She was eighty-nine, so she had a good long run... at least she's free from her health problems and that horrible toxic 'conservatorship' now, but still.

A truly classy lady. She will be missed. I wasn't aware she was under a conservatorship.

AWWWW, RIP! I couldn't get into the Star Trek TOS, but i'll still try because i really like Star Trek. She was so beautiful!

/enter sarcasm: gotta love 'conservatorships' -_-

Late to the memorial, but wanted to pay my respects to Nichelle Nichols in some fashion. The world is a drearier place without her.

TOS can be rather goofy at times, but it's well worth a shot.

If it was the goofyness, i could take it. The old-fashioned gender roles and oversexualizing women is what bothered me :( I watched TNG and it sure was goofy, and so was GS9 at times. My favorite was ENT, especially the last 2 seasons.

I got to see her in person at a Wizard World comic con once, but I didn't speak to her or get her autograph. Now I regret it. I'm sure she would have liked my Star Trek tattoo.

I watched Star Trek (TOS) sitting in my father's lap as a child--I was born in 1964. While the gender roles are exactly what they are, at that time, they were extremely progressive. MLK told Nichelle it was important that she continue with the series because it was one of the few shows at that time that showed a black woman working in a professional capacity, rather than housework and childcare for white people. At the time of the show, there were no female astronauts. Women working in space who were not only there as love interests was a big step forward.

At the time of the show, very short skirts were new--the miniskirt had really only just been introduced, and the minidress and boots thing was considered "futuristic" and appeared in a lot of science fiction films and TV of the era--but usually on characters who were somebody's girlfriend or sister or daughter, not military officers. (Also, if you look carefully, they have matching shorts on under there.)

It was a very different era. In the 1960s media was extremely sanitised and as a general rule women did not get to be sexy and competent at the same time. Everyone has this picture of the 1960s as a bastion of free love and sex but that took years to reach average people living far away from California and the big cities. It was still difficult and/or illegal in many places for unmarried people, especially women, to purchase contraceptives. All of the sexuality was actually quite rebellious--and the narrative didn't punish women like Uhura, Christine Chapel or Janice Rand for being sexy by making their lives difficult because of it or insinuating that they had reached their positions in Starfleet by means other than being smart and working hard.

It's not TNG or DS9 and it's certainly not Discovery, SNW or Picard, but those shows exist today because TOS pushed the envelope so far it tore open.

I'm not saying it shouldn't bother you. It bothers me sometimes, even though it didn't at the time. I really hated "Turnabout Intruder".

Your feelings are valid. But I am hoping it might be easier to watch knowing what it meant to the people who loved it back then and kept it alive so that new Star Trek shows could exist.

You're correct. I'm watching it through the eyes of someone who grew up with many liberties/privileges (i'm on older millenial from eastern europe) and thus i can't fully understand the TOS series for what it meant at the time. I definitely and sadly can't understand the part Uhura/Nichelle played for women in general and perhaps more so for black women back then.

I do understand and know that the uniform was thought to be futuristic ;p I never noticed the matching shorts though, LOL, but it sounds reassuring. I will have to try and watch it and pay more attention to the aspects you mentioned and keep them in mind.

Well there's nothing wrong with the way you feel, I completely understand it. There are a lot of shows from the past that I just can't sit through.

But if you read some of the books from the 1970s about the show and its creation--it's kind of appalling, you know. Several of the writers wanted to sexualise the women a lot more and Roddenberry insisted they be treated as professional officers.

The thing is, I live in a former communist country. At the time, in the 60s, women here WERE working side by side with men. Of course, this started earlier, maybe in the 50s? and it continued to present day. i can't remember a time when women were NOT expected to stay at home. And they did reach high positions in the companies they worked for/in, through their own hard work and not by sleeping with the boss. I'm sure some DID sleep with the boss for their positions, but i don't think was normal or expected... I continued watching the TOS, and i find it more bearable now that i know more about the cultural background of the time in the USA. And i only have you to thank for that. ;) so, thank you for taking the time to explain it to me.

Not a problem! I think it's sad that we were so behind some other countries!

RIP Nichelle Nichols