10 Star Trek Episodes That Were Banned
1. The High Ground
While The BBC absolutely loved taking the red pen to episodes of The Next Generation before they'd air, when it came to Season 3's The High Ground they categorically refused to air a single minute. No amount of creative editing was going to remedy the issues they had with it.
DATA: Sir, I am finding it difficult to understand many aspects of Ansata conduct. Much of their behavioral norm would be defined by my programme as unnecessary and unacceptable. PICARD: By my programme as well, Data. DATA: But if that is so, Captain, why are their methods so often successful? I have been reviewing the history of armed rebellion and it appears that terrorism is an effective way to promote political change. PICARD: Yes, it can be, but I have never subscribed to the theory that political power flows from the barrel of a gun. DATA: Yet there are numerous examples where it was successful. The independence of the Mexican State from Spain, the Irish Unification of 2024, and the Kensey Rebellion. PICARD: Yes, I am aware of them. DATA: Then would it be accurate to say that terrorism is acceptable when all options for peaceful settlement have been foreclosed? PICARD: Data, these are questions that mankind has been struggling with throughout history. Your confusion is only human.
When the episode aired in 1990, the UK was still nearly a decade away from the historic Good Friday Agreement that brought the end of most of the violence of The Troubles, a political conflict in Northern Ireland that had been ongoing since the 1960s. The comment about "unification", fictional as it may be, was a little too close to the bone.
At the time, the issue was so highly charged (within a year of this the IRA attempted to assassinate the British Prime Minister) that the BBC decided that any episode of any show tackling the moral conundrums of terrorism wasn't appropriate viewing. The Irish line was used as the main reason, but the entire episode's cut and thrust was the more pertinent problem.