Television was a different entity in the 1960s, and networks had to adhere to strict censorship rules for content aired. Star Trek was conceived as a family-friendly show, and while its suggestive themes were quite open for its day, it still adhered to the established boundaries for language and content at the time.
American broadcasters have different guidelines than overseas networks, however, and one of the world's biggest decided to pull not one but four Star Trek: The Original Series episodes. The BBC aired Season 1, Episode 11, "Miri," in December 1970, but refused to air it again until the 1990s, while adding three more to the list for good measure. These entries remained off the air until the mid-1990s, which meant denying fans a considerable portion of Star Trek content for decades.
The BBC’s initial broadcast of “Miri” triggered several letters from viewers who were troubled by its content. The episode concerned a parallel Earth whose adult population wiped out by a disease, which led to children living for hundreds of years without aging. The complaints apparently centered around the plot points of disease and insanity, and the BBC agreed the content was "unpleasant."
But the network went beyond that, pulling three other episodes -- Season 3, Episode 1, "The Empath," Season 3, Episode 12, "Plato’s Stepchildren" and Season 3, Episode 16, "Whom Gods Destroy" -- for what it deemed to be similar content. "The Empath" finds the away team tortured by aliens called the Vian as part of an experiment designed to test the compassionate capability of another species to determine if they are worth saving; “Plato’s Stepchildren” concerns aliens who claim to follow the teachings of Plato, but who use their psychokinetic abilities to force Kirk and the crew to obey their commands; and "Whom Gods Destroy" left Kirk and Spock in an Federation facility for the criminally insane that's controlled by the inmates. The BBC cited themes of "madness," "sadism," "torture" and "disease" for each of the episodes.
The pulling of these episodes seems outrageous by today’s standards, mostly because the content was almost entirely thematic and consisted of little more than obvious makeup for the diseases, and actors thrashing and screaming. Regardless, the episodes remained off the air in the United Kingdom until the 1990s, which had far more of an impact than most fans realize.
Today, The Original Series can be streamed, while Blu-rays and other physical media are readily available. That wasn’t the case in the '80s and '90s, as The Original Series wasn’t available on VHS tape in the United States until 1986. However, the United Kingdom, which used PAL VHS tapes instead of the NTSC formatted tapes, didn't even have access to that. That meant fans who wanted to watch the show had to turn to the BBC, which decided four episodes wouldn’t be aired.
Sure, the ban was lifted in the '90s, and the episodes aired again, but when the franchise was soaring to new heights around the world, U.K. fans didn't have access to its full catalog. Fortunately, with the surge in streaming platforms and modern broadcasting guidelines, this issue is unlikely to repeat itself.
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