Editing Plato's Stepchildren (section)

==The kiss==
{{main|Kirk and Uhura's kiss}}
[[File:Plato's Stepchildren kiss.jpg|thumb|right|220px|The kiss between Kirk and Uhura is sometimes cited as the first white and black interracial kiss portrayed on US television.]]

The episode features a kiss between [[James T. Kirk]] ([[William Shatner]]) and Lt. [[Uhura]] ([[Nichelle Nichols]]) which for many years was described as the first interracial kiss on television.<ref>{{cite news|last=Brown|first=Mark|url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/nov/20/tv-archive-discovers-couple-who-beat-kirk-and-uhara-to-first-interracial-kiss|title=TV archive discovers couple who beat Kirk and Uhura to first interracial kiss|work=The Guardian|date=20 November 2015|access-date=20 November 2015|archive-date=November 22, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151122022257/http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/nov/20/tv-archive-discovers-couple-who-beat-kirk-and-uhara-to-first-interracial-kiss|url-status=live}}</ref>

However, it was not the [[first interracial kiss on television]].

Several takes of the Kirk/Uhura kiss were filmed, with different levels of contact between the actors, and many speculate on which version was used in the final cut of the episode. William Shatner recalls in ''Star Trek Memories'' that [[NBC]] insisted their lips never touch (the technique of turning their heads away from the camera was used to conceal this). However, Nichelle Nichols insists in her autobiography ''Beyond Uhura'' (written in 1994 after Shatner's book) that the kiss was real, even in takes where her head obscures their lips.<ref>''Nichelle Nichols, Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories'', G.P. Putnam & Sons New York, 1994. pp.195-198</ref>

When NBC executives learned of the kiss they became concerned it would anger TV stations in the [[Deep South]].<ref>Nichols, p.195</ref> There were, however, few if any complaints about the scene.<ref name="Nichols, pp.196-197">Nichols, pp.196-197</ref> Nichelle Nichols observes that "Plato's Stepchildren" which first aired in November 1968 "received a huge response. We received one of the largest batches of fan mail ever, all of it very positive, with many addressed to me from girls wondering how it felt to kiss Captain Kirk, and many to him from guys wondering the same thing about me. However, almost no one found the kiss offensive" except from a single, mildly negative letter from one white Southerner who wrote: "I am totally opposed to the mixing of the races. However, any time a red-blooded American boy like Captain Kirk gets a beautiful dame in his arms that looks like Uhura, he ain't gonna fight it."<ref name="Nichols, pp.196-197"/>  Nichols notes that "for me, the most memorable episode of our last season was 'Plato's Stepchildren.'"<ref>Nichols, p.193</ref>