As seen in the third episode of Blake's 7.
The Terran Federation disposes of its troublemakers by transporting them for life to a prison colony of sorts on the barely-habitable planet Cygnus Alpha. Once dumped, they're no longer the Federation's problem, and what becomes of them is of no concern.
New arrivals are (keep in mind, I last watched this several years ago) greeted by members of the cult that runs the colony, ruled over by a hereditary cult leader who bears a suspicious resemblance to Richard IV. They're informed that, among other things, anyone who's set foot on the planet is infected with a deadly disease and needs regular doses of a life-saving medication doled out by the cult leader. Anyone who leaves will surely die of the terrible disease.
Conveniently for the protagonists, it turns out that the lethality of the disease is greatly exaggerated and the medication is a placebo.
Did I say dystopia? A matter of perspective, isn't it? For a cult leader, that's more of a utopia. Better to reign in Hell, and all that.
Not that this has anything whatsoever to do with current affairs. Oh, no. How could you imagine such a thing?
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