Stupid aliens

Discussion in 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' started by DevilEyes, Jun 14, 2010.

?

Most ridiculous TNG season 1 aliens?

  1. Ferengi ("The Last Outpost")

    35.3%
  2. Anticans ("Lonely Among Us")

    8.8%
  3. Edo ("Justice")

    36.8%
  4. the natives of Angel I ("Angel One")

    22.1%
  5. Ligonians ("Code of Honor")

    50.0%
  6. Klingons ("Hide and Q", "Heart of Glory" etc.)

    8.8%
  7. 20th century Humans ("The Neutral Zone") - it counts since they're treated as most alien of aliens

    17.6%
  8. other

    5.9%
Multiple votes are allowed.
  1. DevilEyes

    DevilEyes Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Re-watching TNG on SciFi Channel - they've just started season 2 - I've realized what my biggest gripe with season 1 is. People usually mention things like poor character development, preachiness, Wesley saving the day, outdated look, poor acting by actors other than Stewart - and while all those things stand, I rarely see people mention what's the most glaring problem to me: the fact that almost every alien race encountered are portrayed as incredibly stupid, both in the sense that they are laughable, one-dimensional caricatures, and in the sense that they are acting like complete idiots (whether this was the writer's intent, or it was because the writers themselves didn't think things through and wrote very clumsy scripts).

    I suspect that this is why people often say that the Enterprise crew were arrogant, which is not quite true. It's not that they were intentionally portrayed as arrogant, it's that pretty much every alien they meet comes off as being so much intellectually or morally inferior to them, so the viewer is forced to feel that the Federation and the Enterprise crew are superior to them. Which is ironic, since the attitude of the crew, and the show itself, is supposed to be that of respecting and accepting various cultures. But the writers' idea of presenting alien and different cultures was apparently to make them look absurd, and have our heroes show their tolerance by actually talking to them like adults and pitying the poor backward unevolved bumpkins, and occasionally looking at each other and shrugging "ah, those silly people" (as they literally do in "Lonely Among Us". There's a lot of that "humans are the best" attitude in the writing itself. Unless we're speaking about 20th century Humans, that is. When they appear in "The Neutral Zone", they are the silliest of all the silly one-dimensional caricatures, only this time the Enterprise crew is free to show their contempt and arrogance outright. :rolleyes:

    (Come to think of it, that's one good thing about "Samaritan Snare" - for once the Enterprise crew meet a race who seem like idiots and they actually treat them as idiots, and then they turn out to be rather crafty and pull one over them! :bolian:)

    Among the most obviously silly cultures are the snickering goblin-like Ferengi from "The Last Outpost", the California beach boys and girls of "Justice", the furry aliens and their enemies from "Lonely Among Us", the Ligonians from "Code of Honor" and this is also where the Klingons were made from smart and threatening adversaries into unintelligent savages: the worst culprit is "Hide and Q", which portrayed Klingons as acting literally like cavemen or wild animals (the scene with Worf and his would-be mate), while Q calls Worf "microbrain".

    No doubt, the concept of many of these cultures stems from TOS cultures, with its Planets of Hats - space nazis, space Romans, space gangsters, space hippies... But TNG season 1 aliens reached new levels of stupidity, with a particularly jarring repeated gag: for some reason, a bunch of aliens love to tell people they've just met how stupid, barbaric or arrogant they find them. I get what the writers were trying to do - they thought it was so cool to show that aliens who don't look like humans would find humans as ugly as the humans find them, or would have found human culture as strange and incomprehensible as the other way round. Now, this could work if only the aliens were portrayed as saying that to each other, or in some other similar way. But the problem is, having them tell that to the faces of the Enterprise crew is very clumsy writing, and doesn't make sense.

    Example: the Ferengi daimon in "The Last Outpost" seems to think that the first thing he says to an alien captain is that his race are really as ugly as he's heard? Unless he thought that this was an effective psychological ploy, that's just stupid. But OK, the Ferengi daimon might have been a cranky, dumb asshole who thought he could afford rudeness since the Federation vessel was adversarial anyway. But what about the leading diplomat of the furry aliens in "Lonely Among Us"? Upon learning that Humans don't eat natural meat, only replicated meat, he exclaims "How barbaric" (to a lot of shrugging, grinning and eye-rolling by Riker and Yar)! :cardie: Um, and he is diplomat? Why the hell would a diplomat casually offend his hosts at an important meeting? Unless he's a moron. :vulcan:

    If TNG had a regular Vulcan character, they would have to say "Your behavior is not logical" every 5 minutes - and they'd be completely justified!

    And this type of stupidity is not limited just to backward bumpkins - it extends even to some of the beings who are supposedly equal or superior to Humans in intelligence and development. Like the crystalline lifeform in "Home Soil", whose apparently thinks that the first thing it should say to Humans is that they are "ugly, ugly bags of water". :rolleyes: But later the writers make it call Humans "too arrogant" - well, that really makes sense coming from someone who tells aliens how ugly they are, and generally thinks it has the right to give them lessons about the overall character of their race.

