OTTAWA – If you’re going to show Klingons relieving Federation pilots of certain organs, it’s got to be done after 9 p.m., the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council reminded Bell Media today.
The council received a complaint about an episode of Star Trek: Discovery which aired on Space on October 15, 2017 at 8:00 p.m. While there were viewer advisories, the CBSC found a breach of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ (CAB) Code of Ethics and Violence Code for broadcasting graphic violence and the f-word before 9:00 p.m. – and for failing to put a classification icon on the program.
The new series is set a decade before the original Star Trek series and the episode in question is entitled Choose Your Pain, which contained two instances of the word f*cking as the crew members “expressed excitement about a scientific discovery,” says the CBSC release, as well as numerous scenes of violence between the Federation and the Klingons. One scene showed a Klingon ripping out the heart of a pilot, while others showed graphic beatings and torture of prisoners and a lengthy fight sequence as Federation members tried to escape a Klingon ship.
A viewer complained about the scheduling and said the coarse language was inconsistent with previous Star Trek series (Ed note: It’s hard to imagine Jean-Luc Picard saying eff-anything!), and not acceptable in prime time. Bell Media-owned Space noted that it had provided a viewer advisory and the coarse language was not used to insult anyone and explained it had chosen to air the episode uncensored given the expectations of Trekkies.
However, the rules require coarse language and violence intended for adult audiences to be broadcast only after 9 p.m. and despite the fact Space said it rates this program 14+, there was no classification displayed during this episode, which breached Article 4.0 of the CAB Violence Code.
Space is now required to: announce the decision once during prime time within three days following the release of this decision and once more within seven days following the release of this decision during the time period in which Star Trek: Discovery was broadcast, but not on the same day as the first mandated announcement.
