Lieutenant Uhura Is Cast As a White Woman on Star Trek

The Squire of Gothos had Yeoman Teresa Ross played by Venita Wolf. (IMO the best looking woman to ever appear on TOS.)
On The Doomsday Machine and The Way to Eden the Communications position was manned by Lt (Elizabeth*) Palmer played by Elizabeth Rogers.
(*her first name is never actually mentioned on show)

Although in terms of personal preference I have to go for Doctor Helen Noel played by Marianna Hill.
 
Well, as for the screenplay, instead of just OTL's single kiss we might have seen more frequent and profound physical interaction between Captain Kirk and his female communications officer written into the show if the role had been cast with a white actress.
 
9B7E4477-514F-41AB-9F3D-BADB4DFBC096.jpeg
I submit to you the ultimate alternate casting of the Enterprise Communications Officer: Raquel Welch!
As you can see she is pretty much in a Starfleet uniform. Miss Welch had already appeared in Fantastic Voyage and One Million BC so she has a SciFi background. Could you imagine the ratings every week if you have Raquel Welch sitting at the Comm station every week in her Starfleet miniskirt?
Raquel Welch would probably wear her costume to 1967 Vietnam Bob Hope Christmas show.
 
A Black Yeoman would fit into the racial and gender stereotypes of the era to keep TV execs happy. The character of Yeoman Rand or her replacement would basically be a secretary for Captain Kirk. The character only appears on the bridge to hand Kirk a cup of coffee or hand him some report.
I am wondering how Roddenberry would write the character of the White Conmunications Officer. Perhaps his wife Majel Barrett gets the role instead of playing ship’s nurse?
Another idea I have is make Uhura Hispanic to keep the multi ethnic cast. Uhura could become Lt. Garcia for example. You could still cast a white actress but it could be implied that the character’s family originated in South America. A better story could be that the Uhura character is Cuban to play along with Chekov being Russian ( in the future our enemies are now allies).

I think that in the pilot they had a navigator who had a Brazilian mother and American father, Jose Tyler, so that would definitely work.

Roddenberry wanted to get Majel Barrett in any role no matter how small so she could have played absolutely anyone.

If they did have a black actress as a Yeoman and had her be the same character throughout the series then there would be a possibility for character development along the way.

Perhaps if there was a white communications officer then we could have a black actrees play either the Nurse or perhaps instead of the Sulu character and then have an Asian Nurse or Communications officer rather than have an entirely white cast, much like in The Cage.
 
Nichelle Nichols playing Lieutenant Uhura was a turning point in the history of science fiction. [..] On Star Trek, she shared the first interracial kiss with William Shatner as Captain Kirk on TV.

Actually:

interratial+kiss+x.jpg
 

Attachments

  • 206fb82d115697d875f25e45515da2df.jpg
    206fb82d115697d875f25e45515da2df.jpg
    26.5 KB · Views: 166
Would need new given name and surname. Either that, or ancestry explained away as Suomi, Sami, Samoyed, or Magyar.
 
Top