A Final Farewell

 
By Theresa Gauthier

    It’s been a year of celebratingStar Trek and I’ve covered a lot of ground. From taking a look back at classic Star Trek novels to diving into the newer stories based on the newest shows—and anticipating the upcoming novel based on what’s fast becoming my Favorite Star Trek Series, Strange New Worlds—I’ve found a lot to write about and even more to think about. I considered extending my look at Star Trek for another year, but, while I’m sure I’ll be reviewing more Star Trek books here and there throughout the coming year, I’ve also got other fandoms beckoning. This means it's time to say goodbye to my year of Trek. There's also another farewell that needs to be said.

    As I was preparing this post, I learned that Nichelle Nichols had passed. She was an amazing woman with a great many devoted fans. I’ve been reading tributes and posts all over social media, and remembering the first time I saw her sitting on the bridge of the Enterprise, how much I wanted to hear her sing, and how much I wanted to see her take the center seat, and how much I admired and loved her.

    Zoe Saldana, who played Uhura in the reboot films, had a particularly eloquent tribute to her predecessor. By all accounts, Nichelle Nichols was warm and welcoming to the new Uhura.

    Star Trek is one of my earliest obsessions, and I’m thrilled that so many people have embraced it’s newest incarnations. I’m glad that this latest one—Strange New Worlds—has given us a third incarnation of Lt. Nyota Uhura. Celia Rose Gooding is now portraying the beloved character, and upon Nichelle Nichols death, Ms. Gooding tweeted:

    “She made room for so many of us. She was the reminder that not only can we reach the stars, but our influence is essential to their survival. Forget shaking the table, she built it! #RIPNichelleNichols”

    Nichelle Nichols achieved a kind of immortality with her role on Star Trek but it was her role in our world that inspired.  In stretching boundaries, in being so welcoming and warm to those with whom she worked and to those for whom she’d become an icon for achievement, by inspiring people to pursue their dreams, she will continue to influence both the Star Trek universe and the real world. 
   

     If you’re looking for more on Nichelle Nichols, I recommend finding a copy of her autobiography, Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories. Written in 1994, the book may be hard to find nowadays, but it’s well worth the search.

    Enjoying something of a renaissance, Star Trek is again in the forefront of good storytelling. Like the stalwart British Science Fiction classic, Doctor Who, Star Trek finds ways to reinvent itself every so often, and in doing that has realized creator Gene Roddenberry’s dream of the future far more completely than restrictions of the times permitted him to do in the Original Series.
   
    I’ve always felt it was the original series actors and writers who paved the way for the longevity of the show. The characters made us love them. The writers gave the actors what they needed to do exactly that. 
    

    The talent, devotion, and camaraderie of the cast, crew, fans, writers, and extended family of the Star Trek Universe has insured that it will continue to grow and expand, and revisit its origins with the most powerful words in the universe—What if…?
    
    I’m loving the revival of the franchise with all the new shows. Prodigy, Lower Decks, Strange New Worlds, Picard, Discovery—all welcome additions to this intricate, complex, re-imagined universe. With a new film on the horizon, many more seasons of the new shows, and new novels, games, graphic novels, there’s so much to keep going.

    I’m sure the future will be full of stories in this universe, just as I’m sure I’ll be talking more about those stories in this blog, but the monthly posts will belong to another fandom starting with the next post.