Nyota Uhura
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- See Uhura for other articles with titles that contain, either by relationship or by coincidence, this character's surname.
- This page details Nyota Uhura in the primary universe; for the Nyota Uhura in the mirror universe see Nyota Uhura (mirror); for the Nyota Uhura in the alternate reality created by Nero's temporal incursion see Nyota Uhura (alternate reality); for the Nyota Uhura in all other alternate universes see Nyota Uhura (alternates).
| BIOGRAPHY | ||
|---|---|---|
| Nyota Uhura | ||
| ||
| Species: | Human | |
| Gender: | female | |
| Born: | 2239 | |
| Affiliation: | Federation Starfleet | |
| Family | ||
| Mother: | M'Umbha Mahia Uhura | |
| Father: | Alhamisi Uhura | |
| Marital Status: | single | |
| Career | ||
| Previous Assignment: | CO, USS Hermes | |
| Assignment: | Starfleet Intelligence | |
| Rank: | admiral | |
| Insignia: | 
| |
Nyota Uhura was a Human female best known as an influential officer in the Federation Starfleet in the 23rd and 24th centuries. Uhura was one of only a small group of servicepeople who served under the command of Captain James T. Kirk continuously from his ascent to the captaincy of the USS Enterprise until the end of his 23rd century career, decades later.
Contents |
[edit] Early Life
Nyota Uhura was born in the year 2239 in the United States of Africa on Earth. (ST reference: Star Trek Chronology)
The daughter of Alhamisi and M'Umbha Mahia Uhura, she was born in Kitua Province, Kenya. Her family's name is derived from the Swahili word Uhuru, which translates to "freedom", and her given name means "star". (TOS episode: "Is There In Truth No Beauty?"; TOS episode: "The Man Trap"; TOS novels: The Starless World, Uhura's Song; TAS novelization: The Slaver Weapon)
At some time in her childhood, Uhura attended Public School 29 in Nairobi, where her teacher was Ms. Yemada. (TOS novel: Vulcan's Forge)
In the summer of 2249, at the age of 10, Uhura learned sign language from her deaf cousin, Epala, while visiting her in Koyo. (TOS novel: The Disinherited)
Also in 2249, Uhura was a student at the Institute for Advanced Mathematics, where her roommate was a girl named T'iana. There was a fire in their dorm room and T'iana was trapped under a fallen beam, and Uhura was lit ablaze. Uhura was unable to save T'iana before succumbing to the effects of the heat and fire. For years after, Uhura would have dreams about T'iana's death and Uhura's subsequent rescue by adults. The fear recurred most vividly in 2269 when Uhura was part of the Enterprise crew facing a deadly heat effect that began in the Beta Castelli star system. (TOS novel: The Three-Minute Universe)
In 2255, just after her 16th birthday, Uhura traditionally killed an automated lion with a spear in East Africa. (TAS novelization: Log 9).
Shortly before Uhura entered the Academy, her father, Alhamisi, disappeared while on a deep space mission. (TOS novel: The Starless World)
[edit] Starfleet Academy
Uhura entered Starfleet Academy in 2257, and studied at the Starfleet College of Communications. There, she learned spatial navigation, Duotronics, and cryptography skills under Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Finney.
