Star Trek Dislikes

[Walker in Eternity]

First let me say that I like the Trek, but there were a lot of cringe worthy moments in TOS and TNG not to mention a large amount of annoying characters.

For me the worst of the 1960s was summed up in TOS Season 3s "The Way to Eden".

Singing hippies on the Enterprise, luckily the most annoying die by the end of the episode.

There is a character called Adam who breaks into song at every opportunity. I would have loved to have seen a BSG moment, "Do that again and we'll throw you out of an airlock".

Truly terrible, little wonder TOS got cancelled shortly after this. The films were, IMHO, much better than the series.

Anyone else got any truly bad Trek moments to share/get off your chest?

[Chimera]

Well, not hardly suprising they had to have the "Stupid Hippy!" show. Look at every other show of the era and you'll see the same thing, from The Beverly Hillbillies to some awful productions on Dragnet.

Me, I'm tired to death of the Time Travel crap, and as much as I like the idea (and so far, looks) of the reboot, to my deep annoyance it too involves TT.

Stupid Doctors in TNG was a big problem for me. Gates McFadden was a much better actor and character than the sickening Diana Muldur (who seemingly lost her ability to ACT while she was on the show), but both characters acted in ways that would get you put off the ship in very short order.

Power Creep. If you think power creep is a problem in role playing games, you ain't seen nothing in TNG/DS9/Voy. Just for once I'd like to see them get hit with higher tech and have NO way of dealing with it other than avoidance or sheer numbers.

Nerf Bat. Ferengi! Oops, now they're clowns. Borg? Now they're impotent.

[Eleanor of Aquitaine]

I thought Brent Spiner made a great Data, but I hated it when they let him do anything out of character. When he played erratic Data, emotional Data, or Data's brother/father, it really got on my nerves. I don't like most of the actor's characterizations.

[Exy]

I basically just hated TOS and TNG. Anything before that old hippie kicked the bucket was tainted by his desire to lecture the viewers (especially look in early seasons of TNG for this -- how convenient of the galaxy to provide us with so many planets that exist solely to convey a moral to humans!) Plus that whole thing where this week it's a pirate planet, next week it'll be a cowboy planet, then a mafia planet, etc. Why is it that every other planet out there exists only as a mirror that reflects one tiny part of the varied human experience?

The fact that they mostly avoided this crap on DS9 is why it is, in my opinion, the only Star Trek series that really was good science fiction.

[silenus]

Just once I wanted to see Picard shoot the damn aliens instead of talking.

Troi.

Riker and Androgynous Thing ("The Outcast").

[Baldwin]

In a word, continuity. It's not just the way the overall continuity got so tangled (what with all the series, movies, books, needlepoint samplers, etc.) What annoyed me was when something was clearly established as a factor that should reasonably have an effect from then on -- but was simply dropped and forgotten. (E.g., the discovery that warp drives were actually damaging space/time, and UFP ships would have to be limited to Warp Factor 5.)

[phouka]

Plus that whole thing where this week it's a pirate planet, next week it'll be a cowboy planet, then a mafia planet, etc. Why is it that every other planet out there exists only as a mirror that reflects one tiny part of the varied human experience?

That's a problem known as Planet of Hats . It's a big symptom indicative of weak writing and poor imagination.

[Control-Z]

Abuse of Holodeck.

Soap opera shit in TNG.

[Batman]

Rubber Forehead Aliens. I remember an episode of TNG where the only difference between the aliens and humans were two dots on the sides of their foreheads.

I mean, if the alien race is only going to exist for one episode, would it have killed them to make them look like lizards or something? At least don't make them all White, for chrissakes.

[Laughing Lagomorph]

The apparent galaxy-wide adoption (even by cultures that have never been contacted before) of idiomatic late 20th century American English as a universal language.

Tachyon beams/particles as magical pixie dust that could fix any and every technical problem.

[Baldwin]

The apparent galaxy-wide adoption (even by cultures that have never been contacted before) of idiomatic late 20th century American English as a universal language.

There were occasional references to using the Universal Translator, but in a lot of episodes that wouldn't have been practical or likely (like when they were doing undercover stuff on the Nazi Planet or the Rome Planet or the Gangster Planet). I think the Universal Translator was dealt with more on Enterprise, although I never saw very much of the show.

[dragonwriter]

My main dislike of TOS was the way that almost every time they showed a female character they would do that camera-focus fuzz thing. Well, that and those ridiculous uniforms they had the female crew members wear. "Yeah, I went through Starfleet Academy and completed a rigorous course of study to be allowed to serve on a fleet flagship...but I'm wearing a micro-miniskirted, low-cut dress and go-go boots. Riiigggghhhht."

[silenus]

I'm willing to give just about any dramatic presentation a pass on the "universal language" issue. How else are we going to know what's going on? Any translation would bog down the action to the point that you'd be cancelled after 1 episode.

