Star Trek - The Original Series, Episode 67: Plato's Stepchildren [VHS]
Best known as the episode featuring the first interracial kiss on television, "Plato's Stepchildren" remains a disconcerting story in which ourStar Trekheroes are reduced to playthings for psycho-telekinetic fiends. TheEnterpriseproceeds to the planet Platonius in response to a distress signal, and find that a race of people with special powers live there, having created a society loosely based on that of ancient Greece. These Platonians can force outsiders to act against their wills, and when Captain Kirk (William Shatner) attempts to prevent the Platonian king from holding Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) indefinitely, he and Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), and Nurse Chapel (Majel Barrett) are made to perform for their captors. Much discussed by the show's producers before shooting commenced, a kiss exchanged between Shatner and Nichols crossed a certain threshold in network television, where such a thing had been previously unimaginable. Still, Shatner's own recollection (from his memoir,Where No Man Has Gone Before) is accurate when he states that the scene is so compelling dramatically that the color of the actors is almost beyond notice. What does not go unnoticed, however, is the sensitive performance of Michael Dunn, the dwarf actor best known as Dr. Loveless fromThe Wild Wild West.--Tom Keogh