Making better use of UHURA with expanded Job duties

[Captain Tracy]

Okay, I been puzzling over the long established observation - shared by many fans and N.N. herself - concerning the paltry use of the character, UHURA.

I agree.

This character is presented -on the whole - as the famous complaint goes - as:

1) An inter-galactic switchboard operator.

2) The one-line voice of the scared and/or confused female identity.

3) On screen eye-candy for the viewing horn-dogs

4) Musically inclined and socially interactive,.. very entertaining and comely while doing so.

So, I began to think, How would I, as STAR TREK's producer, have made changes to the format to make better use of this character on a recurring basis, and yet, not throw off the established primary character balance?

I came up with two possible changes.

The first change was related to the character of Dr. McCoy.

Predominant In the earlier episodes, KIRK and McCOY shared a relationship wherein KIRK is able to voice - for the viewer - his inner doubts, concerns, reflections, insecurities, questions, etc., during these 'in two' conversations.

STAR TREK, slowly dropped these scenes from the format by-in-large, and developed the McCoy harassing SPOCK exchanges in its place,... which made for some of the best TREK moments.

But couldn't we have had both?

Would it have been plausible to use the character of UHURA to serve as the sounding-board for KIRK's inner conflicts?

What do you think?

After all, STAR TREK wasn't using the McCOY character in that way any longer,... by doing so, nothing would have been 'taken away' from McCOY and given to UHURA, as these types of scenes and character explorations had basically been dropped altogether.

Why? I don't know,... to give BELE more time to chase LOKI around the ships corridors? To make way for more in-your-face 'Social Indoctrination' speeches?

In Hollywood, you have to be ENTERTAINING, and sadly, most average people prefer Checkers to Chess; but I would have gone for a nice compromise of Backgammon,... yeah.

I think the "voicing the inner-conflict" scenes were critical to the important message of STAR TREK, and their removal from the format of the show - In my own opinion - weakened the quality of the show more than any instance of over-acting or
cheesey episode premise.

Okay,.. moving to the next idea.

First off, Mr. SCOTT is one of my favorite characters too, so hear me out,.... and remember my heredity is Scottish as well, so do not think I am being unfair here,... as I take so much personal pride every time SCOTT does,...hmmm,... basically anything.

SCOTT, who also suffered from perceived under-use, actually made out much better than the UHURA character.

As his character had:

1) Engineering, the entire set as his domain, and Laird of this Barony,... and later even gets his own special 'Scotty's Tree House',... if you count the upper-level which they added later. "On the Bonnie, Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond"

2) Bridge Station, keeping him in the locust of the action when the Engine Room wasn't blowing up.

3) Transporter Room - First and Last guy the landing party sees and talks to,... when SCOTT himself is not in the part of the story taking place planet-side.

4) The 'Jefferies' Tubes,... wow, SCOTT even has a special
hidey-hole for very own 'in two' scenes.

So, my buddy made out really well!, and I am glad for it,... he is great!

BUT THEN,

He also gets made the Head Honcho of Security in some episodes,...

NOW, could not the producers made UHURA the on-going CHIEF-OF-SECURITY?

Why not?

1) SPOCK had two jobs.

2) SCOTTY had enough jobs, and sets.

3) They brought in various bit players to take the Security Chief job when SCOTTY wasn't playing it.

4) Ever watch an episode called, 'MIRROR, MIRROR'?,... she moved like a panther when she had a phaser in her hand.

5) What 220 lb Red Shirted lug isn't going to be love jumping to the authoritative directives of this Dynamic Sex Kitten?

6) If the producers of STAR TREK, really wanted to show not just gender equality and racial equality in their world, but moreover, bust through the long-standing barriers that 'only men fight can protect scared women',.. well, the perfect candidate was sitting right at the communications station.

So, those are my reasons.

HOWEVER, I also think that some writer MIGHT have thought to create a story wherein KIRK can ONLY save the day BY NOT:

A) Bonking the other guy on the head

B) Confusing the other guy, or

C) Reading him a speech

But instead, set up a scenario wherein a COMMUNICATIONS EXPERT is REQUIRED to:

1) Unravel a cryptic communications code which will over-ride the control mechanism of the ancient computer-driven killer menace, created by a long dead civiliaztion,.. etc, etc,..

2) Repair the heavily damaged remote communications relay station

3) Dutifully step aside so KIRK can push the button himself, which de-activates the giant mance,.. but wait,..

