10 Most Controversial Star Trek Episodes
Fine, we'll talk about Code Of Honor, but this is the last time Star Trek, do you hear us?
What sparks controversy these days, as audiences have grown and changed in so many directions, is quite different from the triggering moments that The Original Series brought through. It might seem as though those controversies are nothing these days - an interracial kiss on television? Sure that's nothing!
Cue the angry letters from 'concerned parents'.
There are those however that shook up the world so intensely that they have gone down in history, for better or worse. Episodes that show war crimes, or dealt with modern day problems with stark realism, force the audience out of their comfort zones, and encourage them to deal with the topics up for discussion. It's not always a good feeling - and Star Trek doesn't always handle it with perfection.
One thing it definitely does do is lean into those controversies as, to quote an old Irish author, the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about. We penned an article in 2013 discussing some of the controversial episodes of Star Trek, so let's see how the times have changed.
10. Strange New Worlds
Captain, Commodore, Admiral, and Ambassador-at-large, Robert April was the original original captain of the USS Enterprise neé Yorktown. Gene Roddenberry's pitch for Star Trek saw the ship led by April, though this was updated to Christopher Pike when NBC picked up the pilot.
Adrian Holmes was cast in the role for Strange New Worlds, which quickly saw some of the more racist Trek fans raise their heads over the parapets. April had been seen before in The Animated Series episode The Counter-Clock Incident, where he had been portrayed as a white man. James Doohan performed the role.
While there were those who took to social media to decry the casting of Holmes, the writer of that original episode, Fred Bronson, warmly welcomed Adrian to the fold and expressed excitement at seeing his portrayal of April, who has now appeared in several episodes of Strange New Worlds, and will hopefully return for the show's third season as well.