Lieutenant Uhura: 5 landing party adventures in orginal Star Trek

“Plato’s Stepchildren” (season 3, episode 10)

“Plato’s Stepchildren” is the “away mission” in which Lieutenant Uhura was not a willing participant. Through their powerful psychokinesis, the sadistic Platonians bring both Uhura and Nurse Chapel to the planet surface, where they are forced into intimate rendezvouses with Kirk and Spock.

Regretfully, the only emotion this execrable episode’s script allows Nichelle Nichols to play is fear. Uhura isn’t just frightened, as she was in “The City on the Edge of Forever.” She tells Kirk, “I’m so frightened, Captain, I’m so very frightened.” She also remembers “all the time on the Enterprise when [she] was scared to death,” but seeing and hearing Kirk in command made her fears vanish. Ugh. Thankfully, Star Trek has moved away from equating courage with “not being afraid.”

But for all its cringe-inducing faults, “Plato’s Stepchildren” is arguably Uhura’s most famous “away mission,” because the episode included one of the earliest interracial kisses on U.S. television. Nichelle Nichols and William Shatner’s liplock is now the stuff of TV legend.

And—at least in her remarks for the official 1987 Star Trek calendar—Nichelle Nichols called the episode her favorite. She wrote:

"We saw the show’s refusal to let the human spirit be demeaned or manipulated, and glimpsed the unspoken bond of love and trust between Uhura and Kirk, although it did NOT take 36 takes to get the kiss right… the first 35 were only practice!"

What’s your favorite landing party moment featuring Lieutenant Uhura? Let us know on Twitter, on Facebook, or in the comments below!