Star Trek on the BBC (and ITV): Gene Roddenberry

It's been three years. So it's probably past time to blow some dust of this blog. Thank you to everyone who has commented, and apologies for the delay in making those comments live. It turns out Blogger doesn't tell me when a comment is waiting approval but it does diligently email me to let me know when I've approved a comment and it is live. That's really helpful Blogger (sarcasm). Anyway...

Just now, I was updating the page Star Trek on the BBC (and ITV): The Films, to add Jay's dates and times for showings of the films I was missing. He included details of a Saturday 13th May 1995 showing of The Voyage Home and, forgetting that was on ITV, I went to have a look on BBC Genome. By a happy coincidence, the same Saturday morning BBC1 was showing Gene Roddenberry's 1973 TV film Genesis II. It got me wondering about the broadcast dates for other Gene Roddenberry scripts and personal appearances, and well, here we are again. 

Please note. I'm not including UK broadcast dates for Gene Roddenberry's posthumous series like Andromeda. Once again, I'm playing the life's-too-short card.

1959-09-23     21.30     ITV       Have Gun Will Travel: The Hanging Cross
                                                   (Associated-Rediffusion) [1]

1974-10-01     18.40    ITV        The Questor Tapes (Granada)

1975-01-03    15.00     ITV        Genesis II (Southern)

1977-08-16    19.05     ITV        Genesis II (Thames)

1979-03-16     23.00     ITV       Pretty Maids All In A Row (Tyne Tees)
1979-03-16     22.50     ITV       Pretty Maids All In A Row (Thames)

1980-08-05    19.05     ITV        Genesis II (Thames)

1983-10-24     22.30     ITV       Pretty Maids All In A Row (Thames)

1986-05-17     13.20     ITV       The Questor Tapes (LWT)

1990-10-17     19.00     BBC1    Wogan with Sue Lawley [2]

1993-04-04     12.50     BBC2    Genesis II

1994-05-23     18.00     BBC2    Def II Spaced Out: Planet Earth [3]

1995-05-13     10.55     BBC1    Genesis II [4]
1995-06-07     21.00     TNT      Pretty Maids All In A Row 
1995-06-08     02.05     TNT      Pretty Maids All In A Row 
1995-11-01     18.45     BBC2    Genesis II [5]

1997-03-16     14.00     BBC2    Genesis II
1997-04-28     00.25     BBC1    Planet Earth

1998-03-07     01.00     BBC1    Planet Earth
1998-07-05     00.40     BBC1    Genesis II
1998-08-02     00.35     BBC1    Genesis II [6] 

1999-05-19     01.05     BBC1     Planet Earth
1998-06-19     17.40     BBC2     Genesis II

[1] I'm grateful to Jay for introducing me to the fine website The Television and Radio Database which gives me access to ITV schedules. The name in brackets is the ITV franchise, in this case (Associated-Rediffusion) the first ITV franchise to go on air, in 1955. Associated-Rediffusion lost their franchise in 1968 but also owned a chunk of the replacement, Thames. The ITV franchise history is surprisingly complicated.

[2] Wogan was Terry Wogan's long-running, three nights a week BBC1 chat show. The slightly gnomic title is because Sue Lawley was standing in while Terry was off on his hols. According to the Radio Times, "Tonight's guests are the Von Trapp family and the creator of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry."

[3] Another mysterious title which requires a little bit of explanation. Def II was a BBC2 slot aimed at teenagers. Spaced Out, appears to be a three week strand of science-fiction films, the other two were When Worlds Collide and Invaders from Mars, introduced by Craig Charles. Def II was well past its prime by 1995 and, according to Wikipedia, this showing of Planet Earth was the last time the branding was used.

[4] Don't forget to turn over and watch Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home on ITV at 8pm.

[5] Two showings of the same programme so close together normally suggest the earlier one was cancelled. This doesn't seem to be the case here. Newspapers for Saturday 13th May 1995 list Genesis II so the broadcast was still planned when they were printed, and I can't think of any significant events which would have caused it to be replaced on the day. Maybe the BBC felt that shifting it from BBC1 to BBC2 was enough to stop people noticing the repeat within six months.

[6] Here. there is a reason for the close repeat. On Saturday 4th July, World Cup 98 coverage knocked Genesis II out of the schedule.

Star Trek on the BBC (and ITV): The Films

I'd like to thank Baz Taylor for sending me this information on the Star Trek films. I'd also like to

apologise to him as I've been sitting on this information since August last year. All the

information below is from Baz with comments from me in brackets. 

