Nichelle Nichols Interview

[Smellincoffee]

While trying to find a podcast featuring Neil deGrasse Tyson, I found out that he hosts a show called "Star Talk", and that he's recently (10, 17 July) interviewed Nichelle Nichols about her role in Star Trek and its influence on society. I've not yet listened, but Tyson is a fairly popular and enthusiastic science advocate who is currently producing a new series inspired by Cosmos. Planning on listening myself tomorrow.

 

[Winterwind]

Hmm. I wonder if the MLK story has been revised again.

 

[Mr Silver]

Hmm. I wonder if the MLK story has been revised again.

That was the first thought I had when I saw the thread title!

 

[Captain Robert April]

I'm still waiting for someone to dig up a clip from back when the chat with MLK was just a hypothetical "What would Dr. King say?" kind of mind game.

 

[Mysterion]

Fun Fact: MLK suggested Star Trek to Gene Roddenberry specifically to get Nicelle Nichols on television.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Fun Fact: MLK was rooming with Nichelle when she came home after a bad day at work ready to quit. He talked her out of it.

 

[Jonas Grumby]

Fun Fact: MLK was rooming with Nichelle when she came home after a bad day at work ready to quit. He talked her out of it.

That's the old version. Her new version is: MLK was rooming with Nichelle when he came home after a bad day working for justice and equality ready to quit. She talked him out of it.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Fun Fact: MLK was rooming with Nichelle when she came home after a bad day at work ready to quit. He talked her out of it.

That's the old version. Her new version is: MLK was rooming with Nichelle when he came home after a bad day working for justice and equality ready to quit. She talked him out of it.

Well the version I just heard is that MLK was rooming with Nichelle when she suggested he quit his job and begin working for justice and equality.

 

[Captain Robert April]

MLK's FBI file cites "Justice" and "Equality" as two strippers in a Birmingham strip club in the late 50's...

 

[Winterwind]

MLK's FBI file cites "Justice" and "Equality" as two strippers in a Birmingham strip club in the late 50's...

That's just brilliant!

 

[T'Girl]

Fun Fact: MLK suggested Star Trek to Gene Roddenberry specifically to get Nicelle Nichols on television.

Roddenberry: So, make Nichelle Nichols the captain? I like the idea.
Rev. King: No, make Nichelle the switchboard operator.
Roddenberry: Okay. But we'll have Nichelle lead landing parties and carry a laser pistol.
Rev. King: No, no, no. Have Nichelle sit in the back of the room and repeat the same line in every episode.
Roddenberry: That would be a funny bit, I'll get to screw Nichelle, right?
Rev. King: Solid.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Nichelle danced under the name "Freedom".

 

[Smellincoffee]

I listened to the interviews last night. The first is the MLK story. She said that she joined Star Trek as resume-filler for her hoped-for theatrical aspirations, and after the first season she'd been offered a promising role in a theatre production and decided to leave to follow that. However, while attending a NAACP meeting MLK asked to meet her and stressed the importance of her role as Uhura, after which point she went back.

The second interview is about her work with NASA, including recruiting women and "people of color".

 

[Jonas Grumby]

MLK's FBI file cites "Justice" and "Equality" as two strippers in a Birmingham strip club in the late 50's...

Nichelle danced under the name "Freedom".

Finally, Nichelle's MLK story gets interesting.

I wish she would start embellishing her NASA stories. There's some real potential there!

 

[Joker]

... Nichelle Nichols about her role in Star Trek and its influence on society...

"Influence on society".

The usual circle-jerk crap, in other words.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

If I were Greg Morris I'd be sticking pins in an Uhura doll every time she talked about her sweeping influence on the American civil rights movement. I still maintain that placing a black man in an important position on a primarily white team set in then contemporary America was far more groundbreaking and important than having a beautiful black woman pushing buttons on a spaceship in the far future.

 

[Noname Given]

I listened to the interviews last night. The first is the MLK story. She said that she joined Star Trek as resume-filler for her hoped-for theatrical aspirations, and after the first season she'd been offered a promising role in a theatre production and decided to leave to follow that. However, while attending a NAACP meeting MLK asked to meet her and stressed the importance of her role as Uhura, after which point she went back.

The second interview is about her work with NASA, including recruiting women and "people of color".

Yep, that's 'official version 3'.

Version 1: She received a letter from MLK.
Version 2: She received phone call from MLK.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I believe Version 0 was "I asked myself what Reverend King would say."

 

[Mysterion]

If I were Greg Morris I'd be sticking pins in an Uhura doll every time she talked about her sweeping influence on the American civil rights movement. I still maintain that placing a black man in an important position on a primarily white team set in then contemporary America was far more groundbreaking and important than having a beautiful black woman pushing buttons on a spaceship in the far future.

Weren't Bill Cosby and Robert Culp doing their thing on I Spy before Mission: Impossible came along (yes, according to wikipedia: I Spy was on the air a year before M:I was)? If anyone should be plunging pins into to their Nichelle doll, I think it should be the Cos. Kelly Robinson and Alexander Scott were portrayed as being about as equal as anyone could be, with neither one being subordinate to the other.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

Oh, I thought I, Spy came later. You're right. Cos should be sticking pins in an Uhura doll.