Star Trek Costumes from Iconic, First Interracial Kiss on TV Episode Up for Auction

Toga worn by William Shatner's "Captain Kirk" expected to fetch as much as $60,000 on Dec. 1.

Costumes of Captain Kirk (left) and First Office Spock from the Star Trek episode "Plato's Stepchildren," which aired on Thanksgiving, 1968 and featured the first interracial kiss on TV. (Photo credit: Propstore.com)
Costumes of Captain Kirk (left) and First Office Spock from the Star Trek episode "Plato's Stepchildren," which aired on Thanksgiving, 1968 and featured the first interracial kiss on TV. (Photo credit: Propstore.com)

The costumes worn on the taboo-shattering Star Trek episode where no TV episode had gone before will soon be on the auction block. And they are expected to fetch a astronomical sum.

On Thanksgiving 50 years ago, the sci-fi series broke new ground by featuring a kiss between William Shatner’s “Captain Kirk” and the Enterprise’s communications officer, “Lieutenant Uhura,” played by African-American actress Nichelle Nichols. In the episode “Plato’s Stepchildren,” Kirk and Uhura were dressed to fit into a Greek culture-obsessed race and then fell under the thrall of alien mind control. And thus, they lowered their shields of otherwise professional Starfleet rules to lock lips.

The red toga worn by Shatner is expected to fetch as much as $60,000 when it goes up for auction on Saturday, Dec. 1. The green caftan worn by staid, first officer Spock will be up for bidding as well.

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