On Martin Luther King Day, I read an article. This wasn't your everyday article, no, this article was unique. I found "Star Trek's Uhura Was Convinced To Stay On The Show... By Martin Luther King Jr." by Andrew Bridgman while browsing dorkly.com, so naturally my attention was captured. I was amazed. I could not wait to share this tidbit of glorious trivia with my family on Martin Luther King Day, and so now I have decided to write about it here, almost two weeks later.
The article is mainly about some of Star Trek's, a famous sci-fi TV show in the late '60s, huge impacts on society. The author also talks about how the show had the first interracial on-screen kiss in television history. The final paragraph tells how Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. convinced Nichelle Nichols to stay on the show. He said it was because it was important for a black woman to be working with a multi-ethnic group equally at the time. This is what the author claimed.
I noticed in the article, the author included a few bits of information in parentheses. These were scattered throughout the article adding on a little background information. Most of these little clips of information begin with the word 'granted' as if the author was correcting himself. I also took note of the very large picture of Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and Lieutenant Nyota Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) having the "first scripted interracial on-screen kiss in television history" right before the paragraph it is talked about. There is also a 'fun fact' section after the said paragraph giving some more insight to the event.
I found this article very interesting when I read it. (I even got a fun conversation out of it with my Trekkie family!) But, I also think that many of the things mentioned in the article were reasons that the show has been able to last so long in pop culture. Mainly because the resounding themes and the comradery between the characters reflected a visionary future that society wanted at the time. That being said, I want to add that I am very happy Nichols decided to stay on the show!
