Click here for part two: 1970
Click here for part three: 1971
Click here for part four: 1972
Click here for part five: 1973
Click here for part six: 1974 to 1976
Click here for part seven 1977 to 1982
1984
Two episodes of Star Trek were shown in 1982; Operation -- Annihilate! and an unscheduled showing of The Savage Curtain. Apart from that the series had been off the air since May 1981. The longest gap since the BBC began showing Star Trek in 1969.
News of this repeat run leaked out into the UK Star Trek fan community. Fans began writing to the BBC to request that the four withdrawn episodes (Miri, The Empath, Whom Gods Destroy, and Plato's Stepchildren) be included. An example of the BBC's standard negative response is available online. Presumably fans had also been writing to the BBC about the eccentric episode order used to schedule Star Trek and here they had more success. For the first time the series would be shown in NBC broadcast order. This change in policy does not seem to have been extended to other imported programmes. Mission: Impossible repeats would run after Star Trek in 1986 and the episodes shown were a random selection of stories from seasons two to five.
That said, it's not long before the BBC breaks with the NBC order. The Squire Of Gothos and The Return Of The Archons are both missing from the 1984 repeats. The scheduling of the 1984 repeats is quite disrupted. The series starts on Tuesday at 18.40 and changes after six weeks to Monday at 19.10 where it replaces Manimal. Then on 20 August Star Trek is pushed into an earlier slot by a combination of International Athletics at 18.15 and a worthy but frankly depressing sounding programme at 20.00 called Still The Biggest Epidemic*. After a break for the August Bank Holiday the series is on the move again, back to Tuesday but this time at the much earlier time of 17.10. This is the earliest the BBC has ever scheduled Star Trek; except for the morning Christmas repeats of 1974/75/76 under the Holiday Star Trek banner.
1985
Two episodes of Star Trek were shown in 1982; Operation -- Annihilate! and an unscheduled showing of The Savage Curtain. Apart from that the series had been off the air since May 1981. The longest gap since the BBC began showing Star Trek in 1969.
News of this repeat run leaked out into the UK Star Trek fan community. Fans began writing to the BBC to request that the four withdrawn episodes (Miri, The Empath, Whom Gods Destroy, and Plato's Stepchildren) be included. An example of the BBC's standard negative response is available online. Presumably fans had also been writing to the BBC about the eccentric episode order used to schedule Star Trek and here they had more success. For the first time the series would be shown in NBC broadcast order. This change in policy does not seem to have been extended to other imported programmes. Mission: Impossible repeats would run after Star Trek in 1986 and the episodes shown were a random selection of stories from seasons two to five.
That said, it's not long before the BBC breaks with the NBC order. The Squire Of Gothos and The Return Of The Archons are both missing from the 1984 repeats. The scheduling of the 1984 repeats is quite disrupted. The series starts on Tuesday at 18.40 and changes after six weeks to Monday at 19.10 where it replaces Manimal. Then on 20 August Star Trek is pushed into an earlier slot by a combination of International Athletics at 18.15 and a worthy but frankly depressing sounding programme at 20.00 called Still The Biggest Epidemic*. After a break for the August Bank Holiday the series is on the move again, back to Tuesday but this time at the much earlier time of 17.10. This is the earliest the BBC has ever scheduled Star Trek; except for the morning Christmas repeats of 1974/75/76 under the Holiday Star Trek banner.
1985
Star
Trek returned after Christmas. It was shifted to Wednesday and
a later slot around 19.00. The first two episodes shown were The
Squire Of Gothos and The
Return Of The Archons. Could
ongoing concerns over their content have caused both episodes to be held back
so they could be shifted into a later time slot? In the case of The
Return Of The Archons it's quite
possible. This was an episode which went unrepeated between 1969 and
1974; my best guess is because the Festival scenes were felt to be
too intense. It's
interesting to note that four of the five episodes shown at
the start of 1985 were transmitted at 18.55 while The
Return Of The Archons
is preceded by a Daffy Duck cartoon which pushes the start time back
to 19.00. This might seem insignificant but programming before the 21.00
watershed tends to be done on the assumption that less
child friendly material is shown later, by starting dead on 19.00 the
BBC might have felt it was sending a message that this programme was
not suitable for very young children.
