I’m Indigenous Canadian … full blooded long brown haired Indian … so it was always important for people like me to see people of colour in all these shows. It gives everyone hope that we can create a more open and inclusive civilization in the future.
My dad was born and raised in the bush and although he understood the English language he never spoke it and preferred to speak only our Ojibway/Cree language. He was a very intelligent man who could leave civilizatation in the autumn with nothing and come back in the winter with a supply of animal furs. He didn’t know much about the outside wider world and when he saw me and my brothers watching Star Trek The Next Generation … he asked us how he thought it was amazing that humans were roaming space now. It amazed me that the acting and production of TNG was done well enough to convince my dad that it was real. I told him right away it wasn’t real but it impressed him … and it impressed me … and it still impresses me to this day.
Here’s an interview with Nichelle Nichols being encouraged by Dr Martin Luther King Jr who was one of her greatest fans.
"And I’m thinking a Trekker, you know. And I turn, and before I could get up, I looked across the way and there was the face of Dr. Martin Luther King smiling at me and walking toward me. And he started laughing. By the time he reached me, he said, yes, Ms. Nichols, I am your greatest fan. I am that Trekkie. And I was speechless. He complimented me on the manner in which I’d created the character. I thanked him, and I think I said something like, Dr. King, I wish I could be out there marching with you. He said, no, no, no. No, you don’t understand. We don’t need you on the - to march. You are marching. You are reflecting what we are fighting for. So, I said to him, thank you so much. And I’m going to miss my co-stars. And his face got very, very serious. And he said, what are you talking about? And I said, well, I told Gene just yesterday that I’m going to leave the show after the first year because I’ve been offered - and he stopped me and said: You cannot do that. And I was stunned. He said, don’t you understand what this man has achieved? For the first time, we are being seen the world over as we should be seen. He says, do you understand that this is the only show that my wife Coretta and I will allow our little children to stay up and watch. I was speechless.
https://www.npr.org/2011/01/17/132942461/Star-Treks-Uhura-Reflects-On-MLK-Encounter
I am really glad to see more indigenous representation in Hollywood. Apart from the recent Scorsese film (I haven’t seen it yet), there was also Reservation Dogs and Prey, both of which were terrific. I hope that trend continues. I am sure a lot of indigenous people find Voyager a hard watch because of Chakotay and the terrible ‘noble mystical savage’ background they gave him derived from that white guy who pretended to be indigenous.
So with this and Sir Patrick Stewart’s story, how many other hair stories are happening behind the scenes?
Frakes has his stories about the beard and Roddenberry being there to ‘sculpt’ it.
Dorne has a story about LeVar fucking with him on the set of DS9 when LeVar was directing. Dorne said he was sure LeVars hair grew very quickly so fun was had.
Janeways whole hair debacle
Holy freakin’ moley that’s a lot of hair stories! I just looked these up and feel like I’m about to go down the rabbit hole.
Enjoy buddy <3
It just keeps going! I’m over here reading about Deanna Troi and Marina Sirtis wig stories, the Star Trek documentary series The Center Seat going over the possible importance of Bones McCoy’s haircut, and more.
I had to drag myself out of the rabbit hole after getting to the point of comparing the concept art designs for the Lower Decks characters with their changed hairstyles in the final character designs.
Wow, those white Rutherford, non-Bajoran “Xax,” and Latina-looking Mariner concepts are wild. Also Boimler didn’t change at all, haha.
I was thinking the same things! I like how the adjustments to the final designs were made to more closely match the actors after casting was done, with Boimler already being Jack Quaid-ish enough to not really need much change haha. I’m curious if they anticipated the characters appearing in live action like in Strange New Worlds from the start and wanted to make sure they resembled the actors enough to pull it off.
She’s one of my favorite parts of SNW. When Mariner is a fangirl over meeting her makes me crack up every time.
Their exchange was so cute it made me feel all warm n fuzzy
And then finishing it off with Uhuru fangirling over Hoshi Sato. Loved it!
I’m really torn on her because I like what the actress is doing with the character and I like how she’s developing, but I also don’t think they’re doing enough to make her evolve into the Uhura we see on TOS. I like that she is slowly building confidence, but I think it’s too slow. Because Uhura on TOS was one of the most confident of crewmembers. This is a woman who was willing to sing love songs to Spock just to mess with him and tell Kirk that she had feelings for him the she could never act upon because of their positions while they were being forced to kiss. Not to mention her general bravery as part of the Enterprise crew.
You have to remember when we first see this incarnation of Uhura she’s a cadet. Remember back to high school or college and those first few years in the working world? It was intimidating and you didn’t know what was really going on all the time. Now apply that to someone who is on the flagship of the federation. She’s bound to be a little nervous. And this latest season she met Mariner who set her on the path to the Nyota we all know and love. I can’t wait to see how she Celia evolves the character and makes it her own.
I hope you’re right, because by the end of the series, she needs to be super confident and flirty and full of song.
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Fun fact: in the adult movie industry “carrying the torch” means something entirely different
Fun fact: For the olympics, “carrying the torch” means something entirely different.
Not so fun fact:
spoiler
It involves Nazis.
