Season 1 Uhura

[Nyotarules]

Just watching The Corbomite Maneuver on Netflix, from a script point of view it is considered one of the best TOS episodes, how to deal with the unknown, watching a Starfleet officer having a breakdown and seeing how Kirk gets out of a seemingly no win situation. However from this viewer's point of view Nichelle Nichols seems bored, how she looks and how she performs her lines. I wonder if this is when she decided she wanted to leave?

 

[Daddy Todd]

Probably not. This is her very first episode, the first episode shot after the series was green-lit by NBC. So, she's probably doing what the director asked her to do.

 

[mb22]

My understanding is that her character wasn't even in the script and thus hadn't much to do in the episode.

 

[johnnybear]

I wonder what are the fans views and reasoning for her being in her golden uniform as to her red uniform? And yes I know Corbomite was filmed before the others but I've wanted to know if there was a fan theory as to why she's in that one rather than the usual one? I suppose you could play all her golden uniform episodes first and avoid the question but then why would she be wearing another department's uniform after if you get my drift?
JB

 

[Redfern]

Play all her golden uniform episodes? Well, it would be just that one.

 

[mb22]

Play all her golden uniform episodes? Well, it would be just that one.

Nope, two. She was also gold in the next filmed episode "Mudd's Women".
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x06hd/muddswomenhd011.jpg

 

[Harvey]

On the third day of filming, she was in a car accident and they sent her to the hospital to get stiches. That may have influenced her performance in some scenes.

 

[Pauln6]

I think her performance is fine as an officer without much to do who has been without a lot of sleep. It would have been nice if they had given her something to say at the meeting. I think her line about fly paper is usually cut?

 

[Redfern]

Nope, two. She was also gold in the next filmed episode "Mudd's Women".
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x06hd/muddswomenhd011.jpg

Oops! I was wrong.

That does raise the question, why the color change? Did the showrunners believe she looked better in red and then decide communications would be a "service" function? Or did they think her character's duties made more sense as a "service" and afterwards changed the color accordingly?

 

[Longinus]

Oops! I was wrong.

That does raise the question, why the color change? Did the showrunners believe she looked better in red and then decide communications would be a "service" function? Or did they think her character's duties made more sense as a "service" and afterwards changed the color accordingly?

The former.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I think this episode was the one that inspired Nichelle's complaint in a later episode that all she ever had to say was "Hailing frequencies open." She does say it a lot in this episode.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Nope, two. She was also gold in the next filmed episode "Mudd's Women".
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x06hd/muddswomenhd011.jpg

After "Mudd's Women" they gave her the red costume she greatly preferred, but she stuck with the same green hoop earrings for the first two seasons. The idea was, if she always wore the same earrings, they could slip in stock footage of her if necessary and it would match.

 

[Phaser Two]

The former.

Zactly. They decided she looked good in red and stuck with that. They were, of course, still figuring things out. BTW doesn't Hoshi wear science blue in ENT? I always thought that was a cool choice. Other than that the lack of a communications officer on TNG always bothered me. DS9 not so much as things were more fluid there since the setting was different, and I guess Harry was the communications officer on Voyager although I think they should have had a dedicated one.

I think this episode was the one that inspired Nichelle's complaint in a later episode that all she ever had to say was "Hailing frequencies open." She does say it a lot in this episode.

I referred to that complaint the other day in one of the rewatch threads, I think. Maybe it was after this episode that she got frustrated, because honestly, she has just as much material as (say) Sulu in the rest of the series.

After "Mudd's Women" they gave her the red costume she greatly preferred, but she stuck with the same green hoop earrings for the first two seasons. The idea was, if she always wore the same earrings, they could slip in stock footage of her if necessary and it would match.

Thank you, Zap. I never knew that. I love, love, love this board.

 

[Timo]

In-universe, all the early oddities have a built-in explanation: Kirk has just returned from the edge of the galaxy, having lost a top officer and a visiting specialist to space madness and nine other people to other causes - and his first few adventures thereafter all include casualties or people departing, too. His command would be in flux no matter what.

Out there in the far frontier, crew rotation might be difficult, so reshuffling of the existing crew would be a thing. Sulu would move from Sciences to Helm, Uhura would eventually move from a goldshirt position to a redshirt one (perhaps pulling double duty in between and deciding on dress color on a morning-by-morning basis), and Spock would have to sit on two chairs (in a permanent arrangement when it turned out this didn't much tax the superhuman's abilities).

In-universe, it is a nice touch that she isn't exactly comfortable with her position (yet)...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Out there in the far frontier, crew rotation might be difficult, so reshuffling of the existing crew would be a thing. Sulu would move from Sciences to Helm, Uhura would eventually move from a goldshirt position to a redshirt one (perhaps pulling double duty in between and deciding on dress color on a morning-by-morning basis), and Spock would have to sit on two chairs (in a permanent arrangement when it turned out this didn't much tax the superhuman's abilities).

Keeps them fresh, hones their skills, particularly if you majored in one discipline and minored in another - if you needed to fill in somewhere due to emergency, you could. So you do a little work in a non-specialty field when things are running okay/between missions/systems/not as much need for your primary duties. The guy who fires the torpedoes might work in the science labs assisting with a chemistry/geology experiment for the experience/fun/catch-up work with samples from the last survey when you're travelling peacefully to starbase 97 with a load of fuel converters and bananas.

Uhura is more of a communications technician with analytic skills, and Hoshi more of a linguist, a language scholar/interpreter than a tech (at least she would prefer to be).

Maybe Uhura was filling in a command shift, or overseeing the yeomen, while her replacement at her station did her usual job. When she had to come back, she figured "I'll change on my break, it's not terribly important right now." Which never came, because trouble did.

 

[Poltargyst]

I suppose you could play all her golden uniform episodes first

Also known as "watching the series in production order"

 

[Poltargyst]

Maybe it was after this episode that she got frustrated

It's the first episode, why would she be frustrated after one episode?

 

[Lance]

It's worth noting that the likes of Lt Leslie, and Chief Kyle, sometimes switch colors, too. I'd go with the theory of them being multi-disciplined. Look at Chekov, filling in Spock's station sometimes. I think Kyle does it once too?

 

[Phaser Two]

It's the first episode, why would she be frustrated after one episode?

Fair point, sure. But I guess someone can get frustrated after a single episode. Genevieve Bujold, anyone?

 

[johnnybear]

Genevieve Bujold was so wrong on many levels and she thought the show was a comic strip! Odd though that they didn't write her scenes into a lost story like they did with The Cage!
JB