Plato's Stepchildren

The episode is notable for depicting a kiss between a white man (Kirk) and a black woman (Uhura), which was among the earliest instances of this on a US television show.

McCoy takes a sample of Alexander's blood and manages to isolate and identify the kironide mineral that provides the inhabitants with their special powers; it is abundant in the natural food and water supply of the planet.

Kirk promises to send appropriate medical technicians to the planet as long as the Platonians behave themselves, and Alexander requests to go with the Enterprise to start a new life elsewhere in the galaxy.

William Shatner recalls in Star Trek Memories that NBC insisted their lips never touch (the technique of turning their heads away from the camera was used to conceal this).

However, Nichelle Nichols insists in her autobiography Beyond Uhura (written in 1994 after Shatner's book) that the kiss was real, even in takes where her head obscures their lips.

However, almost no one found the kiss offensive" except from a single, mildly negative letter from one white Southerner who wrote: "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.

[9] In 2016, TVLine ranked this as having one of the top twenty moments of Star Trek, noting the scene during which Spock and Kirk are forced to dance by the powerful but cruel aliens.

[11] On the fiftieth anniversary of the first broadcast of Star Trek, National Geographic noted the Kirk-Uhura kiss as "iconic", which they describe as connecting to the period's civil rights issues.

"[15] In 2017, Den of Geek ranked "Plato's Stepchildren" the fourth worst episode of the original Star Trek television series.

[16] This episode was released in Japan on December 21, 1993 as part of the complete season 3 LaserDisc set, Star Trek: Original Series log.3.