Star Trek is often family-friendly, but one early episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Was banned by the BBC for being too violent. Following the adventures of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the USS Enterprise-D, TNG Not known for being particularly dark or gory. Captain Picard usually attacks problems with words and diplomacy rather than phaser fire, but he takes a different approach TNG Season 1, Episode 25, “Conspiracy”.
“Conspiracy” almost did not air at all because even some of the producers worried that it was too much. However, in the UK, the network hosting Star Trek: TNG was much stricter when it came to extremes and violence. At the time, it was the BBC, the UK’s tax-funded network, that had broadcasting rights for Star Trek: The Next Generation. There was one scene in “Conspiracy” with which the BBC had incredible grief, and so in the UK it became a ‘union’. Star Trek Episode for one reason – the moment the head of Lieutenant Commander Dexter Remick exploded. The episode was eventually broadcast by the BBC, although even then it was heavily censored.
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What happened in the gang Star Trek TNG episode
“Conspiracy” mixed a storyline that was part invasion of the body snatchers, part Ridley Scott’s alien
The incredibly dark Star Trek: The Next Generation Episode “Conspiracy” had an intriguing plot, and one that was part of a multi-episode arc. However, it is not the premise of the dark Star Trek episode that caused it to be banned by the BBC, but the visuals that came with it. “Conspiracy” picks up on a plot thread first mentioned in TNG Season 1, Episode 19, “Coming of Age,” which revealed a possible conspiracy at the highest levels of Starfleet.
With the help of Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) and Commander William Ricker (Jonathan Frakes), Captain Picard discovers that several high-level Starfleet officers are being controlled by parasitic aliens. When Picard and Riker confront the leader of the parasites, Lt. Commander Dexter Remmick (Robert Schenkkan), they fire their phasers at him at point-blank range.
This is where the band is Star Trek Episode became problematic. Remmick’s head explodes in a surprisingly gory display, and then a large parasite creature pops out of Remmick’s stomachBefore they are similarly sent. It’s all much more violent than a typical episode of TNGAnd the BBC banned the episode as soon as it first aired.
TNG’s “conspiracy” was deemed too violent for the BBC
Remick’s head exploding was deemed to gory
According to Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Continuing Mission, a tenth anniversary tribute, Producers Rick Berman and Peter Lauritson were concerned about “Conspiracy” being too dark. To see how children would react to the episode, Berman and Lauritson showed “Conspiracy” to the six-year-old son of special effects supervisor Dan Curry. The child allegedly replied:
“I really liked the part where the guy’s head blew up! You know, you could make a remick action figure where if you press the button, his head blows up!”
The episode was earned as it was, and while it may have delighted many six-year-olds Trek Fans, the BBC felt differently about the head-exploding scene. “Conspiracy” first aired in the United States in May 1988, but the episode was banned in the United Kingdom at the time. The BBC eventually aired “Conspiracy” in 1991, but several minutes of footage were cut from the episode, including most of Remick’s death scene.
In Canada, a viewer discretion warning appeared before the episode. Although the gore in “Conspiracy” may seem tame by today’s standards, it was highly atypical for Star Trek at the time. While this episode is certainly entertaining, it feels somewhat out of place among the other episodes of TNG Season 1.
Several other Star Trek episodes were banned in the UK
TOS Episodes “The Empath”, “Whom God Destroys”, “Plato’s Stepchild” and “Miri” were all banned.
Although Tng S “Conspiracy” may be the most famous episode to be banned, this kind of censorship is not new to star trek, Especially in the UK. Some episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series were banned in the United Kingdom, to the consternation of many Star Trek Fans. The BBC network apparently received so many letters from Trek Fans urged them to air the episodes, that they sent out their own letter in 1976. The letter said:
“After very careful consideration, a high-level decision was made not to screen the episodes entitled ‘Empath’, ‘Whom Gods Destroy’, ‘Plato’s Stepchildren’ and ‘Miri’, as they all clashed most with the already unpleasant Themes of madness, torture, sadism and disease.”
Dedicated Star Trek Fans eventually found other ways to watch the band episodes, and they were shown at several conventions in the UK over the years. The four forbidden episodes of TOS Until the early 1990s it was not allowed on the BBC.
another one Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3 episode “The High Ground,” was also banned in the UK because of one line delivered by Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner). When discussing examples of terrorism that brought about political change, data proves “The Irish Unification of 2024.” Due to the conflict in Northern Ireland, known as the Troubles, the BBC did not release an unedited version of “The High Ground” until 2007.
What is the darkest Star Trek episode ever?
There are almost too many nightmare-inducing episodes of Star Trek to count
Star Trek has no shortage of incredibly dark episodes, even among those not banned in regions like the UK. “Conspiracy” could have been a particularly gory moment in tng, But it’s not the darkest moment in the series or even Star Trek as a whole. Many of the darkest episodes of Star Trek Don’t rely on gore or violence at all, but instead simply have plot threads that become more harrowing or unsettling the more they think about.
While the show is culturally perceived as simply being (admittedly hard) sci-fi, there are dozens of incredibly dark Star Trek Episodes that cross the boundaries in various horror sub-genres. Whether it’s existential dread or effects-laden body horror, pretty much everyone Star Trek Fan has their own choice for the darkest episode, although there are some that are particularly unnerving.
For example, in Star Trek: Deep Space 9, The season 3 episode “Visionary”Miles O’Brien (Colm Meaney) begins to experience involuntary time travel due to the effects of interstellar radiation. This allows him to travel into the future and witness a Romulan attack that destroys Deep Space 9. O’Brien voluntarily subjects himself to more radiation to warn his future self and prevent the attack, though it ends up killing him.
O’Brien was not written by Star Trek: DS9, But the version of him that existed from then on was from an alternate timeline. No one else knew, and it was never referred to again. The fact that the original O’Brien, who has been with viewers ever since Star Trek: TNG Simply dying without fanfare and accepting this as just part of life in the Federation has ensured “Visionary” is touted by many fans as one of the darkest Star Trek Moments.
Another example is the Star Trek: Voyager Season 2 episode “The Thaw”. In this episode, several Voyager crew members are connected to the ship’s computer via stasis pods. However, when they wake up in the virtual reality, they are subjected to a twisted and torturous game show by a race of tech-integrated psychic aliens. This episode feels like a nightmare pulled straight from books like Stephen King it, Especially, since it is strongly revealed that the crew members would have suffered their lives with their suffering, they would not have managed to escape.
It is also fitting that “conspiracy” was a Star Trek: TNG episode, like this particular iteration of Star Trek It is also considered one of the darkest in general. The show went into much more nightmarish territory than Star Trek: The Original Series Ever has, and while future Star Trek shows have delved equally deeper into horror as a genre, few have quite as often as TNG (though Deep Space 9 especially used to come unbelievably close).
This is especially evident with the Borg, which were introduced in Star Trek: The next generation. Almost every Borg-centric episode is dark due to the nature of the race itself, and the idea of ​​being assimilated into their ranks is much more chilling than the “Conspiracy” head-exploding scene – even though the process is never shown anywhere live . The same level of blood, gore or violence.