And where does Spock put her "unmatched skills" and expertise in communications to good use? As the boiler room receptionist.
It was a last minute assignment switch, so a post more suited to her skills was already filled?
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It was a last minute assignment switch, so a post more suited to her skills was already filled?
And where does Spock put her "unmatched skills" and expertise in communications to good use? As the boiler room receptionist.
It was a last minute assignment switch, so a post more suited to her skills was already filled?
It was an emergency situation & mission.
Not to mention we don't actually know what goes on in the "boiler room" and how important or relevant to her skills it is.
To say it's an unimportant position because you don't like the look of the set is clearly not the way to go.
Obviously it had to be more important than being at the comms station on the bridge. I'm still waiting on a reason why she's more useful on the bridge than down there. As the film depicted,
- They don't use her knowledge of the Romulan language.
- They don't use her to contact Starfleet to inform them on Vulcan's destruction.
- They don't need the comms station to initiate a ship wide broadcast the way Uhura did in the original series.
- They don't need her to hail the Narada (Chekov does that)
- And they certainly don't need her to even respond to Nero's hails since he can force his way onto the screen without her help.
Again, I'm having a hard time understanding the logic that people have been stating here that Uhura does as much for the story as Chekov and Sulu. Most of the tasks that involve communications aren't given to Uhura or the comms station!
Well, as far as I'm concerned you'll have to keep waiting.
People have been arguing this point with you for months in various threads to no avail.
I'm really not interested enough to give it a try yet again.
She has her own emotional arc through the movie and serves to further Spock's emotional arc. She was also a foil for Kirk. It was a good role for an actor and she served to further the drama.
It's not logic, it's the human equation.
What emotional arc? The romance with Spock? Emotional arcs usually have this thing called 'development'. Their relationship didn't have any of that. It was just "they're a couple", and nothing more. That's not much of an emotional arc, more of an emotional tip.
So the role for women in Star Trek has been reduced to simply serve for men's own emotional arc? That makes sense. Maybe on a good day Uhura will actually use that comms station before Chekov does from his navigation console.
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Lets address some of these, shall we?
- They don't use her knowledge of the Romulan language.
Actually, they do. Remember that the Communications Officer was relieved because he couldn't distinguish between Vulcan and Romulan.
- They don't use her to contact Starfleet to inform them on Vulcan's destruction.
They may have. Simply not portrayed.
- They don't need the comms station to initiate a ship wide broadcast the way Uhura did in the original series.
They probably could have done that from Science as well. Chekov had been working on the data sent from Vulcan, so that's why Pike asked him to send the message.
- They don't need her to hail the Narada (Chekov does that)
She was still monitoring general communications at the time, probably (gasp) trying to find a way through the interference to communicate with Starfleet.
- And they certainly don't need her to even respond to Nero's hails since he can force his way onto the screen without her help.
Same goes for the Kelvin at the start of the film. Obviously, the Narada has some future knowledge of how to hack some of Starfleets communications protocols.
She's probably also at that time analyzing the interference, and working closely with Science.
When Kirk and Spock later beam to the Narada, she's monitoring communications until they are cut off. That eapiece is portrayed as providing a mobile audio link to her comms station, which is actually pretty smart.
Again, how does this diminish or demean here role?
Does anyone notice that Uhura gets a scene at the bar where she talks to Kirk, another scene in her dorm, another scene talking to Spock to get onboard, has a heart to heart with Spock, figures out a lot of stuff, and has, you know, basically more screen time and presence than either Chekov or Sulu?
Those two jokers are strictly speaking secondary characters, while Uhura is the female lead of the movie. The emphasis on her shows accordingly. Who asks Kirk if he's doing the right thing when he takes over? (Hint: It's not Nurse Chapel in a cameo you don't remember BECAUSE IT DIDN'T HAPPEN.)
Geez louise, how does Uhura get her meatiest role ever and is then knocked down for not having her meatiest role ever? Chekov and Sulu do both get to do their jobs and each have one hero moment... but that's it. That's the extent of their involvement in the movie, they're ciphers - Sulu doubly so because he never gets time to develop anything resembling a personality. At least Chekov gets to be peppy and have his infamous Wussian accent.
Uhura, though, gets scenes with personality and emotion and stuff.
Basically there is probably more Uhura in this movie then there is McCoy. She also gets scenes where she does stuff, which is more than I can say for the good doctor. Chew on that, if you dare.
Those two jokers are strictly speaking secondary characters, while Uhura is the female lead of the movie. The emphasis on her shows accordingly. Who asks Kirk if he's doing the right thing when he takes over? (Hint: It's not Nurse Chapel in a cameo you don't remember BECAUSE IT DIDN'T HAPPEN.)
