Uhura and the Communications Post

[SonicRanger]

She isn't a "love interest to Spock" -- she and Spock are in a relationship, which people tend to have in real life.

Well, even if it's a relationship, it's still not a very good one. Where as relationships can be used to add something the characters, it's just a slight detail that doesn't really add to nor serve the story line in any way.

I disagree with your apparent view that their relationship doesn't add significantly to the film, probably because you seem to have a narrower definition of what the "story line" to the film is (i.e, defeating Nero). The relationship contributes much needed depth to their characters within the two hours without taking up more than a few minutes of the film.

Plus, what good is Uhura in a relationship if she won't stand up to Kirk when he's bad mouthing Spock on the bridge in front of everyone? Some relationship that is.

Perhaps because she is professional enough as a lowly lieutenant to not involve herself in an argument between the acting captain and first officer.

 

[JustKate]

^ I have an excellent "relationship" with my husband but I'd just as soon he not intervene if I happen to have a disagreement with my boss, and I'm 100 percent sure he feels the same.

 

[teacherbrock]

Her job seems more like Hoshi's in ENT.

 

[teacherbrock]

It's been awhile but wasn't it kind of hinted at in like Star Trek V that Scotty and Uhuru were romantic in their twilight?

 

[Jeyl]

If they want a strong woman in these films w/o throwing out the (presumed) successful interaction of Kirk Spock & McCoy, she probably ought to be in command of another ship, maybe as the antagonist, like a Starfleet officer gone bad or throughly disillusioned with the PD ... somebody I could root for.

No offense, but that to me sounds likes a bad idea if it was written by the duo writers of this movie.

With the character ratio of the original Star Trek crew being 6 males to 1 female, putting Uhura off the ship to be the baddie sounds more like the battle of the sexes because without Uhura, there wouldn't be any noteworthy female character presence on the Enterprise.

I would make Uhura the First Officer of the ship. It wouldn't interfere with Spock's role as science officer in any way and it'd make better sense since it's a bad idea to send the Captain and First officer down on an away mission .

 

[Jeyl]

^ I have an excellent "relationship" with my husband but I'd just as soon he not intervene if I happen to have a disagreement with my boss, and I'm 100 percent sure he feels the same.

Well, if you were in a disagreement with your boss over business matters than I agree with you 100%, but if your boss starts to go on a verbal assault in areas like talking bad about your heritage or your race, than I would have an issue with that because that's harassment. There are federal laws against such behavior.

 

[teacherbrock]

If they want a strong woman in these films w/o throwing out the (presumed) successful interaction of Kirk Spock & McCoy, she probably ought to be in command of another ship, maybe as the antagonist, like a Starfleet officer gone bad or throughly disillusioned with the PD ... somebody I could root for.

No offense, but that to me sounds likes a bad idea if it was written by the duo writers of this movie.

With the character ratio of the original Star Trek crew being 6 males to 1 female, putting Uhura off the ship to be the baddie sounds more like the battle of the sexes because without Uhura, there wouldn't be any noteworthy female character presence on the Enterprise.

I would make Uhura the First Officer of the ship. It wouldn't interfere with Spock's role as science officer in any way and it'd make better sense since it's a bad idea to send the Captain and First officer down on an away mission .

I think the whole "captain not on away teams" regulation was introduced sometime between TOS and TNG, maybe even between TOS and TWOK.

I know Riker was always a stickler about Picard not going on away missions, T'pol and Spock never seemed to mind much though.

 

[JustKate]

^ I have an excellent "relationship" with my husband but I'd just as soon he not intervene if I happen to have a disagreement with my boss, and I'm 100 percent sure he feels the same.

Well, if you were in a disagreement with your boss over business matters I would 100% agree with you, but if your boss starts to go on a verbal assault in areas like talking bad about your heritage or your race, than I would have an issue with that because that's harassment. There are federal laws against such behavior.

And having the person I'm romantically involved with getting involved would help this...how, exactly?

