NuUhura - uggh (shudder)

[Itisnotlogical]

I really hate the character of NuUhura.

This is not about looks, although that's a part of it too. I really think that NuUhura is your generic in-your-face, brassy female character that everyone tries to have sex with but rarely does anybody succeed. It makes her character really boring and typical. I'm guessing out of my ass when I say this is why this particular character direction was chosen for this version of Uhura, but a female character can be depicted as being on an equal level with men without having a mean 'tude and being in everyone's face for the first half of the movie.

Nichelle Nichols' Uhura was so much classier in my opinion, too. To paraphrase a scene from the movie:

"... someone who's only had sex with farm animals before."

I couldn't envision Uhura saying that. At all. Nuh uh, nope, not at all. I know it was done for comedic relief (as was pretty much the entire bar fight scene until Pike showed up) but it was something Uhura Prime would never have said. She was more mature than that. I've heard better comebacks from teenagers.

And for the sake of a complete argument for discussion, Zoe Saldana is rather skinny. And that neck of hers is longer than a Subway sandwich...

So, here's my summary petition to JJ Abrams: Take a look at Uhura Prime, at least a glance, when writing Saldana's lines.

For the record, I thought the new movie was great. I thought it was a great reboot for the series and brought the new style the franchise so desperately needed. As with any movie there were it's highs and lows; I just think NuUhura was one of it's lows.

 

[6079SmithW]

I liked Nuhura well enough but there really isn't enough screen time of her to make a fair judgement with Prime Uhura. NN had three seasons and six movies whereas ZS has one movie. Also, the focus of modern cinema is to show strong, capable, independent female leads and the "attitude" often comes with that. Not to say that NN Uhura wasn't these things, its just that the modern audience would not associate these traits with secretarial Prime Uhura.

 

[Amaris]

I like them both equally.

 

[Campe]

Did we see Uhura Prime in her days at the academy? No. How can one truly make a judgment as to seeing the two incarnations at two very different points in their lives? Don't tell me when you were in college, you weren't a little wilder.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

itisnotlogical that line you quoted is the only line in the movie I actually hate and I find it jarring every single time I hear it. It doesn't sound like Star Trek OR Uhura. Crude for no purpose.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I think both Uhura's are great (incidentally, I loved seeing Nichelle in the role one last time, albiet unofficially. I think Zoe's sexier, but that might have something to do with her being my generation and about my age.

Nichelle Nichols gave Zoe's performance her approval. IIRC, she was thrilled to see what a younger, pre-Enterprise Uhura was like.

And FWIW, sex-mad Kirk was the only one trying to sleep with Uhura throughout the movie. Spock simply was.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

And FWIW, sex-mad Kirk was the only one trying to sleep with Uhura throughout the movie. Spock simply was.

I can just hear Spock.. "Do or do not. There is no try."

heh heh

 

[1bulma1]

I really hate the character of NuUhura.

This is not about looks, although that's a part of it too. I really think that NuUhura is your generic in-your-face, brassy female character that everyone tries to have sex with but rarely does anybody succeed. It makes her character really boring and typical. I'm guessing out of my ass when I say this is why this particular character direction was chosen for this version of Uhura, but a female character can be depicted as being on an equal level with men without having a mean 'tude and being in everyone's face for the first half of the movie.

Nichelle Nichols' Uhura was so much classier in my opinion, too. To paraphrase a scene from the movie:

"... someone who's only had sex with farm animals before."

I couldn't envision Uhura saying that. At all. Nuh uh, nope, not at all. I know it was done for comedic relief (as was pretty much the entire bar fight scene until Pike showed up) but it was something Uhura Prime would never have said. She was more mature than that. I've heard better comebacks from teenagers.

And for the sake of a complete argument for discussion, Zoe Saldana is rather skinny. And that neck of hers is longer than a Subway sandwich...

So, here's my summary petition to JJ Abrams: Take a look at Uhura Prime, at least a glance, when writing Saldana's lines.

For the record, I thought the new movie was great. I thought it was a great reboot for the series and brought the new style the franchise so desperately needed. As with any movie there were it's highs and lows; I just think NuUhura was one of it's lows.

finally someone agress with me....ZOE IS SKINNY...PLS SOMEONE SHOULD FEED HER

 

[Nerys Myk]

No choice for like them both.

