star trek theme lyrics nichelle nichols

Star Trek Theme Song Lyrics

Nichelle Nichols was the truly talented singer in the original Star Trek crew

It is a well-known fact among pop culture trivia addicts that original Star Trek crewmates William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy both stubbornly pursued musical careers in the 1960s and 1970s, despite a notable lack of encouragement. Shatner released his infamous, histrionic The Transformed Man LP in 1968, plus a live album in 1977. (A follow-up, Has Been , wouldn’t be released until 2004.) Nimoy released roughly a half-dozen albums, including repackages of old material, between 1968 and 1976 on at least four different labels. The recordings of Shatner and Nimoy have become camp classics, turning up on novelty compilations like Rhino’s Golden Throats . But the bridge of the Enterprise did contain at least one performer with actual singing chops: Nichelle “Lt. Uhura” Nichols. Over at Dangerous Minds , Ron Kretsch has assembled a mini-history of Nichols’ singing career , which included performing with Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton, plus a handful of albums of her own, released between 1986 and 1991. Nichols also put her vibrato-heavy voice to good use in the Trek episode “Conscience Of The King,” in which she serenades a doomed crew member with a little number called “Beyond Antares.”

Like Nimoy, who occasionally sang in character as Mr. Spock , Nichols referenced her television fame in her recordings. Her albums had titles like Down To Earth and Out Of This World , and in 1986 she released the obscure, cassette-only Uhura Sings , containing nine songs and poetic verses. Among her strangest, most ill-advised tracks was a disco-style remake of the Star Trek theme with lyrics.

But there are much, much cooler songs in Nichols’ discography. Take, for instance, her sultry 1967 waxing of “Know What I Mean.” Sample lyrics: “I’ve got honey muffins anytime that you want some / Know what I mean? / Know what I mean?”

Nichols took on the standards, too. Here she is, belting out “The Lady Is A Tramp,” a Rodgers & Hart composition from 1937:

But, even though Nichols’ musical allegiance was to jazz, she did not disappoint her Trek fans when it came to recording sci-fi-related material. She even revisited “Beyond Antares”:

When people think about music made by Star Trek veterans, they probably imagine Shatner screaming the lyrics of “Mr. Tambourine Man” or Nimoy croaking out “Proud Mary.” But Nichols’ recordings prove there are other, less obvious musical galaxies to explore, too.

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'Star Trek': Words and Music

The theme to the original 'star trek' television series officially includes never-used lyrics., david mikkelson, published march 9, 1999.

About this rating

One of the most important parts of any successful television series is its theme music. Whether the theme is a song with lyrics that provide necessary exposition to explain the show's premise (as in the case of Gilligan's Island ) or an instrumental that offers a catchy thematic hook (like Hill Street Blues ), a series' theme music is familiar, easily recognizable beacon that signals to regular viewers week after week.

Star Trek was no exception. Although the series never ranked high in the ratings during its original 1966-69 run, its theme music — a pinging, four-note opening to William Shatner's famous "where no man has gone before" narration, followed by a melody overlaid with a quavering soprano wail — was, like The Twilight Zone 's, recognized even by people who never watched the show itself:

But even most regular viewers were unfamiliar with the theme's lyrics, or were even aware that the Star Trek theme had lyrics, because they were never used in the show.

When Desilu studios produced their Star Trek pilot , they despaired of finding a top-notch composer to score the theme music. Film and TV composers earn most of their money from residuals paid for repeat performances of their compositions, so few of them want to spend their time scoring pilots that have little chance of becoming series, or movies that will disappear without a trace. The combination of Desilu (a small studio with a history of unsuccessful pilots) and an unusual "serious" science fiction series (rare in television at the time) did not offer an promising opportunity for composers. Fortunately for Desilu (and Star Trek ), their musical director recommended a talented and experienced arranger from Twentieth Century Fox by the name of Alexander Courage. Courage created the memorable Star Trek theme, as well as a number of other key pieces of incidental music and sound effects.

