10 Most Controversial Star Trek Episodes

To fully appreciate the controversy stirred by The High Ground, one has to consider the political landscape of the UK and Ireland at the time of the episode's production. 'The Troubles,' by which we mean the decades-long violence that rocked Northern Ireland, were very much ongoing as Data was stating that 'armed rebellion' was effective in re-unifying Ireland in 2024.

The episode received an instant ban in both the UK and Ireland, and to date it has only ever been broadcast uncut once on the island of Ireland, as part of the 2007 Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival. The episode was otherwise edited to remove the reference to reunification, even when it was aired.

In 1998, the Good Friday Agreement signaled an end to armed violence in the North, even as the scars of sectarian violence are still healing twenty-five years later. The original script idea was focused on the American Revolution, but writer Melinda Snodgrass was directed to change the plot to reference Northern Ireland instead.

Almost none of the writing team were happy with the episode, with Michael Piller and Brannon Braga commenting that the episode doesn't truly achieve or state anything when it comes to terrorism.