This may not be very esoteric to some, but one of my personal favorites is that the transporter operator in the TNG episode Second Chances is Dr. Mae Jemison, the first African-American astronaut in space.
And then this fantastic behind the scenes photo during the shooting of that episode, where she is visited by Nichelle Nichols. Mae credits Nichols’ Uhura as the inspiration for becoming an astronaut and I imagine it had to be dizzying to get to be on Star Trek and actually meet her hero in the flesh.
But even if you already knew all that, another interesting piece of information is that this was the first and only time Jemison acted. She appeared as herself in several different documentaries over the years (including one alongside William Shatner), but she never acted again… until 2023. 30 years later, she got a second acting credit as the voice of an out-of-control phone app in Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.
Mae Jemison has become one of MY inspirations in life.
This may not be very esoteric to some, but one of my personal favorites is that the transporter operator in the TNG episode Second Chances is Dr. Mae Jemison, the first African-American astronaut in space.
And then this fantastic behind the scenes photo during the shooting of that episode, where she is visited by Nichelle Nichols. Mae credits Nichols’ Uhura as the inspiration for becoming an astronaut and I imagine it had to be dizzying to get to be on Star Trek and actually meet her hero in the flesh.
But even if you already knew all that, another interesting piece of information is that this was the first and only time Jemison acted. She appeared as herself in several different documentaries over the years (including one alongside William Shatner), but she never acted again… until 2023. 30 years later, she got a second acting credit as the voice of an out-of-control phone app in Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.
Mae Jemison has become one of MY inspirations in life.
This post was made to bring this sort of info out of the woodwork. Knew the first part, but glad to learn of the latter.