Uhura's dear friend Trent Ojuremi failed to enter the Academy, and Uhura lost contact with him by her second year. However, her strong, subconscious affections for him were sensed by the M-113 creature. Thus; it took on a telepathic form of him and communicated in Swahili. It explained that it could feel her missing his presence.(TOS novel: Across the Universe; TOS episode: "The Man Trap")
In 2259, Uhura won the Jovian Triathlon. (TOS novel: Assignment: Eternity)
[edit] Starfleet Career
[edit] First Post
Uhura's first command was at a location called Two Dawns. Here she met a Junior Diplomat from Eeiauo named Sunfall of Ennien. (TOS novel: Uhura's Song)
[edit] Aboard the Ahriman and Potemkin
Uhura graduated from the Academy in 2261 and was assigned to the Saladin-class destroyer, USS Ahriman, as junior communications officer. While on a mission to Wynet V later that year, the Ahrimans commanding officer was killed. Shortly after, Uhura was promoted to Lieutenant, junior grade. (TOS novel: The Tears of the Singers)
Shortly after, Lieutenant Uhura transferred to the Constitution-class USS Potemkin as junior communications officer. (ST video game: Star Trek: Starship Creator)
[edit] Aboard the Enterprise (NCC-1701)
Uhura transferred aboard the Enterprise in 2262 as Chief Communications Officer, under the command of Captain Christopher Pike. Like the rest of the Enterprise crew at that time, she developed fierce loyalty for Captain Pike. So, when James T. Kirk assumed command in 2264, she was unsure about the young captain. A skilled singer, she sometimes performed music and improv with Lieutenant j.g. Spock (a skilled lyre player) on the crew rec deck. Six years later, in 2270, Lieutenant Arex, a harpist, joined. One of Uhura's favorite songs was "The Moon's A Window To Heaven". (TOS novel: Enterprise: The First Adventure, TAS episode: "The Practical Joker", TOS movie: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, TOS episode: "Charlie X")
Nevertheless, Uhura's first conversation with Kirk saw him praise her father and express regret over his loss, thus earning Kirk Uhura's respect. (TOS novel: The Starless World)
According to the elder Spock in TOS novelization: Star Trek, "In both our histories the same crew found its way onto the same ship in a time of ultimate crisis." This may imply that there is an untold story set in the prime timeline in which Kirk's crew faced an extremely serious challenge while still a new and untested unit.
Following the three-month voyage around the Federation Phalanx in 2264, Uhura was temporarily re-assigned, leaving Lt. Commander Daniel Alden to assume her former post. She returned to the Enterprise in 2265 when Alden transferred off the ship. This period just before the exchange of duties saw her relationship with Kabaka Buganda. (TOS novel: Enterprise, TOS comic: "The D'Artagnan Three")
In her first assignment back aboard the Enterprise, Uhura commandeered a shuttlecraft so that she could rescue Captain Kirk and a landing party from a group of Klingons that had captured them. It was around this occasion her department colors switched from gold to red. (TOS comic: "Uhura's Story")
Shortly after the Enterprise's first encounter with Harcourt Fenton Mudd, Uhura went to Captain Kirk and requested to be reassigned from the command division to the engineering and services division. Kirk was not happy with this decision and grilled her about throwing away her command abilities and leadership potential, however, despite his disappointment, he approved her transfer. (TOS novel: The Fire and the Rose)
Later that year, following the Romulan attack on the Neutral Zone outposts, she was promoted to full Lieutenant, after she deciphered the Romulan micropulse code. (TOS novelization: Balance of Terror)
The start of 2267 marked Uhura's stint on Enterprise with being complimented as a Nubian (of ancient Egypt) by the Q called Trelane. (TOS episode: "The Squire of Gothos") Weeks afterwards, she was temporarily re-assigned to the USS Lexington, under the command of Commodore Robert Wesley, to aid with communications with an alien race from the Gamma Xaridian system. (TOS novel: The Disinherited)
Later on in 2267, Uhura was reunited with Trent Ojuremi on the planet Merope IV, when the Enterprise transported survivors from the Stephen Hawking to the planet. (TOS novel: Across the Universe) Towards the end of this year, Uhura's memory was erased, by the Nomad/Tan-Ru probe. A natural fast learner, she was re-educated from her mother-tongue of Bantu Swahili back to English. (TOS episode: " The Changeling")
In 2268, Uhura was instrumental in finding a cure for the ADF syndrome that had struck the planet Eeiauo. Remembering songs that she and an Eeiauoan friend sang at the Academy, she directed the Enterprise to the planet Sivao, which was the long-forgotten homeworld of the Eeiauoans. (TOS novel: Uhura's Song)
The culmination of her trust and respect for Kirk over the past half decade surfaced when she admitted to him how the sound of his voice calmed her in times of shipboard crisis. (TOS episode: "Plato's Stepchildren", TOS novel: Ex Machina) Though it was never made public, the two may have shared a relationship on the border between professional and intimate. An example of this is when Kirk was quick to defend her, while she was assaulted by a thrall on Triskelion. (TOS episode: "The Gamesters of Triskelion") One of her lesser-known (and quite embarrassing) moments was her inadvertedly seeing Kirk's "birthday suit". This happened, of course, while she made a special errand to Kirk's quarters on March 22nd. (TOS novel: Surprise!)
