Zoe Saldana Ponders Spock & Uhura “Mating” In Star Trek Sequel

One of the biggest surprises for the 2009 Star Trek movie was the romance between Uhura and Spock. The question now is, where do they take it in the sequel? In an interview promoting her new film The Losers (opening today), Zoe Saldana discusses the potential for Spock and Uhura "mating". Watch the video below.

 

Zoe talks Uhura/Spock

Watch Zoe talking about Vulcans and their mating rituals, and pondering what the destruction of Vulcan will do to their biological urges.

In the video Zoe talks about what a "huge gamble" the Spock/Uhura pairing was, and how it "worked really, really well." But she also wondered where the Star Trek team of JJ Abrams, Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof and Bryan Burk will take it next, noting ""It would be interesting to see what they are going to do with it…I really hope they keep [the relationship] and continue to explore it."

Will Spock become a born again Vulcan?

But then Saldana does bring up an interesting issue:

But at the same time too — this is coming from my mother, who is a Trekkie — I could be wrong, but I thought that Vulcans only mate every seven years. So now that the planet [Vulcan] has been extinguished, it’s kind of interesting. Can Spock mate with a non-Vulcan?

Zoe’s The Losers co-star Columbus Short (apparently an avowed Trekkie) pointed out that Spock’s father (Sarek) didn’t seem to have a problem mating with a non-Vulcan (Amanda), but Saldana countered "That’s true, but there were tons of Vulcans back then. Now, there are no Vulcans.”

Saldana seems to be acknowledging that with the loss of the vast majority of the Vulcan race, would Spock feel compelled to help keep it going? If he were to mate with Uhura, any offspring would only be a quarter Vulcan. Now would that be the logical choice?

We will find out in the Star Trek sequel. 

VOTE: More/less Spock/Uhura in Star Trek sequel?
So what do you think? Should they ramp it up in the sequel, or is it time for Spock to Kolinar Uhura to the curb? Have your say in the la

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Didn’t the scenes with Uhura and Spock earn some award for worst romance recently? Seems insane to continue it.

No, man. This was brilliant. I hope they keep it. I think the writers (and actors) pulled off this pairing very well.

I loved this ship. I thought it was subtle, nice, and in character. If they eliminated it, it would be a disservice to the reboot. I just hope they keep it subtle. A “break-up” scene or conversation would be inappropriate and awkward.

KEEP IT!!!!

I believe its actually they are forced to mate once every 7 years. I never heard anything that prevents them from doing it more often. Logically there is no reason to “waste” time doing it more frequently. Now that they are an endangered species, it would be logical to mate like bunnies.

Waiting on this sequel is almost like the Vulcan mating cycle. It’ll be about 7 years to get to second base. The pressures building! Oh the agony! LOL!!!

The Uhura / Spock thing was a total waste of time. It added nothing. The filmmakers and actors all seem to think it was this incredible thing, but fail to explain why. It just got in the way.

The Spock / Uhura thing was brilliant, brought the emotional, conflicted and softer Spock to the fore without him wandering the halls crying as he had time to in TOS.
All in all the movie was a brilliant redress and retell, keep it going if it fits the story.
I will never understand how so many Star Trek fans are so full of venom.

The romance is totally ludicrous and out-of-character.

Completely throw away material IMHO, and doesn’t really jive with what we know of Vulcan’s and Spock on top of that.

Spock could shy away or even be shunned from mating with the other remaining Vulcan females, considering he’s half human. The Vulcans that are left would probably want to produce as many full-blooded Vulcan children as they possibly could until their race is substantially repopulated. I could definitely imagine the Vulcan High Council mandating something along those lines, leaving Spock once more ‘distanced’ from what’s left of the Vulcan people and possibly from his father once more.

Just a thought :)

I didn’t think it worked well at all.

The Spock/Uhura thing was exactly the kind of risk they needed to take with the Federation’s only real legends. I did wonder about Pon Farr.

But honestly, I feel like the movie felt fresher the more it broke continuity. That was the flavor of the early Trek episodes, anyhow–anything goes. Not this calcified canon thing. I say that as someone who worships the Star Trek Technical Manual.

Spock and nurse Chapel are supposed to be lovers, NOT spock and Uhuru…..

This makes me nauseous. Sure I guess it works as a tool to show Spock’s coming retreat to more Vulcan ideals. But changing the central relationships between Star Trek characters that much? It didn’t need it before, guys. In fact it was pretty great as it was.

If this comes to pass, Trek will have warped the shark…

Kirk and Spock’s subtle love should be all that is needed.
Have Uhura and Nurse Chapel hook up!

I like the Spock/Uhura relationship in the original series and the way we saw it in the first half of the new movie – but it irked me that after the “big reveal” in the elevator Uhura seemed to be reduced to ‘girlfriend’. So if they keep it going (and explore pon farr or introduce Chapel), I do hope Uhura will get to do other, not relationship-related things, too.

