In This Section
TV Guide Spotlight
Also on TVGuide.com
|
« TV Guide News Report
Trek's Nichelle Nichols Talks About Her Heroes Role
Nichelle Nichols by Chris Haston/NBC
First Sulu, now Uhura. Once again, Heroes has boldly gone back to classic Star Trek for a cool casting coup: Sci-fi icon Nichelle Nichols will join fellow Trekker George Takei as a recurring player on the hit NBC series.
Showing up in the season's fourth episode, Nichols will play Nana, a New Orleans doyenne whose daughter died during Hurricane Katrina. "Nana is tough and undaunted and — like the blues — she just keeps rising to the occasion," Nichols says. The character, who is in dire financial straits, has moved back into her once-flooded home, where she cares for her two grandchildren. One of them, new hero Monica (The Nine's Dana Davis), is an avenging angel intent on bringing justice to the corruption-plagued Big Easy. Nana is also a great-aunt to Micah, the junior hero played by series regular Noah Gray-Cabey. "Micah is sent to New Orleans to live with the family," Nichols says. "It's a quite marvelous, magical story, with wonderful things emerging." Does Nana have a superpower? "Well, that remains to be seen, now doesn't it?" coos Nichols.
The actress confirmed her much-rumored Heroes gig at a recent Trek convention in Las Vegas, where she reports that "the entire room went insane. I felt like I was Oprah giving out cars!" —Reporting by Michael Logan
Related: Heroes' Latest Star Trek: "Uhura" to Play Hero's Nana, Heroes' New Cheerleader Is a Real Bratz,
|
TVGuide Links:
|
|
|
|
Aug 16, 2007 4:53 PM
|
|
I love this woman!
|
|
Aug 16, 2007 10:11 PM
|
|
Great news about an iconic woman! I look forward to seeing this!
|
|
Aug 17, 2007 6:10 AM
|
Does anyone else feel a bit paranoid about this though?
the people who work on Heroes dig Star Trek, that's okay. But, who is in charge of the new Star Trek movie? that's right, some of the people in charge of Lost. i would hate to think heroes was trying to emulate lost, or that they were, in some very minor way, trying to suck up to lost.
and let's not forget that ZQ plays sylar, and that they've just tapped him to play young Spock.
|
|
Aug 17, 2007 7:30 AM
|
So happy to see NN on episodic TV. Her character sounds interesting. I also like how they are tying in real life events into the storyline.
tvfan9000 - I'm not sure if its a "Keeping up with the Joneses" kinda thing between Heroes and Lost. It seems more like a synergy vibe. Viewers who like the original Star Trek are viewers that Heroes would love to woo. Anything that TPTB do to keep this show thriving is okay in my book!
|
|
Aug 17, 2007 10:40 AM
|
I'll bet cold hard cash the reason for the ST connection is simply that Kring, Abrams, et. al., are all huge Trekkers, back from the time they were kids watcing ST:TOS in reruns after school.
I know if I were writing/running the hottest--not to mention one of the best--show on TV, I'd be writing roles specifically designed for Mr. Takei, Ms. Nichols, Mr. Koenig, Mr. Nimoy and the best Star Trek Writer Bar None, Mr. Harlan Ellison.
I won't be a bit surprised if Richard Hatch, Dirk Benedict, Anne Lockhart and some of the other Original Recipe Galactica people show up, too.
|
|
Aug 17, 2007 2:19 PM
|
good points honbun26 and bossysheryl.
paranoia was getting the best of me. i feel that lost has gone slightly downhill, and was hoping that connections and common interests between lost and heroes weren't a sign of heroes going the same way in the future.
if they can have Stan Lee do a small cameo, i would hope they'd try and get Ellison to pop in.
so far i love the trek tributes and winks that heroes drop- like i said- i just don't want heroes to go the way of lost.
|
|
Aug 17, 2007 3:41 PM
|
|
|