Uhura finally got a shot at command in 2269. After all of the male Enterprise crewmembers were lured down to Taurus II by the enchanting women on the planet, Uhura was forced to assume command. (TAS novelization: The Lorelei Signal)
[edit] Return to Earth and the Second Five Year Mission
When the Enterprise returned to Earth in 2270, following the completion of the five-year mission, Uhura took a post at Starfleet Academy teaching special communications. (TOS novels: The Lost Years, Traitor Winds)
In 2273, Uhura was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and re-assigned to the newly-refitted Enterprise as chief communications officer. She also used an updated version of linguacode, first ciphered by Hoshi Sato, in the 22nd Century. (TOS novelization: Star Trek: The Motion Picture)
By late 2285, Uhura received much criticism for choosing a posting at Earth spacedock's transporter room and communication ops. Her eager assistant, Mr. "Adventure" was one to question her choice. For which, she appealed to more "peace and quiet". After the recent events of the Genesis affair. This may have been her first calling to covert operations-as this was all a stage to grant Admiral Kirk's party safe passage back to the de-commissioned Enterprise. She later made rendezvous with them on Vulcan, having used the transporter system to travel to the Vulcan Embassy on Earth. Having the behest of Ambassador Sarek, they were all granted clemency and asylum from Starfleet jurisdiction for rescuing his son Spock from a non-sanctioned Klingon incursion to the Genesis planet. A galactic controversy, of its time. (TOS movie: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock)
[edit] Assignment to the Excelsior
Following the destruction of the Enterprise in 2285, Captain Kirk and the command staff are reassigned to the USS Excelsior, Uhura joins them and is assigned as Chief Communications Officer. (TOS comic: "Masquerade!")
Shortly after, Uhura accompanies Sulu and Lt. William Bearclaw to investigate the smuggling of dilithium crystals. The party discovered that the smugglers were also slavers, and managed to engineer the smugglers capture. (TOS comic: "The D'Artagnan Three")
[edit] Assignment to the Enterprise (NCC-1701-A)
Following the Cetacean Probe crisis on 2286, Commander Uhura was assigned to the newly-launched USS Enterprise-A. (TOS novelization: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)
Later that year, Uhura joined with the renegade Vulcan Sybok, when he took over the Enterprise and used the ship to penetrate the Great Barrier, to find the legendary planet Eden. It was at ths time she confessed her affections toward Montgomery Scott, while the two were alone. Even though her emotions were uninhibited on this occasion, he kept composed and decided to maintain a Platonic relationship. Scott, however, had told her she was one of the most understanding women (besides Enterprise) he had known. (TOS novelization: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier)
[edit] Mission to the Quatrain System
In 2287, while on shore leave on the Quatrain system, Uhura and Sulu witnessed a multiple murder, fortunately one of the victims survived and was beamed aboard the Enterprise for treatment. The Quatrain security agency began to investigate the murders and insisted that Uhura and Sulu appear before a board of inquiry to give evidence.
Meanwhile the Quatrain security director learned that the survivor has identified one of his men as the murderer to Captain Kirk, and ordered his second-in-command to kill Uhura and Sulu before them beam back to the Enterprise. Sulu managed to stop the killer, but was wounded, but Uhura managed to steal a shuttlecraft and headed to the nearby ice planet, Beta, with Sulu.
