Star Trek TOS BBC Banned Episodes

captainarchive

Distinguished Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2006
Messages
15,127
Reaction score
7,362
Points
3,418
Location
Derby
I vaguely recall reading years ago the BBC didn't air some Star Trek episodes because it felt they would be inappropriate for a pre-watershed timeslot. Anyone know what these episodes were?
 
I seem to recall reading once the episode where they visited the 'Nazi' planet was at some point banned. Can't think of any others that would have pushed the boundaries to much.
 
As I recall they just didn't show the episodes that were banned in the US. It wasn't a ban over here as such. One of of them was the interracial kiss between Kirk and Uhura. Such a chore for Shatner no doubt.:rotfl:



I'd have been his stunt double, no bother.

Bri
 
There was also an episode of ST TNG that wasn't shown here for a while as it featured historical comments about the IRA. I believe it was called "The High Ground".

As regards the original series - Miri was shown originally, it was only retrospectively that someone felt it was problematic. The others I had to buy on VHS many years ago as at the time it was the only way to see them.
 
The S1 episode "Miri" was shown once. It was reaction to that episode that caused all the others to be reviewed before broadcast, and that review saw "The Empath", "Whom Gods Destroy" and "Plato's Step Children" for S3 go unscreened. That remained the case until sometime in the early 90s (IIRC) when the whole business was revisited, the bans all lifted, and those episodes were all eventually shown.
 
Hi,

On a sidenote the Star Trek: TNG Season 1 episode "Conspiracy" was also heavily censored by the BBC, due to the finale involving Riker and Picard phasering a guy to death, and the poor man's face and body explodes in a pretty nasty explosion of flesh and bodily parts. :eek: I remember seeing this on the BBC and thinking that it was graphic, and it had already been pre-cut. It wasn't until years later, I caught a late-night repeat of the episode on Sky, and saw it uncut. The effect, is still considered to be pretty repellant for a show like "Star Trek: TNG", even to this day. Surprisingly, the BBFC have always classified this episode with a PG rating, but I have no idea if it's a cut or uncut version.


You can see the controversy:


Skip to 2m 10s for the shocker!

I also believe that several of the later Season "Star Trek: DS9" episodes are cut for violent content on the BBC. Not sure how Sky and CBS Action are treating them, but would be interested to know. (Am I right in also saying that a couple of the DS9 episodes are still cut in the UK on all current DVD releases?)


Pooch
 
Last edited:
I've finished watching the first two seasons on blu ray and there's two episodes I have absolutely no memory of having watched before, Catspaw and Miri. The remaining banned episodes all appear to be in season 3 so I've made a note of them. The author of article I read years ago said; the only reason he could think why one of the episodes was banned was because it so bad and the BBC probably wanted to protect the nation's children from a bad storyline and acting. I'm looking forward to revisiting season 3 for that reason alone.
 
I remember quite a few Worf scenes on DS9 being edited by the BBC, especially with his Jem H'dar neck-snapping fetish.
 
......
I also believe that several of the later Season "Star Trek: DS9" episodes are cut for violent content on the BBC. Not sure how Sky and CBS Action are treating them, but would be interested to know. (Am I right in also saying that a couple of the DS9 episodes are still cut in the UK on all current DVD releases?)

I remember one of the original video releases (when you used to get 2 eps per vid each month or so) had an 18 cert. Think it was for the video with the episodes 'To The Death' and the not so happy ending plague ep 'The Quickening'.

But as mentioned the neck snapping was prevelant throughout, either for comic effect; Garak offing Quark in the holo-deck and Work snapping Weyouns neck in one of the last episodes or when Worf was fighting JemHadar in prison.

The Beeb may well have just silenced the crunchy sound though.

Thinking about it there were quite a few later epsiodes with adult themes (Hard Times, In the Pale Moonlight, Siege of AR-558 spring to mind, not to mention the Odo torture seen that was quite unpleasent). No way the BBC would have let that go out at tea-time.
 
