Lieutenant Uhura’s Secret Star Trek Creator Gene Roddenberry Hid From Paramount

The character of Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) did not appear in any of the original pilot episodes of Gene Roddenberry’s “Star Trek.” The first pilot, “The Cage,” which initially didn’t air, had no characters in common with “Star Trek” that audiences came to know except Spock (Leonard Nimoy). NBC asked Roddenberry to shake up the series a bit and made “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” the first episode featuring Captain Kirk (William Shatner). The show was still set on the same USS Enterprise and the sets were the same, but the characters were mostly completely new and the tone a little lighter. “Star Trek” was underway.

The next episode in production order was called “The Corbomite Maneuver” and Roddenberry refined the show even further. “Corbomite” introduced three additional new characters who would become regular members of the “Star Trek” ensemble: Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Yeoman Rand (Grace Lee Whitney) and Lieutenant Uhura (Nichelle Nichols).

It seems that the inclusion of Nichols in particular was somewhat controversial. Roddenberry had wanted to cast a black actor in “Star Trek,” but, to avoid the studio’s casual racism of the 1960s, he kept Uhura’s casting a secret. Nichols recalled Roddenberry’s clever subterfuge in a 1993 issue of Superstar Facts & Pix, noting that he waited until “Star Trek” was approved before he began adding cast members. In fact, Roddenberry went to NBC to ask, once he finished “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” if he could go back and, in his words, “add a little color.” The phrase was vague enough that NBC said yes, assuming it was referring to costume design. Nichols was happy to be chosen and appreciated Roddenberry’s successful efforts to thwart systemic racism.

It should be noted that Roddenberry already knew that he liked Nichols, as the two had worked together on the television series “The Lieutenant,” a military show that Roddenberry had created in 1963. Nichols said that Roddenberry admired his work and the two became friends (Nichols would later reveal in an autobiography that they were also romantically involved for a time). The actress also said Roddenberry wanted to deliberately attack the sexism and racism she regularly saw on television and hoped to cast Nichols as a means of inclusion. In his words:

“(Gene) was determined to change the face of television, include everyone and get rid of all the sexism he could. So he hired me and put me on the show. No one knew except his closest collaborators. The staff, the network and the studio had no idea (…) He told them, ‘I’m going to make a change on the bridge, on the command team.’ He told them it wasn’t a significant change. He just wanted to add a little color. They thought he meant the costumes. And that’s when he issued the call: ‘Find Nichelle Nichols.’ That’s how we get away with it.”

And yes, the studio honestly thought Roddenberry was talking about costumes. According to Nichols, NBC threatened to fire her and cancel her contract because of her subterfuge. “These people are no longer (in the studio),” he said, “so I can speak freely.”

Nichols also heard the story of how Roddenberry jokingly threw perceived racism at them in the studio. Evidently, they remembered his comment about adding “a little more color” and took it to their faces:

“When they found out what Gene was doing with that whole show, they tried to cancel it from day one. They told him, ‘We thought you meant the costume!’ And Gene said, ‘Oh, that’s a wonderful idea. Anyway, I don’t like the green suit he’s wearing. And he changed it to red.”

In fact, in “The Corbomite Maneuver,” Uhura is seen wearing a gold Starfleet uniform, the color usually reserved for command officers in the original “Star Trek.” The next time Uhura appeared, in the episode “Mudd’s Women”, she was wearing her trademark red uniform, the color indicated by an engineer or security officer. If one wants to extrapolate the color change to the “Star Trek” canon, it would mean that Uhura had changed careers. In reality, however, the uniform change was indicative that Roddenberry was sticking it to the executives.

Nichols famously considered leaving the series, but Martin Luther King contacted her and encouraged her to stay. A black woman on a mainstream television series, and possessing military authority, was a rare sight in the mid-1960s, and King noted that she was a role model for many black children who watched her. After a letter like that, naturally, Nichols felt compelled to stay. Uhura appeared in 68 “Star Trek” episodes in total, and would appear in “Star Trek: The Animated Series” and the first six “Star Trek” films. He passed away in 2022 at the age of 89 and the world of television lost a legend.