You dont just hand control of the ship over to the person with the most rank.
Mission: Uhura...
- Thread starter Warped9
- Start date
See, this never bothered me "in-universe". It could well be that Uhura's communications specialty included no training whatsoever about starship command and that Chekov had recently taken a course on how to handle just this sort of emergency. If we assume that his gold tunic indicates he might be on a command track, then it makes sense that he'd have at least some training specific to that position.
(And, yes, I remember that one time Uhura wore gold too.)
--Alex
^This. There are officers with command training, and there are officers without command training. It might make more sense to hand the ship over to the ensign with command training than to the Lt. who's a communications specialist, or, in TNG, to either the Dancing Doctor or the damn pop-psychiatrist.
Right, because the network had a problem with racism and sexism... despite that the studio they were using was Desilu and that numerous other shows at the time were showing strong black and/or female characters.
I'll say it bluntly. The woman never met Martin Luther King, Jr. Her original story was that she was thinking of quitting during season do, because decided against it because she thought he wouldn't want her to. Today, the story is apparently that she needed to stay on the show because their love-children really wanted her to be the most influentual actress on television of all time.
Why? I mean, the character was largely a write-in and performed by a day player. We tend to forget that these days, but Nichols was not a regular on the show and Uhura was written accordingly. (This is also true of Takei and his character.)
Koenig's Chekov, by contrast, became a regular for season three, but he was not a starring character. Shatner may seem brutal in pointing out that Nichols, Koenig, and Takei were 'day players' who didn't and shouldn't have had all the extra attention that they were getting, but he was absolutely right in that respect.
I don't dislike these characters, but let's please keep in mind what they really were, okay?
I understood Uhura to be the chief of the Enterprise's communications department, in essence, she wasn't just a specialist, she was a department head. (Just as Sulu was chief helmsman for the Enterprise)
If Uhura was just a specialist, I don't think she's be a lieutenant.
And other red-shirts had been seen taking up the captain's chair in Kirk's and Spock's absence: Soctty, Stocker, DeSalle... We just never saw a woman or a black person in that chair. (Funny, though, that Commodore Stone get to preside over Kirk's court-martial and also tell that captain that he, too, commanded a starship.)
If Uhura was just a specialist, I don't think she's be a lieutenant.
And other red-shirts had been seen taking up the captain's chair in Kirk's and Spock's absence: Soctty, Stocker, DeSalle... We just never saw a woman or a black person in that chair. (Funny, though, that Commodore Stone get to preside over Kirk's court-martial and also tell that captain that he, too, commanded a starship.)
Uhura is never shown as a department head. In fact, it should be noted that when department heads were called to conference, she was NOT there.
Sulu's position is one that is a bit odd. There are times he's in charge of life sciences (botany, et al), he's been both helm and navigator, and he's been in charge of security.
Our sample size for command-and-control types for TOS is pretty slim, though. We only see a handful of captains and commodores throughout the series, and, as indicated, one is black and ZERO attention is paid to that fact. Also, in TVH, we see our first female captain, who is also black, and again ZERO attention is paid to that fact.
We also know that TOS accepts that many women simply /leave/ starfleet when they decide they want a home life, a bit of an anethema to modern feminism but a fairly accurate view of military life today. (Heck, I would guess that there are plenty of MEN who feel that way, but maybe a lower percentage...)
"I don't think I'm losing an officer so much as I .... hey, I'm losing an officer!" - Kirk.
How are you defining "regular?" Koenig, Takei, Doohan, and Nichols were all credited as "featured players," were they not? I don't think that changed at all in season three.
Not so fast...
In "The Corbomite Maneuver", Kirk tells Spock: "Have the department heads meet me on the Bridge", to which Spock replies "Already standing by". Then when we see Kirk enter the Bridge from the turbolift (the famous hand-held view) Uhura is one of the first officers who reports to Kirk. Uhura is also present in a subsequent Briefing Room scene.
So obviously Uhura was there.
Uhura was also present in "Friday's Child" when McCoy gave his report on the inhabitants of Capella IV.
And then in "Elaan of Troyus", Kirk identified Uhura as "my communications officer".
I do not see why we could not assume Uhura was head of the Enterprise's communications department.
Nice to see you're also a fan of "The Odd Couple" too! May I compliment you on your excellent taste in TV shows
But guys, c'mon, we can play this game all night. Guessing at would've happened 30 or so years after a series was filmed makes no sense.
She was damn lucky TO JUST BE THERE given the social culture of the time. And to say that Roddenberry was ultimately responsible for the direction of her character is absurd! Go back into your Trek history books and read about the creative battles he had with the network. I wouldn't have put up with the nonsense he did.
