Hi.
Okay, so I’ve been thinking. The other day I saw a post which reminded me that Lt. Uhura more than once takes over the navigation station on the Enterprise’s bridge.
Uhura is the communications officer. Which means many, even in fandom, dismiss her as a telephone operator. All she does is open hailing frequencies.
Okay.
So, she opens hailing frequencies with:
Klingons
Romulans
Uncontacted aliens.
And, very rarely with other Federation ships.
The Enterprise is completely capable of audio-visual communication with, well, everyone in the galaxy.
Which is, of course, a plot device, but think of it this way.
That simple “open hailing frequencies” means that Uhura, with AI assist from the Enterprise’s core computer, has to:
Work out the communication protocols used by the aliens.
Match those communications protocols.
Activate and possibly tweak the universal translator to make sure everyone can understand each other.
She has to do that quickly - presumably that’s what she’s doing the second the other ship shows up, before the command is even given. She’s using the science sensors, searching for the frequencies they’re giving off, having the computer run through its database to see if that ship is already in there.
Switchboard operator? Not hardly.
Which leads to an interesting thought I haven’t seen brought up anywhere.
Navigation is a junior position. Pavel Chekhov is on his first tour. Helm is clearly the more responsible.
And navigation and communications both require math, being able to read sensor grids quickly and easily.
So, was navigation Uhura’s first job on a starship? Did she get promoted from that position to comms? That would certainly explain why the reaction to “Navigation officer’s down” is to look to Uhura. Because she did it for a while and did it well.
Don’t forget that she fixes her own station! I might have a faulty memory but I remember her fixing the wiring of her station once. She has to have some engineering and or computers knowledge for that. Even if it’s just stuff she’s learned on the job/from seniors at some point.
Uhura is a genius don’t ever forget.
