ishtar79

(Hee, I'm not a huge Shatner fan, but to give him credit he did make fun of his earlier hammy ways in Boston Legal and assorted SNL skits. He came from a theaterical background - so much like Marsters in S2, Buffy, had a tendency to project as one might in a theater to an audience. Unfortunately the camera picks up too much, so it comes across as over-acting. Some actors go the opposite extreme and barely act at all - which comes across as stiff and wooden. Acting to a camera is tough.)

I wish I could find the link where both Shatner and Nichelle Nichols discuss what happened. It's an interesting reflection on the times.
And shows how far we've come since then. The fan reaction to Uhura and Spock, while disturbing, is no where near what it was like back then. (Actually, I find fan reaction to a lot of things disturbing. Apparently hate groups are utilizing social networking sites and blogs as a means of getting new members and getting their message across. Eww. I'm so happy that I remain oblivious and my flist does not have any of these people on it.)

Network television in its depiction of women and race has come a long way since Star Trek first aired. As objectionable as some of those early episodes might be to us, they were ground-breaking back then and really pushed the envelope regarding civil rights and social issues. Rod Sterling, Gene Roddenberry, and other writers had to use the sci-fi genre to explore these issues because they couldn't do it directly in normal dramas, without censorship. It's ironic, considering how sexist and racist a good portion of the written sci-fantasy book world is and was at that time, while tv and film were going in the opposite direction.

Hee, yes, I can't carry off a bikini or a short dress. Nichell Nichols, the original Uhura ...sigh, I envy her, she still looks good at 60 something.