After arriving on Beta, Uhura headed off to find medical help for Sulu, and encountered a group of Betan rebels who lent assistance and treated Sulu, in exchange for Uhura's help with their communications equipment. At the Betan encampment Uhura was captured by the security forces, but managed to get a message to the Enterprise and Commander Chekov and a security team rescued her. (TOS comics: "Veritas", "Veritas Part II: Sacrifices and Survivors", "Veritas Part III: Danger... On Ice!", "Veritas The Conclusion: Cold Comfort!")
[edit] After the Enterprise
Following the Praxis incident in 2293, Uhura once again began teaching at Starfleet Academy. A few months later Uhura joined Captain Spock and Dr. McCoy on a diplomatic mission to Qo'noS to improve relations, and began working with Klingon musicians and singers to exchange musical ideas and theories. (TOS novel: The Last Roundup)
Also in 2293, Uhura left Starfleet and became the Senior Vice President in charge of Procurement and Delivery for Inter-Galactic Systems. She was happily stationed somewhere between Earth and Mars when James T. Kirk enlisted her to help save Hikaru Sulu. She had no future intention of re-joining Starfleet. She even went so far as to state that the only reason she joined the rescue party was out of loyalty to James T. Kirk. (TOS novel: The Fearful Summons)
- The events and timeframes of The Last Roundup and The Fearful Summons may not be entirely compatible; in such a case one may represent an alternate continuity.
In 2295, Captain Spock assumed command of the Oberth-class USS Intrepid II, and Commander Uhura came aboard as first officer, for the ship's shakedown cruise. Following the diversion to the planet Obsidian, Spock resigned his Starfleet commission, and Uhura was promoted to captain and given command of the Intrepid II. (TOS novel: Vulcan's Forge)
By the 2300s, Captain Uhura was in command of the USS Hermes, and in 2301, the Hermes took aboard Doctors Gillian Taylor and Carol Marcus, who planned to test an experimental Genesis Device on the planet Pacifica. However, Marcus and Taylor encountered intelligent life in Pacifica's ocean and the plan was abandoned. (TOS short story: "The Hero of My Own Life")
[edit] Starfleet Intelligence
Uhura was first approached by operatives of Starfleet Intelligence on Khitomer following the attempted assassination of Federation President Ra-ghoratreii in 2293. They offered her a spot in S.I., which Uhura accepted.
For the rest of her Starship career, even when she commanded the Hermes, she was passing on things that she heard on to Starfleet Intelligence. She never spied on Starfleet personnel, only passing on information that she heard on the subspace frequencies. (TLE novel: Catalyst of Sorrows)
In the years that followed Uhura gradually made her way up the chain of command at Starfleet Intelligence, eventually making her way to the top of the department. She maintained the rank of captain, in part to retain a low profile, but had security clearances higher than some admirals.
In the year 2343, Captain Uhura traveled to Starbase 47 in the midst of the Betreka Nebula Incident to personally assign operative Elias Vaughn to assess the situation on Raknal IV. (TLE novel: The Art of the Impossible)
In 2344, Uhura made an unofficial request to Commander Saavik of the USS Armstrong to travel to Romulus and bring back Spock, who had answered a summons sent by a Romulan officer named Charvanek. (TOS novel: Vulcan's Heart)
In 2360, Admiral Uhura sent a team that included Lieutenants Benjamin Sisko, Selar and Tuvok on a covert mission behind the borders of the Romulan Star Empire to gather intelligence on the virulent disease called the gnawing that had been afflicting the Empire. (TLE novel: Catalyst of Sorrows)
Admiral Uhura remained in command of Starfleet Intelligence throughout the Dominion War and the Watraii affair of 2377. (TOS novels: Exodus, Exiles)
- The TNG episode "The Pegasus" seems to imply that an Admiral Ranar was the head of Starfleet Intelligence in 2370. The TNG novel: Rogue confirms Ranar held that position until after the Pegasus affair, when he was replaced by Marta Batanides. SCE eBook: Echoes of Coventry also has Batanides still in the position in 2375. It could be conjectured that Uhura officially resigned her position sometime prior to 2370, but continued to serve in a semi-official capacity for some time afterwards.