Skirts in space are just stupid, not matter who is wearing them.

The lack of 3 dimensions. The only time they ever varied from this was at the very end of ST:TNG, when Riker blasts his Enterprise up through the baddies.

[Exy]

Skirts in space are just stupid, not matter who is wearing them.

So stupid it's awesome, in those early TNG episodes where they'd show guys in the background wearing the "guy skirt". Because of course it had to be equitable. If ladies can wear pants, why can't dudes wear skirts?

[featherlou]

To some degree, all the [i]deus ex machina[/b] episode endings - where you look at the clock and see it's only 8:30, so you know that won't work, and now it's 8:52, so this has to work now. There's only the slimmest of chances that this will work, but it always does, just in time - I realize that's more of a television weakness than a "Star Trek" weakness, but it seems like shows like "Star Trek" really magnify it.

The misogyny in TOS doesn't really bother me, as it's a product of its time, just like it is in any classic sci-fi I read from that time. The plastic-forehead aliens in TNG and Voyager got a little old, though.

[silenus]

The skant was a sure sign that the Great Bird was senile. Uniforms, especially work uniforms, should be functional. Pants all around, Gene.

[Chimera]

Skirts in space are just stupid, not matter who is wearing them.

Turning off the gravity just for entertainment purposes does seem a little juvenile for TNG, although for some reason I totally hear the command being given in Picard's voice.

[Exy]

The skant was a sure sign that the Great Bird was senile. Uniforms, especially work uniforms, should be functional. Pants all around, Gene.

The skant was extra inappropriate given how routinely people on the Enterprise got thrown across the room. Realistically, the crew would almost certainly end up seeing a lot more scrotum than is really acceptable for work.

[silenus]

Which leads to another peeve: no seatbelts.

[featherlou]

Oh, God, how can we be on post #20 and the first mention of Ensign Wesley Crusher? Not until Jar Jar Binks was there a character so univerally believed to be in need of a good skull-crushing.

[vison]

Q.

[Eleanor of Aquitaine]

Oh, God, how can we be on post #20 and the first mention of Ensign Wesley Crusher? Not until Jar Jar Binks was there a character so univerally believed to be in need of a good skull-crushing.

Wil Wheaton grew up to be so cool that we feel bad for hating him now.

[Exy]

Wil Wheaton grew up to be so cool that we feel bad for hating him now.

Yeah, my thought too. He hated the way his character was written too. Poor guy, he was just a kid.

[silenus]

Oh, God, how can we be on post #20 and the first mention of Ensign Wesley Crusher? Not until Jar Jar Binks was there a character so univerally believed to be in need of a good skull-crushing.

Wil Wheaton grew up to be so cool that we feel bad for hating him now.

His on-line reviews of Season 1 ST:TNG episodes are side-splittingly funny.

[Exy]

I happened to watch the first episode of TNG a few weeks back, and the way they dressed poor Wil just increases the pathos. Oh, those huge, baggy, earth-toned sweaters. He had a lot to say about that in his blog.

[featherlou]

Oh, God, how can we be on post #20 and the first mention of Ensign Wesley Crusher? Not until Jar Jar Binks was there a character so univerally believed to be in need of a good skull-crushing.

Wil Wheaton grew up to be so cool that we feel bad for hating him now.

I reject your revisionist history. Crusher needed to die.

[Feirefiz]

Skirts in space are just stupid, not matter who is wearing them.

Turning off the gravity just for entertainment purposes does seem a little juvenile for TNG, although for some reason I totally hear the command being given in Picard's voice.

"I've seen everything."

Probably my biggest complaint is that they have to turn all alien cultures into caricatures. Even the ones that are intended to be important and powerful are mostly one-dimensional, implausible and often just plain ridiculous. Why can't they have a culture that is presented as an actual viable alternative to the Federation, whether friendly or hostile. The early Borg had potential but it didn't take long until they were ruined.

[silenus]

Oh, God, how can we be on post #20 and the first mention of Ensign Wesley Crusher? Not until Jar Jar Binks was there a character so univerally believed to be in need of a good skull-crushing.

Wil Wheaton grew up to be so cool that we feel bad for hating him now.

I reject your revisionist history. Crusher needed to die.

The author of William Fucking Shatner is cool, by definition.

[Rube E. Tewesday]

I thought Brent Spiner made a great Data, but I hated it when they let him do anything out of character. When he played erratic Data, emotional Data, or Data's brother/father, it really got on my nerves. I don't like most of the actor's characterizations.

Agreed. Any time they tried to show Spiner's "depth" I wanted to reach for my phaser.