4) The ancient designers who were smart enough to design such a killer robot, also foresaw someone may try to plug its plug,.. and now it is an atomic powered ticking time bomb,. glowing red, as it becomes more critical,..

5) So,.. the Communications Officer must make one last ditch effort, under extreme tension, to 'hot-wire' the communications relay, and break through the massive sub-space interference - being created by the magnetic turbulance created by the glowing time bomb, of course - so SCOTTY can 'LOCK-ON' and BEAM-UP the landing party,.. seconds before the whole place blows up.

ANYWAY,... How would YOU, as STAR TREK's producer, have made changes to the format to make better use of the UHURA character on a recurring basis, and yet, not throw off the established primary character balance?

 

[Harvey]

In the very least, she could have easily been given a first name during the run of the series.

 

[Captain Tracy]

FOXHOT - You mean rotate the UHURA character in and out of featured usage as a Landing Party member, as they did with SULU rotating with CHEKOV on the helm,... until we got both full time?

Great Idea, but three concerns:

1) With whom would UHURA be trading off with? As, someone would have to give up their spot of the Landing Party to use UHURA in ____'s place?

2) Sadly, we have seen too many times, once they do take the character of UHURA to the planet surface, they just have her stand there and wait around to say: "I'm frightened".

So in order to use that character at all, it demands a story which, if not demand her presence, at the minimum, makes her inclusion at least sensible.

3) Being a RED SKIRT,.. obviously the character of UHURA cannot be 'killed off' as part of one of those 'Cannon Fodder' beam downs in the teasers.

So,.. Being only so much money in the budget for speaking roles, and only so many pads on the Transporter platform,..

What to do?

 

[Captain Tracy]

In the very least, she could have easily been given a first name during the run of the series.

You make a good point about UHURA's character being under-developed from inception - de facto, being given a full name as an after thought.

But with one name, or two, how would HARVEY make better use of the communications officer character and retain the primary cast balance?

 

[Nerys Myk]

She's the communications officer, that's pretty limiting in its self. Navigation and helm also. Yet Sulu and Chekov get to go on landing parties. What use are they? Do you need the guys who pilot the ship and plot courses in a landing party? Yeah, there is the "command training" angle that goes with their shirts.

If they followed the old WWII movie pattern, Uhura would have been the radio operator character. "Sparky" Uhura? But when you can carry your "walkie-talkie" in the palm of your hand everyone is "Sparky". So no need for a comm officer on landing party duty.

So, the other option is Uhura as a record keeper. The yeoman's job in most landing parties. Not much there really.

Uhura as Scotty's back up. She wears red and seems to have the technical skills. We've seen her repairing the comm equipment on occasion. Why can't she be an engineer ( with a focus on comm systems)? Scotty's on Planet X and the ship's in trouble? Uhura to the rescue!

Uhura as a code breaker/intel officer. Makes sense since she is at the "switch board" anyway. Unfortunately those jobs fell to Spock. Who, as the second lead/most popular character, was gonna get more screen time than a day player. Just as Scotty lost a few key sceens/moments to Spock, who was given the problems/solutions that should haven been Scotty's. In the same vein, Uhura as Security Chief steps on Kirk's toes. Such is the way of 60s TV.

Did Uhura need two names? Not every culture uses that pattern, do they?

 

[Captain Tracy]

Nerys Myk - Your break down on the foibles and analysis of the situation surrounding the character of UHURA is really impressive.

I especially liked the radio operator/'Sparky' analogy, spot on!

Also, it is a great outline of the problems as they existed, and the difficulty with making any changes.

But again, in seeking solutions, what specific changes WOULD YOU MAKE to alter the situation?

Any ideas there?

 

[Harvey]

But with one name, or two, how would HARVEY make better use of the communications officer character and retain the primary cast balance?

Letting her go on landing parties more regularly, which others have suggested, seems like a good place to start. It would also have been nice if at least some her character's background -- things like the United States of Africa, etc. -- would have made it on screen.

 

[Captain Tracy]

HARVEY - Okay, yes better character development, GRANTED.

BUT,... you can put her in a Landing Party detail in place of Ensign No-name-at-all,...

But what are you going to do with her once you get her into the story, and how do you justify her being there?????

The answers:

1) Have her say: "I am scared"

2) Have her say: "Captain,... I don't understand"

3) Do and Say nothing.

Are not viable answers, that is what the actual TREK producers did with her by-in-large.

So HARVEY, what rationale can you think of to support and justify her inclusion on more landing parties, as you suggest?

