One episode from 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 in 1990, Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates Mc Fadden) is kidnapped by a terrorist cell on non-Federation planet Rutia IV. The cell’s leader, Kyril Finn (Richard Cox), explains that his people need the USS Enterprise-D’s Chief Medical Officer to treat the injuries sustained from using an inverter as a transporter. Crusher finds herself sympathizing with Finn as a person, despite disagreeing with his methods.
Of course, Star Trek has a history of tackling current social issues through the lens of allegory since its earliest days, and some of those earlier Star Trek episodes were also controversial to the point of being prohibited by UK broadcasters. Several episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series, including “The Empath”, “Whom 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 Trek’s first interracial kiss, between Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and Lieutenant Nyota Uhura (Nichelle Nichols).
Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3’s “The High Ground” Was Originally Banned In The UK
“The High Ground” Was Not-So-Secretly 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 the Irish Unification as a time when terrorist methods were effective. At the time of production, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland were still engaged in The Troubles, which lasted from the 1960s until 1998. Violent guerrilla attacks sparked retaliatory action and escalated into civil disobedience and riots. This deadly ongoing conflict was understandably a sensitive topic for UK audiences.
With one line, Star Trek predicted the future. The Troubles ended within viewers’ lifetimes, with victory for Irish Nationalists who wanted to see Northern Ireland secede 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 out Data’s line referencing the 2024 Unification of Ireland. The BBC opted out of showing “The High Ground” until 2007, and the episode has never aired on RTÉ in the Republic of Ireland. Home video releases, on the other hand, aren’t directly sponsored by governments, so they’re able to include an uncut version of “The High Ground”.
Another Star Trek: The Next Generation Episode Caused Controversy With UK Broadcasters
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 found to be influenced by parasitic aliens. In an unusually violent turn of events, Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) turn their phasers on the parasites’ leader, Lt. Commander Dexter Remmick (Robert Schenkkan). Phasers don’t generally make people’s heads explode, but that’s the unfortunate fate that befalls Remmick before the parasite emerges from his body.
“Conspiracy” features a level of gore atypical of Star Trek .
While “The High Ground” was banned for its political themes, “Conspiracy” was found to be too violent by broadcasters and Star Trek: The Next Generation’s writers alike, since neither the parasites nor the gross-out style of violence in “Conspiracy” were ever seen again in Star Trek’s canon. The Canadian broadcast of “Conspiracy” comes with a title card warning about violence, since “Conspiracy” features a level of gore that’s atypical of Star Trek. When the BBC did eventually broadcast “Conspiracy”, it did so with Remmick’s explosive death scene edited out of Star Trek: The Next Generation, just like Lt. Commander Data’s line about Irish Unification in “The High Ground”.