Jeyl, look, I can understand why you're not thrilled with the Uhura character, really I can. I don't agree 100 percent, but I do agree somewhat and I think that you've raised some valid points. But as to this point...you are stretching, OK? You don't really want to see Uhura standin' by her man on the bridge, do you? I mean, think about what a goofy scene that would be.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

David Gerrold suggested in his book "The World Of Star Trek" that letting the Captain beam into a dangerous or unknown situation was foolish and that letting him do so along with his first officer was preposterous. Gerrold proposed the idea of "contact teams" of specialists. As near as can be told, he evolved this into the "away team" while working with Roddenberrry on setting up TNG.

The closest thing to restricting the Captain's going on landing parties prior to TNG was Saavik's citing of a supposed regulation forbidding him to beam into unknown situations "without armed escort." The dialogue exchange between Saavik and Kirk, however, suggests that she may have made up or "creatively interpreted" that regulation.

Uhura's a bridge office assigned to communications. Spock is the first officer. And that's the way it is.

 

[trevanian]

If they want a strong woman in these films w/o throwing out the (presumed) successful interaction of Kirk Spock & McCoy, she probably ought to be in command of another ship, maybe as the antagonist, like a Starfleet officer gone bad or throughly disillusioned with the PD ... somebody I could root for.

No offense, but that to me sounds likes a bad idea if it was written by the duo writers of this movie.

With the character ratio of the original Star Trek crew being 6 males to 1 female, putting Uhura off the ship to be the baddie sounds more like the battle of the sexes because without Uhura, there wouldn't be any noteworthy female character presence on the Enterprise.

I would make Uhura the First Officer of the ship. It wouldn't interfere with Spock's role as science officer in any way and it'd make better sense since it's a bad idea to send the Captain and First officer down on an away mission .

Maybe I worded it badly, when I said a strong female character as antagonist, I wasn't talking Uhura, I was talking a NEW character.

And of course, these writers are not going to be writing TREK I can get behind. I'm thinking they may be the modern equivalent to the two guys named Jim who wrote TOP GUN and DICK TRACY and what else, LEGAL EAGLES ... if I want a modern equivalent-to-80s writer, I'd go for anybody who could write the way Gallo did on MIDNIGHT RUN, with character that doesn't diminish the action quotient and action that enhances character.

 

[Jeyl]

You don't really want to see Uhura standin' by her man on the bridge, do you? I mean, think about what a goofy scene that would be.

But she does in the end. The very last scene with the actors shows Spock walking up to her just as Kirk orders Sulu to depart from Space Dock. And for the record, I didn't mind it at all because it showed commitment. I just wish it had more substance than just being presented to us as is.

 

[Jeyl]

Maybe I worded it badly, when I said a strong female character as antagonist, I wasn't talking Uhura, I was talking a NEW character.

As I always remind myself, it's easier to misinterpret the written word then the spoken word. Sorry about the confusion.

 

[JustKate]

You don't really want to see Uhura standin' by her man on the bridge, do you? I mean, think about what a goofy scene that would be.

But she does in the end. The very last scene with the actors shows Spock walking up to her just as Kirk orders Sulu to depart from Space Dock. And for the record, I didn't mind it at all because it showed commitment. I just wish it had more substance than just being presented to us as is.

I didn't mean standin' by her man literally - I took the phrase from that old Tammy Wynette song, "Stand By Your Man." I meant interjecting herself in this argument between coworkers. Those seem like two entirely different things to me; perhaps they don't to you.

 

[trampledamage]

You don't really want to see Uhura standin' by her man on the bridge, do you? I mean, think about what a goofy scene that would be.

But she does in the end. The very last scene with the actors shows Spock walking up to her just as Kirk orders Sulu to depart from Space Dock. And for the record, I didn't mind it at all because it showed commitment. I just wish it had more substance than just being presented to us as is.

I didn't mean standin' by her man literally - I took the phrase from that old Tammy Wynette song, "Stand By Your Man." I meant interjecting herself in this argument between coworkers. Those seem like two entirely different things to me; perhaps they don't to you.