 

[Harvey]

That's nothing that a little bit of background couldn't fix. We know so little about Uhura that there's plenty of room for her to have additional expertise that would justify her beaming down with landing parties more often.

 

[Captain Tracy]

HARVEY-

Okay, YOU are the producer, you have typewriter,..

So, please share a specific example or two.

We totally understand what you want to do, but how are you going to do it and make it work ???

Thanks.

 

[Harvey]

The thing is, I'm certainly not a producer, so I'm afraid my suggestions will have to remain a little nebulous. Others would be better at filling in the blanks.

 

[Captain Tracy]

HARVEY -

That's too bad, the character of UHURA needs all the help she can get.

Oh well,.. it may have not been an illuminating answer, but it sure was an honest and gutsy answer HARVEY.

If later, you think of something, POST IT.

Thanks

 

[smalltalk66]

I'd reassign Uhura as a operations chief (since Sulu had to drive the bus...).

Spock (as first and science officer) would be responsible for all departments within the primary hull; Uhura would be responsible for making sure there were no problems in the secondary hull, while reporting to Spock, Kirk, Sulu, or Scotty.

One missed opportunity: She definitely should have been the one assigned to train the Dohlman in "Elaan of Troyius." Imagine Uhura bitch-slapping Elaan repeatedly for acting like a spoiled child. Woo hoo!!

 

[Captain Tracy]

I'd reassign Uhura as a operations chiefl; Uhura would be responsible for making sure there were no problems in the secondary hull, while reporting to Spock, Kirk, Sulu, or Scotty.

AND,... you would work this into the established format how? and to what story-line benefit?

In other words, you can give her every 'hat' in the book to rationalize her being in a story, but HOW are you going to do it?

 

[7thsealord]

I'd reassign Uhura as a operations chiefl; Uhura would be responsible for making sure there were no problems in the secondary hull, while reporting to Spock, Kirk, Sulu, or Scotty.

AND,... you would work this into the established format how? and to what story-line benefit?

In other words, you can give her every 'hat' in the book to rationalize her being in a story, but HOW are you going to do it?

... And, more to the point, whilst staying within the time constraints of the show AND keeping the upper-tier actors happy with the number of lines/scenes they had.

 

[Captain Tracy]

7THSEALORD - Exactly.

 

[GSnail]

The problem with Uhura wasn't just that she had a limited role, but that the whole focus of the story was off. In TNG and Voyager, every character has 'episodes' to them, focusing on their backstory, their POV in relation to the plot of the episode. This was absent in TOS, every episode revolved around Captain Kirk and sometimes Spock and McCoy. Take Harry Kim, for example. He's a security ensign, which is a limited role, like communications officer, but the way Voyager was done allowed one to see hs relationships with other charcters, a little backstory, his personality, etc.
She could still be a developed character even if all she says on-duty is "hailing frequncies open" if the plot was shifted a little more toward minor characters.

 

[jayrath]

I agree that the character was written poorly, but so was her position. The comm officer was already a cliche, going back to the 1930s. when the radio operator was always called "Sparks." He'd appear on the bridge from time to time with a Marconigram, and otherwise be hidden in the radio room (or "radio shack"). You can see a continuation of this even in Cameron's "Titanic."

Anyway, yes, the Starfleet duties are confused. It was just a plain bad idea to make her a linguist/anthropologist (I won't even address the inanities of her running the switchboard). You'd think that her being able to manipulate the time-space continuum to send faster than light messages would be important enough, but the writers never followed through -- so much so that on TNG they even did away with the position.

On the other hand, a lot of this is a lack of fan imagination; because we see her do little on TOS, we imagine that she did little.

Still, would the comm officer on a modern aircraft carrier be versed in all the languages of the world? Would he or she be the switchboard operator for all internal comm traffic? No and no.

 

[Maurice]

When writing for TV you have to think about what story needs are going to be and make sure you have characters that can meet those needs. The problem with a "communications officer" is that it's such a limited job description. Roddenberry clearly didn't think in terms of plot needs when creating the bulk of his supporting characters, which left them with singular jobs that didn't suggest other uses of the characters, even if writers occasionally ignored them: otherwise why would the helmsman be on so many landing parties?

 

[Nerys Myk]

I doubt GR thought that they would figure that much in any plots. "Supporting characters" might be a stretch for Sulu, Chekov and Uhura. All three were easily replaced in a few episodes. Scotty probably fits that better.