The roles of Uhura, Sulu & Chekov (and maybe Scotty?)

[Danlav05]

Star Trek has been praised for giving ethnic minority characters key roles in a primetime US drama in the 60s . An African-American actress played a lieutenant and at the helm was a Japanese guy.

The last three characters were sorely underdeveloped despite this but far more than glorified extras. although there was this famous ensemble of Seven the show was really about Kirk & Spock, McCoy in second place, Scotty in third and then the other three'. Even the movies kept to this although in The Voyage Home for example everyone had their 'moment'. This is interesting because despite this the Seven always returned and all the characters are icons. Even Scotty didn't get his spotlight show until TNG's Relics. Making Sulu Captain of the Excelsior in ST6 gave him a different role.

How do people feel about this? Fascinatingly enough it has taken Chekov 40 years to take the lead in several unofficial projects - New Voyages' To Serve All My Days, Of Gods and Men, Renegades and the upcoming audio drama from Star Trek: Excelsior - a few of these feature Nichelle Nichols as Uhura; again playing a bigger role than ever before. It's ironic that none of these are canon but the "b-listers" are now given the spotlight. George Takei played Captain Sulu in three audio dramas and New Voyages 'Word Enough and Time', as well as Yorktown: A Time To Heal made in the 80s but currently being completed.

I think it's good that now the actors can really show who these characters are.

 

[Metryq]

Are we going to beat this dead horse again? TV shows were episodic in the '60s—no story arcs, as is common today. Also, there were no "politically correct" overseers with stop-watches and page counters making sure everyone got their "fair share" of exposure.

TOS told stories that included only what was needed, and that typically means a small core group of characters. Kirk is the "Everyman" with Spock and McCoy as the "devil" and "angel" voicing opposing views. The stories were not weighed down with unnecessary junk.

 

[TOSalltheway]

Would have been nice to see more of them but it is what it is. That being said I would love to see TOS remade for HBO or Showtime using the current serialzed approach rather than a series of stand alone episodes.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Even Scotty didn't get his spotlight show until TNG's Relics.

Scotty had the spotlight episodes "Wolf in the Fold" and "The Lights of Zetar," where he took center stage, or was part of the main plot.

Chekov was given much attention as the junior officer (and would-be "chick magnet" for the audience), but even he had his spotlight in "The Way to Eden" and memorable moments in "Day of the Dove," "Spectre of the Gun" and "Mirror, Mirror".

Making Sulu Captain of the Excelsior in ST6 gave him a different role.

Interestingly enough, Sulu and Uhura enjoyed bigger moments in the animated series; Sulu and Uhura only had Spock as a companion in "The Slaver Weapon," so they had greater participation in the story, without being bumped to second-fiddle status.

Uhura made her most significant mark--probably in franchise history--in TAS' "The Lorelei Signal" with Uhura taking command of the Enterprise, and leading an all female landing party to rescue the big three (plus Lt. Carver).

 

[Warped9]

TOS was never an ensemble show, certainly not as it's understood today.

 

[KeepOnTrekking]

I think Gene Roddenberry considered Shatner as the star and Nimoy as the co-star. Everybody else was supporting roles with the intention of giving them their moments. You saw a lot of Sulu and Uhura and Rand during their off-duty hours in the rec room or the botany lab. When Rodenberry moved up to executive producer and Gene Coon was brought in, it was Coon who played up the Kirk-Spock-McCoy synergy and locked that in as the main theme for the rest of the show's duration (as Deforest Kelley was recognized for his awesome portrayal with an opening credit starting in the 2nd season). Unfortunately, that meant the supporting roles became little more than talking props between what was written and Shatner's demands for screen time.

 

[Warped9]

TOS gets a lot of credit partly because of its visibility as well as longevity in popularity. But the fact is there were other shows that allowed minority actors more to do more. Greg Morris as well as Barbara Bain of Mission: Impossible were both given a lot more to do than any of the secondary cast of TOS (and M:I was also being produced by Desilu). Indeed M:I was more of an ensemble cast than TOS. Peter Graves may have gotten top billing, but it's hard to see whether he actually had much more screen time than Barbara Bain, Martin Landau or Greg Morris.

I, Spy featured Bill Cosby as the show's costar alongside Robert Culp. Other black actors were being featured in other series during the '60s as costars and even leads. But somehow few of them are remembered as well as Nichelle Nichols as Uhura on TOS.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Star Trek was never going to be an ensemble show because there was such a vast difference in talent and charisma between the two tiers. In the top tier, Shatner was pure lead material with tons of charisma, Nimoy created a unique new character that intrigued people, and Kelley delivered a strong personality that worked as Nimoy's perfect foil.

By contrast, Doohan and Koenig were performers with very modest charisma, and their roles were mired in ethnic gimmickry. I never thought Koenig was a very good character actor; he was just a guy who came in for the audition and strongly resembled Davey Jones of The Monkees.

Takei was cast to fill an Asian role, from a very limited choice of performers in the category, and in order to blow that audition he would need to have been absolutely terrible. As with Koenig, I think they didn't look around much, and just took the first acceptable candidate.

Nichols was more singer than actor, but got the job as a (very) personal friend of Gene Roddenberry. Grace Lee Whitney was never going to set the world on fire in any capacity.

