Star Trek: 10 Worlds You Will NEVER Visit
7. Rura Penthe (You Hope!)
What's worse than Klingon food, Klingon sleeping quarters, and Klingon opera? All three on a Klingon prison planet!! So you don't have to, Blass went full-on method — got himself arrested, tried, and sentenced to life on the icy hellhole of Rura Penthe for crimes against the Klingon Empire. (tlhIngan quv DatIchDI' Seng yIghuH [When you insult a Klingon's honour, prepare for trouble].) He might have been conned by a Chameloid, but he eventually managed to escape.
His experiences largely confirmed what we suspected. Widely known as the "aliens' graveyard," hours of back-breaking work in the dilithium mines await inmates at Rura Penthe. The slightest complaint or misstep will see you with a one-way ticket to the frozen surface. Most people don't survive the year, as Captain Archer nearly found out in 2152.
It's common knowledge that Captain Kirk and Doctor McCoy were falsely (?) imprisoned on Rura Penthe for the assassination of Chancellor Gorkon in 2293, before being rescued by the Enterprise. As we learnt from the 'Presidio Papers,' Starfleet had plotted to bail out the two jailbirds using military force with a shaky paper plan called "Operation Retrieve". Starfleet was also up to its turtlenecks in the "Khitomer conspiracy," but more on that later.