Star Trek Creator Gene Roddenberry Let Nichelle Nichols Approve A Major Uhura Detail

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Many Trekkies have observed that Lieutenant Uhura (the amazing Nichelle Nichols) is often in the center of the frame on "Star Trek: The Original Series." Due to the set design for the USS Enterprise's bridge, Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) are usually frame-right and frame-left in the foreground when conversing on the bridge. Meanwhile, Uhura operates her machinery with the utmost efficiency centered in the background. She rarely had stories of her own (you can blame Paramount for Uhura's reduced role), yet the show's simple staging made her ubiquitous on screen. This, in turn, helped to cement her as a vital part of the "Star Trek" ensemble.

Uhura was only permitted to take command of the USS Enterprise once (in the "Star Trek: The Animated Series" episode "The Lorelei Signal"), although she played a pivotal role in the theft of the ship in 1984's "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock." And while many people knew the character well, she, quite weirdly, didn't have a first name for a long time.

Thanks to J.J. Abrams' 2009 "Star Trek" movie, many Trekkies now know that Uhura's first name is actually Nyota. However, that wasn't the case until author William Rostler published "Star Trek II Biographies," a tie-in sourcebook for 1982's "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan." That marked the first semi-official appearance of Nyota as Uhura's first name.

Speaking to Cinefantastique Magazine back in 1996, Nichols reflected on the moment when "Nyota" was formally selected for her character. As she remembered it, Rostler had asked "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry for his approval, but Roddenberry said that it would be up to Nichols to sign off on the name (which she did, of course).

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It should be noted that Uhura's first name wasn't spoken aloud in a film or TV show until 2009's "Star Trek," in which the character was played by Zoe Saldaña (whose own casting came about thanks to Steven Spielberg). Mind you, Nichelle Nichols mentioned that her character's first name was Nyota when she appeared on an episode of "Super Password" back in 1987.  Prior to the publication of "Star Trek II Biographies," though, other novelists and expanded universe authors came up with their own first names for Uhura. For example, in the 1982 game "Star Trek: The Role-Playing Game," her first name was listed as Samara. 

During the Cinefantastique interview, Nichols revealed that Uhura's first name led to some (admittedly small) drama. For one, the "Star Trek" creatives had to decide if "Uhura" was her first or last name. "We always decided that it was probably her last name, because 'uhuru' is Swahili for freedom," Nichols explained. "So, just as people are called Freeman, a free man, we decided to use the Swahili word, freedom, uhuru, and soften it to Uhura." 

William Rostler then told Gene Roddenberry that he had invented a first name for Uhura and asked if it was okay. According to Nichols: 

"Gene said, 'I can't give you approval. You'll have to call Nichelle Nichols.' It's typical Gene, because of course Gene could have given his approval. He said, 'If she likes it, then tell her I like it too. But don't tell her I like it first.' So, the writer called me and I said, 'Well, Nyota is very beautiful, but what does it mean?' And he said 'In Swahili, it means star.' And I said, 'Absolutely.'"

And so it was decided. 

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Incidentally, the credits for "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" misspell Uhura as "Uhuru," which was likely the result of a mix-up between the name of the character and its Swahili origins. It was no doubt an innocent mistake, but we're nothing if not thorough nerds. Moving on...

In addition to her autobiography "Beyond Uhura," which was published in 1994, Nichelle Nichols also authored two sci-fi novels: 1995's "Saturn's Child" and 2002's "Saturna's Quest." The former, which was co-written by Margaret Wander Bonanno, is very "Star Trek"-esque and focuses on a starship captain named Dr. Nyota Domonique. It's kinda-sorta Uhura fanfiction, in other words, and basically imagines what she would be like as a captain (despite technically centering on a different character). 

Set in the 21st Century, "Saturn's Child" takes place in a universe where Saturn's moon Titan has been colonized by a species called the Fazisians.. Upon discovering this, a starship known as the Dragon's Egg sets out to explore the moon, with Captain Domonique overseeing the mission. In time, Captain Domonique falls in love with a handsome Fazisian named Tetrok, only for the pair to have a mentally powerful child (hence the book's title) whose abilities put them in danger. In its review, Kirkus called the novel "pleasant, despite some annoying bits of Trekkish twaddle," so that's ... something.