I had no problem with the farm animals line. It was a good put down directed towards a persistent, slightly drunk jerk. ( I guess its lucky for Kirk she wasn't armed, like Uhura was in Mirror, Mirror)

Frankly there was probably more character development for Uhura in that one scene than the entire run of TOS.

 

[Admiral Shran]

NuUhura was awful, just like the rest of the movie.

 

[Yeoman Randi]

itisnotlogical that line you quoted is the only line in the movie I actually hate and I find it jarring every single time I hear it. It doesn't sound like Star Trek OR Uhura. Crude for no purpose.

Yeah, i'm with you. I shudder to think of the questions little kids (who saw the movie with their parents) had for their folks later in the day.


I didn't vote because i love BOTH Uhuras.

 

[ST-One]

itisnotlogical that line you quoted is the only line in the movie I actually hate and I find it jarring every single time I hear it. It doesn't sound like Star Trek OR Uhura. Crude for no purpose.

That line was reallchecked (especially so with Kirk's answer) and everyone who takes offense from it should seriously have his sense of humour checked.

 

[Avon]

weird neck.

 

[Kelso]

Wait... was the character of Uhura based on that radio operator from the original series? The one who occasionally gasped in fright? I didn't realize she had a name.

 

[sonak]

1. I liked both Uhuras

2. Zoe Saldana is very pretty

3. I had no problems or issues with "that line"

4. wasn't crazy about the Spock-Uhura thing, but I'll see how it goes in future movies

 

[ST-One]

Wait... was the character of Uhura based on that radio operator from the original series? The one who occasionally gasped in fright? I didn't realize she had a name.

Oh, she only did that to motivate her captain into action in a dangerous situation; just ask Christopher Bennett...

 

[Cyke101]

Her name should be pronounced as NU-hura. It's a much more streamlined portmanteau than the OP's version.

 

[BillJ]

I really didn't think that Zoe Saldana along with Simon Pegg, fit the characters they were playing.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Original Uhura won't work as a modern action-movie character. She's just too passive. They need a character who can hold her own in scenes with Kirk and Spock. Everyone needs to be larger than life or at least have an aspect of it. The change to nuUhura was necessary and correct.

Now that they've established an interesting dynamic between Uhura and Spock, the relationship can be used in the next movie. For instance, the shit Spock has experienced makes it ever more difficult to maintain the control of logic. If that's the arc planned for the character, and it seems like it could be, they need a counterbalancing character who has a motive and the ability to help him out. A cool, strong, level-headed romantic partner is just the ticket.

Maybe it could also be McCoy, the doctor, but they don't want to disrupt the antagonistic/friendly aspect of that relationship. Really I see roles for both Uhura and McCoy in that regards, that don't overlap.

Star Trek is being carefully planned and thought out. Characters aren't being changed willy nilly for no reason. Kirk was changed so that he wouldn't be a serious cadet anymore, since that doesn't counterbalance against serious Spock. Throw young Kirk and young Spock into scenes together, and one of them has to change. So now Kirk is the bratty wild-child. There have been a lot of complaints about that as well, but it's also necessary. Now Kirk has an arc leading to more maturity and settling into a leadership role.

really didn't think that Zoe Saldana along with Simon Pegg, fit the characters they were playing.

Saldana wasn't playing the same character Nichols did. Uhura and Kirk had both been seriously rewritten for the new movies, because they needed to be. Saldana was playing the character correctly (and Pine was playing nuKirk correctly too.)

As for Scotty, I agree, Pegg didn't seem to be playing anyone familiar. And there's no reason for Scotty to be rewritten that I could figure out. Maybe just because the writers didn't take him seriously and figured he could be disposable comic relief, but Scotty deserves better than that. I'm okay with rewriting characters when I can see the sense in it, but with Scotty, I don't see it.

 

[BillJ]

Saldana wasn't playing the same character Nichols did. Uhura and Kirk had both been seriously rewritten for the new movies, because they needed to be. Saldana was playing the character correctly (and Pine was playing nuKirk correctly too.)

Seemed to me they didn't really know the Uhura character at all (old or new). One moment sleeping with an instructor to advance her career, the next abandoning her post to comfort her man.

I honestly think this version of Uhura is alot closer to the original than people like to admit. They just got the wrong actress to play the part.