Star Trek Finally Reveals Uhura Became Captain of Her Own Starship

[Cpt. MAGA Man]

This article just came out. I haven't seen season two of Picard but I bet this information went by unnoticed by many. I thought I would post this story here. It should raise a lot of questions?

https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/star-trek-finally-reveals-uhura-became-captain-of-her-own-starship/

 

[DataRules]

This news just makes me feel that Nichelle was cheated out of an amazing character arc in a live-action show (tv series, miniseries, or 1-2 tv movies).

 

[ZapBrannigan]

This is not really a TOS subject. Picard, Discovery, and the rest of it can do their own thing, write their own canon, but it doesn't connect with TOS canon. They've gone too far afield to be anything but their own separate universe.

 

[Albertese]

I think that's kinda neat. Though I almost like better the possibility from the novel Autobiography of Jean-Luc Picard that Uhura was president of the UFP around this period. Somehow I feel like a successful political career fits the character better than starship command. Though I suppose one could lead to another.

--Alex

 

[F. King Daniel]

Well of course it was "unnoticed by many", it's literally not legible on screen under any circumstances. It was a cute easter egg to see in behind the scenes photos and concept art, though.

 

[Commishsleer]

Yah!

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Well of course it was "unnoticed by many", it's literally not legible on screen under any circumstances. It was a cute easter egg to see in behind the scenes photos and concept art, though.

So it's not even their canon, let alone TOS canon. It's the non-humorous equivalent of a behind the scenes in-joke. Okay.

Another thing: are we really wishing a woman well if we want her entire life to be consumed by Starfleet careerism, flying around in a tin can a hundred light years from home? Will her Captain's Personal Logs love her when she's frail? Will they hold her hand on her death bed?

How empty and cold does a woman's life have to be, to win our feminist admiration?

.

 

[David cgc]

So it's not even their canon, let alone TOS canon. It's the non-humorous equivalent of a behind the scenes in-joke. Okay.

Another thing: are we really wishing a woman well if we want her entire life to be consumed by Starfleet careerism, flying around in a tin can a hundred light years from home? Will her Captain's Personal Logs love her when she's frail? Will they hold her hand on her death bed?

How empty and cold does a woman's life have to be, to win our feminist admiration?

Uh, does that not apply to any non-retired high-ranking Star Trek character?

 

[XCV330]

So it's not even their canon, let alone TOS canon. It's the non-humorous equivalent of a behind the scenes in-joke. Okay.

Another thing: are we really wishing a woman well if we want her entire life to be consumed by Starfleet careerism, flying around in a tin can a hundred light years from home? Will her Captain's Personal Logs love her when she's frail? Will they hold her hand on her death bed?

How empty and cold does a woman's life have to be, to win our feminist admiration?

.

Why not try being a human being for awhile and appreciate the sentiment instead of being the black-light poster for everything wrong with tweezer-stroking canon obsessed fandom.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Uh, does that not apply to any non-retired high-ranking Star Trek character?

Assuming the career path for starship captains and admirals is all-consuming, yes. But it hurts women even more.

An officer on that path, with so many long deep-space deployments, might have time to win someone's heart and get married. And a man can get his wife pregnant during a two-week leave. But the children will barely know him and might not care about him much when he's old. Men pay a high price for these ambitions. Kirk alluded to it a time or two in The Wrath of Khan and Generations. He's lonely.

A woman who devotes her life to that career wouldn't have time to reproduce at all. A baby and then childcare would cause her to fall too far behind in the competition for command chairs. So she ends up even lonelier than Kirk, due to the facts of life. If you're honest about human life, it's inescapable.

 

[Mudd]

Assuming the career path for starship captains and admirals is all-consuming, yes. But it hurts women even more.

No, it doesn't. Your reasoning is entirely based in sexist premises.

It's all one continuity except where explicitly stated otherwise - that is, the so-called "Kelvin timeline."*

"Raise a lot of questions?" Just one: when do we get to see Celia Gooding command her own spaceship?


*Which is actually technically an alternate timeline within the Trek universe, involving NimoySpock.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

No, it doesn't. Your reasoning is entirely based in sexist premises.

My premise is that humans are biological entities with properties and limitations given by nature. One result is that a woman's life is more complicated and difficult than a man's. Most people know this. That is why certain career paths will cost a woman more in the long run.

Edit: I should say, if Uhura as an individual does not want a family of her own, then we have nothing to argue about.

 

[XCV330]

My premise is that humans are biological entities with properties and limitations given by nature. One result is that a woman's life is more complicated and difficult than a man's. Most people know this. That is why certain career paths will cost a woman more in the long run.

That is brutally myopic. It also assumes the responsibility for child care and raising of children is done soley by the mother.

As a single father of two who sometimes had to manage that and a career, and who has seen many woman manage it much better than I, you're not only wrong, you don't even make allowances for the future to have more opportunities. Instead you treat women another species and try to mortar that mess into a foundation with turds like "most people know this."

