Nichelle Nichols’ top 5 moments as Uhura in Star Trek

Uhura distracts Sinister Sulu just long enough (“Mirror, Mirror”)

I discussed this moment on this site not that long ago, while reviewing Uhura’s Star Trek landing party adventures. But I simply can’t in good conscience leave it off any list purporting to showcase the finest moments Nichelle Nichols had in the franchise!

Uhura rarely got to go on landing parties, of course. And given the rate at which officers on landing parties who wore red uniforms died, perhaps it’s best she usually stayed on the ship! But it’s fortunate for Kirk, Scotty, and McCoy that Uhura was the fourth member of their team in “Mirror, Mirror.” When they found themselves aboard the I.S.S. Enterprise in the increasingly important-to-the-mythos Mirror Universe, no one of the men could have distracted Mirror Sulu away from his security board at a key moment as well as Uhura could—and did.

When the Woman in Motion documentary wants to illustrate interview subjects talking about how Nichelle Nichols was a stunning beauty, it’s no wonder the film runs footage from this sequence in “Mirror, Mirror.” Nichols always looked great in her standard Starfleet uniform. She’s positively resplendent in the midriff-baring Terran Empire version.

But, as I’ve said about this scene before, Nichols’ acting is the greatest attraction. Viewers can’t tell whether Uhura feels any understandable apprehension about her task, because she acts the moment so wholeheartedly. She convinces Sulu she wants, in his word, to play “while the cat’s away”—and her defiant anger as she draws her knife on him later is just as convincing.

I can only imagine Nichelle Nichols had a great deal of fun performing this scene. At least I hope she did. Five decades on, having seen it who knows how many times, I still find it a heck of a lot of fun to watch.