50 Years Ago Today ‘Star Trek’ Made History With TV’s First Interracial Kiss: WATCH

Star Trek, in all its incarnations, has often been a morality play about the present set in the future and continues to break barriers in terms of representation, a tenant of the show since its inception and evident in the racial and ethnic casting in the make-up of its bridge crew.

Lt. Uhura, who was the ships communications officer (played by Nichelle Nichols) was particularly groundbreaking as Nichols recalled in an interview that it was the only role for Black women at the time “that wasn’t a mammy or a slave.”

Star Trek dealt with racial issues more than once, largely because the Civil Rights movement was still making change and making headlines. But it was the clench between Captain Kirk and Lieutenant Uhura in particular that raised some eyebrows.

But even Trek’s own fan site admits it’s a clunker of an episode despite its historical significance. “Let’s just get this out of the way: “Plato’s Stepchildren” is far from the best Star Trek episode ever made. In fact, it is fairly offensive on a few levels and especially so from my usual feminist point of view. It is counted among “groundbreaking” Star Trek episodes due to the interracial kiss between Captain Kirk and Uhura, even though a quick Wikipedia search confirms that this moment came from other television programs right around the same time period. With the advent of the internet and proliferation of information, the claim of “first interracial kiss” is perhaps a bit inflated. Star Trek, of course, remains groundbreaking on numerous levels, but in my re-watch on the eve of this episode’s 50th anniversary, I think there are many other aspects of the episode worthy of discussion.”

Watch the clip below.