Star Trek: The Motion Picture. First seen on ITV on 3rd September 1984. All showings that I

know of are the extended director cut seen on video.

[Here's the letter to the TV Times, 13-19 October 1984, regarding ITV's

unexpected purchase and broadcast of the extended ABC edit (shown

20th February 1983). It was eight minutes longer than the allocated

slot, presumably that night the ITN News at Ten became the ITN

News at Eight Minutes Past Ten.

On a more personal note, my aunt videoed the ITV premiere for me

and insisted on fast-forwarding through all the "boring bits" when I 

watched it]  

Shown again Easter Monday 27 March 1989 and 1 January 1991. The film then moved to BBC1 where it was first shown on 28 December 1992 and Christmas Eve 1996, then May 17 1998. 

 

Following a move to BBC2, The Motion Picture was screened 4 June 2002, then 23 December 2006. That was the last time it was shown on the main terrestrial channels.

 

[The Motion Picture got two repeats on digital-only channel BBC3; Saturday 12 July 2003, and Saturday 13 November 2004]

 

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan premiered 8pm on ITV, 14 May 1986, straight after Coronation Street and had a feature interview in TV Times with Leonard Nimoy while he was directing Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

 

[There's a scan of the interview here https://twitter.com/woodg31/status/995738541266219008 ]

 

[Note for anyone outside the UK:  simplified history of TV listings magazines follows

 

Until 1991 there were broadly only three sources of TV schedules available. Newspapers carried the day's listings. The BBC published The Radio Times and ITV published the TV Times. If you wanted to know what was showing across the week on both channels you had to buy both magazines. 

 

The BBC and ITV maintained a monopoly on advance television listings which was the subject of legal challenges throughout the 1980s. The monopoly was ended in March 1991 under section 176 of the 1990 Broadcasting Act which required broadcasters to make their schedules available no later than 14 day in advance http://bufvc.ac.uk/tvandradio/c4pp/tv-listings/history ]

 

ITV got their money's worth, showing the film several times between 1986 and their last showing on 27 June 1990. It transferred to the BBC, who first screened it on BBC1, 7 August 1993, and then 19 October 1994. 

There was another screening on BBC2 on August Bank Holiday 1997 I remember taping it, but it is not listed on Genome. It was on opposite Live and Let Die on ITV.

 

[On Monday 25 August 1997 BBC Genome lists Cricket: Sixth Test, 13.35 to 18.20. "Live coverage, through to the close of Play, of the Sixth Test as this year's Ashes series draws to an end."

The Sixth Test ended on Saturday 23rd August and BBC2 dropped in The Wrath of Khan as a last minute scheduling change.

The change was carried by newspapers, but as can be seen here the listing in The Times obscures the start time by putting the FILM logo in the wrong place.
The Wrath of Khan was normally scheduled in a 105 minute slot, so working backwards from Battlestar Galactica's start time it's possible to guess the film began at 16.35]

 

Wrath of Khan got a final BBC2 screening on 2 January 2000 before it disappeared from terrestrial airwaves. All viewings were the cut version on video, at the time, removing the ear slug scenes.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock was rolled out by BBC a lot. First shown on 1 May 1989, it was screened again on 8 December 1990, and 14 June 1992 opposite the Canadian Grand Prix on BBC2, 14 August 1993 (following The Wrath of Khan on 7th August, the only time the BBC ran consecutive Star Trek films on consecutive weeks). 1 Jan 1995 and 14 December 1997. All showings cut out Kirk's line calling Kruge a bastard.

 

[It's also interesting to note that the BBC perceived different audiences for the films and TV series at this time. The films were mainstream and shown on BBC1, while the original TV series was for the cult audience crowd on BBC2]

 

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was an ITV premiere on 22 September 1990, the same week BBC2 premiered Star Trek: The Next Generation. ITV ran it again on 19 August 1992 and again in June 1995 before the BBC bought the rights. It's first BBC1 screening was on 28 December 1998, then again on 18 January 2004. Between those dates it was part of BBC2's Star Trek night on 16 September 2001. All showings were cut for swearing.

[Short-lived digital only channel BBC Choice also showed Star Trek IV on 22 December 2002, unlike the BBC1 and 2 broadcasts this one is marked as Widescreen.]

