only "Mirror, Mirror," where Nichols's antics in the
mirror universe briefly suggested that she might have thrived if the era had allowed
her to portray a somewhat tougher, ballsier Lieutenant Uhura. If Nichols otherwise was asked only to recite the usual
lines in response to the usual orders and to furrow her brows in the usual
manner when the usual problems arise, one must acknowledge that all of these
perfunctory chores played a larger role in the success of Star Trek than
is regularly acknowledged. Simply having her and Takei perpetually in the
background, due to Gene RODDENBERRY's
visionary multi-racial casting, allowed Star Trek reruns to retain an
air of modernity, and hence remain viable in syndication, in later, more
enlightened decades while other, all-white programs from the 1960s (like Irwin
ALLEN's lamentable Lost in
Space) began to seem dated, and Uhura's constant visibility as the Enterprise's
Communications Officer did powerfully convey that, in contrast to space sagas
of the past, the mission of this starship was indeed, as indicated by its
immortal prologue, to communicate with space and not to conquer it. Time and time
again, in order to deal with a crisis, Captain Kirk was absolutely dependent
upon Uhura's ability to establish radio contact or display rubber-suited aliens
on the ship's television screen for that all-important face-to-mask
communication. Perhaps almost any actor or actress could have performed these
duties, but Nichols still deserves some credit for happening to be the actress
who competently carried them out. Still, bored by the repetitiveness of it all, Nichols
understandably grew very tired of it all, no doubt inspiring many regrets that
she had abandoned her promising singing career (which included gigs with none
less than Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton) to have a fling with a television
producer and move into acting, and leading to a provisional decision to quit
the show (which was famously abandoned after a conversation with none less than
Martin Luther King, Jr.). However, when cancellation later forced her to give
up her role as Uhura, she initially found it difficult to find work other than
providing Uhura's voice for the animated Star Trek series and appearing
at Star Trek conventions. Only the series' revival as a film franchise brought
her back into the spotlight, although she was again given little to do—with
some forgettable exceptions, most notably her un-seductive seductive dance in Star
Trek V: The Final Frontier. Her only memorable recent performance came in
that enjoyable anticipation of Galaxy Quest, The Adventures of Captain Zoom
in Outer Space, where she aptly matched the film's playful mood as a
platitude-spouting priestess. (I might also mention her adequate work as the
mother in Snow Dogs, arguably relevant here because the film includes a
fantasy sequence with talking dogs, but on second thought, omitting that movie
from an actor's filmography would be a true act of charity.) However, despite such roles, Nichols has mostly kept busy during
the past fifteen years with assignments that don't really require any acting
ability—providing voices for animated television series—and nostalgic
appearances in Tim RUSS's direct-to-video Star Trek curiosities. Long
ago resigned to her fate, Nichelle Nichols will always remain available, one
suspects, to open those hailing frequencies one more time.
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