    Which brings me to another problem - some of those aliens who aren't necessarily stupid, come off as incredibly hypocritical, thanks to the habit of Trek writers to make 'superior' lifeforms criticize Humans and lecture them on their arrogance, aggressiveness etc. What's even worse is that this doesn't seem to have been the writers' intent - again, it was clumsy writing. This will be repeated with the lifeform in season 2 "Where Silence Has Lease", and is also the reason why Q never seemed to have any weight as a moral arbiter, besides the fact that he is portrayed from the start as 'morally challenged' trickster who doesn't even stick to his own rules. In short, if it's not intellectually inferior, a non-Federation race in early TNG has to be obviously morally inferior to Our Heroes.

    All this makes me long for some intelligent aliens, which one has to wait for the later seasons to see - be it antagonists who aren't stupid and whose attitudes, however different from the Federation, make sense from their point of view (like the Romulans, Cardassians or even the Borg), or non-adversarial races in need of help who aren't portrayed condescendingly as oh those poor backward bumpkins (like the Bajorans).
     
    Last edited: Jun 14, 2010
  2. Dancing Doctor

    Dancing Doctor Admiral Admiral

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    I think all of the examples you gave are great (great in the sense of highlighting your point, I mean).

    If I had to choose, I would have to say that the Ligonians, just because of the fact that the whims of the director set back how "advanced" Star Trek was supposed to be by quite a bit. I was the most embarrassed by the Ligonians out of all of the aliens in Season 1.

    I will say, however, that it is a narrow victory.
     
  3. Anwar

    Anwar Admiral Admiral

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    The Ligonians were the guys from "Code of Honor", right?

    I still remember the general reaction: "Wonderful, a planet of black people and the first thing they do is kidnap a blonde white woman!"
     
  4. Dancing Doctor

    Dancing Doctor Admiral Admiral

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    Yep
     
  5. DevilEyes

    DevilEyes Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Code_of_Honor_%28episode%29

     
  6. Dancing Doctor

    Dancing Doctor Admiral Admiral

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    I remember thinking "Did they really just do that?" while watching it.

    Sadly, they did. Why Roddenberry and everyone involved didn't just say "Let's not show this one..." is beyond me.
     
  7. maneth

    maneth Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Code of (dis)Honor is without a doubt the most embarrassing TNG episode, no wonder even the cast seems to despise it!

    The Ligonians get my vote as the most stupid TNG aliens ever. I'm surprised Roddenberry approved the script!

    In fact, I think all first season aliens were silly in one way or another, with the possible exception of the Binyaari. I'm rather sad that we only met them once, it would've been fun to see how they'd deal with the Borg and vice versa. After all, here's a race that voluntarily connects to a single planetwide computer soon after birth, and they're so dependent on this connection that when the compie needs a reboot, they all fall unconscious! I take it back, they're silly too, but at least they're different enough to be fun rather than just stupid.
     
  8. Trek Survivor

    Trek Survivor Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I'm not. Have you seen TOS? It's just the kind of thing he loves!

    This was a really tough poll. I was torn between Angel 1 and the Edo... went for the Edo in the end.

    A good thread, though - season one really did struggle with decent alien portrayals. On the flip side, I thought the Bynars were good, "Heart of Glory" represented the Klingons well and yes... I even liked the idea of Armus.
     
  9. Praxius

    Praxius Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Ligonians ("Code of Honor")

    Was my choice.... It was bad then, it is bad now.... and during my wife and I's viewing of season 1 recently.... I think we got about 20 minutes into the episode and turned it off to watch something else.

    The episode could have been saved if they didn't force all the people to be black..... not that there's anything wrong with an all black species ruling a planet.... it's just that that episode made all the black people of that planet out to be backwards, two-dimensional thugs where the men seem to be the centre of the world and women fight to the death over them (When as they showed in the episode, the men didn't really give a damn.... a woman to screw is a woman to screw)

    It was almost as bad as the Angel 1 race, but with the twist of the women being dominant and the men being these tiny little pansy boys..... but I found while Angel 1 was pretty obnoxious by their gender differences expressed (even by 80's standards) they didn't exactly cross the line as far as Code of Honor did.... where it not only attacked genders, but also a particular race.

    My second choice in the above poll would be the original appearance of the Ferengi.... they reminded me of a bunch of flying monkeys from Wizard of Oz. It's sad to think that they were originally supposed to replace the Klingons as the prime villain for the Enterprise crew..... good thing the Borg came along.
     
  10. MeanJoePhaser

    MeanJoePhaser Admiral

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    It's hilariously stupid that the leader was less impressed by the holodeck than he was by Tasha Yar.
     
