Line #4 WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids/StarTrek


1	* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' series were generally aired during a family-viewing time (i.e. after five but before nine). Among other things, ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG]]'' alone was throwing out several episodes dealing with heads blowing up, heads being blown ''off'', human laboratory experiments, bloody death scenes, psychological and physical torture (that were advised on by the folks at Amnesty International) and let's not forget the Borg... you have to wonder whether this was always a good idea.
2	** Never mind that there was quite a large volume of ''Star Trek''-themed toy merch during the heyday of ''TNG''. Hey kids, don't you want a toy of the big cube filled with techno-zombies who want to rip open your flesh and take away your human soul? Sure you do!
3	** ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine DS9]]'' is even worse. The series ''begins'' by showing us the horrific Battle of Wolf 359. In TNG, this happened off-screen, and we only got to see the aftermath. In ''Deep Space Nine'', we see it up close and personal as thirty-nine ships are destroyed, resulting in the deaths of thousands. It only got darker from there. By the end of the series, it had featured racism, intolerance, a hefty dose of WarIsHell, [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath Family Unfriendly Deaths]] by the dozen, genetic modification and slavery, MindRape, maiming, protest by suicide, a form of [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame human hunting]], PTSD, ''genocide'', backstabbing politics, poisoning of entire planets, and lots of terrorism (with YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters being one of the series' central themes). And a lot of this was done ''by the heroes'', with the show wavering between GreyAndGrayMorality and BlackAndGrayMorality depending on the situation. Deep Space Nine was anything ''but'' meant for kids, likely being one of the [[DarkerAndEdgier darkest]] pieces of work to ever come out of the franchise.
4	* Also, there's [[TheCaptain Picard]] [[spoiler: getting a sword through the heart]], getting trapped as a [[BrainUploading program of pure information]] inside the ship's computers [[spoiler:[[ExpendableClone only to be erased in favor of another copy of himself taken just a few seconds ago]] [[UnreliableNarrator according to Troi]]]], [[SapientShip Barclay merging with the]] ''[[SapientShip Enterprise]]'', [[TokenEvilTeammate Troi]] getting [[spoiler: {{mind rape}}d at least twice]], [[spoiler: [[CreatorsPet Wesley]] nearly killing his mom at least twice (once on the Holodeck, another time in a collapsing pocket universe), following through on someone else and being fired for it]], land developers committing [[spoiler: [[MoralMyopia genocide against native sentient grains of photovoltaic sand]]]], [[TheLancer Riker]] getting cloned and his clone [[WhatYouAreInTheDark joining the Maquis]][[note]]that last one took place on [=DS9=], after TNG was over[[/note]]. Anytime [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Worf]] [[BigScrewedUpFamily deals with anything about his own]] ProudWarriorRace, [[BloodKnight he suffers greatly for it]], [[spoiler: and his spine breaks twice]] [[DoomMagnet just to prove the]] Badassery of the episode's FriendToAllLivingThings. [[spoiler:[[OurVampiresAreDifferent Someone even tried to suck]] [[TheMedic Dr. Crusher's]] LifeEnergy [[AWizardDidIt or whatever]]]]. [[GeniusBruiser Data]] is often [[YouCallThatAWound damaged, only to casually continue]], once even to the point of [[spoiler: being decapitated for 400 years]]. Data is also [[MoralityDial easily brainwashed]], [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman put on trial for disassembly]], and [[LatexPerfection impersonated]] by his EvilTwin. The only one that relatively escapes this is Geordi laForge, until [[spoiler: a brainwashed Data puts nano-cortical fibers into his forehead in preparation for BrainUploading]]. And then there was that one time that he was mind raped and turned into a assassin.
5	* TNG in general was more "sexed up" than the classic series, which was already fairly boundary-pushing for 60's broadcast TV.
6	** [[TheLancer Riker]] tries to [[LampshadedDoubleEntendre "lance"]] just about everything that is [[BoldlyComing remotely female, alien and humanoid]]. Just having [[MrExposition Deanna Troi]] [[AuthorOnBoard onboard]] in her capacity as a therapist is unusual for a Star Trek series. [[TheCaptain Picard]] also travels back in time and [[CantLiveWithThemCantLiveWithoutThem his now much younger best friend Martha demands to be "lanced" and he does so, alienating her]].
7	** There were episodes like "Justice", which featured a society full of barely-clothed sexy people [[EverybodyHasLotsOfSex having a lot of sex most of the time]], early episodes showed the crew getting extremely horny, and implied Tasha Yar, of all people, was banging one guy after another (including Data!), not to mention Crusher implicitly grabbing Picard's crotch. Later seasons were somewhat tamer, but "Man of the People" (Season 6) does have Deanna Troi in a decidedly sheer nightie through which her breasts (and we mean just about all of them) can be clearly seen.
8	* In the opening moments of [[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine DS9,]] we saw Jennifer Sisko, trapped under debris, dead or dying, the room burning around her as her husband desperately tried to reach her. By season five, they were including scenes of Starfleet officers dying from gruesome injuries. And then there's the Dominion War...