Once the Star Trek pilot was bought by NBC, Courage was in an enviable position: he would receive royalties every time an episode of Star Trek was run (or re-run), and even more royalties if the show lasted long enough to be sold into syndication after its network run was finished. Courage's windfall lasted only a year, until Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry suddenly laid claim to half the royalties. How? Pressured by Roddenberry, Courage had made a "handshake deal" a couple of years earlier that gave Roddenberry the option of composing lyrics for Courage's Star Trek music (and Courage signed a contract — unknowingly, he later claimed — to that effect). Roddenberry exercised that option, writing lyrics for the main theme and then asserting his right to half the performance royalties as a co-composer. It made no difference that the lyrics were not intended to be used in the show itself and had never been recorded or released. As the lyricist, Roddenberry was entitled to an equal share of the royalties, whether or not the lyrics were ever used.

Courage protested in vain that although the arrangement may have been legal, it was unethical: Roddenberry's lyrics added nothing to the value of the music and were created for no reason other than to usurp half the composer's performance royalties. An unsympathetic Roddenberry proclaimed, "Hey, I have to get some money somewhere. I'm sure not going to get it out of the profits of Star Trek ."

And what were these lyrics?

Beyond The rim of the star-light My love Is wand'ring in star-flight I know He'll find in star-clustered reaches Love, Strange love a star woman teaches. I know His journey ends never His star trek Will go on forever. But tell him While he wanders his starry sea Remember, remember me.

Some viewers think they recall actress Nichelle Nichols' Uhura character having sung these words during a Star Trek episode, but they're actually remembering her performing a song called "Beyond Antares" to troubled young Charlie Evans in the first-season episode "Charlie X." (Nichols did record a [disco!] version of the Star Trek theme with different lyrics some years later.)

Roddenberry's gain was Star Trek 's loss. Courage scored only a few episodes of the series' first season before commencing work on the feature film Doctor Dolittle . Afterwards, associate producer Robert Justman was unable to secure Courage's composing services for Star Trek 's second season, something Justman attributed to Courage's lingering disappointment over the royalty issue.

    Engel, Joel.   Gene Roddenberry: The Myth and the Man Behind Star Trek.     New York: Hyperion, 1994.   ISBN 0-7868-6004-9   (pp. 114-115).     Solow, Herbert F. and Robert H. Justman.   Inside Star Trek: The Real Story .     New York: Pocket Books, 1996.   ISBN 0-671-00974-5   (pp. 56-57, 178-185).     Whitfield, Stephen E.   The Making of Star Trek .     New York: Ballantine Books, 1968.   ISBN 0-345-34019-1   (p. 7). -->

By David Mikkelson

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

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Full song: Nichelle Nichols sings Beyond Antares

By rachel carrington | apr 2, 2021.

There is no denying that Nichelle Nichols, who portrayed Lt. Uhura on Star Trek: The Original Series ,  has a beautiful voice. Unfortunately, she didn’t get to showcase it that often on the show. She was given two opportunities to sing Beyond Antares, a song written by Wilbur Hatch with lyrics by Gene L. Coon. She sang it once on The Conscience of the King, and the other on The Changeling which wasn’t a very long version of the ethereal song.

Fortunately, not only was a full-length version released by GNP Crescendo Records in 1991, a full album of Nichols’ songs was made available. But this song in particular is so hauntingly beautiful that it’s easy to close your eyes and imagine you’re aboard the Enterprise or at least somewhere in the galaxy.

Also included on the 1991 album, which you can still buy from Amazon , is Hauntingly and a wonderful tribute to Gene Roddenberry entitled “Gene.”  Nichols also sings the Star Trek Theme with her gorgeous voice. Unfortunately, this was the last album Nichols released.

In 1967, while Star Trek was still airing, Nichols released Down to Earth, which included such songs as  Feelin’ Good; Tenderly; Sunday Kind of Love; One Life to Live; and The Lady Is a Tramp. You can find this one on Amazon , too.

