Some great documentary news has emerged during the First Contact Day events. Woman in Motion: Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek and the Remaking of NASA will have its streaming debut on Paramount+, home of the Star Trek Universe.
Woman in Motion coming to Paramount+
Paramount+ today announced the feature-length documentary Woman in Motion will be able to stream exclusively on Paramount+ starting Thursday, June 3. Woman in Motion tells the inspiring true story of how Star Trek’s Nichelle Nichols worked with NASA to recruit people of color and women into the program starting in the 1970s. The doc got a very favorable review here at TrekMovie ahead of its February release in theaters and on video on demand.
The news was revealed by Mica Burton, moderator of the “Women In Motion” panel, during today’s virtual global First Contact Day celebration. A new trailer for Woman in Motion was also shown during the panel.
Directed by Todd Thompson (The Highwaymen, PRE FAB!), Woman in Motion chronicles how Nichols transformed her sci-fi television stardom into a real-life science career when, in 1977, she embarked on a campaign to bring diversity to NASA. Nichols formed the company Women In Motion, Inc. and recruited more than 8,000 African American, Asian and Latino women and men for the agency. Nichols and her program continue to influence the younger generation of astronauts as well, including Mae Jemison, the first female African American astronaut in space. Despite an uphill battle against a bureaucracy that was hesitant to let her get involved, Nichols persevered and is credited by NASA for turning it into one of the most diverse independent agencies in the United States Federal Government.
George Takei in Woman in Motion
In addition to Nichols, Woman in Motion features notable celebrities, activists, scientists and astronauts including Neil deGrasse Tyson, George Takei, Pharrell Williams, Martin Luther King III, Al Sharpton, Vivica A. Fox, Walter Koenig, Rod Roddenberry, Michael Dorn, Guy Bluford, Charles Bolden, Ivor Dawson, Frederik Gregory and Benjamin Crump.
Paramount+ poster for Woman in Motion
First Contact Day continues…
There is much more to come on this big First Contact Day, with more announcements expected. So stay tuned to TrekMovie for our full First Contact Day coverage.
The free First Contact Day virtual panels will be available to view on-demand on Paramount+’s YouTube Channel and on Paramount+ in the U.S., following their initial airing on StarTrek.com/FirstContact today from 12:00-2:45 PM, PT/3:00-5:45 PM, ET.
It’s about time!
And they did it without having to ask the fans to bankroll it. What a concept! :-)
I would have happily helped fund this. Some of us fans don’t mind putting our money where our mouth is.
We had early support from Space Florida (our state space agency) and raised investor funds in small (for movie) chunks as we went along – one of the reasons it took five years!
You can support by spreading the word! And bur or rent it in the meantime! Also check out the soundtrack by Collin O’Malley on Amazon and iTunes.
We are gratified by the support – and looking forward hopping onto Paramount mountain,
This is great news. Now hopefully they will put up a bunch of the other Trek documentaries on Paramount+ and truly live up to their hype as being the home to all things Trek.
Looking forward to this
Is Trekmovie.com owned or operated by the same company as Deadline.com? I ask because the structure and whole chunks of copy of this anonymous post is troublingly similar to an article on Deadline from a year ago… : |
I am sure hoping not. Is this just a Paramount press release re-produced?
Nikki Finke of deadline.com long ago forged some arrangement with Brad Grey of Paramount whereby DEADLINE gets Paramount “scoops” prior to any other news outlet and Paramount feels confident that their pov will be published there unexpurgated. The arrangement appears to have survived to this day, even though Nikki’s tenure at DEADLINE did not.
trekmovie.com has no such arrangement as evident in their many articles where they challenge and question the Paramount line.
However, as you have observed, a lot of DEADLINE’s Paramount copy is, in fact, extracted verbatum from Paramount’s press releases which other news outlets, such as trekmovie.com, are equally permitted to reference as well.
Excellent!
Definitely will be watching this. I have never gotten to meet any Trek cast in person. I hope one day I will be able to.
It’s weird how I had no idea about any of this until TM made an article about it last year. For Nichols to have such an impact on NASA for both blacks and women is inspiring. That’s Star Trek in a nutshell. It’s a really great story and I’ll definitely watch it when it hits Paramount+ in a few months.