Geez louise, how does Uhura get her meatiest role ever and is then knocked down for not having her meatiest role ever? Chekov and Sulu do both get to do their jobs and each have one hero moment... but that's it. That's the extent of their involvement in the movie, they're ciphers - Sulu doubly so because he never gets time to develop anything resembling a personality. At least Chekov gets to be peppy and have his infamous Wussian accent.
Uhura, though, gets scenes with personality and emotion and stuff.
Basically there is probably more Uhura in this movie then there is McCoy. She also gets scenes where she does stuff, which is more than I can say for the good doctor. Chew on that, if you dare.
You, sir! I want to party with you! Yes, you!
I got that, but what I'm getting at is that they never USED her knowledge. All the Romulans spoke perfect english and there was no need for any translator. This is like having a character who's been developed as being a highly skilled electrician who can build a warpcores out of coconuts, but the only thing he does in the film is flip a light switch. You don't need to be a professor in linguistics to know what 'no transmissions' sounds like. The guy was a Lieutenant for crying out loud, not a cadet. Pike should have said "Assist the Lieutenant", not "Relieve the Lieutenant".
And really, if you can't distinguish between two languages, doesn't that mean you can still understand it? It's Vulcan for crying out loud.
Watch the film again during that scene. Spock orders Starfleet to be informed on what has transpired. If you listen closely, an off-screen female officer who is NOT Uhura responds to this order. Who is that officer? Don't know, but she seems to be the 'go to' officer when it comes to communications, despite the fact we have a comms officer with great skills at the comms station at that very moment.
Again, there have been many instances in the original series where Uhura would tie in the ships channels to a particular station, hence giving the comms station a use. Here, that is not the case so the comms station is rendered more useless than before.
I don't think we're on the same scene here. This is when the Narada is being engulfed by the Black Hole thanks to Spock ramming the Jellyfish into the ship. There is no interference nor a need to contact Starfleet. So when Kirk says "Hail them now", it's Chekov who says "Aye!". Again, another assignment that was always meant for the communications station, but given to the navigator.
But you say "She was still monitoring general communications at the time". Well, she wasn't actually. If you watch closely, you do see Uhura rush into the Transporter room just to hug Spock when they beam back to the Enterprise. So I guess that's why Chekov does her work. She leaves her station like crazy! Not that I would blame her really, everyone and their post seems to have a comms station.
Because the writers didn't get the memo that the communications post from the original series actually had a role to play. Instead the writers seem to think that since there are no communication stations on later series that everyone has a comms station. It has been like that since Star Trek: The Next Generation. There would never be a dedicated comms station in a Star Trek series till Enterprise. Despite the fact I loath Enterprise with every fiber of my being, it did put Hoshi's communication skills and talent with languages to great use. She even partially translated the Romulan language without even knowing it!
I dare not, since you are correct.
I don't want to chew on that. They're all good points. I'm just disappointed at how it all turned out.
- I had absolutely no objections to the Spock/Uhura romance thing. I was all for it. Unfortunately it just didn't do anything because of how rushed it felt. It would have been nice if they had a scene where they first met, because that's where I think the most interesting part of a relationship occurs. Maybe a little recreation of the mess hall scene from Charlie X?
- If she's at the communication's station, at least give her the communication's tasks.
- And furthermore, why didn't she step in-between Kirk and Spock when Kirk was berating him? This guy lost his mother and his entire planet to a mad man. I would honestly like to know why she didn't intervene like Bones did earlier.
We disagree.
No. The role for women in Star Trek has not been reduced to simply serve for men's own emotional arc.
I don't believe Uhura was the comms officer at the outset of the movie. Maybe in the next movie she will be relegated to just the words "Hailing frequencies open" while she pushes the requisite buttons, but I hope not. Her character would be better served if she continued in the vein establish in ST09.
Scotty worked in the ship's brewery, but we didn't see him given the task of brewing hooch...
I think Uhura was given a much larger role in ST09 than ever before, and I think that for once, she actually had a personality rather than just being a blank slate that occasionally allowed her actress's charisma to be displayed.
Having said that, it might be a good idea to use Uhura to fill a role that TOS has always lacked -- a permanent chief of security. There's already a precedent within Star Trek for the chief of security to be communications chief, too -- Worf on TNG. If you give that job to Uhura, that kills two birds with one stone: We find out who's running security, and Uhura gets to do more than just stand around saying, "Hailing frequencies open."
Having said that, it might be a good idea to use Uhura to fill a role that TOS has always lacked -- a permanent chief of security. There's already a precedent within Star Trek for the chief of security to be communications chief, too -- Worf on TNG. If you give that job to Uhura, that kills two birds with one stone: We find out who's running security, and Uhura gets to do more than just stand around saying, "Hailing frequencies open."
Well it's because people feel the character is underused in terms of screentime in her actual ship duty, despite the amount of 'character' time she is getting.
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