Though there might not have been a lot of reasons to use music aboard the Enterprise in Star Trek: The Original Series, it’s a shame that more opportunities weren’t made available for Trekkies to hear Nichelle Nichols’ astonishing voice. Everything about it fits with the “out of this world” theme, and is something that could have made an even more powerful addition to Star Trek.

Next. ‘Woman in Motion’ celebrates Nichelle Nichols’ trailblazing NASA work. dark

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How Nichelle Nichols broke racial stereotypes on ‘Star Trek’

Nichelle Nichols, who broke barriers for Black women as Lt. Uhura on the “Star Trek” television series, passed on Saturday. ’You’ve changed the face of television forever,’ Martin Luther King, Jr. told her. 

• By Lindsey Bahr Associated Press

July 31, 2022

Nichelle Nichols, who broke barriers for Black women in Hollywood when she played communications officer Lt. Uhura on the original “Star Trek” television series, has died at the age of 89.

Her son Kyle Johnson said Nichols died Saturday in Silver City, New Mexico.

“Last night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and passed away. Her light however, like the ancient galaxies now being seen for the first time, will remain for us and future generations to enjoy, learn from, and draw inspiration,” Johnson wrote on her official Facebook page Sunday. “Hers was a life well lived and as such a model for us all."

Her role in the 1966-69 series as Lt. Uhura earned Nichols a lifelong position of honor with the series’ rabid fans, known as Trekkers and Trekkies. It also earned her accolades for breaking stereotypes that had limited Black women to acting roles as servants and included an interracial onscreen kiss with co-star William Shatner that was unheard of at the time.

“I shall have more to say about the trailblazing, incomparable Nichelle Nichols, who shared the bridge with us as Lt. Uhura of the USS Enterprise, and who passed today at age 89,” George Takei wrote on Twitter. “For today, my heart is heavy, my eyes shining like the stars you now rest among, my dearest friend."

Takei played Sulu in the original “Star Trek” series alongside Nichols. But her impact was felt beyond her immediate co-stars, and many others in the “Star Trek” world also tweeted their condolences.

Celia Rose Gooding, who currently plays Uhura in “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” wrote on Twitter that Nichols “made room for so many of us. She was the reminder that not only can we reach the stars, but our influence is essential to their survival. Forget shaking the table, she built it.”

“Star Trek: Voyager” alum Kate Mulgrew tweeted, “Nichelle Nichols was The First. She was a trailblazer who navigated a very challenging trail with grit, grace, and a gorgeous fire we are not likely to see again.”

Like other original cast members, Nichols also appeared in six big-screen spinoffs starting in 1979 with “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” and frequented “Star Trek” fan conventions. She also served for many years as a NASA recruiter, helping bring minorities and women into the astronaut corps.

More recently, she had a recurring role on television’s “Heroes,” playing the great-aunt of a young boy with mystical powers.

The original “Star Trek” premiered on NBC on Sept. 8, 1966. Its multicultural, multiracial cast was creator Gene Roddenberry’s message to viewers that in the far-off future — the 23rd century — human diversity would be fully accepted.

“I think many people took it into their hearts ... that what was being said on TV at that time was a reason to celebrate,” Nichols said in 1992 when a “Star Trek” exhibit was on view at the Smithsonian Institution.

She often recalled how Martin Luther King Jr. was a fan of the show and praised her role. She met him at a civil rights gathering in 1967, at a time when she had decided not to return for the show’s second season.

“When I told him I was going to miss my co-stars and I was leaving the show, he became very serious and said, 'You cannot do that,’” she told The Tulsa (Okla.) World in a 2008 interview.

“'You’ve changed the face of television forever, and therefore, you’ve changed the minds of people,'” she said the civil rights leader told her.

“That foresight Dr. King had was a lightning bolt in my life,” Nichols said.