Last edited:
The TOS episode Whom God's Destroy was banned, with episodes Enemy Within, Man Trap and The Lights Of Zetar censored. All the TOS episodes got shown uncut on the BBC eventually.

One that was banned in Germany is the Nazi themed one Patterns of Force.

German TV lifts ban on "Nazi" Star Trek episode | Radio Times

Even the BBC showed the TNG Conspiracy episode uncut one time. They also censored an episode called The High Ground for similarities to what was happening in Northern Ireland at the time.
 
Hi,

Apologies for taking this discussion slightly-off-tangent again, but I note that ITV has got its knuckles wrapped by Ofcom, and it has been decided that the 1978 film classic DEATH ON THE NILE (Certificate PG) has been deemed as too violent for pre-watershed broadcast.

You can read about it here!

Okay, back to the STAR TREK Censorship discussion...

The film STAR TREK 2: THE WRATH OF KHAN often got censored for TV transmission, due to the scene where Khan places a slug/scorpion-like parasite into Chekhov's helmet, puts the helmet on Chekhov, and watches as the parasite buries itself through his ear, and into his brain. :eek: However, the film itself has been passed in 4 versions, by the BBFC.

In 1982, the film was passed with an "A" rating, but with cuts, with a duration of roughly 108 minutes, after cuts. Alas, no details of how much, or what was cut, but I'm pretty certain it would have been the scene I mention above. Then...
- In 1987, passed at PG, but was pre-cut for Video.
- In 1989, passed with a 15, uncut for the first time, running 1m 18s longer than all previous Theatrical versions - presumably this will have been the uncut Theatrical Version.
- In 2003, passed with a 12, uncut, but in a longer "Director's Cut" version, running 111m 40s.
- In 2009, passed with a 12, but it is the uncut Theatrical Version only.

I don't know what versions are out on Blu-Ray, but I'm going to assume that all of the films are just the uncut Theatrical Editions, and not the longer, Director's Cuts that existed in 2003 on VHS. It's interesting to see how much censorship took place on a show/movie franchise like STAR TREK, over the years, here in the UK - both on TV, and in the movies. What a shame then, that it's still not possible to get the full uncut versions of all of the shows, and all of the movies. :(

Maybe this is something that will hopefully be rectified for the Blu-Ray releases?


Pooch
 
Last edited:
This shows how some series - often science fiction - push the boundaries as they can get past the censors as what they have done takes time to sink in.
Jonaton Frakes has directed a few episodes which slipped things through. Not as square as Commander Riker.
 
I always liked the episode where Tasha Ya gets a bit drunk and grabs Data for a bit of rumpy pumpy. Not that I remember anyone ever having a problem with the cyborg sex, then or now.

Regards

Mark
 
Hi,

On a sidenote the Star Trek: TNG Season 1 episode "Conspiracy" was also heavily censored by the BBC




Pooch

I always though that in the technology they had such a bad fitting door with a huge gap underneath. Also why there never was a follow up to story as it implies there was still more of them out there infiltrating stuff.

I think that was my favorite STNG episode.
 
I've finished watching the first two seasons on blu ray and there's two episodes I have absolutely no memory of having watched before, Catspaw and Miri. The remaining banned episodes all appear to be in season 3 so I've made a note of them. The author of article I read years ago said; the only reason he could think why one of the episodes was banned was because it so bad and the BBC probably wanted to protect the nation's children from a bad storyline and acting. I'm looking forward to revisiting season 3 for that reason alone.

Well that author was an arse. Miri in particular I remember seeing on original airing and I was struck how chilling and effective the story was. Much harder hitting than other episodes.
 
I wonder id Whom the Gods Destroy was removed from early screenings as it involved insanity also
Yvonne Craig (Batgirl of the 60 series of Batman) first gets put out in the poison atmosphere and then blown
up.

I don't know why Plato's Stepchildren was band surely not that kiss, or was it the bad acting I know I cringed at some of it
 
Last edited:
Garrett said:
Also why there never was a follow up to story as it implies there was still more of them out there infiltrating stuff.

