What the most controversal scene on TOS?
- Thread starter steve1961
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They were black-white and white-black for a reason. It was an allegory about the illogic and destructiveness racism. They can't address that if they don't feature racism - which was a really hot topic at the time. They were rarely subtle in TOS or early TNG for that matter. There's a lot more to deplore in the Angel One episode of TNG because of the hypocrisy about the way women were portrayed and treated in the franchise - the pot incident in Q-pid(?) springs to mind!
The white black/black white faced people 'Let That Be Your Last Battlefield' was disturbing in my opinion as it showed that racism is destructive. Perhaps this was the message that this episode was meant to convey.
That's exactly what it was supposed to convey. It was the whole point of the episode.
The aliens' colors were meant to illustrate in no uncertain terms that treating black humans and white humans differently is just as stupid and pointless as black/white aliens treating white/black aliens differently.
When you watch the ep and see how ridiculous the alien's are behaving...and the whole white/black black/white thing looks pretty ridiculous...then you were supposed to start thinking that "gee, our own real-life racial attitudes would probably look just as ridiculous to an alien. Maybe they are and we should change".
The episode wasn't being racist, it was illustrating how pointless & wrong it is by using colors that are similar enough to our own racial issues to "hit close to home", yet different enough to also point out how ridiculous the whole thing really is.
(Neutral Zone, please note I ended up using this reply to address the general topic. Most of it wasn't in reply to you personally.)
Mark
You're thinking of Letters to Star Trek by Susan Sackett. It's an interesting read - one person even asked for an autographed picture of the U.S.S. Enterprise!I know there was some negative letter about Uhura, but I forget whether or not it was due to the kiss.
I vaguely recall it in one of the behind-the-scenes books....
It turned out that the guy who sent the negative received a photo of Nichelle Nichols, and a thank-you letter...or something to that effect...
Earlier than that, Sidney Portier kissed Anne Bancroft at the 1964 Oscars ceremony. A New York Times writer the next day heralded it as "television's first interracial kiss".
Desi Arnaz was Asian?
^Desi Arnaz was Cuban, which I suppose makes him Latino...
Or Halle Berry, or gorgeous Samantha Mumba.
Of course, "race" is pretty much how you want to define it. I'd guess that most Americans think of Cubans as white. Until recently, I worked with a Cuban lady who's paler than I am.
Bele and Lokai weren't interracial. They belonged to different races of the same species, one being black on the right side and white on the left, the other vice versa. Supposedly that was their natural coloration.
That scene in "The Man Trap," in which the shape-shifting salt vampire appears to Uhura in the form of a tall, handsome black man who speaks her native Swahili, really sold us on the idea that Uhura was more than just a glorified switchboard operator; she was a real woman with sexual feelings. Unfortunately, she was Trek TOS's most underutilized character. "Mirror, Mirror" was the only ep that really gave Uhura a chance to strut her stuff.
Actually I had the same question originally. So I tried to cover the possibility that the poster thought Desi was Asian and that there was an Asian/white couple on "I Love Lucy:Desi Arnaz was Asian?
Correct, except your last sentence. There were a few other episodes where she was given substantive lines. For example (the most recent one I watched), in Spock's Brain she participates with Kirk, Sulu, and Chekov in speculating about which planet's inhabitants might have stolen the Brain.
Doug
And, of course, there was Uhura's snappy rejoinder to Sulu in "The Naked Time." The sword-wielding Sulu says "Ah! Fair Maiden!" to which Uhura replies "Sorry. Neither."
Yes, there were other eps in which Uhura was given more to do than open the hailing frequencies and admit to being frightened. But Uhura in those episodes pales (you should pardon the expression) in comparison to her substantial and sexy role in "Mirror, Mirror." And did she ever look hot in that abbreviated midriff-baring uniform!
Sulu's actual line was, "I'll protect you, fair maiden!" Uhura's response -- that she was neither fair-complexioned nor a maiden -- must have slipped by the NBC censors!
Another bit involving Uhura may not have been controversial, but it was unusual for the time. In "The Squire of Gothos," Trelane studies Uhura's face and (after assuming her to be "a Nubian prize, taken on one of your raids of conquest") pronounces, "She has the melting eyes of the Queen of Sheba, the same lovely coloring." Sort of an early version of "Black is Beautiful."
Kirk's line in the last scene of City on the Edge of Forever ("Let's get the hell out of here."). According the Michael Hemmingsen's book "Star Trek: A Post-Structural Critique of the Original Series", this was the first instance of the word "hell" used as a curse on American television. Probably pretty controversial in its day.
Well for me it has to be the kiss between Kirk and Uhura.
Well, in truth, I was referring to Sulu's actual scripted line from the June 28, 1966 Final Draft script of "The Naked Time," not the line as it was eventually delivered (or mis-delivered?) by Takei. But it could well be that the unscripted "I'll protect you..." comment was added into the line's delivery expressly to bury the "fair maiden" comment a bit, so that the whole interchange would get by NBC's Broadcast Standards department.
Lets not forget that, apparently, the original script had Spock kissing Uhura, where the writers thought there wouldn't be much noise since Spock is an alien. It wasn't until Shatner realized the potential importance of the scene when he wanted to be the one to do it.
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