During the show’s third season, Nichols’ character and Shatner’s Capt. James Kirk shared what was described as the first interracial kiss to be broadcast on a U.S. television series. In the episode, “Plato’s Stepchildren,” their characters, who always maintained a platonic relationship, were forced into the kiss by aliens who were controlling their actions.

The kiss “suggested that there was a future where these issues were not such a big deal,” Eric Deggans, a television critic for National Public Radio, told The Associated Press in 2018. “The characters themselves were not freaking out because a Black woman was kissing a white man ... In this utopian-like future, we solved this issue. We’re beyond it. That was a wonderful message to send.”

Worried about reaction from Southern television stations, showrunners wanted to film a second take of the scene where the kiss happened off-screen. But Nichols said in her book, “Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories,” that she and Shatner deliberately flubbed lines to force the original take to be used.

Despite concerns, the episode aired without blowback. In fact, it got the most “fan mail that Paramount had ever gotten on ‘Star Trek’ for one episode,” Nichols said in a 2010 interview with the Archive of American Television.

Born Grace Dell Nichols in Robbins, Illinois, Nichols hated being called “Gracie,” which everyone insisted on, she said in the 2010 interview. When she was a teen her mother told her she had wanted to name her Michelle, but thought she ought to have alliterative initials like Marilyn Monroe, whom Nichols loved. Hence, “Nichelle.”

Nichols first worked professionally as a singer and dancer in Chicago at age 14, moving on to New York nightclubs and working for a time with the Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton bands before coming to Hollywood for her film debut in 1959’s “Porgy and Bess,” the first of several small film and TV roles that led up to her “Star Trek” stardom.

Nichols was known as being unafraid to stand up to Shatner on the set when others complained that he was stealing scenes and camera time. They later learned she had a strong supporter in the show’s creator.

In her 1994 book, “Beyond Uhura,” she said she met Roddenberry when she guest starred on his show “The Lieutenant,” and the two had an affair a couple of years before “Star Trek” began. The two remained lifelong close friends.

Another fan of Nichols and the show was future astronaut Mae Jemison, who became the first black woman in space when she flew aboard the shuttle Endeavour in 1992.

In an AP interview before her flight, Jemison said she watched Nichols on “Star Trek” all the time, adding she loved the show. Jemison eventually got to meet Nichols.

Nichols was a regular at “Star Trek” conventions and events into her 80s, but her schedule became limited starting in 2018 when her son announced that she was suffering from advanced dementia.

Nichols was placed under a court conservatorship in the control of her son Johnson, who said her mental decline made her unable to manage her affairs or make public appearances.

Some, including Nichols’ managers and her friend, film producer and actor Angelique Fawcett, objected to the conservatorship and sought more access to Nichols and to records of Johnson’s financial and other moves on her behalf. Her name was at times invoked at courthouse rallies that sought the freeing of Britney Spears from her own conservatorship.

But the court consistently sided with Johnson, and over the objections of Fawcett allowed him to move Nichols to New Mexico, where she lived with him in her final years.

Associated Press Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton contributed from Los Angeles. Former AP Writer Polly Anderson contributed biographical material to this report.

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Published Jan 16, 2023

Nichelle Nichols Remembers Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The late actress shared her fondest memories of the civil rights leader.

Getty Images / StarTrek.com - Rob DeHart

Every day is a good day to celebrate Star Trek 's Nichelle Nichols, the legend who first embodied the role of Nyota Uhura . But today, we're also taking time to pay tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who played a crucial role in Star Trek history.

On March 7, 1965, the historic Selma to Montgomery civil rights march began, sadly with " Bloody Sunday ." Two days later, the prominent activist and leader in the civil rights movement joined the march, and nearly two years after that, Dr. King famously convinced Nichols, who had sought the greener pastures and greater challenges of Broadway, to rescind the resignation letter she'd given to Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.

William Lovelace / Stringer — Getty Images

Back in 2010, during an interview with StarTrek.com , Nichols recounted how Dr. King inspired her and how she'd inspired him and his family, and why she chose to heed his personal request to remain with Star Trek: The Original Series .