Home video recorders were more common by 1984. So it was probably in 1984 that this happened (it's next to impossible to tell if this was 1979 or 1984). The BBC edited their copies of Star Trek to put the titles first followed by the teaser which ran into act one. This seems to have been done on the assumption that the BBC was not a commercial channel so it shouldn't use commercial tactics to hook viewers. Cutting and rejoining the film left a weak point which is why it snaps where it does. There's an example of how the BBC went straight into the opening titles here along with a nice slow fade from the BBC globe into the Star Trek stars; one continuity announcer seems to have been particularly fond of the way that looked.
There is no obvious reason to explain why The Squire Of Gothos was held back.
The last episode of Star Trek to be shown on BBC1 was Who Mourns For Adonais? The channel was undergoing radical changes and the following week was a key moment in the BBC's history. On Monday 18th February BBC1 was relaunched with a new look, a simplified schedule with more programmes starting on the hour or half hour, and the chat show Wogan to anchor the evening schedule on Monday Wednesday and Friday, and soap opera EastEnders on Tuesday and Thursday. This new broom approach included moving Star Trek to BBC2. In itself not an unreasonable decision, the series was by now nearly 20 years old and most episodes had been shown five times, but it seemed to also mark a sea change in the BBC's attitude to science fiction. Before 1985 science fiction had been populist -Star Trek, Doctor Who, Blake's Seven, Doomwatch, Survivors, The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy- after 1985 it seems to have been regarded largely as a failed genre (see the cancellation of The Tripods, planned as a trilogy but cancelled because of poor ratings while the second series was still being made) suitable only for the "minority" channel BBC2. This was a decision which cast a long shadow and into the 1990s series like Star Trek: The Next Generation, Quantum Leap, and The X-Files premièred on BBC2 when they might otherwise have been seen on BBC1. Actually The X-Files became one of the few science fiction series to escape from BBC2. It made the transition to BBC1 in 1996 and amusingly BBC1 accidentally revived an old tradition. The first three episodes shown on the channel were in the wrong order.
The week before the repeats kicked off on BBC2 the channel showed a special produced in 1983 called Leonard Nimoy: Star Trek Memories. According to Memory Alpha this special was often included in syndication packages to increase the number of episodes to 80. If the BBC was being supplied with syndication copies of episodes then it explains my surprise in 1990 when I discovered the VHS version of And The Children Shall Lead included a lengthy scene of Kirk in a cave on Triacus missing from the BBC2 repeat; listed as a syndication cut in The Nitpicker's Guide for Classic Trekkers. The regular repeats ran weekly on Thursday at 18.00. The BBC was now using Star Trek as counterprogramming to the hour of national and local news on BBC1. Exactly what happened to Star Trek when it first entered syndication in 1969.
There is no obvious reason to explain why The Squire Of Gothos was held back.
The last episode of Star Trek to be shown on BBC1 was Who Mourns For Adonais? The channel was undergoing radical changes and the following week was a key moment in the BBC's history. On Monday 18th February BBC1 was relaunched with a new look, a simplified schedule with more programmes starting on the hour or half hour, and the chat show Wogan to anchor the evening schedule on Monday Wednesday and Friday, and soap opera EastEnders on Tuesday and Thursday. This new broom approach included moving Star Trek to BBC2. In itself not an unreasonable decision, the series was by now nearly 20 years old and most episodes had been shown five times, but it seemed to also mark a sea change in the BBC's attitude to science fiction. Before 1985 science fiction had been populist -Star Trek, Doctor Who, Blake's Seven, Doomwatch, Survivors, The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy- after 1985 it seems to have been regarded largely as a failed genre (see the cancellation of The Tripods, planned as a trilogy but cancelled because of poor ratings while the second series was still being made) suitable only for the "minority" channel BBC2. This was a decision which cast a long shadow and into the 1990s series like Star Trek: The Next Generation, Quantum Leap, and The X-Files premièred on BBC2 when they might otherwise have been seen on BBC1. Actually The X-Files became one of the few science fiction series to escape from BBC2. It made the transition to BBC1 in 1996 and amusingly BBC1 accidentally revived an old tradition. The first three episodes shown on the channel were in the wrong order.
The week before the repeats kicked off on BBC2 the channel showed a special produced in 1983 called Leonard Nimoy: Star Trek Memories. According to Memory Alpha this special was often included in syndication packages to increase the number of episodes to 80. If the BBC was being supplied with syndication copies of episodes then it explains my surprise in 1990 when I discovered the VHS version of And The Children Shall Lead included a lengthy scene of Kirk in a cave on Triacus missing from the BBC2 repeat; listed as a syndication cut in The Nitpicker's Guide for Classic Trekkers. The regular repeats ran weekly on Thursday at 18.00. The BBC was now using Star Trek as counterprogramming to the hour of national and local news on BBC1. Exactly what happened to Star Trek when it first entered syndication in 1969.
