{"id":19254,"date":"2016-09-08T00:55:18","date_gmt":"2016-09-07T16:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/oh-that-kiss-how-star-trek-voyaged-into-controversial-social-and-political-frontiers\/"},"modified":"2016-09-08T00:55:18","modified_gmt":"2016-09-07T16:55:18","slug":"oh-that-kiss-how-star-trek-voyaged-into-controversial-social-and-political-frontiers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/oh-that-kiss-how-star-trek-voyaged-into-controversial-social-and-political-frontiers\/","title":{"rendered":"Oh, that kiss! How \u2018Star Trek\u2019 voyaged into controversial social and political frontiers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Image:
Lt. Uhura and Captain Kirk (played by Nichelle Nichols and William Shatner) embrace in a controversial episode of \u201cStar Trek.\u201d (Courtesy of CBS Television Studios)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fifty years ago, \u201cStar Trek\u201d pushed the frontiers of technology with 23rd-century smartphones \u2013 also known as communicators \u2013 but the TV show pushed social and political frontiers as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the original premise of the show may have been, \u2018Let\u2019s just have some adventures with a spaceship,\u2019 very quickly it became social commentary as well,\u201d screenwriter David Gerrold observes in \u201cBuilding Star Trek,\u201d a Smithsonian Channel documentary about the show and its legacy.<\/p>\n

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the \u201cStar Trek\u201d premiere, here are five ways in which the show\u2019s scripts \u2013 and its creator, Gene Roddenberry \u2013 went where few 1960s-era TV sagas had gone before:<\/p>\n

That interracial kiss:<\/strong> So maybe the kiss between a white man (Captain James Kirk, played by William Shatner) and a black woman (Lt. Uhura, played by Nichelle Nichols) wasn\u2019t technically the first desegregated smooch on TV. Nevertheless, it shook up segments of American society. \u201cThere were Southern stations that told NBC: \u2018Well, we\u2019re not going to run this show, because you have a black woman on the bridge,’\u201d screenwriter D.C. Fontana recalled. \u201cAnd Gene Roddenberry told NBC to tell them to go to hell.\u201d Nichols said the scene struck a chord for her personally because her own \u201cGrandpa was white, and Grandma was black.\u201d But professionally speaking? \u201cIt was just a kissing scene,\u201d Nichols said.<\/p>\n

\"Star
In 1976, the prototype space shuttle Enterprise rolled out of the shuttle manufacturing facilities in Palmdale, Calif., and was greeted by NASA officials and cast members from the \u201cStar Trek\u201d TV series. From left to right they are: NASA Administrator James Fletcher; DeForest Kelley, who portrayed Dr. Leonard \u201cBones\u201d McCoy on the series; George Takei (Mr. Sulu); James Doohan (Chief Engineer Montgomery \u201cScotty\u201d Scott); Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura); Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock); series creator Gene Roddenberry; U.S. Rep. Don Fuqua, D-Fla.; and Walter Koenig (Ensign Pavel Chekov). Click on the image for a larger version. (Credit: NASA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Space travelers swore off meat:<\/strong> Much has been written about the diet of the \u201cStar Trek\u201d crews, going way back to the 22nd century (as documented in the \u201cEnterprise\u201d spin-off). The consensus is that by the time of the original TV series, the crew members relied on synthetic meat products and other foodstuffs that came out of the starship\u2019s food replicators. Perhaps our 21st-century efforts to produce lab-grown meat from stem cells bore fruit, so to speak. For more on the evolution of the \u201cStar Trek\u201d vegan diet, check out this analysis from Red Hot Vegans.<\/p>\n

The Russian was a good guy:<\/strong> Ensign Chekov was added to the cast for the second season of the original series, during the depths of the Cold War. His presence was Roddenberry\u2019s way of signaling that Washington and Moscow had somehow found a way out of their superpower standoff. Simon Pegg, who plays Scotty in the \u201cStar Trek\u201d reboot, said Chekov stood out even back then as a pop-star Russian. \u201cTo see this character who was extremely attractive, and loyal, and not at all a bushy-eyebrowed communist \u2026 he was a part of the team,\u201d Pegg said.<\/p>\n

Captain Kirk headed off Cold Wars:<\/strong> The TV series\u2019 scripts repeatedly echoed Cold War themes. \u201cA Taste of Armageddon\u201d focused on a planet where two foes wage war by computer, and kill off their own citizens to match the assigned casualty count. Kirk finds a way to stop the madness. He also bluffs his way out of mutually assured destruction in \u201cThe Corbomite Maneuver\u201d \u2013 and discovers that his adversary isn\u2019t such a bad egg after all. Another classic episode, titled \u201cLet That Be Your Last Battlefield,\u201d combines allusions to racism and nuclear holocaust: Two implacable foes loathe each other\u2019s appearance, even though their only difference is that one is black-and-white, while the other is white-and-black.<\/p>\n