star trek - Did Kirk and Uhura actually kiss?

Recently I rewatched the Star Trek episode "Plato's Stepchildren" and observed the well-known Kirk-Uhura kiss, which occurred under the psychokinetic duress. I know that the kiss was scripted, but as filmed I could not tell whether Kirk and Uhura's lips actually met. There was no doubt with the Spock-Chapel kiss in the same episode, but the Kirk-Uhura kiss was shot in such a way that the studio had plausible deniability if the TV audience reaction were extremely negative. Perhaps the first scripted interracial kiss on television wasn't a kiss at all.

Did Kirk and Uhura actually kiss?

Acceptable proof would be a quote from Shatner or Nichols or someone else on set that day saying the kiss actually happened.

Answer

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.

Wikipedia, with a citation.

Comments

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