Plato's Stepchildren

They’re the least platonic friends the Federation has ever encountered. This week, we press Plato’s Stepchildren between the virtual pages of the Mission Log. So… for this, an act of rape, humiliation and torture to be heralded and applauded as the “first” interracial “kiss” on television is incredibly problematic when you consider the sexual aspect of race relations in this country. Black women were and have been disproportionately the targets of sexual violence for much of American history, and black men had only recently been lynched by mobs for consensual sexual relationships with white women. Of course, Kirk is not himself violating Uhura and the storyline does not follow directly the topic of lynch mobs, but still, that context cannot be ignored for such an important moment. Yikes. Why on earth does everyone love it so much? It is interesting, right, how all we tend to focus on is the fact that the kiss took place and not the context. The one I think we mentioned that happened before – Nancy Sinatra and Sammy Davis – was just a couple of friends sharing a friendly kiss, nowhere near the terrible overtones of what was going on with “Plato’s Stepchildren.” I came to your podcast late and as a part of my personal 50th anniversary re-watch, I started with TOS. So, I started listening to your podcasts from the beginning. Thanks for all the effort you put into the shows, we fans appreciate it (I’m sure). A couple of times, I thought about commenting about one thing or another, but I listen at work and usually lose the thought when my masters pull my strings! In any event, as this episode included the liberal application of Lord Acton’s aphorism about power + corruption, I finally put pen to paper (kinda). This quote is usually misquoted and it’s a major pet peeve for me. Most people say “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely” or words to that effect; however, what he said was: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men” At the risk of coming off as smarmy, didactic, and/or pedantic, there’s a subtle, but distinct difference. Acton was writing to a cleric about the abuses of both Crown and the Pope and he distinguished between just plain ol’ power, which might corrupt given the facts and the people involved, etc., but that the “absolute” power of monarchs of all stripes would corrupt absolutely. Those crazy kids the Platonists had “absolute” power and were corrupt clean through, while people like Kirk or Spock or rather, more likely, some of the bad CO’s encountered by the Enterprise (the guys in bread and circuses and the omega glory) might or might not be corrupted by power. Anyway, sorry for the speech, but . . . Another thing I’d like to call to your attention, unless I’m mistaken, in the trivia John remarked about — I think he said Dionysus, but I may be wrong, going to Hades to retrieve his dead love, who John called Euripides. I think he meant Eurdyice (of Orpheus and Eurydice fame). Anyway, can’t wait for your MacGyver podcasts when you f-I-n-a-l-l-y get down with Star Trek! Thank you, Ken, for the additional notes! Jeez- I forgot MacGyver was on the list! What’s a few more years… I’m a very new listener and fan, too (I’ve kind of become addicted to this podcast). Since I’m also an hellenist, I just wanted to make a small precision: in the play “The Frogs”, it is indeed Euripides, the playwright (not Eurydice, Orpheus’ wife), whom Dionysus wants to retrieve from Hades. Euripides was often the butt of jokes in Aristophanes’ comedies. At the end of the play, after a debate about who was the best playwright between Aeschylus and Euripides, Dionysus decides that Aeschylus will be the one to be brought back from the dead. Thanks for joining us, Rose – and thank you for the details on “The Frogs.” Nice to have someone who knows the classics! Wow. This is one episode that I really can’t bring myself to rewatch. As I’ve grown older, and the element