Uhura...glorified extra or female lead?

[estrea]

If the new Uhura is just a "glorified extra" Trek will be taking a giant step backwards in time. Nichelle Nichols almost quit the show until she spoke with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. No, she was never a "female lead." I would be a happy camper if the new Uhura was equal to the Sulu and Chekov characters in terms of speaking lines. But, yes, unfortunately, throughout the run of TOS, Uhura was pretty much a glorified telephone operator. Whenever Kirk and Spock left the bridge to go on "away missions" or "landing parties" (whatever), a mere Ensign sat in the big chair while she was a Lieutenant!

 

[Trekplusart]

Sci said:

Cary L. Brown said:
"Ensemble cast" stuff barely works for ongoing series. In a two-hour movie, you've GOT to focus on one or two key characters.

Tell that to the producers of The Royal Tenenbaums, Love Actually, Mystic River, The Magnificent Seven, Magnolia, Pulp Fiction, Crash, The Great Escape, M*A*S*H, or The Godfather.

Shhh...you try to stop The Sexism tm, you are not a True Fan tm.

 

[Cary L. Brown]

estrea said:
If the new Uhura is just a "glorified extra" Trek will be taking a giant step backwards in time. Nichelle Nichols almost quit the show until she spoke with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. No, she was never a "female lead." I would be a happy camper if the new Uhura was equal to the Sulu and Chekov characters in terms of speaking lines. But, yes, unfortunately, throughout the run of TOS, Uhura was pretty much a glorified telephone operator. Whenever Kirk and Spock left the bridge to go on "away missions" or "landing parties" (whatever), a mere Ensign sat in the big chair while she was a Lieutenant!

It has nothing to do with race or gender. I also hope that Chekov, Sulu, and Scotty are closer to being "glorified extras" than "stars."

I want a STORY, not "let's toss everyone a bone" like the TNG stuff became.

There's nothing racist or sexist or whatever about supporting characters being treated as supporting characters.

 

[Trekplusart]

Cool! :thumbsup:

I want Kirk and Mccoy as supporting characters. :thumbsup:

 

[Tralah]

JPSEric said:
Glorified extra definetly. Star Trek is a boy's club after all so she'll be given a particularly snazzy line or action to give a nod to all the girlfriends, if any or any females at all, in the audience.

Oh there will be females in the audience! While I can't speak for all female Star Trek fans, one of the things I'm really anticipating is the very good-looking guys who have been cast! I certainly wouldn't mind seeing Uhura get some interesting scenes, but I think for this movie Spock (old and young) and Kirk, possibly McCoy too, will be the main focus. If they were to make Uhura the female lead just for the sake of having a female lead, that would be silly. If it works for the story though, then that's fine, but I don't think it'll be the case this time.

One thing I would appreciate seeing would be a female captain in the 23rd century which would once and for all do away with the silly notion of "Turnabout Intruder" that women couldn't be Starfleet captains, and confirm that Lester was just frelling nuts and couldn't except responsibility for her own failures. Though, I guess Enterprise effectively did that showing a female captain on the Columbia, I'd still like to see proof that Lester was abolsutely wrong for the 23rd century era.

 

[Therin of Andor]

JPSEric said:
Star Trek is a boy's club after all...

Huh?

It's always been my experience that the ST demographic is quite 50:50 male/female. While the females in TOS 70s fandom tended towards adoration of Spock (and/or Kirk), fanzines, licensed novels and various collectibles, the males tended more towards blueprints, model ships, weaponry, war gaming (as it was called then), and adulation of female yeomen (and female ST fans) in short skirts.

TNG didn't do much to change that 50:50 split, and neither did the various series to come after it.

 

[Tralah]

Yeah, the last Star Trek convention I went to years ago, there seemed to be just as many females as males there. I certainly didn't feel like the odd one out. I don't know if there's been any actual scientific studies done on the demographics. It wouldn't surprise me if Star Trek had more of a male following, but there's definitely a good portion of females that make up the fan base.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Tralah said:
I certainly wouldn't mind seeing Uhura get some interesting scenes, but I think for this movie Spock (old and young) and Kirk, possibly McCoy too, will be the main focus. If they were to make Uhura the female lead just for the sake of having a female lead, that would be silly. If it works for the story though, then that's fine, but I don't think it'll be the case this time.

I always thought the female lead was simply the actress who had the most lines. That didn't mean necessarily she was the star of the production, per se--I would consider some of the Bond girls as female leads, for example, when Bond is clearly the primary character.

I left one part out of the initial post though:
"...glorified extra, female lead, or blatant sex object?"

 

[Tralah]

Maybe you're right. I never gave much thought into what criteria is used exactly to have someone qualify as a "lead" vs. a supporting player.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Yeah, for all intents and purposes Winona Ryder could be the female lead and Zoe Saldana could just be background eye candy in a very short skirt...

 

[MadBaggins]

There has never been anything close to a black female lead in Star Trek and there probably never will be!

 

[C.E. Evans]

Aaaand the thread goes down hill from here...

 

[ancient]

Spock & Kirk will be leads, (possibly McCoy). Scotty, Sulu, Uhura, etc, will most likely be supporting characters...just like they always were. Whoever the female lead is, it ain't going to be one of the crew.

MadBaggins said:
There has never been anything close to a black female lead in Star Trek and there probably never will be!

Never saw First Contact, I take it.

 

[gblews]

Glorified extra.

I think this was pretty much established by the choice of Zoe Saldana to play the part. She's very pretty, but not much of an actor. I mean, from what I've seen she's okay but certainly nothing special, and with her resume, I doubt she was very expensive.

So for what was required for the role she fits economically, and probably won't hurt the movie with her performance. But anyone expecting something "standout" from "Uhuru" is probably going to be disappointed.

 

[Plum]

Obvious question... why are we picking on Uhura?

 

[archeryguy1701]

Plum said:
Obvious question... why are we picking on Uhura?

Because the Russian became a second in command, the Asian got his own ship, and the Scot has always had his own department. That leaves Uhura who, after x-number of years, is still right were they left her.

 

[ickNewstu]

Nyota Uhura is a b&tch because she's a woman.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

ickNewstu said:
Nyota Uhura is a b&tch because she's a woman.

I think we can do without comments like this, ickNewstu. Please knock it off immediately and go read the board rules you agreed to when you signed up for this BBS.

Thanks.

 

[Cary L. Brown]

Plum said:Obvious question... why are we picking on Uhura?

Well, personally, I'm picking on the Russian...

 

[Sephiroth]

as long as uhura is still the "gratuitous panty shot" queen i dont care