1986
A
much more straightforward year in contrast to all the changes of
1985. Leonard Nimoy: Star Trek Memories was given a second
repeat on Monday 2 June 1986 at 17.40. The one mystery of the year is
the showing of The Galileo Seven on Tuesday 30 December. It's
possible this was a delayed repeat after the showing on 9 October
1984 was postponed; that's what happened to Operation --
Annihilate! in 1982. However there's no obvious reason for why
this could have happened. It's possible coverage of the 1984
Conservative Party Conference over ran but there's no evidence that
this was the case. Nothing particularly newsworthy appears to have
happened on 9 October 1984 which could have caused disruption to the
schedule.
Numbers in brackets below show the number of times each episode has been broadcast.
1984-06-26 18.40 BBC1 The Man Trap (5)
1984-07-03 18.40 BBC1 Charlie X (5)
1984-07-10 18.40 BBC1 Where No Man Has Gone Before (5)
1984-07-17 18.40 BBC1 The Naked Time (5)
1984-07-24 18.40 BBC1 The Enemy Within (5)
1984-07-30 19.10 BBC1 Mudd's Women (5)
1984-08-06 19.10 BBC1 What Are Little Girls Made Of? (5)
1984-08-13 19.10 BBC1 Dagger Of The Mind (5)
1984-08-20 18.45 BBC1 The Corbomite Maneuver (5)
1984-09-04 17.10 BBC1 The Menagerie Part I (5)
1984-09-11 17.10 BBC1 The Menagerie Part II (5)
1984-09-18 17.10 BBC1 The Conscience of the King (5)
1984-09-25 17.10 BBC1 Balance Of Terror (5)
1984-10-02 17.10 BBC1 Shore Leave (5)
1984-10-09 17.10 BBC1 The Galileo Seven (5)
1984-10-16 17.10 BBC1 Arena (5)
1984-10-23 17.10 BBC1 Tomorrow is Yesterday (5)
1984-10-30 17.10 BBC1 Court Martial (5)
1984-11-06 17.10 BBC1 Space Seed (5)
1984-11-13 17.10 BBC1 A Taste of Armageddon (5)
1984-11-20 17.10 BBC1 This Side of Paradise (5)
1984-11-27 17.10 BBC1 The Devil In The Dark (5)
1984-12-04 17.10 BBC1 Errand of Mercy (5)
1984-12-11 17.10 BBC1 The Alternative Factor (5)
1984-12-18 17.10 BBC1 The City On The Edge Of Forever (5)
1984-07-03 18.40 BBC1 Charlie X (5)
1984-07-10 18.40 BBC1 Where No Man Has Gone Before (5)
1984-07-17 18.40 BBC1 The Naked Time (5)
1984-07-24 18.40 BBC1 The Enemy Within (5)
1984-07-30 19.10 BBC1 Mudd's Women (5)
1984-08-06 19.10 BBC1 What Are Little Girls Made Of? (5)
1984-08-13 19.10 BBC1 Dagger Of The Mind (5)
1984-08-20 18.45 BBC1 The Corbomite Maneuver (5)
1984-09-04 17.10 BBC1 The Menagerie Part I (5)
1984-09-11 17.10 BBC1 The Menagerie Part II (5)
1984-09-18 17.10 BBC1 The Conscience of the King (5)
1984-09-25 17.10 BBC1 Balance Of Terror (5)
1984-10-02 17.10 BBC1 Shore Leave (5)
1984-10-09 17.10 BBC1 The Galileo Seven (5)
1984-10-16 17.10 BBC1 Arena (5)
1984-10-23 17.10 BBC1 Tomorrow is Yesterday (5)
1984-10-30 17.10 BBC1 Court Martial (5)
1984-11-06 17.10 BBC1 Space Seed (5)
1984-11-13 17.10 BBC1 A Taste of Armageddon (5)
1984-11-20 17.10 BBC1 This Side of Paradise (5)
1984-11-27 17.10 BBC1 The Devil In The Dark (5)
1984-12-04 17.10 BBC1 Errand of Mercy (5)
1984-12-11 17.10 BBC1 The Alternative Factor (5)
1984-12-18 17.10 BBC1 The City On The Edge Of Forever (5)
1985-01-09 18.55 BBC1 The Squire of Gothos (5)
1985-01-16 19.00 BBC1 The Return of the Archons (5)
1985-01-23 18.55 BBC1 Operation -- Annihilate! (5)
