The first time I saw Star Trek, at age five, Sulu and Uhura puzzled me. "Why don't they talk funy?" I said. Understand: TV was so racist in the '60s that ANY character who didn't look 'white' spoke in a stereotyped pidgin or dialect. My sister who was 11 said "It's the 23rd Century. They're scientists and astronauts." I believe that she had done some reading about the show. But that doesn't explain Chief Engineer Scott.