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier was a BBC only affair, first showing on 12 September 1992, then 31 December 1993, 25 October 1996, 2 January 1998 before being shunted to BBC2 for a final showing on 31 March 2002.

 [BBC Genome lists both the 12 September 1992 premiere and the 31 December 1993 repeat as "First showing on network television." These listings are scanned from the Radio Times which suggests someone accidentally duplicated the wrong text when the Christmas Radio Times was being produced in 1993.

 

BBC Choice showed Star Trek V on Thursday 2 January 2003. There was also a BBC3 broadcast on Saturday 20 November 2004 ]

 

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country was another all BBC event, premiering BBC1 7 January 1995, 31 December 1996, 31 August 1998 and 3 December 2000.

Star Trek Generations was first seen on BBC1, 1 February 1998. All showings cut the "oh shit" line by Data. Shown again 7 June 2000 and 14 July 2002.

Star Trek First Contact took over four years to be seen with the first BBC1 showing on 8 February 2001. The film jumped to BBC2 on Sunday 9 February 2003, and then BBC3 on Saturday 19 July, before returning to BBC1 on 20 December 2003. The BBC heavily cut the movie, removing nearly all the Borg assimilation scenes and swearing.

The BBC never bought the rights to Star Trek: Insurrection. It was shown on Channel 5 on Thursday 23rd October 2003, a trailer can be watched here

 

The list below shows confirmed dates for UK broadcasts of the Star Trek films. I'd be grateful if  anyone else can help with times or additional dates for the various ITV screenings (including Star Trek IV in June 1995 on a Saturday evening),  Channel 4's broadcasts after they brought the rights around 2006, and other Channel 5 broadcasts of Star Trek: Insurrection.

 

1984-09-03     19.30     ITV       Star Trek: The Motion Picture (UK Premiere)

1986-05-14     20.00     ITV       Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (UK Premiere)

 

1987-04-20     14.10     ITV       Star Trek: The Motion Picture
1987-07-07     20.00     ITV       Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

1989-03-27     15.15     ITV       Star Trek: The Motion Picture (5pm, 15 minute break for news)

1989-05-01     20.25    BBC1    Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (UK Premiere)

1990-06-27     20.00     ITV       Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

1990-09-22     20.00     ITV       Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

1990-12-08     20.15    BBC1    Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

1991-01-01     12.35    ITV       Star Trek: The Motion Picture

1992-06-14     15.35    BBC1    Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (Stereo)

1992-08-19     20.30     ITV       Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (10pm, 30 minute break for news)
1992-09-12     18.30    BBC1    Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (UK network premiere, Stereo)

1992-12-28     14.10    BBC1    Star Trek: The Motion Picture 

1993-02-14     18.30     ITV       Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
1993-08-07     17.45    BBC1    Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
1993-08-14     17.50    BBC1    Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (Stereo)

1993-12-31     18.30    BBC1    Star Trek V: The Final Frontier 

1994-10-19     19.00    BBC1    Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

1995-01-01     14.20    BBC1    Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (Stereo)

1995-01-07     20.05    BBC1    Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
1995-05-13     20.00    ITV       Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

1996-10-25     22.20    BBC1    Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (Stereo)   

1996-12-24     13.40    BBC1    Star Trek: The Motion Picture
1996-12-31     15.20    BBC1    Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

1997-08-25     16.35    BBC2    Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

1997-12-14     15.35    BBC1    Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

1998-01-02     15.30    BBC1    Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
1998-02-01     19.10    BBC1    Star Trek: Generations

1998-05-17     14.25    BBC1    Star Trek: The Motion Picture

1998-08-31     15.45    BBC1    Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

1998-12-28     13.40    BBC1    Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

2000-01-02     19.10    BBC2    Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Widescreen)

2000-06-07     19.00    BBC1    Star Trek: Generations (Widescreen)  

2000-12-03     14.55    BBC1    Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country  

2001-02-08     20.05    BBC1    Star Trek: First Contact (Widescreen)

2001-09-16     10.40    BBC2    Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (Widescreen)

2002-03-31     16.05    BBC2    Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (Widescreen)

2002-06-04     16.10    BBC2    Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Widescreen)
2002-07-14     13.00    BBC1    Star Trek: Generations
2002-12-22     19.00    Choice   Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (Widescreen)

2003-01-02     20.00    Choice       Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

2003-02-09     17.15    BBC2        Star Trek: First Contact

2003-07-12     19.00    BBC3        Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Widescreen)
2003-07-19     19.00    BBC3        Star Trek: First Contact

2003-10-23     ??.??    Channel 5 Star Trek: Insurrection

2003-12-20     14.30    BBC1        Star Trek: First Contact

2004-01-18     13.15    BBC1    Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

2004-08-08     13.35    BBC1    Star Trek V: The Final Frontier 

2004-11-13     19.00    BBC3    Star Trek: The Motion Picture
2004-11-20     19.30    BBC3    Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

2005-05-02     10.30    BBC1    Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
2005-05-13     14.40    BBC2    Star Trek: The Motion Picture

2006-12-23     13.00    BBC2    Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Star Trek on the BBC: The Unscheduled

Occasionally information drops into my lap in the most unexpected way. After a three year hiatus, here's another update.

