TCA Press Tour: One of the 'Pioneers of Television' explains how Martin Luther King changed the course of 'Star Trek'

“I took 'Star Trek' because I thought it might be a nice adjunct to my resume and I’d get to Broadway faster,” said Nichelle “Lt. Uhura” Nichols, during a television press tour panel for the second season of the PBS series "Pioneers of Television,” where she sat along with fellow classic TV stars Martin Landau, Robert Conrad, Linda Evans and Mike Conrad.

Nichols had been an up-and-coming stage performer when she was offered the iconic role, and she insisted, “I still think 'Star Trek' interrupted my career and I got stuck there.” Nichols told the crowd that she tried to leave the Starship Enterprise after the first season “because I thought it was going nowhere for me.”

Producer Gene Roddenberry asked her to reconsider, and the next night she attended an NAACP fundraiser at which she was introduced to a man who claimed to be her “biggest fan.” The Trekkie turned out to be Martin Luther King Jr., who told her that “Star Trek” was the only TV show he and his wife Coretta would allow their three little children to watch, because out in the streets there were African-Americans being hosed for wanting to sit down in a whites-only restaurant; meanwhile, “there I was playing an astronaut of the 23rd century."

When she told King she was leaving the show, “He said what Gene Roddenbery had done was to establish who we were in the 23rd century." Insisting that she needed to stay on the show, he said, "You are part of history, and it’s your responsibility, even though it wasn’t your career choice.”

The series, which is scheduled for winter 2011, looks at some of the classic moments and genres of early television through the people involved. Nichols appears on the science fiction episode; other installments will cover crime dramas, westerns and local kids TV.

— Joy Press

Photo: Nichelle Nichols (NBC).

Comments

[EK]

Looking forward to the show, thanks so much.

[Blue]

Old news.

Sometimes I think this column is being written by a very young person who has no background in media history. Other times I think it's just someone who doesn't bother to do any research.

[Graham]

So nice that this made the front page of Latimes.com... especially considering that Nichelle Nichols has been telling this story for at least 20 years now. Real news there.

[Professor Charles Metze II]

Nichelle Nichols should know that not only did she inspire Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and his family; moreover, she inspired the man who would go on to become the first black astronaut to head NASA! I interviewed Charles Bolden, Jr., and his family at the home of his mother, Ethel Bolden (my high school librarian) , in June of 1980 and he told me that he and his classmates at the Naval Academy in Annapolis would rearrange their classes to watch Star Trek! Here was a black woman on television playing an astronaut inspiring a black man who would become an astronaut. I think that it equally amazing. It is fortunate that she added Star Trek to her resume. Her work on that show made history.
Professor Charles Metze II

[jtbwriter]

Old news or not-what Gene Roddenberry did with Star Trek NEEDS to be repeated-especially with the turning away from space travel and the lack of a push to discover new worlds. Get our kids excited about finding what's out there-not just leave them in the slums! Kudos to PBS for another great series!

[SoCalGuy]

Nichelle Nichols is also arguably the very first African-American sex symbol on television (or movies for that matter). She had wicked dangerous curves, great legs that seemed to go on forever, and she was on the bridge with the big boys. Hot, hot, hot!! Sex symbol? Yes. Sex bomb? Oh yeah. Every hetero male who watched Star Trek as a young teenager have all been willing to sell their family to be with Lt. Uhura/Nichelle Nichols.