The most unsurprising thing about Code of Honor? The director was a fucking racist.
The African theme of the episode was brought in by director Russ Mayberry, who had the Ligonians race cast entirely from African-American actors. Mayberry was fired during production by the show’s creator Gene Roddenberry, and First Assistant Director Les Landau completed the episode. Star Trek novel author Keith DeCandido later recalled that this was because of the casting itself,[5] while cast member Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher) thought that it was because Mayberry was racist towards the guest stars after they were cast.[6]
In this episode, the entire humanoid population of the planet is portrayed by African American performers. In the teleplay, however, only Lutan’s guards were specifically written as being African.
Thing to keep in mind with that writer is she also wrote the SG-1 episode where a character got captured as a slave wife for mongols (SG-1 episode emancipation). She was fulfilling her racist brute kink. She holds the honor of writing what are considered some of the worst episodes for both series.
The most unsurprising thing about Code of Honor? The director was a fucking racist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Honor_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation)
They weren’t even supposed to be a black race originally??
Nope:
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Code_of_Honor_(episode)#Background_information
Which, you know, also not terrific, but not just balls-to-the-wall racist.
Thing to keep in mind with that writer is she also wrote the SG-1 episode where a character got captured as a slave wife for mongols (SG-1 episode emancipation). She was fulfilling her racist brute kink. She holds the honor of writing what are considered some of the worst episodes for both series.
https://stargate.fandom.com/wiki/Emancipation