During Star Trek's 38 year run on the BBC most episodes are scheduled (that is listed in newspapers,The Radio Times, or on BBC Genome) nine times but there are exceptions:

The Cage	4
The Man Trap	10
Where No Man Has Gone Before	10
Miri	5
The Galileo Seven	10
The Return Of The Archons	8
The Deadly Years	8
Obsession	8
A Private Little War	8
By Any Other Name	8
Day Of The Dove	8
For The World Is Hollow And I Have Touched The Sky	8
Plato's Stepchildren	3
Wink Of An Eye	8
The Empath	4
Whom Gods Destroy	3
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield	8
The Mark Of Gideon	8
That Which Survives	8
The Lights of Zetar	8
Requiem for Methuselah	8
The Way to Eden	8
The Cloud Minders	8
The Savage Curtain	8
All Our Yesterdays	8
Turnabout Intruder	8

Most of these are easy to explain.

The Cage was first broadcast in 1992, and shown as part of every subsequent run of repeats.

Miri was shown on 2 December 1970. Following complaints it was pulled and went unbroadcast until 1992. After that it was part of every repeat run.

The Empath was scheduled for 16 December 1970 but dropped at very short notice following the complaints about Miri. The BBC did not show it until 1992, and all the repeat seasons that followed.

Plato's Stepchildren, and Whom Gods Destroy were also not shown until 1992, but unlike The Empath they only clock up three repeats because the 2002 run ends with The Tholian Web. This is also why all season three episodes made after The Tholian Web only have eight repeats.

The Man Trap, Where No Man Has Gone Before, and The Galileo Seven all buck the trend by clocking up an impressive ten repeats.

The Galileo Seven is repeated on 9 October 1984, and then again on 30 December 1986 as the last episode of the 1984-86 block of repeats. There is no indication that the 1984 broadcast did not take place, and there is no obvious reason for this second repeat.

The Man Trap is shown twice within a year. Once on 15 October 1995 to start a new repeat run, and then again on 20 August 1996 as part of a week of repeats which built up to Star Trek night on 26 August.

Where No Man Has Gone Before rather sweetly picks up an additional repeat on Saturday 15 January 2005, just before a BBC2 update about the Huygens probe landing on Titan.

That leaves the following episodes which were only scheduled eight times: The Return Of The Archons, The Deadly Years, Obsession, A Private Little War, and By Any Other Name. The BBC was always sensitive to accusations of wasting money, and it seems odd that it would pay for the rights to show Star Trek and then not get full value for money out of its repeat rights.

The missing repeats are accounted for in a fanzine article linked from an archive television forum called The Mausoleum Club. I found the link while giving myself an ego boost. I was looking at sites which have linked to this blog and reading the genuinely positive and kind things people have written about these articles.

A user on The Mausoleum Club forum called rosalyn posted a link to an archive of Star Trek fanzines called IDIC Newsletter. Issue 9 contains an article by Janet Quarton called History of Star Trek on the BBC. Again, it's very good for my ego to see the article confirms a lot of the speculation on my blog, but more than that it's a gold mine of information.

There's interesting information about the editing of Star Trek which suggests that between 1969 and 1986 the BBC reused the same prints (probably 35mm film) and kept editing them for content and timing; first to fit a 50 minute slot and then one of 45 minutes. There is also a note that the complaints about Miri came from “teachers and parents saying that children had been copying the bad behaviour of children in Miri.” This is the first time I've seen any substantial description of the nature of complaints about Miri.

The main point which caught my attention is about unscheduled Star Trek repeats. The problem with unscheduled repeats is that unless you have access to internal BBC documentation there is (obviously) no way to know they took place.

