Star Trek: The Next Generation Stars Criticize Racially-Insensitive Episode

Star Trek is known for its progressive, inclusive ideals, but no TV series is perfect and the franchise has unfortunately stumbled over the years, producing episodes that haven’t aged well. Case in point: “Code of Honor,” the fourth episode of Star Trek: The Next Generationseason 1. Fans may like to pretend that the racially-insensitive episode doesn’t exist, but stars Jonathan Frakes and Denise Crosby have called it out in a recent interview.

“Code of Honor” sees the Enterprise crew visiting Ligon II in order to retrieve a vaccine created by the Ligonians, a primitive race played entirely by black actors. If that wasn’t enough, the plot sees the Ligonians kidnap the Caucasian Lt. Tasha Yar (Crosby). It made uncomfortable enough viewing in the late 80s, let alone nowadays.

GalaxyCon spoke with Frakes and Crosby as part of a virtual chat with the TNG crew and during a discussion of season 1, the moderator attempted to skip forward onto the next topic, but Frakes made clear that he wanted to talk about the controversial episode. “Are we just going to wipe right through ‘Code of Honor,’ is that what you are planning on doing here?” the Riker actor said.

Here’s how the conversation went from there:

It seems that Frakes and Crosby are of the opinion that “Code of Honor” should be pulled from replays of the series and potentially streaming as well. It certainly would make sense, considering other content that’s now being removed or censored amidst the Black Lives Matter movement. Fans probably wouldn’t miss it too much, either. After all, “Code of Honor” is currently ranked as the third-worst episode in all of TNG on IMDb, with a paltry 5.2 rating.

Star Trek: The Next Generationis available on CBS All Access.

Source: GalaxyCon (via TrekMovie)

Source: wegotthiscovered.com