All I can say is Nichelle Nichols really kicked some doors in, didn't she, as Lt. Uhura on Star Trek.
An insignificant character but with a purpose who wasn't blonde sitting in the back, so we all saw her.
UFO essentially followed suit with Dolores Montez here, clearly a woman of color, portraying Nina Barry. Nine times out of ten, she is seen on Moonbase, sporting a purple wig. Like Uhura, she is an communications operator.
For whatever reason, she is assigned to the submarine mission here (sans wig), which finds the sub and its five occupants trapped underwater.
Straker's claustrophobia really does amount to next-to-nothing with the story. Okay, it emerges a bit at the end.
The plan was to have Nina escape thru the torpedo shoot and everyone else, one at a time, would go out another shaft.
What they don't know is the torpedo shoot doesn't open, so now Nina, in much tighter confinements than anything Straker is enduring (perhaps why it was impossible to focus on his claustrophobia) has to crawl backwards, all the while no doubt contemplating the guys are all leaving one by one, thinking she has made it to the surface.
But they know on the surface she hasn't appeared, and amusingly enough, they don't seem to think about her anymore.
Finally, only Straker is left and when he hears Nina's calls for help, he thinks he is hallucinating from slowly lacking oxygen.
He does eventually discover Nina, exhausted and breathing heavy herself, and shades of Captain James T. Kirk and Lt. Uhura, they must contemplate dying together if not discovered soon.
The ending is cut and dry, if for nothing else, to prevent any hint of a romance as we did get with Kirk and Uhura. Somehow it does seem inappropriate then, to think Straker and Nina must be a couple.
Still the episode has its pluses, in the guise of Nina out of the wig and pretty much off the moon. Just seeing her doing something else and very effectively too.
An insignificant character but with a purpose who wasn't blonde sitting in the back, so we all saw her.
UFO essentially followed suit with Dolores Montez here, clearly a woman of color, portraying Nina Barry. Nine times out of ten, she is seen on Moonbase, sporting a purple wig. Like Uhura, she is an communications operator.
For whatever reason, she is assigned to the submarine mission here (sans wig), which finds the sub and its five occupants trapped underwater.
Straker's claustrophobia really does amount to next-to-nothing with the story. Okay, it emerges a bit at the end.
The plan was to have Nina escape thru the torpedo shoot and everyone else, one at a time, would go out another shaft.
What they don't know is the torpedo shoot doesn't open, so now Nina, in much tighter confinements than anything Straker is enduring (perhaps why it was impossible to focus on his claustrophobia) has to crawl backwards, all the while no doubt contemplating the guys are all leaving one by one, thinking she has made it to the surface.
But they know on the surface she hasn't appeared, and amusingly enough, they don't seem to think about her anymore.
Finally, only Straker is left and when he hears Nina's calls for help, he thinks he is hallucinating from slowly lacking oxygen.
He does eventually discover Nina, exhausted and breathing heavy herself, and shades of Captain James T. Kirk and Lt. Uhura, they must contemplate dying together if not discovered soon.
The ending is cut and dry, if for nothing else, to prevent any hint of a romance as we did get with Kirk and Uhura. Somehow it does seem inappropriate then, to think Straker and Nina must be a couple.
Still the episode has its pluses, in the guise of Nina out of the wig and pretty much off the moon. Just seeing her doing something else and very effectively too.