"When I told Gene [Roddenberry], I walked away, and as far as I was concerned it was a fait accompli ," she said. "Remember, I grew up in musical theater. I belonged to the theater, not to television or movies. Those were things I did when I hadn’t quite made it where I wanted to go, but was on my way. I had quite a lot going for me. I had no idea of the power of being on a screen and people seeing you weekly. But I was ready to go. As nice as this little part was, and I loved the people and I loved working on it, and I was getting experience in a new medium, I didn’t think twice about [leaving]."

Roddenberry, she noted, pleaded with her to stay. He said, "You can’t, Nichelle. Don’t you see what I’m trying to do here?” Nichols remained "resolute," and handed him a letter of resignation. What happened next astounded her.

StarTrek.com

"He took it and looked at it with sad eyes," Nichols said. "He was behind his desk and I was standing in front of him and – I’ll never forget it – he said, 'I’m not going to accept this yet.' He put it in his desk drawer and said, 'Take the weekend and think about this, Nichelle. If you still want to do this on Monday morning, I will let you go with my blessings.' I said, 'Thank you, Gene.' And I thought, 'Whew, that was rough, but I got through it.'”

That weekend, Nichols attended what she remembers as a NAACP fundraiser, "though, it could have been something else." Whatever it was, she found herself in Beverly Hills, and seated at the dais as other notables entered the room to join in on the festivities.

Stephen F. Somerstein / Getty Images

"One of the organizers of the event came over to me and said, 'Ms. Nichols, I hate to bother you just as you’re sitting down to dinner, but there’s someone here who wants very much to meet you. And he said to tell you that he is your biggest fan,'" Nichols said. "I said, 'Oh, certainly,' I stood up and turned around and who comes walking over towards me from about 10 or 15 feet, smiling that rare smile of his, is Dr. Martin Luther King. I remember saying to myself, 'Whoever that fan is, whoever that Trekkie is, it’ll have to wait because I have to meet Dr. Martin Luther King.' And he walks up to me and says, 'Yes, Ms. Nichols, I am your greatest fan.' You know I can talk, but all my mouth could do was open and close, open and close; I was so stunned."

Dr. King revealed to Nichols that Star Trek was the only show that he and his wife Coretta allowed their little children to stay up and watch. Further, he told Nichols what the show meant to him personally and detailed the importance of her having created a character with "dignity and knowledge." Nichols took it all in and finally said, “Thank you so much, Dr. King. I’m really going to miss my co-stars.” Dr. King's smile, Nichols recalled, vanished from his face.

"He said, 'What are you talking about?'" the actress explained. "I told him. He said, 'You cannot,' and so help me, this man practically repeated verbatim what Gene said. He said, 'Don’t you see what this man is doing, who has written this? This is the future. He has established us as we should be seen. 300 years from now, we are here. We are marching. And this is the first step. When we see you, we see ourselves, and we see ourselves as intelligent and beautiful and proud.' He goes on and I’m looking at him and my knees are buckling. I said, 'I…, I…' And he said, 'You turn on your television and the news comes on and you see us marching and peaceful, you see the peaceful civil disobedience, and you see the dogs and see the fire hoses, and we all know they cannot destroy us because we are there in the 23rd Century.'"

"That’s all it took," Nichols continued. "I went back on Monday morning and told Gene what had happened. He sat there behind that desk and a tear came down his face, and he looked up at me. I said, 'Gene, if you want me to stay, I will stay. There’s nothing I can do but stay.' He looked at me and said, 'God bless Dr. Martin Luther King. Somebody truly knows what I am trying to do.' [Roddenberry] opened his drawer, took out my resignation and handed it to me. He had torn it to pieces. He handed me the 100 pieces and said, 'Welcome back.'”

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Star Trek Day 2022 | Nichelle Nichols Tribute

This article was originally published on March 7, 2019.

Stay tuned to StarTrek.com for more details! And be sure to follow @StarTrek on Facebook , Twitter , and Instagram .

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