Uhura was serving as a love interest, but TOS had short skirts, and she was certainly fluent in alien languages, and had a lot of technical skill, which is MORE than she had in TOS.
Ok, you've established that she's got all these skills, now let's see how they payed off in the movie.
Very Well ..
- fluent in alien languages.
Pointless. The Romulans speak perfect english the entire time. No need to translate.
Incorrect. Her skills were needed to check to see if there were ROMULAN transmissions. Hence her promotion.
Despite me negativity towards ENTERPRISE, at least Hoshi actually used her language skills to translate Romulan.
True, and she was implied to be laying the foundation for the Universal Translator.
And if you listen to the commentary track for Trek09, everyone gives themselves a pat on the back for having the Romulans speaking English, saying the decision was "brilliant".
I don't remember that specifically, but they were speaking from a DRAMATIC place, and it fits the Romulans. Still is not a negative to Uhura's established linguistic skills.
- Has a lot of technical skills.
Pointless. She's super skilled at hearing... nothing.
Actually, NOT pointless. It establishes, right there, that she is not simply a "hailing frequencies open" phone operator. Establishing this in dialogue is in and of itself a direct refutation of your charge.
Oh! She just said that Transporters are back online! Wait one more second and four other people will say the same thing!
You mean, she CAN'T say that, because passing on relevent information is "beneath her" or something? Pull the other one.
- Is a stern professional who takes her job very seriously.
Laughable.
Disagree. Let's look closer ...
Vulcan has minutes before complete and utter destruction, Spock orders Uhura to issue a planet wide evacuation.
She's in Communications, and it's the most prudent course of action to get everyone off the planet.
Since there are billions of lives at stake and every second matters, Uhura certainly would be right on the job, right? Wrong. She leaves her station, questions Spock on what he is about to do and than runs back to her station like it was no big deal.
Well, simply sending out a message probably is NOT a big deal, but the Captain leaving the Bridge like that is something she's not going to miss. She's a Pro, NOT A ROBOT.
It's Chekov's best scene in the whole movie because he says "Aye yai yai" while you see her running in the background.
Chekov's reaction was about the GENERAL situation, and NOT related to Uhura specifically. Irrelevent.
- BONUS ROUND! She also leaves her station to see Spock off. Why? Cause she's in love I guess, and love is far more important than manning your stations in a time of crises, with Earth getting close to destruction.
Actually, she wanted to know why Spock was leaving the Bridge in a time of crisis. She's *wait for it ...* THINKING !!!!
But to her credit, her station is pretty useless so who can blame her. Oh, wait! Captain Kirk just gave the order to "Hail them now"! Uhura, where are you? Oh wait, you went to the Transporter room again, didn't you? Now you're running back to your station. Maybe you'll get there in time before Chekov does your job-- "Aye!" Too late.
She had her earpiece in, and works for an actual DEPARTMENT.
Now, what did Uhura from TOS get to do?
Over 79 episodes as opposed to 1 movie ...
- Takes over the helm quite often in episodes like "The Man Trap" and "Balance of Terror".
Thats TWICE, I believe. Can't think of other times.
- Is willing to go up against evil Sulu in "Mirror, mirror".
- Actually uses her station instead of just looking at a light, getting up and striking a pose while saying "We're being hailed!".
Uhura was working the controls earlier before they arrived at Vulcan. Sure knew her equipment then.
- And how many times must I bring this up? She took command of the gawd dang Enterprise and saved the day! No "Kirk's report is accurate", no "I'm not picking up any Romulan Transmissions", just pure awesomeness that is "I am assuming command of the Enterprise".
Once, if I remember rightly.
You think NuUhura will ever get that sort of authority in Star Trek under the care of Bob and Alex, two writers who would sooner kill off the only female Transformer before she even got to finish one sentence? Ya, probably not.
No idea. I can't predict the future any more than YOU can. Trek 2009 was written in a very different way to Bay's Bollox, so your comparisson is unfair.
I keep hearing that it is "Full of A$$holes", yet I don't see that.
Kirk yells at Spock, disobeys his orders, assaults two on-duty security officers who were following orders, and actually whines about Spock violating protocols.
Most of this is because Spock's judgement is frustratingly hampered, and Kirk was (on one occasion) trying to "save the bridge".
So Kirk thinks he can break any rule whenever he wants to, but if someone else does, that's crossing the line.
I remember the same accusation levied Several times in the Trek Movies, most notably General Chang in Trek VI. That doesn't make him an a-hole, it makes him a determined man who knows that rules sometimes HAVE to be broken to get things done. He's not a Beauracrat.
And he's in this all because he was dared to.
He joined Starfleet INITIALLY because he was dared to, yes.
Not because he believes in what the Federation is doing, not because he's a romantic adventurer (You know, like classic Kirk), not because he wants to explore the final frontier.
He stuck around in the Academy, and we don't know if Clasic Kirk actually entered Starfleet as a thrill-seeker, on a dare, or even that his romantic view of exploration did or did not develop later.
He's doing it because he was dared to.
Ya, he's an a**hole.
He was not, as evidenced by his working to save Earth. If there is a BIT of an a-hole in him, it's no more than we saw in TOS or the TOS Movies.
Uhura also complains about being assigned to a ship that is not the Enterprise.
She's ambitious, top of her class, and is being insulted by not getting a position for which she's OBVIOUSLY (point of scene) qualified.
Yes, she's a cadet who hasn't graduated yet, is being assigned to a starship which will no doubt showcase her incredible skills as a communications officer and give her experience in the field that most cadets haven't gotten yet, and she starts whining about wanting to be on the Enterprise?
I guess ambition is something alien to you.
Ever heard of starting from the bottom and working your way to the top?
Ever heard of getting just recognition for your efforts?
So what if you're the top of your class?
So what if you are qualified for something, and being passed up, and wanting to know why?
A ship is a ship and most of the time it's only as good as it's crew.
True, but in ANY military, people want the newest and best assignments. Prestige, pride and ambition.
If you had even half of the skills you claim to have, you could have helped made the Farragut one heck of a good ship, old or new.
You might have even saved the ship before it entered Vulcan!
Possible, but actually less likely, since there was no warning until Kirk put two-and-two together with information they lacked.
Bones. His original character did have a lot of great moments that didn't involve arguing or shouting, yet that's all he does here. No words of wisdom and no senior experience to pass.
No time or plot reason. Next movie we'll likely see it.
Scotty: Here we once had a likable guy with a heart of gold who took great pride in his work, now reduced to a comedic character who's only purpose is to make the audience laugh.
His Engineering skill was on display, and his physics knowledge and Transporter genius was a subtle plot point.
Where as the original Scotty will defend the Enterprise with a vengeance if anyone bad mouths her, NuScotty isn't afraid to make womanizing groping jokes about her.
