Uhura falls through the Guardian of Forever and ends up in 1963 America’s south to quickly learn about the injustices black Americans suffered in that time (and beyond, but yeah) meanwhile Kirk and Spock also go back in time to retrieve her in the most middling story about racism and how things eventually get better because of the foundations laid by men like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the people who followed him.
Okay first thing, this was something I could’ve lived without but Discovery demanded we needed it: Carl. It made sense in a galaxy post time wars, but does not in a time when they met the Guardian of Forever and it was a giant stone portal not Carl.
Next, there are better ways to tackle prejudice and racism than this comic based off of a TV show that tackled racism and prejudice far better. One store employee gets mad at Uhura for being there and there’s a sign? And that’s all the injustice they show. She meets Dr. King, neat. And in the middle of a protest (that looked weak compared to the real protests in the day) she meets Kirk and Spock, says she can’t just leave, but after Kirk talks to her she just... returns with them and that’s it.
This is the most low effort story, why not stay? Why not show Uhura actually working with these protestors? Randomly two white guys snatch her away, wouldn’t the people around her, I don’t know, do something? Show us, don’t just tell us, show her protesting, show Kirk and Spock protesting, give us some kind of conflict with these strange white men who suddenly snatched a black woman away in the very much racist south of 1963. It’s okay to take time with a story instead of ‘oh the black woman from 2367 may do something, quick let's make sure the white man and his white Vulcan save her from being a bumbling female!’ Because that’s the energy some of this gives off.
The blurb at the beginning even says “Now 1963 is calling Uhura to connect with the past and join with those fighting against injustice”. But they don’t even show that! They show this soft two panel moment that doesn’t do or say anything. And then they, in the end, have her rescued from 1963 by Kirk and Spock.
Why even do this story? It honours nothing. It says nothing. Uhura on the enterprise in the 60’s said something, even when she was just in the background she still said something. Her presence on the show as the communications officer on the federation flagship was a powerful image. This comic couldn’t even make the effort to show us how great Uhura was.
Know what, spare yourself and go read Nichelle Nichols’ autobiography Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories. That’s a great book, unlike this comic. 2/10