1985-02-06 18.55 BBC1 Amok Time (5)
1985-02-13 18.55 BBC1 Who Mourns For Adonais? (5)
1985-09-05 18.00 BBC2 The Changeling (5)
1985-09-12 18.00 BBC2 Mirror, Mirror (5)
1985-09-19 18.00 BBC2 The Apple (5)
1985-09-26 18.00 BBC2 The Doomsday Machine (5)
1985-10-03 18.00 BBC2 Catspaw (5)
1985-10-10 18.00 BBC2 I, Mudd (5)
1985-10-17 18.00 BBC2 Metamorphosis (5)
1985-10-24 18.00 BBC2 Journey To Babel (5)
1985-10-31 18.00 BBC2 Friday's Child (5)
1985-11-07 18.00 BBC2 The Deadly Years (5)
1985-11-14 18.00 BBC2 Obsession (5)
1985-11-21 18.00 BBC2 Wolf In The Fold (5)
1985-11-28 18.00 BBC2 The Trouble with Tribbles (5)
1985-12-05 18.00 BBC2 The Gamesters Of Triskelion (5)
1985-12-12 18.00 BBC2 A Piece Of The Action (5)
1985-12-19 18.00 BBC2 The Immunity Syndrome (5)
1986-01-09 18.00 BBC2 A Private Little War (5)
1986-01-16 18.00 BBC2 Return To Tomorrow (5)
1986-01-23 18.00 BBC2 Patterns Of Force (5)
1986-01-30 18.00 BBC2 By Any Other Name (5)
1986-02-06 18.00 BBC2 The Omega Glory (5)
1986-02-13 18.00 BBC2 The Ultimate Computer (5)
1986-02-20 18.00 BBC2 Bread And Circuses (5)
1986-02-27 18.00 BBC2 Assignment: Earth (5)
1986-03-06 18.00 BBC2 Spock's Brain (5)
1986-03-13 18.00 BBC2 The Enterprise Incident (5)
1986-03-20 18.00 BBC2 The Paradise Syndrome (5)
1986-03-27 18.00 BBC2 And the Children Shall Lead (5)
1986-04-03 18.00 BBC2 Is There in Truth No Beauty? (5)
1986-04-10 18.00 BBC2 Spectre of the Gun (5)
1986-09-04 18.00 BBC2 Day of the Dove (5)
1986-09-11 18.00 BBC2 For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky (5)
1986-09-18 18.00 BBC2 The Tholian Web (5)
1986-09-25 18.00 BBC2 Wink of an Eye (5)
1986-10-02 18.00 BBC2 Elaan of Troyius (5)
1986-10-09 18.00 BBC2 Let That Be Your Last Battlefield (5)
1986-10-16 18.00 BBC2 The Mark of Gideon (5)
1986-10-23 18.00 BBC2 That Which Survives (5)
1986-10-30 18.00 BBC2 The Lights of Zetar (5)
1986-11-13 18.00 BBC2 Requiem for Methuselah 5)
1986-11-20 18.00 BBC2 The Way to Eden (5)
1986-11-27 18.00 BBC2 The Cloud Minders (5)
1986-12-04 18.00 BBC2 The Savage Curtain (5)
1986-12-11 18.00 BBC2 All Our Yesterdays (5)
1986-12-18 18.00 BBC2 Turnabout Intruder (5)
1986-12-30 18.00 BBC2 The Galileo Seven (6)
1985-01-16 19.00 BBC1 The Return of the Archons (5)
1985-01-23 18.55 BBC1 Operation -- Annihilate! (5)
1985-02-06 18.55 BBC1 Amok Time (5)
1985-02-13 18.55 BBC1 Who Mourns For Adonais? (5)
1985-09-05 18.00 BBC2 The Changeling (5)
1985-09-12 18.00 BBC2 Mirror, Mirror (5)
1985-09-19 18.00 BBC2 The Apple (5)
1985-09-26 18.00 BBC2 The Doomsday Machine (5)
1985-10-03 18.00 BBC2 Catspaw (5)
1985-10-10 18.00 BBC2 I, Mudd (5)
1985-10-17 18.00 BBC2 Metamorphosis (5)
1985-10-24 18.00 BBC2 Journey To Babel (5)
1985-10-31 18.00 BBC2 Friday's Child (5)
1985-11-07 18.00 BBC2 The Deadly Years (5)
1985-11-14 18.00 BBC2 Obsession (5)
1985-11-21 18.00 BBC2 Wolf In The Fold (5)
1985-11-28 18.00 BBC2 The Trouble with Tribbles (5)
1985-12-05 18.00 BBC2 The Gamesters Of Triskelion (5)
1985-12-12 18.00 BBC2 A Piece Of The Action (5)
1985-12-19 18.00 BBC2 The Immunity Syndrome (5)
1986-01-09 18.00 BBC2 A Private Little War (5)
1986-01-16 18.00 BBC2 Return To Tomorrow (5)
