Star Trek Officially Rewrites Its Best Original Series Episode In Honor Of Black History Month

A new Star Trek time travel story is set to riff on what’s widely considered one of the best episodes in the entire original series. “The City on the Edge of Forever” released back in 1967, a dark time travel story in which Captain Kirk had to pay a terrible personal cost to preserve the timeline. Now this celebrated story is about to be retold, but with a twist; the new version will star Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, in honor of Black History Month.

IDW has officially announced a new Star Trek Deviations: Threads of Destiny one-shot in which Lieutenant Uhura is the one who steps through the Guardian of Forever’s time portals, finding herself thrust into the middle of the Civil Rights Movement. The “Deviations” line is essentially Star Trek‘s answer to Marvel’s “What If?,” allowing for creative reinterpretations of the franchise.

Here’s IDW’s full solicit for the one-shot, which will be released on February 25, 2026.

“This special one-shot features Lieutenant Nyota Uhura. In the 23rd century, she explores far-flung star systems with her crew on the Enterprise as part of her mission to communicate and build bridges with life found across the Galaxy. But in the 20th century, humankind was working to build understanding among themselves, with African Americans on Earth championing the Civil Rights Movement and using their voices and acts of protest to end racial segregation and discrimination.

Now, by way of the Guardian of Forever, Uhura is yanked back through time to 1963. There, she’ll join all those fighting for equality and justice and reconnect to why her work as a communications officer is perhaps the most important work of all.”

This Is the Perfect Way To Honor Nichelle Nichols

Nichelle Nichols‘ Lieutenant Uhura was a massively important figure in the civil rights movement, making history as a Black actress in a continuing role on a network TV show. Even more strikingly, her presence was a deliberate decision on the part of Gene Roddenberry to show a utopian future where the color of skin no longer mattered. The character of Uhura even shared the first interracial kiss on television (granted, not under pleasant circumstances, but under the compulsion of an alien entity).

Nichols was part of the Civil Rights Movement in the real world, and shared fond memories of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In fact, Nichols famously considered leaving Star Trek, only to be talked out of it by King. As she explained in an interview with StarTrek.com back in 2010:

One of the organizers of the event came over to me and said, ‘Ms. Nichols, I hate to bother you just as you’re sitting down to dinner, but there’s someone here who wants very much to meet you. And he said to tell you that he is your biggest fan.’ I said, ‘Oh, certainly,’ I stood up and turned around and who comes walking over towards me from about 10 or 15 feet, smiling that rare smile of his, is Dr. Martin Luther King. I remember saying to myself, ‘Whoever that fan is, whoever that Trekkie is, it’ll have to wait because I have to meet Dr. Martin Luther King.’ And he walks up to me and says, ‘Yes, Ms. Nichols, I am your greatest fan.’ You know I can talk, but all my mouth could do was open and close, open and close; I was so stunned.

Given Nichols’ own connection to the Civil Rights Movement, it seems wonderfully appropriate for Star Trek to celebrate Black History Month with a one-shot in honor of the actress that ties her character to that same movement. Nichols sadly died in 2022, but her legacy continues, as this wonderful one-shot confirms. The issue will be written by Stephanie Williams and illustrated by Greg Maldonado and Anthony Fowler Jr.

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