9	* In a similar vein, Enterprise's "Unexpected" is also about [[BlackComedyRape rape as a joke]]. It falls somewhere between date rape and child molestation. Sure Trip's an adult, but the lizard lady's dialog just screams "I've got candy in my van". Calling her sexing up of Trip "a game we play" when he doesn't know what's happening.
10	* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'':
11	** "The Siege of AR-558" features the Dominion's shock troops attempting to [[spoiler: reclaim a communications outpost that had been seized months earlier by the Federation.]] The Defiant shows up to provide supplies at first, but the crew remains behind when [[spoiler: The Jem'Hadar sneak attack Nog and they realize a siege is inevitable. He winds up losing a leg due to that and what follows is a quite violent fight against a horde of shock troops, all while classy jazz music plays, thanks to Bashir having a recording of Vic Fontaine singing.]]
12	** Prior to the actual battle we get an up close look at one of the most accurate depictions of combat stress on television ever as the crew that has been holding this base has their numbers whittled down over non-stop combat for months without rest or reinforcement. Quark points out to Nog in all seriousness that these humans have become indistinguishable from Klingons.
13	* Then there are [[TheVirus The Borg]] and Species 8472. The former feature BodyHorror, YouWillBeAssimilated and FateWorseThanDeath. The latter are OmnicidalManiac race that makes hills out of severed Borg heads for breakfast and [[EarthShatteringKaboom blows up planets for dinner]]. They '''also''' feature BodyHorror and FateWorseThanDeath, though in ways '''different''' from the Borg. Did we mention they both feature NightmareFuel?
14	* ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries The Original Series]]'' wasn't all that friendly either:
15	** How about the episode "The Paradise Syndrome" where [[spoiler: Kirk gets married to a woman, gets her pregnant, and then she gets stoned to death. On camera.]] Yeah.
16	** "Miri", with its facial disfigurement, homicidal mania, and children under threat, caused a big row in the UK when it was first broadcast. This led to it and three other episodes being left out of UK showing of the series until the 1990s.
17	** "Charlie X" features the titular character, who can be summed up as [[Series/TheTwilightZone1959 Anthony Fremont]] [[RecycledInSpace IN SPACE]], and with even ''worse'' fates for anyone who crossed him (at least Anthony's victims were ReleasedToElsewhere after their transformations). Oh, and he blew up a ship, stalked a yeoman and killed her when she slapped him, [[BrainwashedAndCrazy and forced Spock to recite poetry instead of fighting]]. And the race that adopted him ''terrifies'' him, to the point where he's ''begging'' the same people he was just bullying not to let them take him away.
18	** "Patterns of Force" had appearances from the [[SarcasmMode totally kid-friendly]] Nazis! Complete with racism! Germany had this banned until at least the late 1990s (and even then, it was edited and changed so Nazis wouldn't be mentioned or seen).
19	** "Operation: Annihilate!" has Kirk's relatives and a good many other people die horribly, with the only survivor being Kirk's nephew.
20	** "Space Seed" introduced everyone's favorite madman Khan Noonien Singh, who was introduced by ''suffocating Kirk, Uhura, and Spock in the Sickbay Room''. And he got ''worse'' in [[Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan the sequel]].
21	** And "The Enemy Within" features the [[SarcasmMode totally family-friendly]] AttemptedRape of Janice Rand. And by an evil version of the good captain himself, no less.
22	** Really, ''TOS'''s scariness is best reflected on its [[NightmareFuel/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Nightmare Fuel page]].
23	* The Creator/ParamountPlus shows, being in a streaming service rather than cable television, have more adult content:
24	** ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' encountered this attitude upon its debut in September 2017 as the first made-for-streaming, TV-MA rated Star Trek series, with higher levels of gore and adult language (including the franchise's first use of the F-word). Although the show remains tame compared to other streaming series, and a case can be made that its TV-MA rating is arbitrary rather than accurately reflecting its content, the fact it is the first explicitly non-family-friendly Trek series has led to some complaining from fans. In Canada, where the series airs in a traditional broadcast format rather than streaming, home broadcaster Space was actually reprimanded by the country's broadcast standards watchdog for airing an episode of a franchise considered family-friendly too early in the evening; the episode in question was cited for violence and also contained the aforementioned first use of the F-word.
25	** ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' also took advantage of being made for streaming services, with the inclusion of more violence, a more cynical and depressing tone and a more liberal use of the F-word, which led to some backlash from more traditional fans and parents.
26	** ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'' is assumed to be a juvenile animated series due to its lighthearted comedy and friendly-looking characters, but there are frequent references to adult situations (Mariner's EstablishingCharacterMoment has her tease Boimler while drunk, sex between crewmembers is shown more and more frequently as the series goes on), and the freedom of animation means that the violence is much more graphic than in other ''Trek'' shows. The majority of the profanity is bleeped out, although this is due to RuleOfFunny rather than making things family-friendly.

Context WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids / StarTrek