Trivia / Star Trek: The Next Generation S3E12 "The High Ground"

• Banned in China: The episode premiered while the UK and Ireland were at the height of The Troubles. Besides the fact that the episode is partly inspired by those events, Data mentions an Irish unification following "a successful terrorism campaign." That line was removed by some networks and others refused to air the episode at all. It was not aired by The BBC for fifteen years.
• Creator Backlash: Many writers of the show were extremely unhappy with this episode.
  • Ronald D. Moore described it as "an abomination. It's our one terrorist show. We didn't have anything interesting to say about terrorism except that it's bad and Beverly gets kidnapped – ho hum. They take her down to the caves and we get to have nice, big preachy speeches about terrorism and freedom, fighting and security forces versus society. It's a very unsatisfying episode and the staff wasn't really happy with it."
  • Likewise, Michael Piller commented:
  Another show that I wasn't particularly happy with. We set out to do a show about terrorists. What was the statement we made about terrorism in the show? Was it the point where the boy puts down the gun and says, 'Maybe the end of terrorism is when the first child puts down his gun?' It was effective in the context of that show, but is certainly not a statement that provides any great revelation. You must be prepared to say something new about social issues.
  • In a minor case of this, the episode's writer, Melinda Snodgrass, was interviewed about this episode in the real 2024 and said she now regrets choosing that year for Irish unification. She noted that at the time, "2024 seemed a long way away. I probably should have made it, you know, 2224! I just pulled that number and it didn't occur to me that suddenly we would be here."
• Deleted Role: A scene was cut from the final version of the episode which included Brandi Sherwood as a command division officer who assisted Wesley Crusher in rescuing his mother.
• What Could Have Been: Originally, the plot was intended to have parallels to the American Revolution, but writer Melinda Snodgrass was told to change the analogy to Northern Ireland, a change she was very unhappy about.
  I wanted it with Picard as Cornwallis and the Romulans would have been the French, who were in our revolution, trying to break this planet away. Suddenly Picard realized he's one of the oppressors. Instead, we do 'Breakfast in Belfast,' where our people decide they're going to go off to Northern Ireland.
• Working Title: Strength and Justice.

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