• WandowsVista@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    is it true that the kiss was originally supposed to be between Spock and Uhura, but Shatner refused to be upstaged so he had them rewrite it to be with him?

    either way, good point, somewhat problematic author.

    broken clocks, eh?

    • kieron115@startrek.website
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      4 hours ago

      Naw. It was originally written for Kirk and Uhura, but when the NBC executives found out they were worried it would offend TV stations in the south. The idea of having Uhura and Spock kiss was brought up because Spock is half-vulcan (which NBC thought racists would find less offensive???), but Shatner insisted that they stick the original script (perhaps out of ego, perhaps out of artistic integrity, who knows). Eventually NBC ordered that two versions of the scene be shot - one with the kiss and one without. Shatner intentionally flubbed every single take of the non-kiss version to force the executives’ hands. It wasn’t the first interracial kiss on televion, but it was the first instance of a scripted kiss between a white man and a black woman.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirk_and_Uhura’s_kiss

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hKKkGhEDoU