What did Uhura do in the movie that did not have to do with being a love interest and a girlfriend? She intercepted a transmission (offscreen) and she got to man Communications because she speaks three dialects of Romulan (bwa ha ha). At no point during the action do we see her using those skills or do anything that has to do with her actual job. Or if we do, after two viewings, I can't say I've noticed. We see her worry about Spock, kiss Spock be supportive and a Good Girlfriend to Spock. There wasn't even so much as a "Hailing frequences open, Captain". Sulu had his swordfight, Chekov his mad transporter skillz, Scotty his mad engineering skillz, McCoy was doing doctor stuff in Sickbay, WTF was Uhura doing? The criticism about her not doing enough in the movie was valid. As for geeks identifying with her. I for one, tend to identify with the underdog. She's beeyootiful, supersmart and has the two leads at her feet. How the fuck am I supposed to identify with that? It's straight out of the Mary Sue handbook!

I'm glad that her character worked for you. She came close for me but the way the Spock/Uhura thing was handled really grated :(