Star Trek’s interracial kiss the Deep South almost never saw
On the show’s 50th anniversary, a look at its groundbreaking lip lock
Any time television characters kiss for the first time, it’s good for ratings. When Captain Kirk and Lieutenant Uhura locked lips, it was historic.
As fans celebrate the show’s upcoming 50th anniversary, we reflect on one of entertainment’s most influential milestones: American TV’s first interracial kiss.
The Star Trek series was known for shattering taboos, casting diverse leads, and writing plot lines that challenged social norms. The forthcoming film Star Trek Beyond seeks to carry on that spirit by writing the Sulu character as gay. The decision was met with some controversy—to the surprise of the film’s creators—but screenwriter Simon Pegg called it a tribute to the original Sulu and openly gay actor George Takei.
The 1968 kiss between Kirk (William Shatner) and Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), on the other hand, was anticipated to be contentious.
In fact, the scene wasn’t intended for the entire country to see. NBC executives were concerned the kiss would anger viewers in the South. According to reports, they planned to censor the kiss from Southern viewers entirely, showing only an embrace.
Things did not go as planned.
On the episode’s last day on set, Nichols remembered, the skeleton crew of cameramen prepared to film Nichols’ and Shatner’s liplock. Only, as the African-American woman and white man kissed, the director shouted, “CUT!”
“What?” Shatner said, as director David Alexander approached him.
“He walks over like I’m not sitting there with Bill Shatner, Captain Kirk,” says Nichols to Archive of American Television. “Like I’m not there,” he spoke out of the corner of his mouth, “You kissed her.”
“That’s what the script says,” replied Shatner.
Apparently, their lips were never intended to touch.
At that point, two NBC “suits” sent to supervise the kiss permitted the team to shoot the scene two ways: once with a kiss and once with a mere embrace.
After several more takes of kisses and time running out, the team agreed to shoot the final take with no kiss. However, only the cameraman saw that, as Shatner looked up from the embrace, he crossed his eyes — a deliberate foil.
“That’s a wrap!” said the director.
Upon viewing the footage the following day, the team learned most of it was virtually useless. To their delight, says Nichols, they were compelled to use footage of the actual kiss.
Though the kiss was a landmark for racial representation in Hollywood, it was nonetheless soft-pedaled. The scene was shot and edited in such a way that viewers never actually witness Shatner’s and Nichols’ lips touch. (To this day, the actors disagree as to whether they actually did.) And the script was written to take romance out of the equation, with the characters forced to kiss via their captors’ telekinetic powers.
Even so, it was the first interracial kiss on television, and despite the initial idea of censoring the kiss from the South, the episode aired to great fanfare — as well as letters of outrage.