And you can bet, if she had done that there'd be a ton of threads about how "unprofessional" she was to put her relationship in the way of ships ops.

 

[Anticitizen]

David Gerrold suggested in his book "The World Of Star Trek" that letting the Captain beam into a dangerous or unknown situation was foolish and that letting him do so along with his first officer was preposterous. Gerrold proposed the idea of "contact teams" of specialists. As near as can be told, he evolved this into the "away team" while working with Roddenberrry on setting up TNG.

The closest thing to restricting the Captain's going on landing parties prior to TNG was Saavik's citing of a supposed regulation forbidding him to beam into unknown situations "without armed escort." The dialogue exchange between Saavik and Kirk, however, suggests that she may have made up or "creatively interpreted" that regulation.

Uhura's a bridge office assigned to communications. Spock is the first officer. And that's the way it is.

For all we know, that was a regulation in TOS, too; but Kirk doesn't strike me as the type to heed it. He's the Captain, goddammit, and if he wants to beam down, he's gonna beam down!

And then of course Sulu or whoever else he sticks at the conn in the meantime thinks 'ooh promotion!' (or at least 'he noticed me!') and doesn't object in the slightest.

 

[Jeyl]

I meant interjecting herself in this argument between coworkers. Those seem like two entirely different things to me; perhaps they don't to you.

As I said earlier, if the argument was based on business, than yes. But what Kirk was doing with Spock was not arguing and it was not related to the business. Kirk was deliberately harassing Spock only to provoke a negative response from him. And if today's military disciplines were applied to this Star Trek's time line, Kirk would not be co-worker.

 

[JustKate]

As I said earlier, if the argument was based on business, than yes. But what Kirk was doing with Spock was not arguing and it was not related to the business. Kirk was deliberately harassing Spock only to provoke a negative response from him. And if today's military disciplines were applied to this Star Trek's time line, Kirk would not be co-worker.

And in today's military, Uhura and Spock wouldn't be romantically involved at all since he outranks her by quite a bit, or if they were involved and this was discovered, they would both be disciplined quite severely - quite possibly dishonorable discharges for the both of them. It's just not allowed.

So let's drop comparisons with today's military, OK? Instead, let's talk about people. And in imagining how people act and react, I am at the same time trying to imagine a way in which this scene could be constructed in which Uhura's involvement wouldn't look...well, silly and melodramatic. And I can't. Apparently you're either better at it than I am, or we have different definitions of silly and melodramatic.

I didn't mean standin' by her man literally - I took the phrase from that old Tammy Wynette song, "Stand By Your Man." I meant interjecting herself in this argument between coworkers. Those seem like two entirely different things to me; perhaps they don't to you.

And you can bet, if she had done that there'd be a ton of threads about how "unprofessional" she was to put her relationship in the way of ships ops.

Well, yeah. And besides...it would just be kind of icky and soap opera-y. You know? Does Spock actually need a mother hen? I don't think so.

 

[trampledamage]

I didn't mean standin' by her man literally - I took the phrase from that old Tammy Wynette song, "Stand By Your Man." I meant interjecting herself in this argument between coworkers. Those seem like two entirely different things to me; perhaps they don't to you.

And you can bet, if she had done that there'd be a ton of threads about how "unprofessional" she was to put her relationship in the way of ships ops.

Well, yeah. And besides...it would just be kind of icky and soap opera-y. You know? Does Spock actually need a mother hen? I don't think so.

Totally. One of the things I love about Uhura is how cool she is (as in calm, not as in fashionable) - she's not going to be anyone's mother hen.

 

[JustKate]

^ I agree. She wouldn't, and he wouldn't want her to. Perfect!

Except that now I have that horrible song in my head! AaaAAAaauUUUUUuuurrrrrgh! And it's my own fault, too.

 

[trampledamage]

^ I agree. She wouldn't, and he wouldn't want her to. Perfect!

Except that now I have that horrible song in my head! AaaAAAaauUUUUUuuurrrrrgh! And it's my own fault, too.

You're on your own there - I can't even remember it when I try