Nichelle Nichols – Dark Side of The Moon + Beyond Antares

Nichelle Nichols is best known for her role as Lieutenant Uhura in the original Star Trek TV series from the late 1960’s.  She followed her Trek co-stars William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy into the recording business in 1968 with an LP titled “Down To Earth” for Epic Records, which was re-issued on CD by Rev-Ola in 1997.

Once the “Trekkie” phenomenon started happening in the early 1970’s, she followed up with another audio excursion in 1974,  a 4-song 7″ EP titled “Dark Side of The Moon, on the Americana Records label, which came in a nice gatefold sleeve, and included the following message inside:

“To all Trekkies everywhere,

My last five year mission for Star Fleet Command on the Enterprise as Communications Officer has been the most gratifying period of my life.  Having travelled so far in outer space makes one feel so much closer to the whole cosmic spectrum of life knowing that our mission, charting galaxies and identifying other life forms, has had a positive impact on all Societies.

Thus it is my hope these melodies and lyrics contained herein, gathered from Regas II to far beyond Antares, will bring to you the same measure of joy and pleasure as they have given to me.

End of report – Uhura out.”

Most of what appears on the “Dark Side of The Moon” EP is a kind of exotica-flavored lounge croon soul, with some moog layered in for that spacey feel, of which the title track is a pretty good example:

Dark Side Of The Moon
[audio:NICHELLE-NICHOLS-Dark-Side-Of-The-Moon.mp3]

The best thing on the EP, though, is the final track, “Let’s Trip,” written by producer Eddie Singleton, which has a bit of a Barbarella feel:

Let’s Trip
[audio:NICHELLE-NICHOLS-Lets-Trip.mp3]

Nichols followed up this trip with another excursion “Beyond Antares” in 1979, this time courtesy of R-Way Records, with more lounge soul exotica, though the B-side gets into some funky soul boogie territory part way through:

Uhura’s Theme
[audio:NICHELLE-NICHOLS-Uhuras-Theme.mp3]