TOS · SEASON 33×10

Plato's Stepchildren

NOMADIC PICK · HISTORIC PICKUncomfortable viewing, but a landmark moment.

FIRST SHOWN (US): 22 November 1968
ON: NBC
STARDATE: 5784.2
DIRECTED BY: David Alexander
PRODUCTION NO.: 67

WRITTEN BYWritten by Meyer Dolinsky

IN BRIEF

SPOILER-FREE

A distress call leads Kirk, Spock and McCoy to a society modelled on ancient Greece, whose people have formidable mental powers and very little kindness.

SYNOPSIS

SPOILERS

Red alert: the full plot, ending included. Haven't watched yet?REVEAL SYNOPSIS

Answering a medical distress call, Kirk, Spock and McCoy meet the Platonians, a small community who model their lives on ancient Greece and possess telekinetic powers. McCoy treats their leader Parmen, but the call was a lure: the Platonians want McCoy to stay as their permanent doctor. Only Alexander, a man of short stature who serves as their jester, lacks the powers, and he suffers their cruelty daily. When Kirk refuses to leave McCoy behind, Parmen turns the officers into puppets, humiliating them and forcing Uhura and Nurse Chapel to join in degrading entertainments, including a kiss between Kirk and Uhura. McCoy traces the powers to kironide, a mineral in the local food and water, and prepares injections that give Kirk and Spock even greater power than Parmen. Alexander tries and fails to stab Parmen, and Kirk, now the stronger, defeats him. Kirk warns that the serum can be made again if needed, and Alexander leaves with the Enterprise.

DID YOU KNOW?

01The kiss between Kirk and Uhura was long called US television's first interracial kiss. It was not actually the first, but it remains one of the most famous.
02The BBC did not show it until the 1990s, not because of the kiss but because of its scenes of torture and sadism.
03Michael Dunn had been considered for the role of Balok in “The Corbomite Maneuver”.

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