Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek's Uhura, coming to Northern FanCon

Northern FanCon has one to beam aboard from the original Star Trek cast.

One could, in a literary way, say that this special guest earned the Star of Freedom for the depth of work done on the show and the depth of ground broken in western culture. The name Nyota Uhura translates literally as Star Freedom in Swahili. It was the character name with which actor Nichelle Nichols is now synonymous.

Uhura was a lieutenant with Starfleet Command. This was nothing to the Star Trek universe, but she represented a quantum leap through the television screens of the patriarchal 1960s and 70s. The TVs of the day might have been called black-and-white, but the leading actors were all of the latter colour until Uhura - a woman, to boot - stepped on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise.

The character was simply one of the crew, but Nichols the actor was quite literally going boldly where no one had gone before, and she made an enduring international statement of it. Uhura was one of Star Trek's central characters through the legendary first seasons, then into the slate of major motion pictures and spinoffs. By the time the second movie was made, Uhura had been promoted to commander, which again was nothing of significance within the script but was landmark in open society, even in its fictional form.

After only one season on Star Trek, Nichols wanted to return to her first love in the performance world: musical theatre. She was discussing this option with a fan of the show who told her on the spot to belay that idea and maintain her post on the ship's bridge. The fan said: "For the first time on television, we [people of African descent] will be seen as we should be seen every day, as intelligent, quality, beautiful people who can sing and dance, yes, but who can go into space, who can be lawyers and teachers, who can be professors -- who are in this day, yet you don't see it on television until now."

That self-described Trekkie was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He earnestly added, said Nichols, "you don't have a black role. You have an equal role."

So profound was this connection between Uhura and mainstream America that NASA hired Nicholls to help them recruit minority and female employees for the space agency. Many famous astronauts like Sally Ride, Charles Bolden and Guion Bluford got their start from this initiative.

It almost seems like another galaxy, but Nichols has also involved in other performance art projects. She has a long list of credits as a voice-over actor for video games, animated series (Futurama, Spider-Man, Gargoyles, etc.) and acting in other screen productions. She was in Snow Dogs, Are We There Yet?, had a recurring role in the hit series Heroes, she was a secretary general in one of the Sharknado films and was an admiral in Renegades.

Her most recent credit is one of the main supporting actors in the crime thriller White Orchid alongside Jennifer Beals and Olivia Thirlby. She has four more projects wrapped and in post-production for upcoming release. None of them is a Star Trek project, demonstrating the range Nicholls has established beyond her most famous franchise.

Her singing skills are so appreciated that Uhura had this talent written into the script, singing to the other crew members in lighthearted times on The Enterprise. In reality, she got her start by composing a dance number to a Duke Ellington tune that was so good the legendary band leader took note and hired her into his touring ensemble as a regular singer. Another great bandleader of the day, Lionel Hampton, did the same.

She was in a stage version of Porgy & Bess in New York and performing alongside her was Sammy Davis Jr.

These early successes earned her a small part in the short-lived TV series The Lieutenant. Her episode was entitled To Set It Right and dealt with ethnic prejudice themes (the episode also starred such household names as Dennis Hopper, Gary Lockwood and Robert Vaughn). It was 1964 and NBC refused to air the episode or even pay the production costs. It wasn't seen by an audience until the 1990s.

But Nicholls' performance was seen and appreciated by the creator of that prime-time drama. His name was Gene Roddenberry.

To discuss this life of crossing universal lines, Nicholls will be in Prince George at CN Centre from May 11-13. She is one of the VIPs available for photos, autographs and public interviews at Northern FanCon, presented by The Citizen.