I think that was my favorite STNG episode.
The follow up was meant to be the discovery of an insectoid race. It was too expensive or difficult to do at the time so that idea was redone as finding the borg.
 
The follow up was meant to be the discovery of an insectoid race. It was too expensive or difficult to do at the time so that idea was redone as finding the borg.

Yes I though it was similar to the borg albeit different it was a bit like The Puppet Masters. Taking over by stealth rather than by assimilation.
 
A kiss between a white man and a black women was a huge issue in many parts of the US in those days.

Bri

Yes but they screened it in the US but not here and I thought despite there being some problems at the time we were a more tolerant society. And even in America some racist even said something like even if they were in kirks shoes they kiss her as well.
 
Hi,

Yes but they screened it in the US but not here and I thought despite there being some problems at the time we were a more tolerant society. And even in America some racist even said something like even if they were in kirks shoes they kiss her as well.

Yes, and no. In the US, STAR TREK (back in its heyday) was syndicated nationally. It wasn't just shown on one major network, like many shows are nowadays. The interracial kiss was deemed by many syndicates to be offensive to whites, predominantly in the Southern states, where racial tolerance was at its lowest. It was the local syndicate stations that dropped or censored this particular episode on its initial run, or aired it late-at-night, out-of-sync with the main transmission order. It wasn't banned, per se, in the traditional sense of the word.

In the UK, from what I know, the episode wasn't aired by the BBC initially, because it was considered very daring for the times, and I think the Beeb were concerned that - even though Britain appeared to be a more tolerant nation - that it could cause problems/blowback for them, rather than the public themselves complaining. So the episode, was quietly dropped, from the BBC's original transmission schedule.


Pooch
 
Its syndication heyday was after cancellation ... it was originally produced by Desilu/Paramount for the NBC network
Plato's Stepchildren - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

When NBC executives learned of the kiss they became concerned it would anger TV stations in the conservative Deep South. Earlier in 1968, NBC had expressed similar concern over a musical sequence in a Petula Clark special in which she touched Harry Belafonte's arm, a moment cited as the first occasion of direct physical contact on American television between a man and woman of different races. At one point during negotiations, the idea was brought up of having Spock kiss Uhura instead, but William Shatner insisted that they stick with the original script. NBC finally ordered that two versions of the scene be shot—one where Kirk and Uhura kissed and one where they did not. Having successfully recorded the former version of the scene, Shatner and Nichelle Nichols deliberately flubbed every take of the latter version, thus forcing the episode to go out with the kiss intact.
 
Well that author was an arse. Miri in particular I remember seeing on original airing and I was struck how chilling and effective the story was. Much harder hitting than other episodes.
Although he wasn't talking about Miri. The bad acting one was were some of the crew go mad, I seem to recall.
 
PoochJD said:
Hi,

On a sidenote the Star Trek: TNG Season 1 episode "Conspiracy" was also heavily censored by the BBC, due to the finale involving Riker and Picard phasering a guy to death, and the poor man's face and body explodes in a pretty nasty explosion of flesh and bodily parts. :eek: I remember seeing this on the BBC and thinking that it was graphic, and it had already been pre-cut. It wasn't until years later, I caught a late-night repeat of the episode on Sky, and saw it uncut. The effect, is still considered to be pretty repellant for a show like "Star Trek: TNG", even to this day. Surprisingly, the BBFC have always classified this episode with a PG rating, but I have no idea if it's a cut or uncut version.

You can see the controversy: Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03QKSjBiG2c

Skip to 2m 10s for the shocker!

I also believe that several of the later Season "Star Trek: DS9" episodes are cut for violent content on the BBC. Not sure how Sky and CBS Action are treating them, but would be interested to know. (Am I right in also saying that a couple of the DS9 episodes are still cut in the UK on all current DVD releases?)

Pooch

Can't wait to see the moment on the remastered BD next month, wonder if they will go with the original effects or CG them.
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom