Was not including Uhura a missed opportunity? Yeah, it really was. Spock being involved doesn't surprise me in the slightest.
There was an extended scene of Uhura and Sulu cracking the Vejur code and handing it off to Spock. Roddenberry and Wise were thrilled.
Shatner nixed it.
Something filmed or something still on the page?
Exactly my point. My criticism wasn't about being polite or impolite. It was precisely because it failed on account of the latter. If struggling with controls is that bad, running across the bridge is worse. But yeah, getting up out of his chair is certainly more dramatic.
Why does nobody ever get that joke?
Definitely whooshed over my head!
Same. Please ELI5.
That guy is such a Mary Sue.
He was always at the center of the action, he was one of the stars.
Yes, but I don't think Spock should be given a pass when so many other characters get it in the neck. He was often better qualified at the problem of the week than any other specialists on the ship! Strange New Worlds even had him conducting surgery in preference to other surgeons on staff, not that Chapel is a trained surgeon either. Is his family name really unpronounceable... or is it Mary Sue?
Seriously don’t take this badly, because I love Uhura the character and what Nichols brought to the role.
Nimoy was the star, Nichols a supporting player. The vast majority of the audience showed up to see Kirk, Spock and McCoy.
I agree it would’ve been cool for Uhura to be part of the scene. Rather or not she was there, the scene was going to be anchored by one of the stars.
Anytime a character doesn't get to do something and / or Kirk does get to do something I blame Shatner. George Takei does.
Lol. I'm just being facetious because I have seen people who slag off Rey Skywalker bend over backwards to justify why know-it-all Spock isn't a Mary Sue. To be fair, my problem isn't with Spock finding the problem and working to resolve the problem, it's more that he asks Decker for help. For the most part, my issues with Trek are just tiny tweaks like this. Sure Spock is leading but what does it add to Decker's character to use him here instead of Uhura? She's qualified, she's sitting right there and and she doesn't even need to sit at her station to transmit the reply. All she gets is one silent close up when she should have been helping Spock.
I do actually think that TMP is probably Uhura's best movie appearance. She is professional, has varied plot-relevant dialogue, some decent one-liners if you include SLV, and is noticeable in much more of the movie than any of her other appearances, even if Star Trek III has my favourite of her scenes.
Lol. Didn't the Changeling establish that Uhura had an affinity for mathematics and her character bio for Phase II confirmed her computer skills were only second to Spock? Are you disrespecting Uhura's qualifications? Admittedly, Xeno-linguistics is more from her SNW revamp, not that this was a problem that needed anything more than maths and computing skills.
Which they swiped from the Kelvin-verse.
CHAPEL: Well, she's on the first-grade reader. She's learning. Seems to have an aptitude for mathematics.
First-grade math is hardly a "specialty".
How can anyone disrespect a non-existent person whose fictional skills vary by the writer of the week as required by the plot?
And there's no such thing as Phase II. Never happened.
She should have started out as the company clerk.
Lol. Don't take my comments too literally, I'm just poking fun at the double-standard that some people seem to exhibit e.g. that it's fine for Spock to rock up and be a better warp flow engineer than Scotty and his team of trained experts but it's silly to suggest that Uhura, who has already been stated to have an aptitude for mathematics should be shown to be good at mathematics in a scenario that involves mathematics.
McCoy's daughter was only ever mentioned in character background too but I don't doubt her existence. Plus, just because Phase II didn't happen doesn't mean that the opposite of its bible becomes true I.e. tha Uhura is bad at using computers.
I have seen this with SNW Chapel as well, with people complaining she's so good at everything, but when I googled a biomedical degree, it turned out she was just an expert in the subjects in which she'd been educated.
I do take issue with a nurse performing surgery in a sick bay including doctors but her performing surgery is still less silly than Spock, with no medical training at all being her assistant.
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