Tango Reblogs

Spock, Jim and Bones respectively lollll:

It's not that either is naturally easy-going and chill! As people, Kirk and Uhura have zero chill. They're just very controlled and very deliberate about projecting what's needed.

Neither are perfect at this by any means. Kirk lashes out now and then, and visibly fights off tension headaches or anxiously fiddles with his own hands. Uhura gets intensely nervous or upset every once in awhile. There are points in the show where one of them will just start losing their shit. But that's unusual, and mainly used to flag the circumstances as exceptional. And even in those cases, we repeatedly see them swapping the role of being a calm and reliable rock for the other one as he/she is about to snap. When Kirk's composure starts to crumble, we'll often see Uhura as this steadying, quietly supportive, or challenging presence as needed; when Uhura starts falling apart, we repeatedly see Kirk flip into a calm, affirming figure taking pains to remind her of her importance and capabilities.

I think this is a bit different from the way that, say, Spock works to keep an iron grip on his vulnerabilities and adheres to cool reason while doing Science, or McCoy might get snappish or plainly desperate but always has a clear enough head for Medicine. Kirk's and Uhura's roles, at least as they choose to approach them, require these constant performances of a sort of lightly emotive, personable steadiness that keeps the whole ship smoothly running even as they're doing the intellectual/practical work of their jobs.

Also, in addition to the explicit dialogue around their professional synergy and rapport, quite a bit is carried by physical acting from Nichols and Shatner as well. For instance, we'll see Uhura's expression shift without a word to dawning realization around some Scheme or Shenanigans that Kirk is carrying out while people around her are still visibly ?????????? Or you'll see these moments of solidarity or trust in how Kirk physically carries himself towards Uhura. It's also made really clear that there is zero sexual attraction or romantic interest between them—they're both charming, attractive, intelligent, and even close in age but it's just not there at all, even repressed or stifled.

In any case, Uhura is the only person other than Spock whom Kirk feels the need to name both times that he records potentially-posthumous special commendations in TOS.