It’s
been about six years now when I discussed five one episode only
characters on Star Trek that were, well, stupid. They were either stupid
because they acted recklessly (or didn’t act at all) or because they
were so full of themselves they didn’t see how foolish their plans were.
Whether they be good or bad, we often get characters who just aggravate
us. We don’t hate them, just roll our eyes at them. Of course, that
article was only five characters and there are plenty more to pick on.
So here are five more characters who appear in just a single episode (or movie) of Star Trek that just drive me nuts!
Ensign Sonia Gomez (Q Who?)
I’m cheating a little with this because she technically appeared twice. In fact she was supposed to be a recurring character. Why wasn’t she? She’s freaking annoying! She worked in Engineering and was very anxious to do her job well. A little too anxious, as she never seemed to shut up. After spilling hot chocolate all over Picard, she stumbles through the rest of the episode with no real purpose. LaForge tries to tell her to slow down, but thankfully she didn’t last very long. In fact she was supposed to be a major love interest for Geordi, but people figured quite correctly and quickly that made no sense at all. I like to think he felt bad as he approved her inevitable transfer. Ironically, the episode is a great one.
Janice Lester (Turnabout Intruder)
To be fair, the girl was nuts. But she has to be a contender for most ill conceived plan ever. Her brilliant plan for revenge on Kirk is to swap his mind, and take over as the captain. Yeahhh…that’s not gonna work for her. And NO not because she’s a woman, I’d never say that. Put aside the fact that Lester has anger issues and is prone to rage, but did she really think she could fool people who have known Kirk for ages? McCoy doesn’t fall for it for long before he’s calling Kirk in to be checked. And all it takes is one mind meld for Spock to realize what is happening. To be fair she does says she spent months preparing for this, it was still foolish and doomed for instant failure. For more on this one hunt down my review of the episode and Shatner’s hammy acting.
Alidar Jarok (The Defector)
Last time I had Commodore Stocker as an example of a character who’s heart was in the right place despite his foolish actions. Jarok fills that role this time. Ir’s easy to laugh at characters who act foolishly, and wonder just what they were thinking. In this case, you feel for this guy and can understand exactly what he was thinking. He just should have thought a little more about it before acting. Ok, in this episode Jarok defects from Romulus to warn the Enterprise of a massive full scale invasion about to launch. Long story short, they crew finally check it out and find out there was no invasion. It was a trick to test the loyalties of Jarok and trick the Enterprise into a conflict. Thankfully Picard was smarter and had an ace up his sleeve in the form of three Klingon warships. As for Jarok..well not so lucky. This is a great episode.
Sybock
Oh the movies are hardly free of stupid characters. It’s one thing when it’s an intentional comic relief character (anyone remember Captain Styles?) but when your main villain has a plan which makes no sense at all…you may be in trouble. So Sybok kidnaps ambassadors of the Federation, Klingon and Romulans to lure a spaceship to the planet. The plan is to hijack the ship and take it to the Galactic barrier. What is the barrier? It’s an energy formation at the center of the galaxy which no ship has manage to enter. What is he going there for? He’s come to believe that he will find God. Yep, he will find the all mighty savior. Aside from that he has a stupid power to “release people’s pain” and make then serve his cause. Sure, it’s not as if people’s life experiences (good and bad) help define them or anything. At least he realizes how stupid he was in the end, when he it turns out to not be God but an alien looking for escape, for some reason anyway, and he sacrifices himself so Kirk, Spock and McCoy can escape. And we’ll forget the idiotic retcon that made him and Spock brothers. Next they’ll create a retcon to give Spock a sister we never knew he had. Wait……..
Mr.Boma (The Galileo Seven)
Oh man, this guy! He isn’t dumb for the usual reasons. He clearly knows his job and all. He just tends to have a problem with Vulcans in command, and knowing when to shut up. In this episode Spock is stuck in command of a shuttlee crew when the mission goes awry. And, well, relying just on cold logic doesn’t really work out of the guy. On the mission is astrophysicist named Boma. And as the circumstances deteriorate, including two other crew death’s, Boma starts too get hostile toward Spock. He talks back and questions his orders, even getting into name calling before Scotty and McCoy finally quiet the guy. This would be fine if he was just a guy, but he’s an officer under Spock’s command. While it’s true Spock showed a remarkable lack of empathy in the show, he was also in command. And Boma is over the line and despite what effects he may have had on Spock, he is unlikable by the end. I get that Spock shows no compassion, but expecting him to risk the rest of their lives to give the two dead men a proper funeral seems like misplaced morality to me. No surprise he isn’t in that final bridge scene. In fact a non-cannon novel had him court martialed after being put up on charges of insubordination. Makes sense to me.
