Some may remember quite awhile back I did an article on the time’s
when Disney “killed” a main character, only to have it be a fake out.
The character of course lives. Well, Disney isn’t the only one guilty of
this. Star Trek has done it more times than I could count! I was
thinking of doing a list of them all, but I’d be here all day. So
instead let’s take a look at the one’s that did not work. At all.
When a main character is killed in an episode, you know that it’s not
permanent. Unless the actor/actress is leaving the show of course. The
death is there for shock value, to show how dangerous the villain is, or
even just to pad the episode. And sometimes these death’s are decent
scenes and even memorable by serving the plot, advancing the story, and
even giving some character growth in rare cases. For instance Scotty
dies in the classic episode “The Changeling” but the scene works and
Nomad bringing him back is believable and we see just what Nomad is
capable of. When Neelix died in Voyager’s “Mortal Coil” not only is his
resurrection explained (thanks to Seven of Nine) but the plot is how
he’s has major issues dealing with it! It’s one of the better Neelix
episodes. And when Picard presumably died in TNG’s “Tapestry” it led to a
real good character episode involving Q. There can be all kinds of fake
out’s from a dream or fantasy, a hologram, clone, some kind of
elaborate deception, or a time travel/alternate history story where the
re-set button is pressed.
Sometimes though, the creators can’t come up with a clever way out,
and the death is reversed with either a weak as hell excuse or, better
yet, no excuse. In some cases it serves such a small part of the show
you wonder why the “death” is even in the episode!
Today I present the worst Star Trek death fake out’s. The only rule
is this has to be a main character who was pronounced dead and came back
to life in the same episode they died in. And the death has to be
permanent so no Data, Tripp, Dax, Tasha, or especially Spock’s from TWOK
since that wasn’t meant to be a fake out when it happened, and besides
it was and still is one of the most moving moments Trek ever produced.
And of course this is just my opinion, feel free to disagree.
#5.Chekov in “Spectre of the Gun”
This comes from the episode “Specter of the Gun” which is a decent
episode for season 3. The setup is that Morgan Earp catches Chekov with
his girl, and basically guns him down. There’s more it than that but
that’s the basics. It’s actually a very powerful death scene and handled
very well! It isn’t forgotten we see Kirk and crew dealing with it in
the next scene. Why do I count it as one of the worst? Because there is
no explanation for how and why Chekov is alive again! They just return
to the ship, and he’s all alive and well. When I was a kid that confused
the hell out of me, and now I still don’t get it. They kind of hint
that it was because Chekov didn’t believe what was happening, except the
Melkotians made it clear that if they died, they were really dead!
Maybe they restored him to life but this is never stated.
#4.Paris from “Threshold”
If you know anything about Star Trek Voyager, you probably know this
episode is generally considered plain awful. The science is so
ridiculous and the situation beyond far fetched. One of the more
ignored, but no less stupid, moments happens mid way through the
episode. Paris has survived his trip through the “transwarp barrier”,
but he isn’t doing well. In fact, he ends up dying in sick-bay. A few
minutes later Kes comes in to say goodbye, and he wakes up and is fine.
What happened? Never explained, the Doctor just keeps on treating him as
if it never happened and Paris keeps transforming into a Salamander (I
wish I was kidding). This episode is beyond bad.
#3.Worf in “Ethics”
There was once an episode of TOS where Spock was blinded, and his
sight saved by a “secondary eyelid” an idea which was lame and corny.
This episode’s cop out is ten times worst! Worf is critically injured,
his spine is damaged, and needs a highly controversial procedure so he
can walk again. Again, long story short they do the procedure. But Worf
dies on the table. So everyone is sad and his son comes in to see him
one final time. Suddenly he is breathing on his own again. How? It seems
that Klingon’s have “back-ups” to their biological functions, including
the synaptic functions in this case. How the hell is this possible?
It’s like they needed to fill five minutes (or make the episode
interesting somehow) so shoehorned this in. It’s stupid! I suppose to be
fair they did foreshadow this unlike the Spock eyelid stuff which felt
like it was made up at the last second, but where I can buy that Vulcans
have an inner eyelid that they ignore this “back-up” nonsense with
Klingons is really pushing it. If they always had this why didn’t Gorgon
survive in Star Trek VI? Whatever, next one……
#2.McCoy in “Shore Leave”
Some may disagree with me here but this episode bugs me. I made fun
of Chekov but at least his death served the plot. It made Kirk and Spock
realize that they could change things if they wanted to. What the hell
does this death serve? It is undone off screen and accomplishes nothing.
Though the moment is kind of dramatic. Ok if you don’t know in this
episode the crew arrive on an “amusement” planet where their wildest
fantasies come true. Problem is they don’t know that! When a Black
Knight comes charging at McCoy he is determined to prove what they are
seeing is not real. And gets lanced through the heart. I suppose it
proves that what the others are experiencing is real but it’s still
basically pointless. How does he come back? He just appears at the end,
having been repaired under the planet and of course off screen. I can
buy the the people who live on this planet can create artificial life
forms who perfectly mimics people and things, but how in the world can
they restore life to a real person? And why in the world didn’t they
figure out the crew had no clue what was happening a lot faster? I
imagine them watching this and laughing their asses off!! This is a
“turn your brain off” kind of episode and as I get older, it gets harder
and harder for me to enjoy it.h
#1.Kirk from Star Trek:Into Darkness
Oh you probably all saw this one coming. This was so stupid that it’s
amazing! I very briefly touched on how awesome the scene from TWOK was
when Spock died. So what does this movie do? It rips it off! But that
isn’t what bugged me. If you don’t know (and very long story short),
Kirk ends up risking his life to get the ship up and running. Kirk and
Spock have a powerful goodbye moment that tries hard. As Spock, enraged,
races to kick Khan’s ass, McCoy notices a tribble that had been dead
earlier is now alive and kicking. I don’t know something to do with
Khan’s blood McCoy had injected into the thing. The point is McCoy
realizes he can still save Kirk, and five minutes later he is back and
that whole powerful death scene is rendered moot. The worst thing for me
is they way Kirk just, wakes up, like nothing happened. No drama, no
suspense……nothing! I honestly liked this movie, but that had to be the
worst death cop out ever, Trek or anywhere else!! Why did they need it?
Would having Kirk just be critically injured have worked just as well?
Ah well, it was stupid and I think most agree with me on this one.
It’s more than likely I am forgetting some good examples, so feel free to comment and maybe I will come back with another list.
I would be remiss if I didn’t point out what hard week or two it’s
been for the real life people who worked in Star Trek. Of course Leonard
Nimoy, but we also lost Harve Bennett who literally saved the franchise
with TWOK and Next Gen co-producer Maurice Hurley who created The Borg
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