The casting strategy they followed, of getting powerful leads and minimally acceptable supporting actors, pretty much determined the writing strategy for the series.

 

[Shawnster]

Scotty had the spotlight episodes "Wolf in the Fold" and "The Lights of Zetar," where he took center stage, or was part of the main plot.

Chekov was given much attention as the junior officer (and would-be "chick magnet" for the audience), but even he had his spotlight in "The Way to Eden" and memorable moments in "Day of the Dove," "Spectre of the Gun" and "Mirror, Mirror".

Chekov also had focus or spotlight moments in "The Deadly Years," and "The Apple."

 

[Duncan MacLeod]

"Give us some more blood, Chekov. The needle won't hurt, Chekov. Roll over, Chekov. Breathe deeply, Chekov. Blood sample, Chekov. Skin sample, Chekov. Marrow sample, Chekov. If I live, I'm going to run out of samples."

 

[JonnyQuest037]

And even the Russian on board the Enterprise wasn't as revolutionary as TOS likes to pretend. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. had David McCallum as loyal Russina Ilia Kuryakin working side-by-side with the American Napoleon Solo a full three years before Chekov was introduced on TOS.

 

[Warped9]

Yet both had lousy Russian accents. In fact I'm not sure McCallum tried to do a Russian accent.

 

[Pauln6]

The novel traitor winds showcased the supporting cast really well. Takei's performance in world enough and time was awesome. I think a couple more episodes that featured them being proactive and a couple of guest appearances by grace in later seasons would have sufficed.

 

[HIjol]

"Give us some more blood, Chekov. The needle won't hurt, Chekov. Blood sample, Chekov. Skin sample, Chekov. Marrow sample, Chekov. If I live, I'm going to run out of samples."

Thank you for this post! Man, did I need a genuine laugh this morning, and you gave me one, Duncan!

To the OP:

I got into a bit of a "back-and-forth" in another Thread like this, a while back, when I posted my opinion that TOS was an Ensemble show. Having said that (again) I do agree that this topic is an important one, because, as it turns out, Star Trek broke such incredible and diverse ground when it aired. To the OP specifically, however, I think the role levels of Scotty, Uhura, Suku and Chekov had as much to do with the dominant clear triad of Kirk, Spock and McCoy as it has to do with the time constraints and story writing "arcs". Had it turned out differently, the others in "The Magnificent 7" would have made good, solid, fleshed-out characters in their own right, IMHO! They would not have ended up, as the OP said, "...sorely undeveloped...". Shame, really, because I liked very much when they had their infrequent times to shine. Of course they were there to fill necessary roles and character types, and certainly they broke new ground in television, for what they were and represented. But I think they could have shown more character and more "character" if they had been given a chance.

Here is what I "know", however; go almost anywhere in the world, and if you say, "Scotty", "Chekov", "Uhura", or "Sulu", I bet you get many who recognize those names from Star Trek, sure bet!

 

[Warped9]

You get an idea of what could have been done with the secondary characters by seeing the actors in other roles outside of TOS back in the day. I have seen James Doohan in The Outer Limits and Bewitched and much later in Matlock. I have seen George Takei in Mission: Impossible. I have seen Nichelle Nichols in The Lieutenant. I have seen Grace Lee Whitney in The Outer Limits. I don't recall seeing Walter Koenig in anything until decades later in Babylon 5. I have seen Majel Barrett in The Lieutenant and Bonanza.

Each demonstrated sufficient capability and competence to do more than what they did in TOS. So ability had nothing to do with their limited screen time. It had everything to do with the show being written predominantly around Shatner, Nimoy and Kelley. TOS might be viewed as an ensemble in theory, but not in actual execution.

 

[johnnybear]

Scotty may have been considered part of the four from the covers of the James Blish books in the seventies and some of you have stated he was in the second position but sadly I'd say he was in the same boat as Uhura, Sulu and Chekov! They gave him the most lines out of all the others but he was still an outsider from the main trilogy I'd say!
JB

 

[Warped9]

Scotty was a secondary character. No ifs, ands or buts about it. He might have been marginally more integral than the others, but not by much.

It was simply easier for them to focus on the three primary stars.

 

[Duncan MacLeod]

Thank you for this post! Man, did I need a genuine laugh this morning, and you gave me one, Duncan!

You're welcome, HIjol. Unfortunately I forgot the "Roll over, Chekov. Breathe deeply, Chekov." that come between the needle and the samples.

Fixed that now.

 

[stardream]

The novel traitor winds showcased the supporting cast really well. Takei's performance in world enough and time was awesome. I think a couple more episodes that featured them being proactive and a couple of guest appearances by grace in later seasons would have sufficed.

One reason why I like the novel verse.
Chekhov, Sulu and Uhuru get interesting things to do.

 

[Pauln6]

Scotty was a secondary character. No ifs, ands or buts about it. He might have been marginally more integral than the others, but not by much.

It was simply easier for them to focus on the three primary stars.

Scotty played a larger part in the show by reason of his role in engineering and because he was the most senior officer when Kirk and Spock are off the ship. Rand and McCoy started out ostensibly as tier two characters but McCoy's niche was easier to make integral to a story than Rand so she faded fast. I think if Rand had remained and fulfilled her original potential, she and Scotty would probably have been roughly equal in contribution, with the others being tier three - mostly delivering support dialogue with the occasional spotlight.