Much is made of Captain Kirk and Lt. Uhura's kiss in the classic episode, Plato's Stepchildren. The alien enforced liplock was the first interracial kiss on television. Despite a recent revelation that an obscure British live drama snagged the title a few years prior, the great cultural interest in Star Trek makes the William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols scene still the one most talked about.
But there was another kiss.
In the same episode, Spock and Nurse Chapel - Leonard Nimoy and Majel Barrett Roddenberry - were also forced into romantic play by the sadistic Platonians. Because of Chapel's pining lust for the stoic Vulcan, and Spock's romantic resistance to her, their embrace and smooch is, in many ways, even more dramatic.
Nurse Chapel is one of the sadder characters on Star Trek. Wonderfully played by Majel Barrett Roddenberry, Chapel has to keep her romantic secret - that she dearly loves Spock. When the revelation is finally made, it's both poignant and touching.
It's no wonder that when Next Generation was created, Majel was given the joyous and highly libidinous character of Lwaxana - a woman who never was shy about admitting her attraction to the bemused Jean-Luc Picard. Oh Jean-Luc!
