The BBC Withheld Four Star Trek Episodes for 25 Years, and Big Bird Too

In Britain, the BBC once decided that four episodes of Star Trek were too disturbing for its viewers. After complaints about “Miri,” which the BBC first broadcast in 1970, the episode disappeared from repeats alongside “The Empath,” “Plato’s Stepchildren” and “Whom Gods Destroy.” The missing episodes finally reached BBC screens in late 1993 and January 1994, although Sky One had shown the complete series from 1990. The wait depended on which channel you watched.

For years, fans assumed “Plato’s Stepchildren” had been withheld because of the famous interracial kiss between Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and Lieutenant Uhura (Nichelle Nichols). The kiss was a television milestone, but the BBC’s documented concerns centred on the episode’s sadism and cruelty, including a scene in which an alien force forces Kirk to whip Uhura. The real story was more complicated than the familiar rumour.

The BBC’s reservations weren’t limited to science fiction. When Sesame Street debuted in the United States in 1969, British television executives questioned its American teaching style and whether it suited British preschoolers. The BBC declined to broadcast it, while ITV cautiously tested the waters. Regional broadcaster HTV began a trial run in 1971, and Channel 4 eventually brought the programme to a much wider audience in 1987. It wasn’t a nationwide ban, but the hesitation was real.

Meanwhile, British children already had The Magic Roundabout, a French cartoon transformed into a uniquely British institution by writer Eric Thompson. He recorded his own narration over the original animation, improvising new dialogue and storylines that turned Dougal, Dylan and their friends into household names. Its dreamy, psychedelic atmosphere led some adults to suspect hidden drug references, although that was largely interpretation rather than evidence of a deliberate message.

The contrast is hard to beat. The BBC worried that Sesame Street was too American for British children, yet happily broadcast The Magic Roundabout, a wonderfully surreal show that seemed to operate by its own logic. Adults searched for hidden meanings in its dreamy atmosphere, while children simply enjoyed the strange adventures. Big Bird was teaching children their ABCs and numbers, while The Magic Roundabout was taking them somewhere altogether stranger.