[drewbert]

Probably my biggest complaint is that they have to turn all alien cultures into caricatures. Even the ones that are intended to be important and powerful are mostly one-dimensional, implausible and often just plain ridiculous. Why can't they have a culture that is presented as an actual viable alternative to the Federation, whether friendly or hostile. The early Borg had potential but it didn't take long until they were ruined.

I think the Cardassians in DS9 were among the better-realized Trek alien cultures. They weren't all cookie cutter rubber foreheads with one-word descriptions (honor, logic, profit, etc) They weren't all evil or all good, and for the most part still had a distinctively alien mindset.

Of course my big gripes would be about the wasted opportunities of Voyager and Enterprise. Both good premises from the start. Oh, well.

I was watching the early DS9 episode "Dax" the other day, which focused around the moral dilemma of whether Jadzia Dax is ultimately responsible for a crime committed while the Dax symbiont was in a previous host. A middle-of-the-road court drama episode, but two things always bug me about it:

1) Did nobody ever think to contact the Trill homeworld for some legal precedent? Why debate this from first principles?
2) Worse, after nearly an entire episode of hand-wringing over the issue, it turns out at the last minute that Dax didn't actually commit the crime in the first place. Never mind, moot point. We never find out what *would* have happened were she guilty.

[Exy]

I think the Cardassians in DS9 were among the better-realized Trek alien cultures. They weren't all cookie cutter rubber foreheads with one-word descriptions (honor, logic, profit, etc) They weren't all evil or all good, and for the most part still had a distinctively alien mindset.

The Bajorans too. That was one of the things that made DS9 a neat show -- they took the opportunity to develop cultures that were not monolithic, had internal conflicts, and so forth.

[Zuul]

Pretty much anything involving Riker on TNG. He'd walk on the screen and my skin would crawl. I think they were trying to make him suave. Instead he just came off like he was going to start molesting people at any moment.

In, you know, a bad way.

[Hatshepsut]

Scott Bakula cannot act. His pauses, inflections, and stresses are peculiar to say the least. No normal person, spaceship captain or not, would talk that way.

"T'Pol, you're needed ... on the BRIDGE, for a MOMENT. I'm going to ... SEE if I can, fix ... the COMMUNICATOR."

Oh, and also Q. I hate Q.

[pepperlandgirl]

I agree that Scott Bakula can't act, but I think of Dr. Sam Beckett, and I forgive him everything.

My biggest Star Trek dislike? The entire cast of TNG. I just find them all to be deeply unpleasant, unlikable people. For a variety of different reasons. Picard put up with way, way way too much from his crew. Every time he gave an order, they questioned him. Chain of command? What's that? And he put up with it! He even explained himself! Fuck that noise, he's the motherfucking captain. Would it kill to him to act like it for once? Riker was slimy, and oily, and creepy and just awful. They were trying hard to make him the next Captain Kirk, but there is only one, and Jonathan Frakes is not he. Troi...God, every word out of her mouth made me want to hit her in the mouth. As does the terrible, vacant look in her eye. Worf could have been cool, but all too often, he acted like some dude with an ugly mask. He was a Klingon. Putting one on the fucking Enterprise should have been really interesting. I wanted to like Data, and I adore Brent Spiner, but ultimately, he's a poor man's Spock. Dr. Crusher could be remarkably stupid at times. I love Wil Wheaton, but Wesley was so annoying. The only person who doesn't make me think, "What a douche" was Geordi. That was probably just because of Reading Rainbow.

My husband loves TNG, so I've tried to watch it with an open mind. But ultimately, I can't get over how unlikable the entire crew is.

[Walker in Eternity]

What always got me about TNG was Worf, he was meant to be a Klingon warrior, but mostly (other than all the honour crap) sounded more emotionless than any Vulcan. Maybe it was Dorn's acting rather than the character, but I hated him.

[Walker in Eternity]

And then they brought him back in DS9 and the films.

[Baldwin]

Lwaxana Troi. Actually the first thing I thought of. Oh, and all the half-breeds, as if the different species, from different planets, were just different ethnicities. (I know they had that big thing about the humanoid races being genetically "seeded" on various planets, so they're all distantly related . . . but Vulcans have copper-based blood, for Pete's sake.)

[don't call me shirley]

I hated Tasha Yar. And Lwaxana Troi. When she had feelings about others they were so obviously contrived to drive the plot in one direction or another, and many times when her powers would have been helpful they were not used.

Also, I hated that Worf was supposed to be this mighty warrior, and he couldn't fight his way out of a wet paper bag. He was constantly getting his ass kicked.

[BwanaBob]

I disliked everything about TNG, DS9, Voyager, & Enterprise. I hate freaking soap operas. Bonus hatred points for the holodeck. Laziest science fiction writing tool ever invented.

[Rube E. Tewesday]

I'm gonna join in on the Q hate. Why was he always hassling humans? Why didn't he give the Klingons or the Cardassians one of his pompous tests?

