Star Trek: 10 Best Uhura Moments

2. Captain Uhura's Legacy

Star Trek Leondegrance
CBS

Uhura rose through the ranks in Starfleet, moving from Lieutenant in the Original Series, to Lieutenant Commander in The Motion Picture, and then Commander by the Wrath of Khan. While on-screen, this was the highest rank she attained, her career certainly didn't end there.

Star Trek: Picard's original premise came from an idea for a Short Trek. This story would have seen an elderly Captain Uhura mentoring a young Cadet Jean-Luc Picard. While this story never came to fruition, it was finally canonized in the show's second season.

There is a plaque honouring the USS Leondegrance at Starfleet Academy. Captain Uhura commanded the vessel between 2301 and 2305, before the ship was reassigned as a training vessel. It's legacy was that hundreds of cadets experienced faster-than-light travel for the first time aboard the ship, under Uhura's watch - with Jean-Luc Picard being one of those cadets. She served until her retirement in 2333.

While the passing of Nichelle Nichols means that any proposed scenes between her iteration of Uhura and Picard will now not come to pass, this poignant tribute in the show to her stands out - even if the plaque is fairly blurred in the actual episode.

In this post: 
Star Trek
 
Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Seán is the host and head writer/presenter for TrekCulture, as well as a writer/presenter on WhoCulture and WhatCulture Horror. He has authored two novels, dozens of short stories, and hundreds of articles for WhatCulture. He holds a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from University College Dublin. As part of his work with TrekCulture, Seán has been invited to participate in collaborations with Roddenberry Entertainment, as well as contributing to several Star Trek community projects. An avid fan of Star Trek, Doctor Who, and the horror genre at large, Seán's expertise has helped develop these channels to the successes they are today. As host of the Ups & Downs series on TrekCulture, Seán has become internationally recognised for his positive yet critically informed approach to reviewing every episode of modern Star Trek, ensuring he is one of the go-to voices in the Trek community. Favourite Quote to describe himself: "I'm serious about what I do, just not always about the way that I do it"