[MikeNoun]

I believe I read in one of the Star Trek books (about the making of the series) that Nichelle Nichols had a fling with Gene Roddenberry.



It was really a stretch back in the 1960's to have a female portray an officer on the bridge of a ship. Until then, females played the wives of captains, or mistresses, not involved with ship operations.

Roddenberry wrote the original Star Trek pilot and cast a female as First Officer (his future wife, Majel Barrett, who ended up portraying Nurse Chapel in the original series, and Lexwana Troi in the The Next Generation, as well as the supplying the voice of the ship's computer), but screenings showed that audiences were uncomfortable with a female in that role.

He then created a character called Uhuru, a black female (which was very controversial) as the Communications Officer. While many critics, decades later, claimed she was nothing more than a glorified secretary that took phone messages, her character was much more than that. She was a bridge officer, and commanded respect from the rest of the crew.