Uhura: Engineer, not linguist

[SonicRanger]

There is a common "myth" throughout fandom, reinforced by some portrayals in the novels, that Uhura is principally a linguist. Never, though, is she shown to have a proclivity for languages. She knows English and her native tongue of Swahili (much like Chekov knows Russian), but she doesn't seem to know Klingon (TUC) or any other language. Nor does she try to help out when linguistics would be useful in deciphering alien communications (TVH). Linguistics is a science, but she instead wears the red uniform of Engineering and Support Services (and, yes, she wore a gold Command uniform in "The Corbomite Maneuver").

As she is portrayed in TOS (and the films), I'd argue, she is a talented engineer who specializes mainly in communications systems but also knows a number of other systems, like the navigation console ("Balance of Terror") and science station ("The Galileo Seven," "Whom Gods Destroy"). For example, she was the one who identified the energy pulsations in "Spock's Brain" that led the crew to the correct planet. And she took command in TAS ("Bem," "The Lorelei Signal"), fitting that she was once in the Command division. Later, in TSFS, she took a post manning a transporter room, something she must have been qualified to do (even if Starfleet basically just let her volunteer to do whatever she wanted). Also Uhura was one of only 20 officers chosen by M-5 to operate the ship during its war games ("The Ultimate Computer").

Probably the best example is "Who Mourns for Adonais?", where she rewires the entire communications system to break through the Apollo's interference. Spock actually praises her work to wire a bypass circuit, and he even says that he can think of "no one better equipped" to do this engineering feat. She also did engineering work on the communication console in "This Side of Paradise."

The 1967 Writers' Guide for Star Trek's second season described her as: "Communications officer Uhura was born in the United States of Africa. Quick and intelligent, she is a highly efficient officer and expert in all ships' systems related to communications." Nothing about linguistics or languages.

The 1977 Writers'/Directors' Guide for Star Trek: Phase II goes even further: "Uhura was born in the African Confederacy. Quick and intelligent, she is a highly efficient officer. Her understanding of the ship's computer systems is second only to the Vulcan Science Officer, and expert in all ships systems relating to communications."

Uhura appears to be a talented engineer, not a linguist, even though interpretations of her character tend to favor the latter. Presumably this has to do with wanting to see her as "more" than "just" a future telephone operator. But clearly she was more than a secretary, although she's an engineer and communications systems specialist, not a linguist, given her portrayal onscreen.

 

[erastus25]

Damn...great breakdown. No way to argue against it, really.

 

[T'Girl]

I would put her specialty as a "communications tecchnician." Her statement that she hadn't preformed hands on work on the equipment under the console suggests to me that maybe she was originally enlisted, didn't go to the academy and at some point in her career became a officer as a mustang.

I can't remember Uhura's age being mention on air, my impression is the character was about the same age as the actress playing her.

 

[mos6507]

IMHO, this is a rationalization. The character should have been a linguist and should have helped in decoding V'Ger's signals in TMP, decoding whalesong in Trek IV, and speaking Klingon in TUC, but they didn't write her properly. Naturally, accepting this is hard for fans to accept.

 

[SonicRanger]

IMHO, this is a rationalization. The character should have been a linguist and should have helped in decoding V'Ger's signals in TMP, decoding whalesong in Trek IV, and speaking Klingon in TUC, but they didn't write her properly. Naturally, accepting this is hard for fans to accept.

So you want her to be a linguist, and therefore, you state that she wasn't written properly in the films. But her roles in the films seem perfectly consistent with her portrayal in TOS and TAS as an engineer or technician, not someone gifted with languages.

 

[Pauln6]

Yes she is a an officer and a technician. She isn't going to be repairing the warp engines or hull but could take a stab at any electrical systems. Most linguistic translations require the computer though so I'd still argue that she should have been shown assisting Spock at the very least. Her skill set was still very under-used, much like Chapel. She was arguably a biologist, paleobiologist, anthropologist, and technician in her capacity as a research biologist assisting the Louis Pasteur of archaelogical medicine. She pretty much just handed McCoy slides to examine with no analysis, advice, or input despite the fact that she was probably more qualified than 'an old country doctor'. Ah the transparent aluminum ceiling....

 

[F. King Daniel]

I grew up reading those novels, so she'll always be a linguist to me. Imagine Nichelle getting to play an important role in events, getting scenes as good as Zoe Saldana's talking down a squad of angry Klingons!

 

[Pauln6]

It's probably also worth noting that Sulu is a physicist with a working knowledge of botany as a hobby. Not sure about Chekov but he seems very proficient in sensors and is a zoology know-it-all so I'd probably argue that he trained as a zoologist/ecologist. It makes his promotion to Reliant make a bit more sense too. We're led to believe that he also went on to train in security but all onscreen evidence indicates he was just terrible at security so I tend to think of him as weapons officer rather than security officer.

NuChekov on the other hand is definitely a full-on engineer but then why not, since he is a completely different person.

 

[SonicRanger]

It's probably also worth noting that Sulu is a physicist with a working knowledge of botany as a hobby.

Well, he was head of the astrosciences department in WNMHGB, which doesn't necessarily mean he was a physicist, but one could see interstellar navigation as part of the astrosciences.

 

[Warped9]

The problem is Uhura wasn't really defined in TOS. As far as her expertise or involvement with linguistics and decoding my earliest reccolection goes back to reading James Blish's adaptation of "Balance Of Terror" and his portrayal of Uhura in his 1970 novel Spock Must Die!

