In the Star Trek episode "The Empath" (December 6, 1968), Captain Kirk (William Shatner)Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelly) are on a guest mission when they are suddenly abducted by off-screen aliens and placed in a mysterious, blackened chamber somewhere beneath the planet's surface. While trapped, they encounter a missing woman in purple, whom McCoy names Gem (Katherine Hayes). The gem, they discover, has an extraordinary superpower. When someone is injured, Gem can heal them by absorbing their wounds into itself. She feels equal pain. Then the wound heals quickly.

Gem ends up with plenty of opportunities to use her superpowers as the four characters are constantly tormented by evil aliens with big skulls called Vians (played by Alan Bergman and Willard Sage). The Wayans spend most of the episode torturing and injuring the crew members of the Enterprise, sometimes while Gem watches. The gem, in turn, offers to heal them each time, getting weaker and weaker with each heal.

The Vians eventually discover the reason for their actions. It looks like Gem's species will disappear thanks to the upcoming supernova. Vians can save either her world or another inhabited world nearby, but they don't have the resources for both. The Wians say they will only save Gem's world if she proves she is willing to sacrifice her own life (that is, by healing someone close to death), thus passing a twisted morality test.

It appears that the BBC was considering preparing to broadcast The Empath to the public in 1970. Television has already received a number of complaints about "Star Trek" due to some of its harsher material and an episode about torture. he knew, he would definitely keep the angry letters coming. The Empath, along with three other Star Trek episodes, was thus completely removed from the BBC's broadcast schedule and was shelved for literally decades. After all, The Empath didn't air in the UK until the 90s.

Apparently, when the BBC was broadcasting the Star Trek episode "Miri" the audience reacted badly. That episode was a terrifying, dark tale of a planet of slowly aging children who still remember the centuries-old plague that wiped out the adults from their world. Kirk and co. beam down and contract the plague, growing strange scabs all over their bodies. However, the character Miri (Kim Darby) will turn him into her planet's equivalent of 12, and now he is at risk of infection. Miri must convince the other children, all wild, that Kirk is trustworthy and that growing up is okay. Obviously, that episode got a lot of hate mail (although, as noted on the Space Doubt websitethe exact nature of the complaints was never revealed).

However, it was enough to make the BBC wary. The Empath was going to be broadcast and the BBC wasn't going to take any chances. As such, she banned "The Empath" from airing entirely, knowing that the episode would be too much for her more sensitive viewers. Indeed, the BBC began looking more closely at its Star Trek catalog and found two additional episodes it decided to ban: Plato's Stepchildren and Whom the Gods Destroy. In the first installment, there was a group of omnipotent hedonists who psychically forced Kirk and his crew to perform humiliating acts for their amusement. The latter featured a shape-shifting antagonist who took over a mental asylum and formed a cult.

Non-Trekists might know "Plato's Stepchildren" as the episode where Kirk kisses Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) and "Which Gods Destroy Them" as the episode where Yvonne Craig played a scantily clad green-skinned dancer ... who was killed by her. cult leader. The first was too disturbing for the BBC, and the second too disturbing ... but also too sexy.

"The Empath" is truly disturbing, though most Trekkies may remember the episode better because of the low budget. The episode appeared during the show's third season, at which point funding was cut and the show's creatives had to get inventive. There's a reason the Gem and the crew of the Enterprise are locked in a mysterious black space: it ensured the show's crew didn't have to make a set. It's also a little strange that Empath should be singled out, given how much early Star Trek episodes have horror; monsters regularly kill or maim people throughout the show's first season.

The ban was still in effect in the mid-1980s. Some researchers have found notes attached to the four episodes in question that read:

"We find all (episodes) most uncomfortable dealing with the already uncomfortable subjects of madness, torture, sadism and disease." You will appreciate that the account must reveal that of the large and enthusiastic following of Star Trek, there are many minors who would watch the program regardless of what time of day the series is scheduled."

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry eventually saw that memo and strongly objected, stating at a press conference in 1984 (via Geek Day):

"I strongly disagree (with the ban). "Empathy" for me was a beautiful story (...) If someone wants to tell me: "You can't have pain and suffering", I say: "Nonsense! Suffering and pain are part of life.

Roddenberry went on to note that fistfights in most action shows—which were common and expected—usually showed the two pugilists enjoying their punch. Roddenberry objected to the "fun violence" on TV, feeling that "hard violence" was healthier and more accurate.

But eventually, the standards were relaxed. Until Star Trek: The Next Generation aired on the BBC in the 1990s, the station finally removed the memo and allowed previously banned Trek episodes to be shown to the public. They are now widely seen.