Thats just crazy talk. Uhura a major character and involved with Spock????? MADNESS!!!!!!!!
Gold-Uniform Uhura vs. Red-Uniform Uhura
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The differences between Gold Uhura and Red Uhura are nothing compared to the difference between Uhura Prime and NuUhura. Could they be any more polar opposites?
Try to imagine Nichelle Nichols saying “Who’s the mouth-breather hiding under your bed” or “I thought you were just a dumb hick who only has sex with farm animals,” or verbally castrating Spock for assigning her to the Farragut. Or try to imagine NuUhura singing fun improvised lyrics like Uhura Prime in Charlie X.
Also, NuUhura would have no problem speaking Klingon in TUC, but probably couldn’t rebuild the comm system in Who Mourns for Adonis.
Nichols could totally pull off both lines.
Whether Nichols could pull it off isn't the question, whether it's in character is.
Uhura Prime is capable of being a badass if she has to be, as we see in Mirror and TSFS. However, it's not a part of her natural personality. She's usually in a cheerful mood and almost never shows anger absent extreme provocation (like being sexually assaulted on Triskelion). She shows tenderness and vulnerability more than toughness.
By contrast, badass seems to be the default mode for NuUhura. She's capable of showing tenderness in extraordinary situations, as we see with Spock after the destruction of Vulcan and death of Amanda. However, tenderness, let alone vulnerability, is not something she lets show under normal circumstances. She will never utter the words, "Captain, I'm frightened."
Well you did say "Try to imagine Nichelle Nichols saying “Who’s the mouth-breather hiding under your bed” or “I thought you were just a dumb hick who only has sex with farm animals,”
But yes, Uhura is less assertive than Nuhura. She's also more of a cheerleader than player. And if Nuhura never utters the phrase "Captain, I'm frightened" the world will be a better place.
When Nichelle first read for GR, there was no Uhura in any scripts. She read some Spock lines instead. And the character name came from the book, "Uhuru", which Nichelle had brought along as reading matter for her anticipated long wait in the vestibule at Desilu.
At one point during the audition, GR told somebody to go check to see if Nimoy had signed his contract yet.
Wait a sec... You mean GR considered Nichols as a replacement for Nimoy?!
IINM, test audiences and network executives strongly objected to having a female first officer in The Cage. GR thought he could get away with casting not only another woman, but a black woman, as the new first officer?
Anyway, didn’t Shatner, Nimoy, Doohan, and Takei sign contracts before WNMHGB?
They objected to GR casting his mistress as the First Officer. They had no objection to the character being female. They also wanted a multi racial cast and encouraged Roddenberry ( and other producers) to diversify. So I doubt they would object to Nichols on those grounds. Though her being Roddenberry's other mistress might be a stumbling block.
This never happened, actually. Herb Solow actually came out and said that the only 'test audience' for "The Cage" was a screening by a handful of Desilu and NBC executives (which included himself).
It's not directly stated, but hinted more than a little heavily that there was no way in hell that they were going to give star billing to the producer's sex-toy. (One of them, as it turns out...) This actually killed Majel's acting career outside of anything Star Trek.
I think Roddenberry's comment, if it isn't considered apocryphal, should be considered an endorsement of Nichols' performance and not a serious casting suggestion.
And as Vance kindly noted, the test audience that Roddenberry claimed rejected Number One in The Making of Star Trek never actually existed. NBC apparently liked the idea of a strong female with second billing, but wanted a recognizable name in the part. They allowed Roddenberry to cast his mistress in the first pilot, but when it came to the second pilot and beyond, they were much more firm with their position that the role should be played by a better and more well-known actress (another falsehood in The Making of Star Trek being that NBC was happy with Barrett's performance and not the role -- in fact the reverse was true).
Of course, the big difference being that Grant Tinker went home to Mary Tyler Moore, while Gene had to deal with Majel. Blaming it on a mythical test audience and sexist network execs was quite probably a tactical decision on Roddenberry's part more than anything else, i.e., better to lie to Majel and continue to live peacefully, than to tell her to truth and deal with a potentially volatile situation.
No, he was making a joke and buttering her up.
It’s highly implausible that Majel wouldn’t have known the truth about why she was rejected for a co-starring role. Hollywood’s like a small town; people talk. It’s more likely that G.R. spun the story that way for posterity, to satisfy his own ego.
“See, I was progressive and ahead of my time in having the second-in-command be a woman, but those damn Neanderthal network execs and preview audiences wouldn’t go for it!”
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