[edit] Starfleet service record
| location | assignment | dates | rank or rate | assignment insignia | rank insignia |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starfleet Academy | student officer | 2257-2261 | cadet |  | 
|
| USS Ahriman | junior communications officer | 2261 | ensign | 
| |
| lieutenant junior grade | |||||
| USS Potemkin | |||||
| USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) | 2262 | 
| |||
| chief communications officer | 2262-2270 | lieutenant | |||
| | 
| ||||
| 2273-2285 | lieutenant commander |  |  
| ||
| commander |  | 
| |||
| USS Excelsior | 2285-2286 | ||||
| USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A) | 2286-2293 | ||||
| USS Intrepid II | first officer | 2294-2296 | |||
| commanding officer | 2296 | captain | 
| ||
| USS Hermes | 2300s | ||||
| Starfleet Intelligence | intelligence officer | ? - 2343 | |||
| chief of Starfleet Intelligence | 2343-2370 | ||||
| admiral |  | 
|
[edit] Appendices
[edit] Connections
| USS Lexington personnel | ||
|---|---|---|
| USS Lexington (NCC-1709) | J. Baila • Berriman • P. Coss • Garth of Izar • Ito • T. Ivari • L. Kelso • W.C. Perinal • M. Rousseau • W. Samuels • D. Sinclair • C. Stuart • N. Uhura • R. Wesley | 
|
| USS Lexington (NCC-14427) | Declan Keogh • Manojlovich • Rosita Pérez | |
| USS Lexington (NCC-61832) | T. Allenby • H. Anderson • Antonacci • Audrey • G. Ben Zoma • Bowdren • T. Cadwallader • S. Carson • Cavanaugh • J. Cox • Eberling • Fornnel • Gaines • F. Galloway • Griscom • Halprin • Hasegawa • G. Jenson • P. Joseph • Kumagai • Leff • E. Lense • R. Mithra • Moytulix • Pridemore • Rodgers • Soriano • J. Turner • Twistekey • Man-Fai Wan • Wilhoite | |
| USS Lexington (Steamrunner-class) | A. Jago | |
| USS Enterprise-A personnel | ||
|---|---|---|
| Arex • Alloca • Arons • Bearclaw • Benson • Bloemker • Boyajian • Bryce • Bob • Bull • Burke • Chapel • Chekov • Chip • Codobach • Davis • Dax • Delaney • Devereaux • Finney • Flaherty • Fouton • Fucci • Hazzard • Hunter • Isenberg • Kaminsky • Kirk • Kitty • Konom • Lawlor • Lee • Li • Ludlo • McCoy • McIntyre • McMurphy • Meyer • M'Ress • M'yra • Newman • Popov • Rasche • Saavik • Samno • Scott • Sherwood • Spock • Sterno • Sulu • Tuchinsky • Uhura • Valeris • Wetherell • D. Wise • unnamed USS Enterprise-A personnel |
|
| USS Intrepid personnel | ||
|---|---|---|
| USS Intrepid (NCC-1631) | Garth • Spiak |
|
| USS Intrepid II (Constitution-class) | Setek • Sehlk • Si'jsk • Sobek • Suvuk • T'Kiha • T'Leiar • T'Noy | |
| USS Intrepid II (Oberth-class) | Atherton • Clayton • Diver • Duchamps • L. McCoy • Richards • Spock • N. Uhura | |
| USS Intrepid (NCC-38907) | D. Dieghan • S. Rozhenko • J. Tavares • Tobias | |
| USS Intrepid (NCC-74600) | W. Emick • J. Hayek • D. Kaplan • T. Riley • V. Stadi | |
[edit] External link
- Nyota Uhura article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
