G-ratings didn't used to mean completely kid-friendly or violence-free. The first three PLANET OF THE APES movies were all rated G, despite plenty of brutality: humans being hunted for sport, lobotomies, talk of gelding, a veritable bloodbath at the end of BENEATH, culminating in the total destruction of all life on Earth; Zira and Cornelius being tragically gunned down at the end of ESCAPE, "Damn you all to Hell!," etc. And those weren't too many years before TMP.
People in general were just tougher and thicker skinned back then, and that trickled down to us kids. The world was a much less friendly place, especially in the schoolyard.
And, honestly, TOS featured a lot more horror than modern fans may appreciate. For the record, I like the transporter accident scene. Adds some much-needed drama and tension to the proceedings. It hits you on a visceral level.
I liked it too, but not the way Kirk horned in and snatched the controls away from the Transporter Chief. I always thought Rand should have had some retort when Kirk told her there was nothing she could have done, like "Well maybe I could have, admiral, if you'd stayed the hell out of my way!"
For me it's gonna have to be Data's Sacrifice in Nemesis. The vast majority of the film was horrible, but the ending was a poor ripoff of Spock's Sacrifice in Star Trek II, only they'd already done an homage to Star Trek II's general plot in "Star Trek First Contact" with much greater success than Nemesis. Whereas First Contact had the Action/Adventure, Vengeance plot and returning villain from the series it was based on, much like TWOK, it at least knew better than to be a bold-faced ripoff with a space battle in a nebula and the death of the co-star, only when it came time to do Nemesis they made sure he stayed dead with no "Search for Data" followup film planned. Nemesis was altogether unnecessary. It is among my least favorite Trek films, and I generally treat the Star Trek TNG films as a trilogy ending with Insurrection.
This one was terrible. Same as Trip in ENT final episode. It reeks of they thinking "we are through making movies or episodes anyway, can drop the plot armor now" and cheapens every previous adventure where Data and Trip escaped death. Also, somehow Spock's death didn't feel like that (and he even came back)
Agreed about both Kirk and Data. If you're going to kill a character like Kirk, you gotta do it right. And Data... it still pisses me off that he FINALLY gets the job he should have had 12 years ago... and then they kill him. So if I could delete one scene? Data's death, no hesitation, no regret. Sorry, Jim, but I'll live with "Bridge on the Captain".
And G-rated The Andromeda Strain had some nauseating stuff with the disease, as well as partial nudity. The G really did mean general (broad) audiences at the time, and not only aimed specifically at kids in the first few years of primary school, like the rating came to signify some time in the 1980s. Kor
Any prolonged sequence of the Enterprise flying through V'Ger. A 55 year old woman fan-dancing The entire battle sequence with the Bird of Prey in Generations. Talk about making things unnecessarily more difficult for yourself. The entirety of Insurrection. I just can't abide that movie. The mind rape scene in Nemesis. I have no idea why this scene exists.
Gosh, after TVH, those 2 characters really needed to be put to rest while younger characters should've been introduced - replacing Sulu & Chekov - so that scene would be more believable. I agree it is cringe because the comedy is forced on the characters.