Star Trek Online Players Mourn Passing Of Nichelle Nichols With In-Game Vigil

The beloved actor is most well known for her role as Lt. Nyota Uhura.

QuintLyn Bowers
By QuintLyn Bowers, News Editor
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Star Trek Online Uhura Vigil

Nichelle Nichols, the actor who first portrayed the Enterprise’s communications officer Lt. Nyota Uhura on Star Trek: The Original Series, passed away this weekend at the age of 89. News of Nichols’s passing was conveyed by her son, Kyle Johnson, in an Instagram post on Sunday, in which he paid tribute to her stating that, “hers was a life well lived and as such a model for us all.”

Among the many things Nichols is known for – such as working with NASA to recruit women and people of color as astronauts – is one of the first on-screen interracial kisses in the US between a black woman and a white man. To get the kiss on screen, Nichols and Shatner purposefully messed up the backup shots that would have had them not-quite kissing, forcing the executive to either can the scene or go with the kiss. The move wasn’t necessarily political. Part of the logic was simply that Kirk would never turn down the chance to kiss a pretty girl.

As a leading character in a sci-fi TV series, Nichols drew a lot of attention and was considered a role model by a lot of people, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. King talked her into staying on the show when she was considering leaving.

As the original Lt. Uhura, Nichols has been a beloved member of the Star Trek family since the beginning, so it should be no surprise that upon hearing of her passing, members of the Star Trek Online community held in-game vigils in her honor. The players gathered at the Star Fleet Academy grounds to celebrate her life and the joy she brought each of them.

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In this article: Star Trek Online, Daybreak Games.

About the Author

QuintLyn Bowers
QuintLyn Bowers, News Editor
QuintLyn is a long-time lover of all things video game related will happily talk about them to anyone that will listen. She began writing about games for various hobby sites a little over ten years ago and has taken on various roles in the games community.

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