Banned Episodes

[MacNimon]

A topic that was briefly discussed at Saturday nights meet was that of banned episodes of TV series, and how they can be used as a selling point when it comes to DVD boxsets. The Professionals episode, Klansmen, was the one which was mentioned but there have been banned episodes of many series over the years which have finally appeared on video or DVD.

What other banned episodes from any series can you think of, did you eventually get to see any of them, and what were your opinions of the episodes after viewing them? The few that I've seen generally disappointed me, having built up something of a mystique about them when they turned out to be nothing more than run-of-the-mill episodes at best.

Klansmen, the Professionals episode mentioned above, is a case in point. I haven't watched it for a long time (and in fact I just binned the video in a recent clearout) and so can't remember the details of the plot, although that it does involve racism, but as an episode was simply OK. Nothing worth getting excited or upset about, but that's maybe just me! There were many better, more enjoyable episodes of that series, imo.

The same with Star Trek. The original series had four episodes which were banned by the BBC for a long time. Miri had been broadcast once in the series first ever UK transmission back around 1970 before being deemed unsuitable, while Plato's Stepchildren, The Empath, and Whom Gods Destroy were all banned before ever being transmitted...Star Trek was regarded as a childrens show by the BBC at the time and they regarded the episodes as being too intense for children because of the content... "because they all [deal] most unpleasantly with the already unpleasant subjects of madness, torture, sadism and disease." It was at least the late 1980s (perhaps even early 1990s) before these episodes were shown on British tv, after they had been officially released on video. The only episode of these which I'm fond of myself is Miri, a good episode in the midst of a strong run, but the other 3 were hardly worth the wait imo. I've only seen them two or three times and wasn't impressed with them, pretty dull affairs iirc....again, there are many better episodes to be seen.

Star Trek:TNG also had an episode banned by the BBC, The Higher Ground, (another dull one, imo) because of a comment about Ireland; when it was shown on Sky they simply edited out the offending/sensitive comment. I'm pretty sure there were also episodes of the X-Files and Starsky & Hutch banned, as well as The Simpsons. Probably many others as well, for various reasons...which ones have you seen, if any, and what were your thoughts on them?

[Lissa]

I remember being very annoyed that Sky simply skipped a controversial episode of Xena: Warrior Princess. A bunch of homophobic Hindus protested against it in the US because it dared to show a Hindu god helping Xena and Gabrielle despite their "obvious" feelings for one and other.

I never did get round to seeing the episode in question as I'd lost interest by the time I bought the series on DVD*

*yes I know - I bought it after I'd lost interest. Ridiculous.

[Zbigniev Hamson]

Channel 4 initially skipped the episode TKO from season 1 of Babylon 5 due to it being based around a fighting tournament on the station. They eventually showed it some time after the season had been aired, after the watershed I believe. Not only was it not really all that violent, it was also rather "meh" in general.

[Andrew Curnow]

Wasn't there an episode of Doomwatch that was banned? I have a feeling that, somewhat ironically, it's one of very few episodes of that show that still exist!!

[SiHart]

The last episode of Secret Army- What Did You Do In The War, Daddy...

It's not terrible, but after the subtleties of the series' politics, the unsubtle politicking is really jarring. As is the terrible make up jobs that aged the main characters. It's just sub-standard and I can see why they decided not to show it.

[Nyder]

I'm sure an episode of Seinfeld was banned after its first broadcast. It's the one where Kramer burns the Puerto Rican flag (albeit accidentally!)

[Andrew Curnow]

Didn't they also ban an early Grange Hill from being repeated, I think it's where Tucker & co muck about at the swimming pool. Ooh, how controversial!!

[Stuart Wallis]

Well I seem to remember there was an episode set in a swimming pool where a character drowned. Fair enough, I've a fear of water, but it frightened me.

[Zbigniev Hamson]

Good job it was banned then. No good could come out of scaring kids and teacing them the dangers of horseplay in the swimming pool.