1986-01-23 18.00 BBC2 Patterns Of Force (5)
1986-01-30 18.00 BBC2 By Any Other Name (5)
1986-02-06 18.00 BBC2 The Omega Glory (5)
1986-02-13 18.00 BBC2 The Ultimate Computer (5)
1986-02-20 18.00 BBC2 Bread And Circuses (5)
1986-02-27 18.00 BBC2 Assignment: Earth (5)
1986-03-06 18.00 BBC2 Spock's Brain (5)
1986-03-13 18.00 BBC2 The Enterprise Incident (5)
1986-03-20 18.00 BBC2 The Paradise Syndrome (5)
1986-03-27 18.00 BBC2 And the Children Shall Lead (5)
1986-04-03 18.00 BBC2 Is There in Truth No Beauty? (5)
1986-04-10 18.00 BBC2 Spectre of the Gun (5)
1986-09-04 18.00 BBC2 Day of the Dove (5)
1986-09-11 18.00 BBC2 For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky (5)
1986-09-18 18.00 BBC2 The Tholian Web (5)
1986-09-25 18.00 BBC2 Wink of an Eye (5)
1986-10-02 18.00 BBC2 Elaan of Troyius (5)
1986-10-09 18.00 BBC2 Let That Be Your Last Battlefield (5)
1986-10-16 18.00 BBC2 The Mark of Gideon (5)
1986-10-23 18.00 BBC2 That Which Survives (5)
1986-10-30 18.00 BBC2 The Lights of Zetar (5)
1986-11-13 18.00 BBC2 Requiem for Methuselah 5)
1986-11-20 18.00 BBC2 The Way to Eden (5)
1986-11-27 18.00 BBC2 The Cloud Minders (5)
1986-12-04 18.00 BBC2 The Savage Curtain (5)
1986-12-11 18.00 BBC2 All Our Yesterdays (5)
1986-12-18 18.00 BBC2 Turnabout Intruder (5)
1986-12-30 18.00 BBC2 The Galileo Seven (6)
1986-11-06: No Star
Trek. All week the BBC was marking its 50th anniversary with archive
repeats. On Thursday 6 from 18.00 you could have watched episodes of
What's My Line?, Z Cars, Bruce Forsyth and The Generation Game, The
Royal Ballet in The Firebird, Monty Python's Flying Circus, and Blue
Remembered Hills.
*"Road accidents are the single biggest killer for people aged between 4 and 45. Accident statistics show that we are all likely to be injured on the road at some time in our lives.
One in three corpses dragged from a crashed car was 'drunk".'
Today the same is still true.... The wearing of front seat belts has brought the figures down to their lowest level in 30 years - 'the best piece of public health legislation this century'. It shows what can be done. But there are still 75,000 deaths and serious injuries each year. Why is this epidemic allowed to continue? Does no one care about the thousands of needless killings, twisted bodies, crippled minds ... because 'it'll never happen to me'? The carnage could be cut in half -this film shows how. "
*"Road accidents are the single biggest killer for people aged between 4 and 45. Accident statistics show that we are all likely to be injured on the road at some time in our lives.
One in three corpses dragged from a crashed car was 'drunk".'
Today the same is still true.... The wearing of front seat belts has brought the figures down to their lowest level in 30 years - 'the best piece of public health legislation this century'. It shows what can be done. But there are still 75,000 deaths and serious injuries each year. Why is this epidemic allowed to continue? Does no one care about the thousands of needless killings, twisted bodies, crippled minds ... because 'it'll never happen to me'? The carnage could be cut in half -this film shows how. "
