Not sure what was deemed offensive about "Miri"?
Fact-Checking Inside Star Trek: The Real Story
- Thread starter Harvey
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Not sure what was deemed offensive about "Miri"?
Interesting. So the ban was due to the very themes I and others have mentioned and not for anything johnnybear and Spock's Barber were complaining about.
Very interesting. Plato's Stepchildren was wacked by the British censors.
Well Uhura looked far better in her usual outfit than the silver curtains the alien Platonians gave her! I think I wrote to the BBC about the banned shows in 1980 and I got the same letter as stated in the post! I still don't understand why Miri was banned, apart from the zombie racing from the house to attack the crew and maybe the girl who climbed on Kirk's back later on!
JB
JB
Some of the makeup was disturbing for the day.
The disease kicks in at puberty, so a prepubescent Miri was attracted (sexual?) to Kirk.
When Kirk is attacked by the children, in one case he throws a child to the floor.
A government medical program wipes out the adult population.
Could any of these be the reason for the ban?
It was never specified as a government program. In fact, since the lab was in some ordinary building on a residential-street backlot, it comes off more as a private project that accidentally unleashed something on the general public.
Knowing the British public of the day I'm sure those facts would have gone right over their heads! But Miri was screened the once back in 1970 by the BBC, it was in subsequent reruns that it was omitted!
JB
Whatever the complaint was about Miri the BBC took it incredibly seriously.
Miri was broadcast on 2/12/1970. The Empath was due to be shown two weeks later on 16/12/1970 but pulled at such short notice that newspaper listings and the Radio Times had already gone to print. Sites like BBC Genome still have The Empath listed as being shown at 19.20 but the limited access I've had to BBC documentation confirms that The Paradise Syndrome was shown instead.
What's interesting is that it looks as if The Return Of The Archons was also temporarily caught up in whatever happened to Miri, The Empath, Plato's Stepchildren and Whom Gods Destroy . It gets shown once in 1969 and then doesn't get shown again until 1976; when it might have been expected to be repeated in 1971 and 1974.
This next bit is speculation but when The Return of The Archons does finally get shown again it seems to have been hacked about. The programme as broadcast information for the 1969 première give a 16mm print length (yes the BBC records include film print length) of 4510 feet (if you assume that the 16mm bit is wrong and it should be 35mm then this is a running time of around 50 minutes. The film length for the 35mm 1976 repeat is 3837 feet (a running time of 42 minutes). There's no way to confirm this but I wonder if the Festival sequence was removed or shortened? It must have been weird to be a Star Trek fan in 1976, you'd have seen pretty much every episode twice and then suddenly the BBC shows what seems to be a brand new story.
I'm not sure if any details of the Miri complaint have been kept by the BBC, because it wasn't a BBC production. So that information might be gone forever -unless anyone else knows differently.
You know, I could live peacefully without seeing Miri on the tube. Not one of my favorite TOS episodes.
Bonk, bonk, bonk!
I do remember when Archons was repeated in 1979 that the tape split and we had a few moments of music while the technicians patched it up! But they also moved the tape on a tad!
JB
JB
You know, I could live peacefully without seeing Miri on the tube. Not one of my favorite TOS episodes.
Anything with Grace Lee Whitney is one of my favourites, Mr.Beard!
JB
Amazingly that film break is on Youtube
Anything with Grace Lee Whitney is one of my favourites, Mr.Beard!
JB
I am LORD Beard. And I lead the future masters of the universe.
I wonder if the guy who put these up on YouTube had got his tapes mixed up? Trek has always been on BBC1 during it's time here in the UK while Central TV was another of the many independent ITV stations which has never shown the series!
JB
Oh do forgive me my Lord Beard!
May we all sacrifice a goat or two and get down on our knees and worship you?JB
Oh do forgive me my Lord Beard!
JB
Chekov : "I was making a little joke, sir."
Spock : "Extremely little, ensign."
You're much too nice a guy to expect that from us I know, Lord Beard! 
JB
JB
You're much too nice a guy to expect that from us I know, Lord Beard!
JB
Just don't commit me to Elba II, unless Marta is still hanging around there.
She'll meet you outside.Just don't commit me to Elba II, unless Marta is still hanging around there.
It's too late. She went to pieces over Lord Garth.
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