Agree? Disagree? Add a name I forgot? Comment and let me know.
So here are five more characters who appear in just a single episode (or movie) of Star Trek that just drive me nuts!
Ensign Sonia Gomez (Q Who?)
I’m cheating a little with this because she technically appeared twice. In fact she was supposed to be a recurring character. Why wasn’t she? She’s freaking annoying! She worked in Engineering and was very anxious to do her job well. A little too anxious, as she never seemed to shut up. After spilling hot chocolate all over Picard, she stumbles through the rest of the episode with no real purpose. LaForge tries to tell her to slow down, but thankfully she didn’t last very long. In fact she was supposed to be a major love interest for Geordi, but people figured quite correctly and quickly that made no sense at all. I like to think he felt bad as he approved her inevitable transfer. Ironically, the episode is a great one.
Janice Lester (Turnabout Intruder)
To be fair, the girl was nuts. But she has to be a contender for most ill conceived plan ever. Her brilliant plan for revenge on Kirk is to swap his mind, and take over as the captain. Yeahhh…that’s not gonna work for her. And NO not because she’s a woman, I’d never say that. Put aside the fact that Lester has anger issues and is prone to rage, but did she really think she could fool people who have known Kirk for ages? McCoy doesn’t fall for it for long before he’s calling Kirk in to be checked. And all it takes is one mind meld for Spock to realize what is happening. To be fair she does says she spent months preparing for this, it was still foolish and doomed for instant failure. For more on this one hunt down my review of the episode and Shatner’s hammy acting.
Alidar Jarok (The Defector)
Last time I had Commodore Stocker as an example of a character who’s heart was in the right place despite his foolish actions. Jarok fills that role this time. Ir’s easy to laugh at characters who act foolishly, and wonder just what they were thinking. In this case, you feel for this guy and can understand exactly what he was thinking. He just should have thought a little more about it before acting. Ok, in this episode Jarok defects from Romulus to warn the Enterprise of a massive full scale invasion about to launch. Long story short, they crew finally check it out and find out there was no invasion. It was a trick to test the loyalties of Jarok and trick the Enterprise into a conflict. Thankfully Picard was smarter and had an ace up his sleeve in the form of three Klingon warships. As for Jarok..well not so lucky. This is a great episode.
Sybock
Oh the movies are hardly free of stupid characters. It’s one thing when it’s an intentional comic relief character (anyone remember Captain Styles?) but when your main villain has a plan which makes no sense at all…you may be in trouble. So Sybok kidnaps ambassadors of the Federation, Klingon and Romulans to lure a spaceship to the planet. The plan is to hijack the ship and take it to the Galactic barrier. What is the barrier? It’s an energy formation at the center of the galaxy which no ship has manage to enter. What is he going there for? He’s come to believe that he will find God. Yep, he will find the all mighty savior. Aside from that he has a stupid power to “release people’s pain” and make then serve his cause. Sure, it’s not as if people’s life experiences (good and bad) help define them or anything. At least he realizes how stupid he was in the end, when he it turns out to not be God but an alien looking for escape, for some reason anyway, and he sacrifices himself so Kirk, Spock and McCoy can escape. And we’ll forget the idiotic retcon that made him and Spock brothers. Next they’ll create a retcon to give Spock a sister we never knew he had. Wait……..
Mr.Boma (The Galileo Seven)
Oh man, this guy! He isn’t dumb for the usual reasons. He clearly knows his job and all. He just tends to have a problem with Vulcans in command, and knowing when to shut up. In this episode Spock is stuck in command of a shuttlee crew when the mission goes awry. And, well, relying just on cold logic doesn’t really work out of the guy. On the mission is astrophysicist named Boma. And as the circumstances deteriorate, including two other crew death’s, Boma starts too get hostile toward Spock. He talks back and questions his orders, even getting into name calling before Scotty and McCoy finally quiet the guy. This would be fine if he was just a guy, but he’s an officer under Spock’s command. While it’s true Spock showed a remarkable lack of empathy in the show, he was also in command. And Boma is over the line and despite what effects he may have had on Spock, he is unlikable by the end. I get that Spock shows no compassion, but expecting him to risk the rest of their lives to give the two dead men a proper funeral seems like misplaced morality to me. No surprise he isn’t in that final bridge scene. In fact a non-cannon novel had him court martialed after being put up on charges of insubordination. Makes sense to me.
Agree? Disagree? Add a name I forgot? Comment and let me know.
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