TNG Season 3 episode was banned in the UK

One episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3 was banned in the UK and not shown on the BBC until 15 years after its intended air date. in Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3, episode 12, “The High Ground”, originally broadcast in the US. The leader of the cell, Cyril Finn (Richard Cox), explains that his men need the chief medical officer of the USS Enterprise-D to treat the injuries sustained from using an inverter as a transporter. Krusher finds himself sympathizing with Finn as a personAlthough he does not agree with his methods.

of course, Star Trek has a history of tackling current social issues through the lens of Algeria since the earliest days, and some of the Before Star Trek Episodes were also controversial to the point of being banned by UK broadcasters. Some episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series, including “The Empath”, “What Gods Destroy”, “Miri” and “Plato’s Stepchildren”, were all banned in the UK until the 1990s, with the latter causing controversy in the United States for featuring Star Treks first interracial kiss, between Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and Lieutenant Nyota Uhura (Nichel Nichols).

Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3 “The High Ground” was originally banned in the UK

“The High Ground” was not so secretive about the then ongoing Irish troubles

Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3, episode 12, “The High Ground”, was originally banned in the UK for its depictions of terrorism. in particular, Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) has a line in “The High Ground” that references the unification of Ireland in 2024. Data cites Irish unification as a time when terror methods were effective. At the time of production, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland were still dealing with the Troubles, which lasted from the 1960s to 1998. Violent guerrilla attacks sparked counter-action and culminated in civil disobedience and riots. The deadly ongoing conflict was understandably a sensitive subject for UK audiences.

with one line, Star Trek Predict the future. The Troubles ended in the lifetime of the viewers, with victory for Irish nationalists who wanted to see Northern Ireland separate from the United Kingdom and join the Republic of Ireland as a single country. Some satellite and cable UK broadcasts screen “The High Ground”, but edit the line from Data referencing the 2024 unification of Ireland. By 2007, the BBC stopped showing “The High Ground”.And the episode never aired on RTÉ in the Republic of Ireland. Home video releases, on the other hand, are not directly sponsored by governments, so they are able to include an uncut version of “The High Ground”.

Another Star Trek: The Next Generation episode caused controversy with broadcasters in the UK

Before “The High Ground” was banned by UK broadcasters, Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 1, episode 25, “Conspiracy” caused controversy because of its uncharacteristic gore. In “Conspiracy,” several high-ranking Starfleet officers are influenced by parasitic aliens. In an unusually violent turn of events, Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Commander William Ricker (Jonathan Frakes) turn their phasers on the parasites’ leader, Lt. Commander Dexter Remmick (Robert Schenken). Phasers don’t generally make people’s heads explode, but that’s the unfortunate fate that befell Remick Before the parasite emerges from his body.

While “The High Ground” was banned for its political themes, “Conspiracy” was found to be too violent by broadcasters and Star Trek: The Next GenerationS writers alike, since Neither the parasites nor the rough-and-tumble style of violence in “Conspiracy” were ever seen again Star Treks canon. The Canadian broadcast of “Conspiracy” comes with a title card warning about violence, since “Conspiracy” features a level of gore that is atypical of Star Trek. When the BBC eventually broadcast “Conspiracy”, it did so with Remmick’s explosive death scene edited out of Star Trek: The next generationJust like Lt. Commander Data’s line about Irish Unification in “The High Ground”.