Nichelle Nichols at Central Canada Comic Con (C4) 2012

On Saturday, I had the pleasure of attending Nichelle Nichols' Q&A at Comic Con. I must say, she is one of the most adorable ladies I have met. Unfortunately, I was unable to make it up to the second floor in time for her photo-op (it was filled to capacity), but she returned the next day and I was lucky enough to get a photo taken of the two of us professionally (I love her smile so much):

Being older, she tended to repeat a lot of the same story and forget what the original question was. I don't think any of us minded, however - she was still simply her adorable and charismatic self. 

Video was actually allowed during her Q&A, and I got quite a bit of it. Here is a video I put together of her speaking about how she got the role of Uhura, how Uhura got her name, about the short skirt she wore on Stat Trek TOS, and about the first interracial kiss on television (Plato's Stepchildren) and how it was received by the public:

The best part of all was when a member of the audience asked her if she would sing a song for us. She sang one of her favorite songs, "Summertime", and it was absolutely beautiful:

I am so glad that she was asked to sing, because it truly was a remarkable experience and she seemed so happy to be singing for an audience. She is just as beautiful and sweet as she always seemed on screen. I am really glad I was able to see her in person, because I never used to be very find of her (and I still stand by most of the opinions in this post). I am so glad she came to our city.

Nichelle Nichols - Uhura and Beyond - Starlog January 1995

N is for Nichelle Nichols!

I really enjoy Uhura as a character - she is an intelligent and powerful woman, and broke racial barriers. Not only that, but she is absolutely beautiful. Some of my favorite interactions are between Spock and Uhura in the original series, and between Uhura and Scotty in Star Trek V - The Final Frontier.

There was a feature on Nichelle Nichols in the January 1995 issue of Starlog magazine (click images to enlarge):

In this article, she speaks about her autobiography, "Beyond Uhura" - a book which I hope to read in the near future. She writes about how racism has affected her career, and a near rape by a respected lawyer. She also writes about how important music is to her, and the projects she has been involved with throughout her life.

Interestingly, she also writes about her serious relationship with Gene Roddenberry (by the time Star Trek began, they were just close friends), and her intense dislike for William Shatner. I do not enjoy reading about her hostile feelings towards him, because I have heard him speak about the situations discussed from his point of view as well (when I saw him live). I actually found myself disliking Nichelle, and then wondering why - I knew then that I should disregard the seemingly petty argument and focus on the positive aspects of both actors. I still am not fond of Nichelle, but I quite enjoy Uhura.

Uhura seems very bitter about a lot of things when it comes to Star Trek. She also recalls how she felt when she was left out of the Generations movie - stating (jokingly?) that "they successfully left out the two minorities".

The article focuses for a while on her recent projects at the time ("Saturn's Child") and how she would like to end up on Broadway - and then goes back to the topic of Star Trek, where she leaves us with this:

"People still say to me from time to time, 'what does it feel like to know that you will always be known as Uhura?' and I always say, just a bit flippantly, 'It's better than being known as an ax murderer.'" Well, that's positive. (Sarcasm.) She follows that by stating that she loves Star Trek, and she hopes that comes through in her book.