TV’s first interracial kiss launched a lifelong career in activism

I saw Nichelle Nichols speak at an Armageddon Expo in Auckland back in 2016. She was funny, gracious and extremely patient as Star Trek fans of all ages put to her their nuanced questions regarding scenes and dialogue, some of which had taken place half a century earlier. No one would ever have anticipated back in 1966, that “Uhura” would find herself on a couch on a stage at Alexandra Park in Auckland 2016 recalling the day-to-day doings in the making of a 79-episode TV series and its subsequent full length movies, certainly not Nichelle. Like all Trekkies (and Trekkers), I was sad to learn of her death today, another one lost from the Star Trek universe. She was a trailblazer in many ways; “the kiss” just one of them as this 2018 The Conversation piece explains – Barbara Fountain, Editor, New Zealand Doctor Rata Aotearoa