Starting in 1974 (when generally speaking all the episodes had been shown twice) the BBC began to use Star Trek to fill unexpected gaps in its schedule. Nationwide the BBC's early evening news programme was cancelled on 18 April 1974 and Star Trek filled the gap, and the episode shown was The Return Of The Archons.

The Return Of The Archons and Dagger Of The Mind should have been first repeated in 1971 or 1972 (see the 1971 article for speculation about why some series one episodes were held back and repeated late). I took this to mean that after the Miri complaints the BBC initially added The Return Of The Archons and Dagger Of The Mind to the unsuitable pile along with The Empath, Plato's Stepchildren, and Whom Gods Destroy.

Dagger Of The Mind was subsequently, and ironically, used to fill the gap in the schedule where Miri would have been repeated on 2 April 1973. This left only The Return Of The Archons as unrepeated since 1969. I've previously speculated that as the BBC's rights to show Star Trek ran down in 1976 a BBC bean-counter found The Return Of The Archons on a shelf and deemed the content more acceptable than it had been in 1971/72 (probably following some judicious editing), leading to a repeat on 19 July 1976. In actual fact if this content review took place it must have been earlier; possibly around the time Dagger Of The Mind was repeated. With the unscheduled repeat in 1974 The Return Of The Archons actually clocks up nine showings in 38 years. The same as the majority of Star Trek episodes.

This leaves The Deadly Years, Obsession, A Private Little War, and By Any Other Name as the only episodes scheduled eight times.

Janet Quarton's article states that By Any Other Name was repeated on Thursday 27 June at 3pm when coverage of  Wimbledon 1974 was blocked by a strike. A Private Little War got a repeat the following month when Star Trek again replaced Nationwide, 6pm Wednesday 2 July 1974. Obsession replaced Cricket: Second Test, England v Pakistan, which was abandoned due to rain on Tuesday 13 August, 3.30pm. In 1975 The Deadly Years replaced International Show Jumping on Sunday 30 March, 4.50pm. Taking them all up to the standard nine repeats, and being a rare of example of sport giving way to Star Trek for a change.

If this all seems like a long-winded way of saying that the BBC sneaked in five unscheduled repeats of Star Trek, that's because it is but I find it fascinating, to coin a phrase, that the BBC determinedly sticks to its own made up episode order even when putting episodes to one side to fill gaps in the schedule.

Until 1984 the BBC showed Star Trek using its own made up episode order (and even when they switched to either NBC broadcast order, or production order, they rarely got it right). Looking back to 1970, The Deadly Years, Obsession, A Private Little War, and By Any Other Name make up a block of four episodes shown after Journey To Babel. These four episodes are still grouped together when it's time for their first repeat at the end of 1972, slotted in between Journey To Babel and Return To Tomorrow. In 1979 when the BBC is on its fourth run of Star Trek, The Deadly Years, Obsession, A Private Little War, and By Any Other Name are once again slotted in between Journey To Babel and Return To Tomorrow.

The exception is 1975. On the second repeat cycle, Journey To Babel and Return To Tomorrow are back to back. The four episode run of The Deadly Years, Obsession, A Private Little War, and By Any Other Name has been neatly snipped out.

By Any Other Name got a repeat on 27 June 1974. The Star Trek repeats were on hold for Wimbledon, and the last episode shown before the break was Balance Of Terror. The next episode scheduled is The Squire Of Gothos, shown 10 July 1974. When Wimbledon is cancelled you'd expect the BBC to simply pull forward the next episode scheduled, but they don't. Instead they reach forwards to a story not due to be repeated until June 1975 (going by the BBC's episode order). The same thing happens when Nationwide is cancelled on 2 July 1974. Instead of showing The Squire Of Gothos (still next because Star Trek remains on it's two week Wimbledon break) they show A Private Little War. When the cricket is rained off on 13 August the BBC doesn't use the next scheduled episode (Errand Of Mercy) they go for Obsession. And finally The Deadly Years is used in 1975.

Why those four episodes? I don't know. Maybe in June 1974 the BBC was working on it's schedule for June 1975, and those four episodes hadn't yet been placed. I also don't know if there's any significance to the unscheduled repeats being run in reverse of their normal BBC order. It seems unlikely to have happened by chance.

What would have happened if those four episodes hadn't been used to plug gaps in the schedule? Presumably they would have been slotted in after Turnabout Intruder in 1976; as happened to And The Children Shall Lead (bumped from it's 19 April 1976 slot by Easter) and The Return Of The Archons (when someone noticed it was due a third repeat)

.