Chiton-style tunic worn by William Shatner as Captain Kirk in the Star Trek episode “Plato’s Stepchildren”
date: label: date made
content: before 1966
name: label: wearer
content: Shatner, William
notes: label: Description
content: Chiton-style tunic worn by William Shatner as Captain Kirk in the Star Trek episode “Plato’s Stepchildren”. Red and yellow striped metallic synthetic fabric. Gathered at one shoulder and waist.
label: Description
content: William Shatner portrayed Captain James T. Kirk in the futuristic adventure series Star Trek, beginning in 1966. Shatner played the role of Captain Kirk for the show’s three seasons and has reprised his role in various spin-offs and adaptations. Commander of the USS Enterprise starship, Kirk was supported by his Starfleet crew, First Officer and Science Officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Chief Medical Officer Leonard H. McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Second Officer and Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott (James Doohan), Communications Officer Nyota Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), and Helmsman Hikaru Sulu (George Takei), as they traveled the Milky Way in the 23rd century.
label: Description
content: This tunic was worn by Shatner as Kirk in season three, episode 10, “Plato’s Stepchildren.” In this episode, Captain Kirk shares a kiss with Nichelle Nichols’ Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, resulting in American television’s first scripted interracial kiss. The scene aired at a time when racial tensions were high in the United States, generating media attention and controversy just one year after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Loving v. Virginia struck down state laws against interracial marriage. At the time, Gallup polls showed that fewer than 20 percent of Americans approved of such relationships, and television network censors had long enforced an unwritten ban on interracial relationships, fearing backlash from affiliate stations and sponsors. However, according to Nichols, public response to the scene was overwhelmingly positive. Of the episode, Nichols said, “We received one of the largest batches of fan mail ever, all of it very positive, with many addressed to me from girls wondering how it felt to kiss Captain Kirk, and many to him from guys wondering the same thing about me. However, almost no one found the kiss offensive," except for one white Southerner who wrote the producers "I am totally opposed to the mixing of the races. However, any time a red-blooded American boy like Captain Kirk gets a beautiful dame in his arms that looks like Uhura, he ain't gonna fight it."
label: Description
content: As Uhura, Nichols was the first African-American woman to have a continuing co-starring role on television. Nichols recalled meeting Martin Luther King, Jr., a fan of the series, who told her “You have opened a door that must not be allowed to close…you changed the face of television forever…For the first time, the world sees us as we should be seen, as equals, as intelligent people.” The magazine Ebony featured Nichols on its January 1967 cover and described Uhura as “the first Negro astronaut, a triumph of modern-day TV over modern-day NASA” and indeed, Nichols was later hired by NASA to assist with minority recruitment for the astronaut program.
label: Description
content: Star Trek has had an immense influence on American popular culture and history. Beyond amassing a large and dedicated fanbase as an influential space-age adventure series, the show engaged with contemporary issues and politics. Its representation of a racially inclusive and diverse future was a provocative and progressive statement amidst the Civil Rights Movement.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: associated subject
content: Television
label: associated subject
content: Space Travel
label: associated subject
content: Race
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Entertainment
label: See more items in
content: Popular Entertainment
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: James and Amber Comisar
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2023.0146.03.01
label: catalog number
content: 2023.0146.03.01
label: accession number
content: 2023.0146
objectType: label: Object Name
content: tunic
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: fabric, synthetic (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall, flat: 35 in x 34 in; 88.9 cm x 86.36 cm