Anji, when it comes to Uhura, in particular, Gene Roddenberry was a liar. NBC and Desilu both wanted an ethnic mix on their shows.. the pilot the Gene Roddenberry made on his own? Whiter than an 1937 German Rally.
Gene spent most of his post-TOS career lying about the network, the arguments, and so on, to cover up the fact that he was one 'those' producers - who liked to promise starlets everything in exchange for a throw on the couch. NBC didn't mind black women on the show, they minded how Gene Roddenberry behaved with them, as well as the culture this created.
Remember, part of the deal in getting a third season of TOS was to make damn sure that Gene wasn't part of it. There was a reason for this - Trek wasn't a show worth saving if he was still on board.
I was onboard with your post until this claim, which I don't think I've seen before. Where's your source on this one (which I don't ask to be a pain in the ass, but because I'm curious)?
Reading a bit between the lines, particularly some of the released notes and interviews from Herb and others who worked behind the scenes (look up Herb Solow on YouTube, there's quite a few of them). But TOS was sure to be cancelled at the end of season two, and Gene did not want to leave the show - he had nothing else to turn to and hadn't sold another show (and, not coincidentally, wouldn't until he went to syndication for TNG).
Paramount (which had just bought Desilu) did not want to put up with the crap of 'that damn show' and it's behind-the-scenes reputation. The extremely large budget was slashed, a push for marketing was made (hence Chekov's sudden rise to prominance), and a less "troublesome" producer was selected. Simply put, Gene was not welcome in Hollywood anymore - which is one reason he felt so safe lying, defaming, and attacking them (though never by specific name) through the convention circuits through the 1970s and early part of the 1980s.
It's also why he lost control of the movies, and then TNG fairly early on. (Gene's health was the public story for the latter, but Berman and Braga had taken the reigns mid-way in season one, after the first batch of episodes were so badly recieved).
Ah, so much for these blackmail pictures then... heh...
(You're right, though, stupid mistake on my part. I know better.)
I've seen a lot of those Herb Solow interviews, and I still don't know if I buy your point. Roddenberry had a five year development deal with Desilu/Paramount which lasted from 1965 to 1970, so he wasn't facing unemployment if the series was cancelled in 1968. On the subject of cancellation, the series was never cancelled after the second year (see the excellent article located here). The rumors of cancellation at the time were simply Roddenberry's PR machine at work.
Also, Roddenberry wasn't involved as a hands-on producer at all in season two, with the exception of "Assignment: Earth." He was personally involved with that one because he wanted the extra money that would have come from being the creator of another television series if they managed to sell the backdoor pilot (they didn't, of course).
The budget being slashed had to do with (a) the series being more expensive for Paramount than NBC was paying for it and (b) on top of that, NBC slashing how much it paid per episode because it was earning less per episode due to decreased ratings. As far as Fred Freiberger goes, Roddenberry selected the producer himself. He may have never intended to return as a hands-on producer during the third season. Finally, although I believe you've made the claim about Chekov being elevated in prominence before, I don't agree. Neither does Walter Koenig, for that matter, who notes that after "Spectre of the Gun" was filmed (the first episode made for the third season), he saw his role diminish quite a bit.
Roddenberry certainly did burn his bridges in Hollywood, though. In addition to trashing the Networks and Desilu/Paramount (something he was doing in early convention appearances, and in print by 1968, when The Making of Star Trek was published), his post-Trek projects were all failures. His script for a Tarzan feature was deemed inappropriate by the production company behind it, and summarily shelved. His development deal with Desilu/Paramount ultimately went nowhere after Star Trek. And when he wrote and produced Pretty Maids All in a Row, it was a disaster (and Herb Solow only gave Roddenberry the project as a favor). Roddenberry's chief source of income in the early seventies was the convention circuit.
Gene lost control of the movies because he was a terrible movie producer. He constantly re-wrote things (often for the worse), wasn't available when people needed to consult with him, and let the project's budget run out of control. I'm not sure he lost control of Star Trek: The Next Generation so much as had to leave it due to his health -- which was much to everyone's relief. His constant re-writing (for the worse) of other people's material led to a mass exodus of writers and production personnel during the first season (including just about everyone who was an alumni of the original series).
And, as another poster has noted, Braga wasn't running the show until well after Star Trek: The Next Generation had ended.
I think it involved a time traveling Tarzan killing JFK.
Let me guess, the apes put mankind on trial and make Jane's father fight to prove our worth.
