Stranger New Worlds: Diehard Trekkie Fans Can Still Watch "Old School" Star Trek on Amazon Prime

Not long ago, as a matter of fact, on July 30 of this year, the world lost one of its brightest stars when Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Nyota Uhura) passed away. The stars belong to the sky, right?

While watching Strange New Worlds, the series where Capt. Christopher Pike is still commanding the USS Enterprise pre-Kirk, I was introduced to the younger and more modernized Lt. Uhura, a rising star by the name of Celia Rose Gooding.

Celia Rose Gooding, "Lt. Nyota Uhura", USS Enterprise Starfleet Command Officer

For those of you who have seen it and grew up with the original series, it was almost like sitting on pins and needles praying they didn't stray too far from Gene Roddenberry's original vision, back when "certain" things would not have been true - not even on a series as futuristic as Star Trek.

But with some very modern upgrades to the USS Enterprise, nothing that was upgraded was too far-fetched. It was easy to tell that they tried to stay "in format" when you could visibly see Captain Pike's TELEPHONE (yes, a rotary dial old Western Electric one) in the background at his cabin in the woods.

They even made sure the PHASERS (fazers?) looked exactly like the ones on the old show. Great job.

I looked for things to criticize with the "modern upgrades," but I couldn't see anything that would have been too out of touch, so kudos to Roddenberry Jr. and all of the others who seemed to have put a lot of work into making sure that things that preceded Captain Kirk and his Starfleet Command would not have been too far off the beaten path.

It appeared they worked hard not to hurt the hearts of closely-held Trekkies.

Besides, if you were traveling down Bradley Park Drive in Columbus around the end of July or first week of August and were headed southeast, you would have spotted the local fans of Nichelle Nichols, who dedicated an entire billboard to honor her memory. 

It may still be there.