The Hour

Zoe Saldana, who plays Uhura in the new Star Trek movie, says that she understood the importance of her character which broke boundaries when the first series aired.

“It’s something that I embraced with so much humility,” admitted Saldana. 

In the original show, Uhura and Kirk shared the first-ever interracial kiss aired on US television.

“It makes me happy to be a part of it,” she explained. “In any Trekkie encyclopaedia, my name’s going to be in there at some page, and that is an honour to have.”

Saldana added: “I do understand how important the role of Uhura was, because she could have been of any race, she was a woman and she wasn’t a housewife, and she had charisma but she also had authority. 

“She was never compromised physically, or forced to hide herself, and that meant a lot.”

After receiving almost unanimous rave reviews Star Trek has grossed £70.9m worldwide in its opening weekend, currently ranking at number one in 23 markets and already dwarfing the entire intake of the last movie in the series.

Directed by Lost and Fringe guru JJ Abrams, who is now being hailed as the new Steven Spielberg, the rebooted Star Trek chronicles the early days of Captain James T Kirk and his crew on the starship Enterprise.

With all this positive buzz, the film's new cast is already signed on for two sequels, and Abrams has said that screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman are starting to plan the second film.