[featherlou]

I agree that Scott Bakula can't act, but I think of Dr. Sam Beckett, and I forgive him everything.

My biggest Star Trek dislike? The entire cast of TNG. I just find them all to be deeply unpleasant, unlikable people. For a variety of different reasons. Picard put up with way, way way too much from his crew. Every time he gave an order, they questioned him. Chain of command? What's that? And he put up with it! He even explained himself! <snip>

This is always Jim's biggest knock against PIcard as a captain, too, but I think this aspect of the show was a victim of its times - the touchy-feely eighties, where everyone was great and no one was wrong and all companies wanted to send their employees on retreats to team-build and trick them into thinking their company cared about them.

I'll second (or third) Tasha Yar. Her early demise was such a relief - she was supposed to be so special and beautiful or something, but all I saw was a bad actress who made Worf look Shakespearean.

[Baldwin]

Also, I hated that Worf was supposed to be this mighty warrior, and he couldn't fight his way out of a wet paper bag. He was constantly getting his ass kicked.

Maybe I'm misremembering, but it seems to me that by a few seasons in, Worf's shipmates weren't treating him like a might warrior so much as like a coworker they were concerned about: emotionally unstable and possibly a little mentally slow.

Speaking of coworkers: in the real, modern military, do you ever have a group of officers all staying in place that long? I always thought the show would be better with a reasonable turnover as people got promoted or transferred. (Never mind the fact that, although there are three shifts on the bridge in a 24-hour day, nothing ever happens except when "our" group is on duty.)

[Eleanor of Aquitaine]

The author of William Fucking Shatner is cool, by definition.

Be sure to read part 2, as well. I used to hear awful things about Shatner but he's loosened up quite a bit, and was certainly enjoying mocking himself in the movie Free Enterprise, which is worth watching if you were ever a Star Trek geek.

[Rube E. Tewesday]

This is always Jim's biggest knock against PIcard as a captain, too, but I think this aspect of the show was a victim of its times - the touchy-feely eighties, where everyone was great and no one was wrong and all companies wanted to send their employees on retreats to team-build and trick them into thinking their company cared about them.

I gotta say, I really liked the first five seasons of TNG during the eighties, but when I see them now, I kinda go "Huh?"

Maybe in a few more years, they'll seem great again.

[Exy]

possibly a little mentally slow.

Well, he did pull his phaser on the viewscreen once because Q was onscreen.

Seriously, there was no excuse for the writing in the early years of TNG. None.

[silenus]

Sure there is. Gene was still alive.

Another thing that bugs me about all the series was the insane drive to link everything to everything, all the time. Lazy writing, and it ruins the uniqueness of a show's characters.

[Batman]

I'll second (or third) Tasha Yar. Her early demise was such a relief - she was supposed to be so special and beautiful or something, but all I saw was a bad actress who made Worf look Shakespearean.

I never got the hate for her. I liked her hardass ways and I thought the actress was pretty decent in the role.

Troi OTOH, was useless thorught the series, and she wasn't even that hot either.

-Alien Captain barks madly at Picard through the view screen
-Troi: "I feel he's angry"

No shit, Sherlock.

[Exy]

-Alien Captain barks madly at Picard through the view screen
-Troi: "I feel he's angry"

Except the rare occasions when it would actually be useful to know the alien's state of mind.

In those cases, she can't feel anything because its brain is too different.

[Rube E. Tewesday]

-Alien Captain barks madly at Picard through the view screen
-Troi: "I feel he's angry"

Except the rare occasions when it would actually be useful to know the alien's state of mind.

In those cases, she can't feel anything because its brain is too different.

Heh, I always wondered if she just hadn't faked her way into the position. " Sure I'm an empath. When I bent down to pick up that paperclip, I was sensing definite lust on your part."

"Good enough. You're hired."

[pepperlandgirl]

Speaking of coworkers: in the real, modern military, do you ever have a group of officers all staying in place that long? I always thought the show would be better with a reasonable turnover as people got promoted or transferred. (Never mind the fact that, although there are three shifts on the bridge in a 24-hour day, nothing ever happens except when "our" group is on duty.)

This is most easily explained by believing that the Federation isn't military, it's an eccentric Gentleman's club that gradually loosened up its rules to include minorities and women in places of power. See, in the future, people don't need money, and replicators provide all the necessities in life. So, people don't have to work. But they got to fill the hours somehow! The adventurous ones, or the ones with a deathwish, sign up with the Federation, and though they're organized the way a military would be, ultimately, everybody is pretty loosey-goosey with the rules. That's because they don't have any real means of punishing people. The most they can do is strip a guy of his "rank" but nobody really cares about that, and if he wants to go out on another adventure, nobody will stop him.

It makes everything make a lot more sense.