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I suppose I should concede that, in a "future" tale where we have transporter beams and time travel, there's no reason we shouldn't have technology that sets aside the facts of life as well. Star Trek can make up anything, and I need to acknowledge that.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Assuming the career path for starship captains and admirals is all-consuming, yes. But it hurts women even more.

An officer on that path, with so many long deep-space deployments, might have time to win someone's heart and get married. And a man can get his wife pregnant during a two-week leave. But the children will barely know him and might not care about him much when he's old. Men pay a high price for these ambitions. Kirk alluded to it a time or two in The Wrath of Khan and Generations. He's lonely.

A woman who devotes her life to that career wouldn't have time to reproduce at all. A baby and then childcare would cause her to fall too far behind in the competition for command chairs. So she ends up even lonelier than Kirk, due to the facts of life. If you're honest about human life, it's inescapable.

Five minutes ago you were all about how this is completely meaningless and unconnected to the main series canon, and now you're going on-and-on with a bunch of unsupported sexist nonsense which makes it sound like it is really important to you in the worst way possible.

Having children is a wonderful and fulfilling thing, but a woman (or a man) doesn't have to have children to lead a fulfilling and personally satisfying life (nor does it mean Uhura's life was devoid of long term relationships or a marriage or marriages).

But where are you even getting the idea that she didn't have kids from that you're only making a big deal out of it now instead of during all the TOS movies where it wasn't mentioned? The background plaque from Picard that says nothing about it?

The fact that it wasn't mentioned in the TOS movies doesn't necessarily mean she didn't have kids or a kid offscreen at some point, because Kirk's kid wasn't mentioned until TWoK and Sulu's kid wasn't mentioned until Generations (the presence of an Admiral Sulu in Voyager possibly hinted at it earlier, though it could have been TOS Sulu too). Kirk was a starship captain and had a child, albeit not a great relationship with him. Sulu was a starship captain and had a child. Sisko was a starship captain and had a child. Geordi LaForge's mother Silva was a starship captain and had children. Janeway's father was a starship captain when he had children, as was Tom Paris'.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I apologize for my thoughts. I didn't set out to tick people off, but that's where it went.

 

[valkyrie013]

Uhura has no children.. until a writer wants her to have some. So as @Locutus of Bored said, having children isn't a pre requizet to being a happy woman. I know many women who don't have kids, and are happy with there husband/other.
Like people who spend 30 years plus in the military, for some its a calling, something that completes them. Uhura may be one of those, that like being out there with her friends/crew, exploring. If she has time for a relationship and family, thats up to her. Many a captain, Picard, Janeway, has lamented that its a bit lonely at the top sometimes. but neither of them stepped down to have a family. and seeing that some people like McCoy lived into his Hundreds and was still in starfleet, Uhura could have taken time off and had a kid, raised a family. Hell could be no father, many women go and get artificially inseminated for a kid, or by that time, with the danger of space travel, Uhura could have had a number of eggs frozen, and after Kirk died decided to have a kid. I'm sure by that time they would have created an artificial womb, so she didn't even need to carry the child.

So, after 2293 its all a big question mark that except for some easter egg that wasn't meant to be seen.

EDIT: @ZapBrannigan Its all okay, I'm not ticked, it was a good topic to broach, and have a discussion about. and as always things get heated.

 

[BillJ]

My premise is that humans are biological entities with properties and limitations given by nature. One result is that a woman's life is more complicated and difficult than a man's. Most people know this. That is why certain career paths will cost a woman more in the long run.

There are plenty of female corporate executives who handle the ability to have children and career.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

This was pretty mild as far as getting "heated" goes. Anyway, it's over, so moving on.

I like that the USS Leondegrance was specifically mentioned as going to the Small Magellanic Cloud (must be some previously unmentioned stable wormhole going there to do it in a five-year mission seeing as how it's 200,000 LY away, and I guess it bypasses the Galactic Barrier) and making over a hundred first contact missions there (well, to be specific I like the 100 first contact missions part, more than going to the Small Magellanic Cloud on a five-year mission in the late-23rd / early-24th century, which is a little whack, but it's just a background plaque).

This leads me to believe Uhura's skills as an xeno-linguistics expert and communications specialist were a key part of the reason (along with her extensive experience and leadership qualities) she was chosen to command this mission, since there would be so many new species that the universal translator had never encountered similar languages to before, and would have difficulty establishing a translation matrix for a while, so Uhura's own skills would come in handy to bridge the gap.

That also means it doesn't make starship command for the sake of it the end all and be all of everyone's career path, and that you can continue on in your chosen specialty and command a starship (or not, if that doesn't interest you) without having specifically chosen to follow the designated command path from the start. Much like Dr. Crusher with the hospital ship USS Pasteur, though this ship is less specialized than that.

 

[Ronald Held]

I can see Uhura as captain of a training vessel. Not head of SI(some novels).