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which species scare you so much?

I will join the others in saying that Humanity's the one that scares me. Not so much because of what we're capable of, when we get to warring or fear-mongering, but what we do, also, when we have the very best intentions in mind ...

Most notably in TOS, but throughout the franchise, really, there have been civilisations viewed by the Good Ship Enterprise, or whatever, as being "stagnant" or "inHuman" and the STARFLEET people will just pull the plug on whatever's controlling it. Most often, it's a computer. Even if that computer's KNOWN to be in control by that particular culture and they take great pains to keep it well-maintained and fully functional, so what? Kirk or Picard or somebody's put off by it and they put a stop to it, then and there. Usually leaving the poor bastards to pick up the peices, while the ENTERPRISE warps out of the system, so it doesn't have to monitor the fallout and reconsider what they've done. Again, this is done with GOOD in mind! At least you expect Klingons and Cardassians and the Borg to be pricks. It's not surprising that they invariably are. But Humanity's supposed to be the best that a species can ever hope to measure up to ...
Are you thinking of The Apple? Or that weird society in Spock's Brain?

And "Return of the Archons" and "For the World is Hollow" and (stretching a point) "A Taste of Armageddon" . . . .
 
I will join the others in saying that Humanity's the one that scares me. Not so much because of what we're capable of, when we get to warring or fear-mongering, but what we do, also, when we have the very best intentions in mind ...

Most notably in TOS, but throughout the franchise, really, there have been civilisations viewed by the Good Ship Enterprise, or whatever, as being "stagnant" or "inHuman" and the STARFLEET people will just pull the plug on whatever's controlling it. Most often, it's a computer. Even if that computer's KNOWN to be in control by that particular culture and they take great pains to keep it well-maintained and fully functional, so what? Kirk or Picard or somebody's put off by it and they put a stop to it, then and there. Usually leaving the poor bastards to pick up the peices, while the ENTERPRISE warps out of the system, so it doesn't have to monitor the fallout and reconsider what they've done. Again, this is done with GOOD in mind! At least you expect Klingons and Cardassians and the Borg to be pricks. It's not surprising that they invariably are. But Humanity's supposed to be the best that a species can ever hope to measure up to ...
Are you thinking of The Apple? Or that weird society in Spock's Brain?

And "Return of the Archons" and "For the World is Hollow" and (stretching a point) "A Taste of Armageddon" . . . .

I don't know but these societies were all highly dysfunctional. That's not even a close call, IMO.
 
Definitely the parasites from Conspiracy. They turned up later in the DS9 Relaunch. Turning people into helpless and weak-willed puppets scared the hell out of me :devil:.
 
What I also find interesting about those types of episodes is that the ENTERPRISE and/or its crew are always directly threatened by whatever the society's makeup is, so that Kirk, or whomever is sort of channelled into making pulling the plug on their society as the only option. So that whether you, the viewer, like the way that society does business, or not, you accept that the Good Captain had no choice. And this is never the fault of the ENTERPRISE being somewhere it had no business being, or anything like that. It's always the planet's fault and I get that it's entertainment, but why bring up these dilemmas and not explore them properly?

STAR TREK's always credited for being topical and this might be so, but it never truly investigates anything it brings up. It's just there to give the boys something to do for the better part of an hour. So, I never really bought into that, "oh, we're so topical" bovine excrement. That's why I happen to prefer the stories about The Human Condition, that have a nugget of truth at the core. These episodes tend to echo current situations, like "Drumhead" for example. An institution, even a legitimate government like that of the U.S.A. is not above a good, old fashioned witch hunt and, as with that episode, a cool head and vigillance is called for.
 
Melkotians and the Balok puppet scared the crap out of me when I was a kid.

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And of course both of those images had to be in the end credits too. :D
 
Vidiians, absolutely. Especially the episode where the one guy showed up wearing the dead crewman's face. Creepy.
 
I think the Cardassians are the scariest, the most ruthless and lacking in honor.

You mean because they tortured Picard and then O'Brien for no reason?

That's part of it but I generally got the sense that with the Cardassians (although Evek was pretty decent) the villains felt less internal conflict and the reformers were fewer and more reluctant and the society would feel less shame in breaking treaties than there was with other antagonistic aliens.
 
I think the Cardassians are the scariest, the most ruthless and lacking in honor.

You mean because they tortured Picard and then O'Brien for no reason?

That's part of it but I generally got the sense that with the Cardassians (although Evek was pretty decent) the villains felt less internal conflict and the reformers were fewer and more reluctant and the society would feel less shame in breaking treaties than there was with other antagonistic aliens.

They didn't hesitate to arrest and nearly condemn O'Brien on what they knew was fabricated evidence.
 
Some of the 'Human' answers are getting a bit cliche.

In real life, sure, humans. In the show they seem to be the only group that isn't obnoxiously stubborn about everything all the time.
 
Maybe I've grown out of it. Once I found 8472 scary, but now I'm only scared by how badly the first introduction to it was executed.
 
Maybe I've grown out of it. Once I found 8472 scary, but now I'm only scared by how badly the first introduction to it was executed.

Blame it on Kes' poor telepathic skills. They didn't look like people who wanted to destroy all life in this galaxy like she said they did. If she had been more measured in her "translation" maybe Janeway wouldn't have made a deal with the borg and the borg would have been eliminated, AND ONLY THEM!!!

No wonder Arturis was pissed! Too bad he didn't blame it on the one responsible, IE Kes.
 
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