Posted in: Star Trek, TV | Tagged: gene roddenberry, star trek, Star Trek: The Original Series, william shatner, You Can Call Me Bill

William Shatner on Kirk/Uhura Kiss Concern, Star Trek Return Terms

William Shatner on his concern regarding the Kirk/Uhura kiss and what he would be looking for to consider an on-screen Star Trek return.

Few can ever accomplish what William Shatner has across his seven-decade career as an actor, writer, director, and philanthropist. With over 250 credits to his name, he'll be forever synonymous with Star Trek, regardless of what his castmates and critics alike thought of him at the time. No one can deny his impact on the franchise. While promoting his upcoming documentary You Can Call Me Bill from Legion M, Shatner spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about a variety of Star Trek-related topics. In the following highlights, Shatner shares how he tried to maneuver through the Kirk-Uhura kiss with Nichelle Nichols in the episode "Plato's Stepchildren" to avoid the kiss being edited and what it would take for him to consider returning as Kirk.

When there was pushback from network censors on Shatner's interracial kiss with Nichols and he tried to make every take as real as possible, "I do remember saying, 'Maybe they'll try and edit it. What can I do to try and discourage the editing of the kiss itself?' I don't remember quite what I did because it's difficult to cut away [from the kiss in an edit]. But yeah, I remember thinking that," he said. When it comes to returning to the Star Trek franchise after two shows and seven films akin to when TNG star and Shatner's Generations (1994) co-star Sir Patrick Stewart did for Picard, the actor was specific about the terms of his return.

"Leonard [Nimoy] made his own decision on doing a cameo [in J.J. Abrams' 2009 'Star Trek']. He's there for a moment, and it's more of a stunt that Spock appears in the future. If they wrote something that wasn't a stunt that involved Kirk, who's 50 years older now, and it was something that was genuinely added to the lore of Star Trek, I would definitely consider it." Shatner's surviving TOS co-stars Walter Koenig (Chekov) and George Takei (Sulu) made their returns to the franchise in recent years. Koenig makes a voice cameo playing his character's grandson Federation President Anton Chekov in the Picard finale. Takei reprised Sulu on the animated Lower Decks with a nod to Generations joking that Sulu looks after Kirk's ranch.

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