Star Trek: 10 Best Uhura Moments

The Lorelai Signal is the fourth episode of The Animated Series. It finally depicted Uhura as taking command of the Enterprise, due to all of the men on the ship falling under the spell of the Sirens they encounter.

Gene Roddenberry had always wanted to show that Uhura was perfectly suited to commanding a ship, but the restrictions placed upon him in the 60s had prevented him from depicting this. Bear in mind - he had been forced to remove Majel Barrett's Number One from the bridge before the show was even greenlit.

David Gerrold, the writer of The Trouble With Tribbles, remembered that when Nichols read the script and saw that she took command, she lit up and exclaimed that she was so excited. Reviewers of the episode comment on her skill at keeping the ship running, and also her decisive stand when beaming down to the planet to rescue the crew.

Though canonically she would command the Leondegrance, and there was a quick unspoken scene of her taking command in the episode Bem, this is the best example of Uhura in the centre seat in all of Nichelle Nichols' appearances in Star Trek. Animated or not, it is an important moment for the character, for the franchise, and for female characters in Trek altogether.