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From what I know the original Star Trek series has a PG-13 MPAA rating. However, MPAA rating came into existence in 1968 while Star Trek was originally launched in 1966. To my knowledge, the movie and television industry were regulating themselves via Motion Picture Production Code till MPAA.

What I don't know however is whether Star Trek was regulated in context of any rating system and whether it had any rating at all.

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    Are you just asking about the original TV series, not the movies or the later series like Next Generation? In the US at least, there was no rating system for television until 1996.
    – Hypnosifl
    Jun 3, 2022 at 0:54
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    @Hypnosifl yep I meant original ones
    – shabunc
    Jun 3, 2022 at 8:05
  • Ratings from 1972-1984 were G, PG, R, and X. The PG-13 rating was added in 1984.
    – Ralph J
    Jun 3, 2022 at 21:48

2 Answers 2

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The MPAA is the Motion Picture Association of America. Their site says this (emphasis mine)

Established in 1968, the film rating system provides parents with the information needed to determine if a film is appropriate for their children.

In other words, the MPAA rates movies. Star Trek TOS was television, which would not be rated until 1997, and not by the MPAA

On December 19, 1996, the industry announced the creation of the TV Parental Guidelines, a voluntary system of guidelines providing parents with information to help them make more informed choices about the television programs their children watch. The guidelines were modeled after the movie ratings system created by the Motion Picture Association of America in 1968. The television industry agreed to insert a ratings icon on-screen at the beginning of all rated programs, and to encode the guidelines for use with the V-chip.[3] The industry also created a Monitoring Board, composed of TV industry experts, to ensure accuracy, uniformity and consistency of the guidelines and to consider any public questions about the guideline applied to a particular program.[2] The TV Parental Guidelines went into use on January 1, 1997.[3]

Retroactively, the TOS episodes have been rated TV-PG (all the ones on IMDB say TV-PG but I was not exhaustive in looking).

Interestingly enough, the first Star Trek to get a true MPAA rating would be Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), which is rated G. The Director's Cut is rated PG.

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  • Any idea what was added to the DC that triggered the PG rating? I suppose it could just be a scene with stronger language.
    – Barmar
    Jun 3, 2022 at 13:54
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    @Barmar According to this site, the DC featured a more "ominous" soundtrack and CGI, warranting the change.
    – Machavity
    Jun 3, 2022 at 14:19
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    @Barmar Actually, the original cut of Star Trek: The Motion Picture would probably have gotten a PG rating had it come out more recently. There was no PG-13 rating in 1979. So some films that would be PG-13 now were rated PG then, and things that are PG now would have been considered G in the past. So when the director's cut was submitted for rating, it was given a rating more in line with more recent practice.
    – Buzz
    Jun 3, 2022 at 20:44
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    When the Ilia-probe arrives on Enterprise and first appears in the shower, she appears to be naked behind the frosted glass. There's also the references to Deltan sexuality when Ilia was introduced. These days that would have easily gotten it a PG. Jun 3, 2022 at 20:55
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In 1966, Star Trek would have been covered by the Code of Practices for Television Broadcasters, the television counterpart to the film Hayes Code. This wasn't a rating system; rather, any show that failed to abide by the Code would have very few stations willing to broadcast it.

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