Spock and Uhura worked fine for the “throw a surprise into it that’ll get people talking” but I don’t like them together. It took away from the Kirk/Spock/McCoy friendship dynamic and, more importantly, didn’t have chemistry…let’s be honest, there was more chemistry between Spock and Kirk fighting than there was between Spock and Uhura kissing. Meh…

I love strong women characters, which Uhura always has been but, she also needs her self-righteous, pompous self reminded that she’s not in charge and does not always get her way. The way she basically bullied herself onto the Enterprise was ooc for Spock and made her look bad.

While there was little in the way of depicting her in romance during the TV show, I drew the conclusion that Uhura was sexually liberated and I didn’t get an impression that she was particularly monogamous. How much of that is what I bring to viewing the show,how much is intentionally hinted I can’t say, but if you look at the scene where the salt sucking monster trys to lure her, she seems to go from flirting with Spock to being friendly with another potential in the span of a few minutes. Of course, she also seems to me a bit of a pot head so take my comments for what they are…

Uhura & Spock 4ever!

Haters gonna hate…

It doesn’t feel right… Don’t get me wrong, the movie was awesome, but that pairring was just awkward. Can’t really explain it. But Spock should rather be with the Captain than with Uhura. More bromance please!

Eh she can do better

Roddenberry had originally planned on their being a romance between Spock & Uhura, but didn’t because of the reaction to interracial romance on TV in the 60’s. True, Uhura and Kirk kissed, but it was played out like they were doing it against their wills, so it doesn’t really count as “romance.” Also, FYI the kiss was supposed to be with Spock. But William Shatner insisted that HE be the one to have that groundbreaking TV kiss with Nichelle Nichols.

And I don’t understand the talk about Chapel getting together with Spock. I found her character rather sad, the way she chased after him, and he was clearly not interested.

Oh–and Nimoy ships Spock/Uhura, so there! LOL.

“I really hope they keep [the relationship] and continue to explore it.”

Blecch. I don’t. I trust I don’t have to repeat all the reasons why.

Sex scenes in a movie are mostly a waste of time in proportion to how long they are.

There were three main character “pairings” in Firefly/Serenity, each of them handled perfectly and in good taste, the best being the one between Mal and Inara, who never actually even slept together.

Personally, I would watch all 14 episodes of Firefly and then watch Serenity, and follow that as an example.

keep it going i think it is a great inner story to the main sequence

I was not happy with the Spock Uhura romance.

Funny how many times Trek is on he Q&A list, no matter what movie she’s promoting. I don’t hear her getting a lot of “The Terminal” questions. (Not a bad movie, mind you; even had a little Trek in it.)

I didn’t mind the pairing of the two and it served the character development pretty well, but the biggest problem I had with it is that it HAD to be against regulations. Think about it: no military or paramilitary service worth a damn would allow officers to take up with with their subordinates. He was her commanding officer, and, as such, any intimate relationship would be innappropriate. The opportunity for favoritism, jealousy and conflicts of interest are abundant. I’m not sure how the military handles such things, but I’d be pretty surprised if they didn’t have some regulation against it.

let them “do it”, but keep it on the D/L dammit!!!

These scenes didnt sit well with me. Im a fan of TOS and i think its better that it ends here. No sex please – we’re British!

Greg
UK

Nork and Kurz please dont go Superman Returns and give them a “kid” :(

As long as both their roles as officers are preserved (meaning, she’s there to do a job and just so happens to be connected to the Spock and vice versa) I’m all for this continuing. It would be more than refreshing to see two people who can effectively and maturely juggle both career and relationship instead of drama, triangles and all that other baggage. It’s about time, honestly.

I like that the first film did not do an extreme focus on their relationship, that it was secondary to the action and the mission and this should continue into the next film. Explore all you want but don’t derail the action for the sake of it.

Oh God, this discussion again? S/U is illogical, it died in TOS before it was born, it kills the dynamic between Kirk, Spock and McCoy, it doesn’t have chemistry, it disturbs the development of Spock’s character… Should I continue? And marrying them and getting them a baby would be a disaster. In that case you could simply close the franchise and not put us under so much stress, seeing them together.

29-The opportunity for favoritism, jealousy and conflicts of interest are abundant.

–It already happened. She browbeat Spock into reassigning her from another starship onto Enterprise.

It makes sense dramatically. But, sometimes, it’s not a good idea to give the fanboys (and fangirls) everything they want. I’d like to see more of a smoldering undercurrent than anything as overt as Tonsil Tango on the transporter pad. Jeesh!

31-No sex please – we’re British!

