This Star Trek episode was banned in the UK for almost 30 years

In the Star Trek episode “Sympathy” (December 6, 1968), Captain Kirk (William Shatner)Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelly) are on a remote mission when they are suddenly abducted by off-screen aliens and deposited in a mysterious, black chamber somewhere beneath the planet’s surface. While surrounded, they encounter a silent, purple-clad woman whom McCoy calls Jewel (Katherine Hayes). They find that the gem has extraordinary supernatural power. When someone is injured, Jem can heal them by absorbing their wounds into herself. She feels just as much pain. Then the wound heals quickly.

Jim ends up getting plenty of opportunities to use her superpowers as the four characters are repeatedly tortured by evil aliens with large skulls called Vians (played by Alan Bergman and Willard Sage). The Vians spend the bulk of the episode torturing and injuring Enterprise crew members, sometimes while Gem watches. Meanwhile, Jim offers to heal them every time, becoming weaker and weaker with each healing.

The Vians eventually reveal the reason for their actions. Jim’s species appears to be on the verge of extinction thanks to an impending supernova. Vians can save her world or another populated neighboring world, but they do not have the resources for both. The Vians say that they will only save Gem’s world if she proves willing to sacrifice her life (i.e. by healing someone who is about to die), thus passing a twisted morality test.

The BBC appears to have reconsidered its willingness to broadcast “The Empath” to the public in 1970. The broadcaster had already received a number of complaints about “Star Trek” due to some harsh material, and an episode about torture. He knew that he would definitely continue sending angry messages. Thus “The Empath”, along with three other episodes of “Star Trek”, was taken off the BBC’s broadcast schedule altogether and grounded for decades. Ultimately, “The Empath” was not broadcast in the UK until the 1990s.

Apparently, when the BBC broadcast Star Trek episode “Merry” The fans responded poorly. That episode was a creepy and depressing story about a planet of slowly aging children who still remember the centuries-old plague that wiped out the adults of their world. Kirk and company. It shot down and infected the plague, causing strange scales to appear all over their bodies. However, Merry’s character (Kym Darby) is about to turn her planet’s equivalent up to 12, and is now at risk of infection. Merry has to convince the other kids, all of them ferals, that Kirk is trustworthy and that growing up is a good thing. Obviously, that episode received a lot of hate mail (though, As stated on the Space Doubt websiteThe exact nature of the complaints was not disclosed.)

But this was enough for the BBC to be wary. ‘The Empath’ was about to be broadcast, and the BBC was not prepared to take any risks. As such, it completely banned “The Empath” from airing, knowing that the episode would be too much for more sensitive viewers. In fact, the BBC began examining its “Star Trek” catalog more closely, and found two additional episodes that it decided to ban: “Plato’s Stepchildren” and “Those Destroyed by the Gods.” The first involved a group of oppressive hedonists who psychologically forced Kirk and his crew to perform degrading acts for entertainment. The latter featured a shape-shifting antagonist who took over a mental institution and formed a religious cult.

Non-Trekers may know “Plato’s Stepchildren” as the episode in which Kirk kisses Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) and “Whom the Gods Destroy” as the episode in which Yvonne Craig plays a scantily clad, green-skinned dancer…who is killed by her. Cult leader. The former was very disturbing for the BBC, the latter very disturbing…but also very exciting.

“The Empath” is indeed unsettling, though most Trekkies may remember the episode best for its low budget. The episode came during the show’s third season, when funding was cut and the series’ creators had to get creative. There’s a reason the Gem and Enterprise crew members were trapped in a mysterious black space: it ensured the show’s crew wouldn’t have to build a set. It’s also odd that “The Empath” was specifically chosen, given how many early episodes of “Star Trek” are horror; Monsters kill or alter people regularly throughout the entire first season of the series.

The ban was still in place in the mid-1980s. Some researchers have found notes attached to the four episodes in question, which read:

“We feel that (the episodes) all deal unpleasantly with already unpleasant themes such as insanity, torture, sadism and disease. You will appreciate that this consideration should be taken into account because among the large number of ‘Star Trek’ followers and enthusiasts, there are many who will “In that.” Watch the program regardless of the time of day the series is listed in the program schedules.”

“Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry eventually saw that memo and strongly objected to it, stating in a 1984 press conference (via Den of Geek):

“I don’t agree (with the ban) very much. The story of ‘Sympathy’ for me was a beautiful story (…) If someone says to me: ‘You can’t suffer or suffer’, I say to him: ‘Nonsense!’” Suffering and Pain Part of life and should be handled well, I feel the same way about violence and sex.

Roddenberry went on to point out that fistfights in most action shows—which were common and expected—usually portrayed the two boxers as enjoying their beatings. Roddenberry objected to “glamorous violence” on television, feeling that “cruel violence” was healthier and more accurate.

But eventually, the standards were relaxed. By the time of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” It aired on the BBC in the 1990s, and the station finally removed the memo and allowed previously banned “Trek” episodes to be shown to the public. It is now widely seen.