56. Banned by the Beeb
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Show Notes: Despite what Americans may think, moral panics about TV exist everywhere and today, we begin the exploration of a doozy. The start of a two-part look into four episodes of Star Trek that came a cropper at the hands of Auntie Beeb (a not-so affectionate term for the BBC) that of course allows Miles to indulge in one of his favourite talking points about British movie culture – Video Nasties!
Because of this, we’re only looking at two episodes per part. In ‘Miri,’ we see some very familiar style backlots and some very 1960s ways of talking to young women which definately makes our casual explorers think Auntie may have a point! Then, we jump straight to the third season of The Original Trek as our heroes endure ten minutes of plot and forty minutes of bloody nonsence in ‘Plato’s Stepchildren,’ possibly one of the most famous episodes of Star Trek (unless you’re from the Deep South) but is consent more important than controversy? Whatever we decide, the Big List will change forever!
TIMECODES:
10:39 TOS: Miri
38:17 TOS: Plato’s Stepchildren
Talking Points: Video Nasties, why were these episodes banned from broadcast until the 90s, Miles’s first choice for his Non-Trek thing indicates some wider issues, Alien Romulus, Miles misses Stupid Drunk British Lads smashing stuff with pipes, Astro’s Playroom, Miles and Charlie have different views towards achieving Platinum on games, Miri, Miles only wants to talk about lists, not get put on one himself, the always creepy ‘she looks 14 but she’s actually 300 trope,’ Kirk’s charm here does not read well in 2024, exact replicas of Earth are a little silly, how many SF societies wipe themselves out looking for immortality (and Miles pulls out a bit of ‘meanwhile in the UK, Doctor Who was doing this’ coincidence), we briefly touch on the rather triggering experiences of Grace Whitney (Yeoman Rand) shortly after this episode and her leaving the series, the oddly faced Steven Jay Pollard, Droogs in waiting, Shatner clearly trying not to punch a child, did the BBC have a point with Miri? Violence from children, inferred child-death, Hey Jude, the majesty of the theme for ‘The Good, The Bad and the Ugly,’ whenever people bring up eugenics, just turn around and run, we’ve started to incorporate our experiences with Space 1999 into watching Star Trek, nonsense starts and just generally never stops, Charlie gets slap-happy, Mary Whitehouse would not approve which is fine because we don’t approve of Mary Whitehouse. The nonsense gets creepy when Spock starts singing and it gets REALLY creepy when Kirk and Uhura is made to smooch, Charlie really wants to make a Dragonball Z joke here, when it’s done, Miles is pulling off the band-aid, some real shame on our heroes her, is this our first mention of slash-fics? This episode doesn’t go full-Hellraiser, No Gods No Philosopher Kings, sorry Parmon, one day Miles will go on a long tirade on how people misuse the term ‘Lynchian,’how much truth is there in the legend, would you show this to your partner and we can’t escape Shatner’s disturbingly pointy nipple, Miles has watched some wank in his life and that definately reflects his opinion of the episode, Miles poses Charlie a very important question.
Music by Alfred Etheridge-Nunn. Read Miles’s blog or Charlie’s blog.
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