Worldbuilding in Season 1
- Thread starter Golbolco
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There is no "really." It's a work of fiction. What we're talking about here is not what conjecturally happened within the imaginary universe, but whether the story treated the character of Uhura as a "damsel in distress," i.e. a female character defined solely as a victim with no agency of her own. Since the erasure of her entire memory is treated as a minor, incidental plot point and absolutely no narrative attention is given to the question of her personal memories, her identity, her relationships, or any of that, I'd say that yes, the story deprives her of agency and reduces her to a passive victim. At best, it reduces her to a character defined exclusively by her professional role rather than anything personal.
What you can speculate afterward about her recovery and the long-term impact is beside the point. Again, I literally wrote an entire novel doing just that, so I daresay I've put a hell of a lot more work into exploring the question than anyone else here has. But that is not what we are talking about. The question is how "The Changeling" itself treated the attack on the character.
Was this always intended to be Uhura's plot point or was it originally a yeoman or something?
And if there's one good thing you can say about the third season (and I can say a lot of good things), it was they did away with a lot of the closing yuks after an hour of death and destruction.
And if there's one good thing you can say about the third season (and I can say a lot of good things), it was they did away with a lot of the closing yuks after an hour of death and destruction.
In the Lucas version, it was Yeoman Barbara Watson's plot point, and she was whistling. During the probe of her by Altair (later renamed Nomad), Altair burned out her mind. When Fontana significantly revised/rewrote the First Draft script for the Final Draft, she gave the part to Uhura and let her keep her mind. Justman later suggested that Uhura should be singing instead.
Btw, there wasn't much respect for Lucas's draft.
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Thank you.
Even in the end, it's a middle of the road episode that just happens to be very enjoyable.
Even in the end, it's a middle of the road episode that just happens to be very enjoyable.
Bully for you, but as far as we can tell, she didn't lose her family, her friends, her hobbies, her childhood memories. We do know that she's a talented singer and that Swahili is probably her native language.
You can say it louder. Doesn't make it so.
At least, the only one paid to explore the question. @The Old Mixer once told me that hubris wasn't a pretty look, and he was right. And even if you are the person on Earth who's spent the most time thinking about Uhura's role in that episode, it still doesn't necessarily make you right.
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This would make more sense as we would not see Yeoman Watson with her burnt out mind in the next episode.
Although McCoy says all her memories were gone, on screen we saw Uhura speaking in Swahili, talking with Chapel as a friend, understanding manners and body language. You can't tell me she was taught and learnt all that in half a day. I'm just going off what we saw on screen.
If McCoy said Nomad had turned Uhura purple and I didn't see it on screen I would assume that McCoy was lying or needed glasses.
Again, "as far as we can tell" is exactly the point. We're not talking about what might conjecturally have happened within an imaginary universe. We're talking about whether the work of fiction entitled "The Changeling" treated the imaginary character of Lt. Uhura as a "damsel in distress," i.e. a passive victim with no agency. The fact that the writers just did not care to address the question of Uhura's personal memories one way or the other is exactly why she was badly handled as a character.
I didn't say "on Earth," I said in this thread. And I apologize for giving the wrong impression. I'm not trying to say "I'm right." The point is simply that I'm not denying you can conjecturally fill in the episode's gaps. I know you can, because I've done it myself. I'm just saying that our ability to fill in the gaps does not fix the problem with the episode itself, because the gaps are the problem. If the story itself fails to address something it should have addressed, that is a failure of writing.
Star Trek was originally a series about human beings in the same way that Wagon Train was a series centered on white American settlers. No one was setting out to conjure up a "United Federation of Planets" series populated by actors wearing foam rubber foreheads.
Apology accepted and appreciated.
I normally agree with that sentiment. I don't think the writers dropped the ball too hard in this case. On the contrary -- I am grateful for (and I suspect Nichelle was to) for the opportunity to have so much Uhura time. She comes off much better in this season thus far than Scotty, whose only salient characteristic is beebee syndrome.
Probably, but quantity doesn't equal quality. The way it was handled left a lot of unanswered questions. And, to return to the original point, it wasn't an example of Uhura being strong or capable, just an example of her being victimized and in need of rescue by others. It was a plot role that could have been, and was originally scripted to be, fulfilled by any random crew member. So while it may have served Nichols well in terms of screen time, I wouldn't say it served Uhura well in terms of developing her character.
The joy she displayed when relearning English, puzzling out our nonsensical spelling, conveyed an intelligent, struggling woman who takes pride in technical accomplishments. I really liked that scene. Less so "the ball is blue-y" though it bugged me less this time around.
Let's agree to disagree. Your take on the situation presumably made you money, and that's great. I've got my own, and it makes me happy.
It's not about that. It just felt that people were misunderstanding my point, lecturing me on how the gaps in the story could be filled in, which is not something I need explained to me. The only reason I brought up the book was to point that out in hopes of shutting that sidebar down and getting back onto the actual topic, which is whether or not "The Changeling" treated Uhura as a "damsel in distress."
Let's move on.
No, just a missed opportunity.
Sorry, but what's "beebee syndrome"?
Yikes, I think I have beebee syndrome.
I hope I don't die of happiness, too.
It's when your brain shrinks to the size of a beebee when in the presence of a lady and rolls into your penis.
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