  11. Myasishchev

    Myasishchev Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    It was always a shame about the Ferengi being botched so heavily in early TNG, because the core idea of an antagonistic capitalist power to the commie Federation is a very good one (that somehow never got revived).

    A more successful start also might have avoided the increasing cartoonishness of the Ferengi as time went by. Quark still could have been the comic relief of DS9 without being surrounded on all sides by an entire species of complete dorks.

    I think at some point in mid-TNG, they could even have been rehabilitated (I mean, look at the Klingons--I'm sure this isn't a universal opinion, but in TOS their episodes really sucked other than "Errand of Mercy," which wasn't really great, and I liked it better when it was called "Arena" anyway).

    The Edo wouldn't have been nearly as bad if their substantive criminal law wasn't profoundly retarded, and if they bothered to mention this to guests. The death penalty for an act any normal person would describe as merely tortious (accidents carry the death penalty? accidents are difficult to avoid by their nature, Edo God, and dead tortfeasors tend to be less able to pay their judgments).

    But the Ligonians... God in Heaven indeed. Regarding the question why Roddenberry let it be released at all, my guess is to fulfill his company's contract. They should've shot a couple of scenes with white dudes, though, to lessen the most distasteful parts of the episode.
     
  12. Deranged Nasat

    Deranged Nasat Vice Admiral Admiral

    As is often the case, DevilEyes, you sum it up very well indeed. :)

    Personally, I don't know which I find the most irritating- the portrayal of alien cultures, for the reasons you outlined, or the attitude shown towards 20th century Humans by the Enterprise crew (and , as you say, the way those Humans were made to act to "justify" it). It was not a good idea to present the UFP, which is supposed to be supremely accepting of cultural diversity, as being so openly dismissive- particularly of their "ancestors", who had to struggle without the benefits of 24th century technology, and who helped pave the way for "modern" humanity. The implication was that Federation Humans don't value their past or respect their forebears, which seems to me a dangerous position to take on history. Indeed, it's a form of ignorance I don't think an advanced society like the UFP can afford. Yet the writing seemed to be suggesting that such a position was a good idea.

    Hmmm, I suppose I've convinced myself to vote Human in your poll...
     
    Last edited: Jun 15, 2010
  13. MeanJoePhaser

    MeanJoePhaser Admiral

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    Not only are the Ferengi made to be comically stupid and shallow, but in their introductory episode we have a contrived entity that validates the Federation's superiority through Riker's thoughts/actions, thus the episode seems doubly trite.

    "Yes, Portal, they are dumb as shit, but if they were destroyed they'd learn nothing."

    "Angel One" was a Buck Rogers episode. I liked Buck Rogers, but by Trek standards, "Angel One" was mostly stupid. Some of first season episodes had a fluff quality to them ("Justice", "Haven", with it's wonderful paradise planet we never see).

    The Selay and Antican didn't bother me, because they weren't supposed to be enlightened peoples anyway. And at least they were more interesting designs than many TNG species.
     
  14. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    I'm going to toss a bit in here in the "stupid aliens" catagory for the aliens about to achieve warp travel in "First Contact."

    They're "stupid" -to me- because they believe themselves to be in the center of the universe. Ummmm what? They're about to achieve warp drive so we can only assume they've had other means of space-travel including rockets, satellites and such but they've not yet seen how the universe has been constructed and exsits so they think they're in the center of it? Huh?!

    But that's a severe, extreme, example. Overall they're well potrayed and presented otherwise.
     
  15. Anwar

    Anwar Admiral Admiral

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    I don't think they meant that they were the PHYSICAL centre of the universe, it was the implication that they figured they were the best planet out there.
     
  16. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    So the planet was America? :confused:
     
  17. Anwar

    Anwar Admiral Admiral

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    Well, yeah.
     
  18. Dancing Doctor

    Dancing Doctor Admiral Admiral

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    Sure.

    The point of First Contact was to show how a planet's population that has just accomplished warp flight deal (or not, as the case may be) with the knowledge that they aren't alone. Mirasta Yale, the Science Minister, and even Chancellor Avel Durken were examples of the enlightened segment of the population. Internal Security Minister Krola, on the other hand, exemplified the typical, sort of scared and uninformed average Malcorian (similar to those who support the Tea Party movement without knowing more about what the movement does).

    Plus, a people or nation believing themselves to be the center of the universe is nothing unique, even to Trek.
     
  19. Praxius

    Praxius Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Back to topic a bit, I originally thought of tossing out the Edo ("Justice") as my pick above... but figured that since they're all skimpily-cladded, happy all the time, attractive nymphos whom seem to think of sex as something like a hand shake.... that cancels out their backwards laws and worshiping of alien gods.
     
  20. Myasishchev

    Myasishchev Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    ^I'd visit Edo.