MovieChat Forums > Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) Discussion > Uhura's terrible moment

Uhura's terrible moment

posted 11 years ago by Willisroute2
35 replies | jump to latest

The scene where Uhura...a communications officer of great skill....stutters through Klingon language using a book was a shameful use of Nichelle Nichols. (Oh, and Walter Koenig isn't far behind her either.) The director made her look like a fool to try and get laughs. What would have been much better is for Uhura to have used fluent Klingon language to have essentially sweet-talked her way by the Klingon post. To me, the way they did it is one of the most painful moments in all the movies.

[–] cardassiana 11 years ago

It was terrible but nothing compared to the moment of Star Trek V in which poor Uhura had to dance naked , that was really umiliating!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[–] Willisroute2 11 years ago

Very true. I only saw V once at the theater, and forgot about that part. But at least she didn't stutter Klingon during the dance!

[–] Porpoise01 11 years ago

Nichols apparently didn't object to the dancing scene, but HATED the scene in this movie

"After years of fighting with reality, I am pleased to say that I have finally won out over it."

[–] successor13326 11 years ago

I'm surprised they didn't just use some intelligent language software (and not the universal translators) to translate the Klingon's speech. Then use something like Google Translate to form a response, get the proper pronunciation for the words and have Uhura speak it. We currently have technology that can pretty much do that. Yet in the movie, they're reduced to looking through Klingon dictionaries. Um, okay.

Bing Translate has an option to translate English or several other languages into Klingon.

[–] kerryedavis 11 years ago

Uhura is clearly no Hoshi Sato, but even if the "universal translator would be recognized" (but how, since it evidently sounds just like the person who is speaking?) they could have used it to translate what is being said to them, then use it to translate what to say back except speak it themselves.

[–] Porpoise01 11 years ago

Meyer wanted his cheap laughs... And was just plain lazy in justifyingit

"After years of fighting with reality, I am pleased to say that I have finally won out over it."

[–] kerryedavis 11 years ago

Of course, I was just pointing out another option compared to some of the other "solutions" that seemed too complicated. By using the translator and just speaking it herself, there's no need to decode the written pronunciation.

[–] bjlevine 11 years ago

Look, if Khan could figure out how to read Klingon proverbs (for Starfleet data tapes), I'm sure the ship's renowned Communications officer could handle it. Just a really, really bad scene. Especially with the old books, its almost as if they were going for absurdist comedy.

"Lovey-dovey. Bonk bonk on the head!"

[–] Porpoise01 11 years ago

I agree with your solution. Things like this are tolerable when they don't take you out of the movie, but this one did. I found myself thinking "why are they using books? They hav a computer!"

"After years of fighting with reality, I am pleased to say that I have finally won out over it."

[–] jones8557-1 10 years ago

Kahn was genetically engineered to be a genius.

[–] Porpoise01 10 years ago

I'm not seeing the relevance, as he's long dead by the time this movie takes place.

"After years of fighting with reality, I am pleased to say that I have finally won out over it."

[–] gabby_bm 11 years ago

No way! I LOVED Uhura's dancing in ST5. Very sexy.

Sexy Uhura is far, far better than a stupid Uhura.

"De gustibus non disputandum est"
#3

[–] csimpkins53 8 years ago

To: cardassiana: What the eck? did someone tell you to get the "H" out of there? Or do you mean "Humiliating"? (There is a letter "H" at the beginning of that word). I hope leaving out the "H" was just a typo.

[–] Devilman (448) 5 years ago

Glad that part was cut in our region rofl !

[–] I_Guard_Tanelorn 11 years ago

You know, I never thought about it, but that scene is pretty stupid, isn't it?

"I said no camels, that's five camels, can't you count?"

[–] strntz (12225) 5 years ago

It's even stupider than the way it was filmed. OK, the exposition explained that the translator would be a giveaway, but why didn't they at least use the translator to *hear* what the Klingons were saying?

I can forgive the hard copy Klingon - English dictionaries.

[–] j_imdb-619-957870 11 years ago

Humor, it is a difficult concept.

[–] axeman97 10 years ago

But the use of humor in this scene was not logical.

[–] green_dog 11 years ago

Another reason that scene bothered me: the Enterprise was originally sent on this mission to meet with the Klingon ambassador and his delegates, and escort his ship to Earth. So why weren't there people fluent in the Klingon language on board the Enterprise?

One would think such a mission would need the presence of an interpreter or two.

[–] chris-wulfers 11 years ago

because they have universal translators!

[–] dlancer 11 years ago

The way I saw it, her Klingon was rusty because she hadn't used it in a long time, mainly due to the universal translator on board the ship. Since the translator is detectable, they needed to speak the language which is a rarity.

If you can read this then you are trying too hard.

[–] kerryedavis 11 years ago

And Uhura was Uhura, not Hoshi Sato.

[–] genereagan76-135-917127 11 years ago

Actually I thought that scene was a riot. Who cares if it makes Uhura look bad. She wasn't an important character anyway.

[–] NoahBody 11 years ago

Willisroute2

The scene where Uhura...a communications officer of great skill....stutters through Klingon

And every Brit spoke perfect German during WWII
And all Americans spoke perfect Russian during the cold war.

Your argument is silly.

[–] genereagan76-135-917127 11 years ago

It DID get laughs. It was a great scene. Who cares about Uhura's "dignity", she was the least important character in the original series. She didn't even get an official first name until 2009.

[–] bjlevine 11 years ago

Considering that you thought that scene was funny, I will not bother to debate you.

"Live long and suck it, Zachary Quinto!"

[–] genereagan76-135-917127 11 years ago

I'll take the judgment of Nicholas Meyer over humorless internet nerds any day. ;)

[–] Fire God 9 years ago

You're a *beep* moron. Just because Meyer directed The Wrath of Khan, that doesn't mean he can't turn in a crappy director performance, which he definitely did here. Lucas directed the 1977 Star Wars, but he also directed the *beep* second trilogy.

[–] karawolf 10 years ago

I found this scene very funny in the theater...evryone else did too. In fact, I only questioned the silliness of after ST2009 and miss "speaks all 3 dialects of Romulan"made Uhura multi lingual. Nichols, on screen, spoke English and Swahili.