Despite his poor reputation among pure and hard fans, Star Trek: the original series Season 3 has produced some of the most emblematic and memorable episodes of the show. One of its most famous and most famous infamous is “Plato’s Stepchildren”, which, despite a kiss between Kirk and Uhura, Actor William Shatner called “dull and forgettable” in his memories. All the respect due to the good captain, he is wrong on this subject for many reasons.

Although no episode of the show has never faced censorship in the United States, three of the four Star Trek: Tos The prohibited episodes of the United Kingdom came from season 3. “Plato’s fine child” were one, but not perhaps why the modern public might think. Although racial problems existed at a different measure in the United Kingdom that in the United States, Kirk and Uhura’s Kiss did not give them scruples. It was rather the sadistic nature of holders, extraterrestrials with “psychocinetic” power. (Invented in 1914, parapsychology, psychokinsis was not a popular term in 1968.) Even NBC felt worrying for this element of history, suggesting that extraterrestrials are “telekinenetics” instead, according to, according to These are the trips – Tos season three by Marc Cushman with Susan Osborn. The network has also never committed to writing concerns about the kiss between Kirk and Uhura, but they called Tos The producers to ensure that the nanism of actor Alexandre Michael Dunn was treated with respect. This understood that only “heavy” abused him, not the business crew. On and off the screen, “Les Beaux-Enfants de Plato” are an emblematic The original series Episode worthy of its place in Star Trek history.

What was Star Trek: the episode of the original series “Plato’s Stepchildren”?

Emblematic history is more than Kirk and Uhura kissing television

The premise of “Plato’s Stepchildren” was already familiar to Star Trek At the time. An landing party ends up separating from the ship and faces dangerous, controlling the extraterrestrials with unique powers. The extraterrestrials are of course aware of the antiquity of the earth, in particular of classical Greece. They adopted the cultural aesthetics of the time and even named “Platonians”, enjoying philosophers. The Enterprise crew is coming so that Doctor McCoy can save their leader from a disease, and the Platonians try to force McCoy to stay using their psychocinetic powers to humiliate the rest of the crew.

The episode is one of the idiots involuntarily Star Trek: Tos episodes, the genre that earned the false reputation Strange new worlds Just mocked. Spock makes Shakespeare and sings an original song. Kirk and others are forced to crawl on the ground. Then, of course, there is the infamous kiss between Kirk and Uhura, which the Platonians forced in the context of their performance. (In fact, NBC was also concerned about this aspect, by avoiding in particular the appearance of “voyeurism” or sexual assault.) However, many Star Trek Fans do not like this episode because they feel making fun or embarrassing corporate heroes. However, for storytellers, it was the point of the episode.

Although he is no longer the showrunner, Gene Roddenberry defended this episode of season 3 against these claims. The producers rejected the Call of NBC to make Platonians telekinenetics because the drama depended on the mental conscience of the crew on what the extraterrestrials forced them to do. The test of this humiliation and this loss of control was not supposed to be a weakness, but rather, the reactions of the crew were a demonstration of force. The intensity of distribution performance is partly why British censors have prohibited the episode for fear of disturbing their viewers.

“ Plato’s fine child ” were made at the start of the end for the original series

Star Trek was going out in NBC after Gene Roddenberry fell from the show

Although it is no longer involved in the daily production of the show, including the creation of stories, Roddenberry was still an executive producer. Even with behind -the -scenes clashes between him and his replacements, he joined the network to ensure that this episode was not too much involved. This included weighing on the controversy with the network on the infamous kiss. Although it is not technically the first interracial kiss on television, it was nevertheless an important step.

In fact, the actor of Uhura, Nichelle Nichols, credited William Shatner to have saved the kiss and cheer up in the face of the racism of the leaders of NBC. Roddenberry suggested filming the scene two ways, one with an obvious kiss and one with that involved only. Shatner continued to ask for a catch after taking with the kiss, then he deliberately crossed his eyes on the only catch without her. It should also be noted that the Chapel nurse (played by Majel Barrett Roddenberry) was forced to kiss Spock as part of this “performance” for extraterrestrials. She was the character who pleaded with Spock to “please make them stop”.

With hindsight, “the Beaux-Enfants de Plato” is a perfect mixture of Star Hiking’s Propensity to mix the idiots with seriousness. Viewers at home could laugh at silly costumes and exaggerated agitation while Kirk and the crew fight the powers of Platonians. However, just like Star Trek Made better, science fiction and manifest fantasy of narration contains a subtextual depth on power, resilience and what it really means to be a “advanced” society or being. “The Beaux-Enfants de Plato” are a lot, but none of them is dull or forgettable.

All the respect due to William Shatner, Star Trek: Tos Season 3 found his fans

The reduced quality of the series has led to certain beloved episodes

After frequent clashes with NBC, especially on the show Aid on Friday evening at 10 p.m., Gene Roddenberry fell in the hope of warning Star Hiking’s cancelation. In addition, Gene L. Coon, a directors behind the scenes for a large part of what the spectacle is most known, has left the series. This naturally colors the attitudes of the shows produced during this period among those who experienced its production, including shast. However, according to These are the tripsOne of the reasons why this episode cost more than $ 7,000 on the budget was to say the delays caused by the actors who make horses and laugh while turning the scenes.

There are really regrettable episodes of Star Trek: Tos Season 3, but even those like “Spock’s Brain” have their fans. An old joke among the first trekks went: “There are 78 episodes of Star TrekAnd 30 of them are actually GOOD. “However, ask any group of fans which of these 78 episodes was the” good “, and everyone will have different answers. With the additional advantage of decades and decades of hindsight, any episode featuring this original distribution to their peak is more gift than Curse. Other episodes of season 3, such as “Let That Your Last Battlefield”, with its half-white and half-white extraterrestrials, or “The Tholian Web”, are considered classic today.

Thus, while “Plato’s fine child” can cover a familiar thematic soil and seem silly to the surface, the episode still works. It was a risky choice to design the episode so that fans feel uncomfortable in the way their heroes are treated, but that does not mean that it cannot be deep. Even among the fans for which this represents a low point for Star TrekIt is neither dull nor forgetable. William Shatner may think that it was not the best job of the global show, but the heritage of the “Plato Beaux-Children” is nothing to reject so easily. From the infamous kiss to the deliberately disturbing premise, it is a whole emblematic chapter of Star Trek.

Star Trek: the original series

Release date

1966-1969-00-00

Showrunner

Roddenberry gene

Directors

Marc Daniels, Joseph Pevney, Ralph Senensky, Vincent Mceveety, Herb Wallerstein, Jud Taylor, Marvin J. Chomsky, David Alexander, Gerd Oswald, Herschel Daugherty, James Goldstone, Robert Butler, Anton Leader, Gene Nelson, John Newland, Josp Lawrence Dobkin, Leo Penn, Michael O’Herlihy, Murray Golden

Writers

DC Fontana, Jerome Bixby, Arthur Heinemann, David Gerrold, Jerry Sohl, Oliver Crawford, Robert Bloch, David P. Harmon, Don Ingalls, Paul Schneider, Shimon Wincelberg Lakso, Fredric Brown, George Clayton Johnson, George F. Slavin, Gilbert Ralston, Harlan Ellison

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  William Shatner

  James T. Kirk

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