If one good thing came out of the cable snapping on the
Martin Olaf Sabo pedestrian bridge it’s that it added about an hour to a public
transportation commute that is typically just under two. That may not sound like a great thing but it
opened up a great opportunity to catch up on some podcasts. I finished a few Stuff You Should Know Episodes but the best podcast was from my guy Neil deGrasse
Tyson’s StarTalk.
The episode, A Conversation
with Nichelle Nichols, was as enlightening as it was entertaining. Typically Star Talk takes on a more jovial mood
but this particular episode broke that form to deliver a full interview with Nichelle
Nichols, the actress who played Chief Communications Officer Lt. Uhura on the
original Star Trek. I grew up, not so
much a Trekkie but certainly enjoying the occasional rerun and well aware of
the impact of Star Trek on geek culture. What I never appreciated was the positive
results the show had on the greater culture of its day.
In the interview Nichols recounted a sequence of events
following the first season of the show.
With her eye on Broadway, Nichols went to Gene Roddenberry (the creator
of the epic space serial) with a letter of resignation and news of an
opportunity to be featured in a Broadway show.
Roddenberry was not pleased and asked Nichols to think about her
decision over the weekend. That weekend
Nichols attended an event and was asked if she would be willing to meet with
someone claiming to be her number one fan.
To her surprise the next thing she knew Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. approached her with a rare smile. He announced himself as her number
one fan and went on to tell her how meaningful her character was to him, his
family and the cause of civil rights.
What I never picked up on, but what Dr. King was acutely aware of, was
that Lt. Uhura’s character didn’t have to be black, a woman or even a human.
But she was. The vision of the civil rights movement was reflected in Rodenberry’s
vision as it played out in Star Trek.
There is no substitute for hearing the story for yourself so
if you have 45 minutes or so, maybe in the car or on an extended bus ride, I
highly recommend listening to the full episode. If you do, you may be drawn into the next episode in which the interview continues and
turns to the impact Nichols had on NASA.
Sheesh. Who knew?
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