technobabble

SPOCK & UHURA (2009) APPRECIATION THREAD

Fan/Shipper List:
1. technobabble
2. sobriquet
3. cathangel
4. *juice*
5. milkagee
6. looniejoolie
7. eiluvial
8. zinah
9. Gean
10. bandbabe
11. cherrios
12. kiltlover
13. Alexa
14. lushp2death
15. mephistoles
16. peach73
17. Bronson
18. ChakotaysLover
19. Whitney86
20. thepoison
21. lynaem
22. Calgaryfan2006
23. Tracie2004
24. _daydreambear
25. DevilEarsDevilEyes
26. Wynter
27. SmilinStar
28. funfuzgirlstalkermagnet
29. ChristiCC23
30. Isis2015
31. EmmaAtrina
32. Desperados
33. SirHawkeyeWho
34. zccajj
35. Butterflygirl
36. MTVVJ08

soubriquet

I had never really considered this possibility until the movie, but I thought that their relationship was really quite sweet. I wonder if we'll learn more about it in the sequels...

technobabble

me either! it really caught me off guard the first time I saw it, but now I'm totally sold on it :]

crash landing

I got caught off guard as well because so don't remember anything or much of anything for TOS So don't remember if these two got together

Not going to say that I'm a shipper yet, maybe after a re-watch tomorrow but not right now

technobabble

no, not really on TOS. it really did kind of come out of nowhere

I've seen the movie a few times and it grows on me each time I go to see it. probably because I'm mentally prepared, i guess? xD

crash landing

I'll see what I think after watching it again tomorrow First time around, I had mixed thoughts. I thought alright but then also got annoyed with some of it

Gean

I was a bit surprised too, but I like them loads better than Kirk/Uhura.

crash landing

I'm on the opposite end right now but will wait and see

Gean

^ I love your siggy! Win

crash landing

A friend told me it earlier today and had too

Cathangel

In TOS canon, for those who want to know, Uhura was a bit all over the place and nowhere in particular at all. At one point in the TV series, she kissed Kirk and in the fifth movie, she seemed to have something going on with Scotty, but nothing really concrete, you know?

So when I saw the movie, the Spock/Uhura pairing caught me by surprise too but when you think about it, it makes sense from Spock's character's POV: I mean, his own father married a human and Spock himself was always perplexed with humanity so it makes sense that he would pursue something with a human. And from what we've seen in the film, his scenes with Uhura were sweet and touching.

All of this to say that I bought this romance and you can add me to the shipper list.

crash landing

Aww Cath

DevilEarsDevilEyes

Hello. I have been a lurker on FanForums for a while, but I had to finally register just to comment on this and clear a few things.

The Spock/Uhura pairing most certainly did NOT come out of nowhere. I am surprised to see so many people claim that, I guess they have either forgotten or are not that familiar with TOS. In fact, it has been canon since the very first aired episode of Star Trek, "Mantrap", although not as a an actual romantic relationship, but as an attraction/friendship/flirtation. Uhura flirted with Spock in those early episodes, as you can see here:

YouTube - Making chit-chat with Mr. Spock (from "Mantrap")

YouTube - Uhura sings about Spock (from "Charlie X")

I always found it weird that this wasn't followed up after early season 1, since they had such interesting chemistry. Spock/Uhura has been a very popular ship in fanfiction, but on the show, they did not get many scenes together later on, but there were still little hints of underlying attraction here and there (e.g. season 3 "Is There In Truth No Beauty") . They opted to focus more on Spock/Nurse Christine Chapel (played by Majel Barrett Roddenberry), which was written more as a hopeless love on her part.

As I learned more about the history of it all, it turns out that Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, always planned to have some kind of attraction between Spock and Uhura, and it was written in the "show Bible" as a part of character backstories and relationships within the crew (as, for instance, Kirk and McCoy being old friends). Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura, also said in an interview in 2008 that there was supposed to be more than was seen on the screen: "I created a relationship between Uhura and Spock as being her mentor and the person she looked up to. Uhura was the only one who could play the Vulcan lyre and the only one who had the audacity to sing a song teasing Spock." Trek CelebWatch: Takei Talks Roddenberry, Stewart Hits Manhattan, Nimoy v Colbert and More | TrekMovie.com

But the network didn't like it... They didn't like Uhura in general, and kept asking for her role to be minimized. It was the 1960s, and having a black woman as a competent professional on the show was in itself very brave and controversial. To have anything resembling a relationship between a black woman and someone played by a white actor, was practically unacceptable. Roddenberry fought to keep Uhura on the show and include her in more storylines, but most of the time she was just seen sitting in her console and talking about communications: "Hailing frequencies open, sir".

It is also funny how many people think that Uhura and Kirk were an item, just because everyone has heard of the "first interracial kiss on TV" between them. Kirk and Uhura had a lot of respect for each other in TOS and seemed very friendly, but they never flirted and never showed any explicit romantic interest in each other. If you watch the episode "Plato's Stepchildren" in which they kissed, you will see it was because some sadistic people with special powers were keeping a few of the Enterprise crew prisoner and playing games with them, making them do embarrassing things by controlling their movements and behaviour. Kirk and Uhura were forced telekinetically to kiss against their will, they were trying to resist it, and they both felt uncomfortable about it.

Furthermore, the kiss was supposed to be between Spock and Uhura, and would have been if it wasn't for William Shatner's huge ego. Roddenberry came up with the idea for the episode because he wanted to showcase an interracial kiss and break new ground, and this was the only way they were able to get it past the censors. They planned for Spock and Uhura to kiss, but Shatner pulled rank and insisted that, if anyone was going to kiss Nichelle, it was going to be him, "the star of the show" as he considered himself. (Nichelle Nichols talked about all this in her autobiography, "Beyond Uhura"). Shatner was never able to deal with someone else taking the spotlight, and even had it put in his contract that Nimoy was not allowed to have more lines in an episode than he did...of course he wasn't going to let him have all the publicity! So eventually they caved in and changed it to a Kirk/Uhura kiss, while Spock was forced to kiss Nurse Chapel.

Uhura had a thing with Scotty in the 1980s movies that took place many years later (ST V came out in 1989), although there was never any hint of any interest between them in the original series.

In fact, the only character she showed any romantic/sexual interest in the original series, was Spock. Sulu seemed interested in her, but it was one-sided, and she seemed annoyed with his advances.

Therefore, I didn't find the Spock/Uhura pairing surprising at all. I was only surprised that they took it that far, implying a previous relationship, kissing on the transponder publically... But for the pairing itself, it is completely unsurprising. It's obivous that, with the trailers, magazine covers, etc. they really tried - and mostly succeeded- to mislead people into thinking that Kirk and Uhura would hook up in the movie. I was upset at the time, but I never really believed that, and suspected it was all a misdirection, because it would just be so wrong, considering their dynamic in TOS - not to mention that it wouldn't be interesting as a story, at all.

I think that it was a real shame that Spock/Uhura was not developed more on the show, and that Uhura was so underused in general, so I felt deeply satisfied when I learned about this plot in the new movie. It is like finishing old business, and an old injustice finally set right.

*Juice*

can i be added to the shipper list??

technobabble

I added you, *Juice* :]

Fair enough, fair enough. I have seen those episodes of TOS, but it really did surprise me, considering all that set up for Uhura & Kirk in the first few scenes they had together.