A ‘Star Trek’ episode was shelved after it boldly ventured into Irish politics and terrorism.
A ‘Star Trek’ episode was shelved after it boldly ventured into Irish politics and terrorism
The BBC delayed showing an episode of ‘The Next Generation’ for 17 years after android Data was seen chatting with Captain Picard about the “Irish unification of 2024” following a terrorism campaign by the IRA.
It’s now emerged even when it was finally given approval to be aired in 2007, it was buried in a 2.40am slot and is thought never to have been repeated since.
Melinda M Snodgrass, who wrote the episode – which was first shown in the US in 1990 – said she was unaware of the controversy it had caused at the time, telling the BBC: “Writing for television is like laying track for a train that’s about 300 feet behind you. You really don’t have time to stop.
“We became aware of it later... and there isn’t much you can do about it.”
She added she wanted to use the now-controversial episode to that one man's freedom fighter was another man’s terrorist, adding: “These are complicated issues. And when do people feel like their back is so much against the wall that they have no choice but to turn to violence? And is that actually ever justified?
“What I wanted to say was: if we’re talking and not shooting, we’re in a better place.”
The IRA was in the midst of a terrorist campaign to end British rule in Northern Ireland in 1990 – six years after it targeted then-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in a bomb attack at the Grand Hotel in Brighton during the Tory party’s annual conference.
April 1998 saw the Good Friday Agreement bring an official end to the province’s Troubles, and last month saw Sinn Féin's deputy leader Michelle O'Neill, 47, make history as the first nationalist to hold the role of first minister at the Northern Ireland Assembly.
‘Star Trek’ fans have been highlighting Data’s prediction about a united Ireland 34 years after the episode – titled ‘High Ground’ – was made.
It’s now available on Netflix and the issue of Irish politics comes up in a chat between Data, played by Brent Spiner, 75, and 83-year-old Patrick Stewart’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard after their USS Enterprise starship gets entangled in a decades-long conflict between the people of Rutia IV and a group of rebel separatists called the Ansata in the 24th century.
Data says: “I have been reviewing the history of armed rebellion and it appears that terrorism is an effective way to promote political change.
“There are numerous examples of when it was successful: the independence of the Mexican state from Spain, the Irish unification of 2024 and the Mackenzie rebellion (in Canada in 1837.)"
He asks Picard whether he believes that terrorism is an effective way to promote political change when all other options have been exhausted and the captain says: “Yes, it can be, but I have never subscribed to the theory that political power flows from the barrel of a gun.
“These are questions that mankind has been struggling with throughout history. Your confusion is only human.”
Tagged in Margaret Thatcher Patrick Stewart