The bold Star Trek kiss that changed America

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00:00The Star Trek kiss between Kirk and Uhura made history as one of the first between a black and

00:05white person on TV. Even though mixed race kisses had already happened and England had its first

00:10about six years earlier, this kiss was a particularly big deal and American TV execs

00:15were nervous about it. Why? Well it was 1968, the year that Martin Luther King was assassinated

00:22and only a year after the Supreme Court declared interracial marriage legal. Conversation about

00:27race was rising on both sides of many parts of America becoming more progressive. However in

00:33certain areas such as the deep south, racism was rife. NBC worried the kiss would particularly anger

00:39TV stations in this part of the country. Thankfully they still boldly went where no American TV station

00:45had gone before. However this kiss never would have happened if it wasn't for Martin Luther King

00:49and not just because of his activism. After the first series of Star Trek, Nichelle Nichols who

00:54plays Uhura wanted to quit because she felt she didn't have enough to do. She once called her

00:59character a glorified telephone operator. However it was Martin Luther King who convinced her to

01:04continue when they met at a fundraiser. He was a big fan of her and felt it was important that

01:08children of all races see an African-American woman appearing on TV as an equal. The kiss also

01:14might never have happened if it wasn't for the actor who played Kirk, William Shatner. Because

01:18NBC tried to insist their lips never touch using the technique of turning their heads away from

01:23the camera during the moment of the kiss. But allegedly Shatner deliberately messed around

01:28or crossed his eyes during the scene when they didn't kiss. So they had to use a take of the pair

01:33actually locking lips. The execs were wrong to worry though there were in fact no public

01:38complaints about the kiss apart from one bizarre racist letter. I am totally opposed to the mixing

01:44of races. However anytime a red-blooded American boy like Captain Kirk gets a beautiful dame in

01:49his arms that looks like a horror he ain't gonna fight it. Although Shatner was the one who made

01:56sure the kiss was filmed properly, Nicoles thought he might have been more nervous than she was for

02:00the scene to air. As she explained on Good Morning Britain later on her grandmother and grandfather

02:05had an interracial relationship. Nicoles remembers receiving one of the largest batches of fan mail

02:10ever with many fans wanting to know what the kiss felt like. Presumably it wasn't the worst

02:14experience for Shatner as Nicole recalls that they had over six kisses since he kept asking

02:19for another take until they ran out of time. Live long and prosper.