All of that predates what we see (and don't see) later in the films. And the fact writers of the later novels continued with Blish's approach indicates I'm not the only one who picked up on it.

The one thing I liked in ENT was the portrayal of Hoshi Sato in regards to languages. I liked it because it was the realization of what I had long associated with Uhura going all the way back to reading James Blish's handling of her character in 1970. And I was reading those books in the early '70s when TOS was really gaining steam in syndication.

 

[Mudd]

On TOS she's the ship's radio officer, that's all.

 

[Pauln6]

On TOS she's the ship's radio officer, that's all.

Untrue. She is also a senior officer i.e. a lieutenant. TOS is a bit top heavy on lieutenants admittedly but she is probably still up there in the top ten of the chain of command.

 

[Ithekro]

I believe she was listed as fourth officer. Normally she'd be in line to take command after Kirk, Spock, Scott, and Sulu. If I remember correctly.

 

[Pauln6]

It's probably also worth noting that Sulu is a physicist with a working knowledge of botany as a hobby.

Well, he was head of the astrosciences department in WNMHGB, which doesn't necessarily mean he was a physicist, but one could see interstellar navigation as part of the astrosciences.

I think helm and navigation are disciplines in which every crewman would be trained as standard. Uhura and Rand both take up positions on the bridge when needed.

Stellar cartography is simply cataloging objects and phenomena i.e. it's a job description rather than a discrete discipline IMO. However I think it's likely that Sulu is trained in astronomy (which is basically a bit of physics with a lot of mathematics), astrophysics, and traditional physics. He ends up on a scientific mission in TUC.

I believe she was listed as fourth officer. Normally she'd be in line to take command after Kirk, Spock, Scott, and Sulu. If I remember correctly.

There are certainly other more senior officers (Gaetano, Ann Mulhall, to name a couple) but they may not be bridge command officers. Certainly when on duty she's technically fourth in line but they seem keen to draft in senior engineers instead of letting her near the chair. I suspect nobody wanted her flashing her panties in the big chair.

 

[Mudd]

On TOS she's the ship's radio officer, that's all.

Untrue. She is also a senior officer i.e. a lieutenant. TOS is a bit top heavy on lieutenants admittedly...

Yes, it is. TOS arbitrarily made officers of everyone except the occasional throwaway walk-on. Uhura's job on the show can be mapped to that of the radio officer on a naval vessel, as could most jobs on the ship. The American Navy was the direct model and inspiration for the Enterprise.

 

[Draculasaurus]

It's just one of the blind spots in Star Trek.
It would make sense for her to be a linguist, but it's a jaunty adventure show where it's just easier to have all of the aliens speak English.

 

[Pauln6]

On TOS she's the ship's radio officer, that's all.

Untrue. She is also a senior officer i.e. a lieutenant. TOS is a bit top heavy on lieutenants admittedly...

Yes, it is. TOS arbitrarily made officers of everyone except the occasional throwaway walk-on. Uhura's job on the show can be mapped to that of the radio officer on a naval vessel, as could most jobs on the ship. The American Navy was the direct model and inspiration for the Enterprise.

Not quite - they made lieutenants of all the scientists, who are probably not part of the chain of command, about half the helmsmen and navigators, and the senior engineers. So yeah, top heavy but there were a lot of more junior officers and crew. TOS certainly featured more non-coms than any other Trek franchise.

I do agree that her post is based on radio officer (rather than telephonist as many joke). It's refreshing to watch the Last Ship and reflect how Trek would feel more 'real' if they had stuck a bit more to the naval feel with a sci fi spin when assessing crew roles.

What I find odder is that the NuTrek comic is repeating the mistake. Keenser, who is treated like a talented skivvy is actually a lieutenant rather than say a grease monkey petty officer like Tyrol in BSG. Zahra, who was originally a yeoman (most likely a petty officer although tricky to tell in TOS) is now a security lieutenant. I think it probably springs from various writers not having a clear idea of just how many officers and crew there should be and not imagining the cumulative effect of slapdash writing.

 

[GNDN18]

Yes, it is. TOS arbitrarily made officers of everyone except the occasional throwaway walk-on. Uhura's job on the show can be mapped to that of the radio officer on a naval vessel, as could most jobs on the ship. The American Navy was the direct model and inspiration for the Enterprise.

I agree, but I would add that Roddenberry's pitch and his script for the pilot was more closely aligned with Hornblower's Royal Navy. Any officer worth his salt (or hers, as the 23rd century case might be), would be able to "hand, reef, and steer." Uhura certainly demonstrated those abilities.

As for languages and linguistics, the universal translator rendered that skill obsolete, or at least redundant. TOS relied on things working with a minimum of explanation: freighting the stories with the work behind translation would only slow the stories. Unless the story was about an incomprehensible species, that is.

 

[Warped9]

James Blish was known to be working from early script drafts. And so if that was the case when he wrote his adaptation of "Balance Of Terror" then the knowledge and expertise in decoding may have been written ih there from the start for Uhura. Unfortunately in the final aired version all matters of decoding were transferred to Spock. Only later in "Space Seed" do we catch a glimpse of Uhura reading an old style radio signal and a centuries old signal code at that.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

On TOS she's the ship's radio officer, that's all.

Uhura should've been the navigator, up front and center on the show.