Too funny, Greg. If your wife gets bored, let me know. *runs like hell*

Maybe they will have a son and name him Tuvok

I agree with those saying that the Spock/Uhura relationship had no legit reason to happen and the movie would’ve been better (“better” being a relative term) without it. However, I voted for “a little Spock/Uhura” because the writers have backed themselves into a corner. They can’t just pretend they didn’t make that mistake in the first movie and carry on; they now have to acknowledge the relationship for continuity’s sake. Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we throw absurd crap into a script for the teen male demographic.

I don’t mind the Uhura and Spock thing but my problem is Hollywood just has to stick a dam romance in every movie now a days, and if not worse they have to stick kids in movies. Enough with that crap. I want action, I want great acting, I want ship battles, I want more Enterprise action. I want to see more logic, fun.. No romance no kids just a good Star Trek movie that will kick ass and make me love it more than I already do.

I’m all for seeing a little more of the relationship, although Spock is too young for pon farr.

I say keep the couple..hell add a female Vulcan and let them be a poly family unit.

I love the pairing and yes I grew up watching the original series. The pairing was somewhat alluded to back then and I am thrilled that the reboot is shining some light on their attraction. It is good to see Spock and Uhura together. The pair have a huge following on fanfiction.

#38: YEAH!!! I’m with you!! Enough of the romance crap!!

We want kick-ass Enterprise space battle action!!!
Everybody sweating bullets and fighting for their lives!!
Phasers full-spread M/F-er!!

(more logic would definitely be good as well…)

“Blecch. I don’t. I trust I don’t have to repeat all the reasons why.”

For once, dmduncan, we agree. :-)

The “romance” was ill-conceived, part and parcel of the writers’ self-described mission of “changing what (the fans) think they already know.” Worse, though, were the alterations to Uhura’s overall character. The original, hailing from 23rd century United Africa, was always played by Nichelle Nichols as a little exotic and mysterious–we never got to know all that much about her–not to mention extremely efficient and competent at her job. It’s just impossible to imagine her, even at a younger age, taunting an obnoxious jerk by referring to him as a hick who likes to have sex with farm animals. The rebooted Uhura may be brilliant (though we’re never given any real evidence to suppose why), and beautiful, but exotic and mysterious she’s not. She sounds and acts like a dropout from Glendale High. No fault to Ms. Saldana, who did the best she could with the part (and showed some real acting chops under tons of CGI makeup in a better film)–it’s just the way the thing was written.

I’m so glad to see that the majority feels that they should end the Spock/Uhura thing. It never worked for me, not for a second, and felt like something that was just thrown in there simply to have a romance, and it felt forced. Not only that, but if you look at the idea of a Lieutenant and a Commander having a relationship, especially student and teacher, well that wouldn’t fly on a lot of levels. I think the only reason the Troi/Riker thing worked in Nemesis was because of her position, as in it not being directly related to ship’s operations. I hope they just drop it, plus its time for Kirk to get some romance, I mean come on, he didn’t get laid once in the movie, something’s wrong there…

# 41 In the original series it was Christine Chapel who had a thing for Spock, not Uhura.
This was one of the many reasons I hate this f@#$ing film!
Spock is a professional and would never fraternize with a fellow officer.
He didn’t with Nurse Chapel, why should he with Uhura?
Totally out of character, and It just distracts from the story!

The pairing “somewhat alluded to”? You are kidding, right? A little banter on the bridge between Uhura and Spock in one ep does not a relationship make (as a matter of fact, Spock was quizzical and non-understanding when it came to Uhura’s conversational flirting). The person Spock was always coming into contact with physically was Kirk. He also mind-melded with him four times during the series (although one of those times Kirk was in the body of Janice Lester). If the series “alluded” to anyone being “close” to Spock, it was Kirk, though I realize that is not popular around here.

Kill the Spock/Uhura angle – it never should have been included to begin with.

@Denise de Arman:

It’s popular with me! Kirk/Spock all the way!

#43-ehhh… Uhura was “exotic and mysterious” because the studio kept cutting her lines (and shouldn’t race relations in the future have progressed enough so that a black person isn’t considered “exotic?”). I read her autobiography, and the treatment she got from the studio was horrendous. She almost quit the show, until she met MLK who pointed out that she was one of the few (if only) black characters on TV who weren’t servants of some kind.

But back to the sequel—you know who I’d love to see? T’Pring. She’s actually kind of a bad-ass. Assuming she survived the destruction of Vulcan, how interesting would it be to find out that since Vulcans are now an “endangered species” that the Vulcan High Council has decided that it is logical for Spock to mate with her ASAP. Now THAT would create some drama!

Anyone remember Spock’s betrothed WIFE from TOS?

We can assume she still existed, at least until Vulcan was destroyed…

“The question now is, where do they take it in the sequel?”

Sounds like a self-answering question : P