racism, sexism, recent death
So I had this horrible thought;
The late Nichelle Nichols was a competent actress playing a competent character who was frequently downplayed. But this was during a not just a racist but a horribly *sexist* chunk of time. I think a white woman would have been expected to be a pretty chunk of scenery, but a Black woman would be expected unfairly to be a far more competent actress and expected to be okay with the idea of being a background character. Terrible shit overlapping gave us someone really cool as the only regularly appearing woman on old Trek.