Only one Star Trek character didn’t return for a further appearance after their tour of duty ended.
Star Trek actors are defined by the series they debuted on. William Shatner will always be the original series’ James Kirks. Patrick Stewart is Jean-Luc Picard, and Anson Mount has made Captain Christopher Pike his very own. Yet, once an actor becomes inundated with the series, there are always opportunities to explore beyond it; in cameo roles.
A lot of Star Trek actors have popped up in other shows, or films as various characters. Such as Ethan Phillips, who popped up in Star Trek: First Contact without any type of make whatsoever, playing a holographic human and not a Talaxian named Neelix.
This trend of cameoing in other series’ usually as the character they once portrayed, started in The Next Generation when DeForest Kelley appeared as his iconic character Bones McCoy. But much, much older. Kelley was still actively playing Bones in the original series film franchise, making him the first of the actors to crossover during active dueling productions.
Leonard Nimoy’s Spock and James Doonahn’s Montromgery Spock would also appear on The Next Generation. Shatner would crossover, technically, with Star Trek Generations, appearing alongside Stewart’s Picard. Even George Takei would cameo as his version of Hikaru Sulu, showing up on an episode of Star Trek: Voyager.
Yet, one major name didn’t appear in any other series or film franchise, and that name was Nichelle Nichols and her rendition of Nyota Uhura.
Why didn’t Nichelle Nichols ever appear as Nyota Uhura again?
It’d be hard to do a cameo of Nichelle Nichols, at least one that isn’t done to death. Sure, you could do the time-travel concept like the writers did with Scotty and Kirk, or you could do the memory thing as they did with Sulu. You could even do a “they’re around just really old” gimmick like Bones. But anyway they did it, it’d be just like someone else’s cameo.
Nichols did have a concept in mind, where she would be related to Guinan. The story goes that she pitched being Guinan’s daughter, and the writers and producers thought about bringing her on as Guinan’s mother as well. Those ideas never came to fruition and the validity of some of them is in doubt.
There was a chance for Nichols to pop up in Star Trek 2009, but not reprising her role as Uhura. Instead, she’d be playing that version of Uhura’s grandmother. The writing strike of 2008 killed whatever chance Nichols had to appear in the film.
While Nichols never appeared in another franchise or film series, she did plenty of other Star Trek work, mostly with unofficial products, podcast series, and even some video game work. So it’s not like Star Trek forgot about her or she forgot about Star Trek.