In Search of Uhura

I am a Star Trek fan for a number of reasons. It is the first Science Fiction property that I loved all by myself, and it remains a personal joy, something I watch alone late at night when nothing else will do. The original crew of the Enterprise remains “my crew”, as much as I may enjoy any of the other collections of humans and aliens who have come and gone since I first started watching re-runs back in the late 70s. Even with my love of the series, I left the most recent movie, Star Trek: Beyond , with a sore spot in my heart for everyone’s favorite Communications Officer, Nyota Uhura. I enjoyed the movie — the settings were larger than life, the villain had that perfect twist of compassion at the end, Chris Pine (of the three great Chrises: Pine, Evans, and Helmsworth) and the gang did a good turn at roles that are as constrained by fan expectation and canon as any can ever be. But still, I was disappointed as Uhura took on the role of the “heart of the crew.” You know her. She is the woman who delivers the moral Roddenberry message at the darkest point of the plot. If a manifesto of the Federation’s higher purpose must be given, she’s the one who gives it. As necessary as this moral moment is for the structure of any Star Trek plot, I wasn’t happy that it fell to Uhura to give it while the rest of the crew were off being heroic and blowing things up. Across all three movies of the Kelvin Timeline (the reboot series) I’ve been waiting for Uhura to be awesome — awesome i…