Star Trek’s Uhura And Spock Were Supposed To Hook Up Years Ago, Then William Shatner Pulled Rank

Well this is a surprise. We all know about the interracial kiss that rocked the world on Star Trek on November 22, 1968 but did you know that kiss was originally supposed to be between Uhura and Spock, not Uhura and Kirk? 

In the episode “Plato’s Stepchildren” from the original series, the crew land on a planet filled with telekenetic humanoids who had been living their lives as if they were in ancient Greece. When they ask that Dr. McCoy stay on their planet just in case they ever need a doctor, disagreements follow and the people use their powers to humiliate Kirk and the others by making them do silly dances and the like. They even make Spock express emotion. But the news-worthy bit came when they forced Kirk and Uhura to kiss.

As far as what we already know from history, the story was Kirk/Uhura was what was written in the script but after concerns from NBC executives, they thought to change the kiss to Spock/Uhura but William Shatner insisted they keep with what was written. But in a recent interview, Nichelle Nichols gave some details that cast a slightly different shade on this story.

[She] told The Vancouver Sun she was rehearsing her lip-lock with Leonard Nimoy (a.k.a. the Vulcan, Mr. Spock) when William Shatner (a.k.a. interstellar stud, Captain Kirk) saw the smooch. “Bill Shatner saw what was going on and he said, ‘Woah, woah, woah. If anybody is gonna get to kiss Lieutenant Uhura it’s gonna be me.’ And he had the whole thing changed so the first interracial kiss was with Lieutenant Uhura and Captain Kirk.”

Nichols laughs almost constantly as she recalls her most memorable Star Trek moment. “Bill wanted to rehearse all the time. He said he wanted to get this right! I said to him, “It’s right, it’s right. I promise you, it’s right.” And the camera was shaking and the director was laughing his head off. We really had a good time.”

Brings a whole new meaning to “Dammit, Jim” doesn’t it?

It all worked out in the end I suppose. Uhura and Spock get to live out a real relationship rather than a forced kiss thanks to J.J. Abrams.

(via Blastr)

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Jill Pantozzi

Jill Pantozzi is a pop-culture journalist and host who writes about all things nerdy and beyond! She’s Editor in Chief of the geek girl culture site The Mary Sue (Abrams Media Network), and hosts her own blog “Has Boobs, Reads Comics” (TheNerdyBird.com). She co-hosts the Crazy Sexy Geeks podcast along with superhero historian Alan Kistler, contributed to a book of essays titled “Chicks Read Comics,” (Mad Norwegian Press) and had her first comic book story in the IDW anthology, “Womanthology.” In 2012, she was featured on National Geographic’s "Comic Store Heroes," a documentary on the lives of comic book fans and the following year she was one of many Batman fans profiled in the documentary, "Legends of the Knight."

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