as small as a world and as large as alone

10:14am July 20, 2015

spatscolombo:

I just learned that Nichelle Nichols ad-libbed “sorry, neither” in rehearsals and they were only able to sneak it by the censors because it wasn’t in the script and—excuse me I’m overcome with happiness because my favorite Uhura line of all time was actually written by Uhura.

I’m re-watching ST:TOS, my favorite Star Trek series, and this sort of thing is why.  (Right after that, she shoves him away and runs off.)  Also the fact that back then Star Trek could be hokey and ridiculous and silly without anyone thinking it had to carry Important Messages™ and Good Special Effects™.  Not that it didn’t have important messages, but I swear with each new series it got more and more bland and washed out until I just quit watching?

For anyone who hasn’t seen Sulu’s whole swashbuckler routine, this episode is “The Naked Time,” the fourth episode of season one of the original Star Trek.  (There’s also an almost identical episode of The Next Generation called “The Naked Now”.  Most of the early ST:TNG episodes were blatantly recycled plots from TOS, but this one was even more blatant than most.)

[Image description:  Sulu, wearing no shirt, a sword, and a cheesy grin on his face, grabs Uhura and says “I’ll protect you, fair maiden!”  Uhura looks disgusted and says, “Sorry, neither.”]

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