Jonathan Frakes refers to Star Trek episode “Code of Honor” as an “embarrassment”, but is optimistic for “radical real change” in the future

Karole Selmon as Yareena and Denise Crosby as Tasha Yar in Star Trek: The Next Generation “Code of Honor”

Over the weekend, actors Denise Crosby, Jonathan Frakes and John de Lancie joined together for the second GalaxyCon virtual panel to feature guests from Star Trek: The Next Generation. While Star Trek has been keen to address social issues over the years, most people would probably agree that not every episode hits the mark. TrekMovie.com reported on the GalaxyCon event in which some of the actors called out the TNG season one episode “Code of Honor” for being racially insensitive.

“Code of Honor” places the crew of the Enterprise-D on the planet of Ligon II in an attempt to negotiate access to a specific vaccine. In the episode, the Ligonian people are depicted as quite humanoid-looking, but societally primitive. Wikipedia notes that in the original script of the episode, written by Katharyn Powers and Michael Baron, the Ligonians were called “Tellisians” and were a reptilian species. However, the script was changed several times before production, and eventually the director, Russ Mayberry, decided to cast only Black actors for the Ligonian roles, and gave the episode a “tribal Africa” theme. Mayberry was eventually fired from the production, and replaced by his assistant director Les Landau. “Code of Honor” has largely been condemned as racist and ranked among the worst Star Trek episodes of all time.

Frakes brought attention to the episode during the virtual panel when a discussion of the series led him to ask if “Code of Honor” would be discussed. He referred to the episode as “The embarrassment heaped upon us in season one, mostly on Denise.” Somewhat incredulous, Crosby asked, “Can you imagine playing that right now, in this climate?”, likely referring to recent anti-racism protests. Crosby and Frakes, of course, aren’t the only ones from Star Trek to criticize the episode over the years. Fellow actors LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Brent Spiner and even staff writer Tracy Tormé, among many others, have all shared their disdain for “Code of Honor”.

Frakes also commented on the importance of the recent protests and expressed his support for the Black Lives Matter movement. He said, “It’s really part of Roddenberry’s vision that there be no racism and there’d be no sexism, and I’m very optimistic that the positive results of this worldwide awareness of how appalling people of color have been treated for centuries is the change. That there will be radical real change in people’s hearts and in their minds and I’m very optimistic that when things settle down people will behave differently and there would be more honor and more respect. I’m not usually this serious but I really believe that this is the time, and long, long past.”