10 Most Inappropriate Moments In Star Trek: The Original Series

The famous kiss between Kirk and Uhura in Plato's Stepchildren is often referred to as the first interracial kiss on US television. In truth, it wasn't even the first interracial kiss on Star Trek: William Shatner had shared a smooch with mixed-race actor BarBara Luna over a year earlier.

There's also the troubling fact that neither Kirk nor Uhura were into it. Rather, it was the classic ploy of aliens using mind control to force the pair to lock lips, all for their own amusement. With the huge backlash this episode received for portraying two people of different ethnicities kissing, it would sadly be a long time before fans got to see a real and fully consensual interracial kiss on Star Trek again.

It is worth noting that, behind-the-scenes, the two actors were VERY into it. William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols were so adamant to include the kiss in the episode, they sabotaged the studio's attempts to cut it.

The NBC suits demanded they shoot one version of the scene in which the pair shared a friendly hug rather than a passionate embrace, just in case they decided to chicken out. When filming this cop-out take, Shatner positioned himself in such a way that the director couldn't see his face. Then, while he was hugging Nichols, he made sure to look directly in the camera and cross his eyes. This rendered the hug version unusable, and television history was made.

It's just a real shame about that alien mind control.