King or Queen of Mean

[Vandervecken]

Who is the meanest character among regular characters? I am excluding even DS9 semi-regulars like Martok and Ross. He or she (or it) has to be someone we have a more than 50-50 chance of seeing in an episode.

I mean someone who cares less about other people's feelings than anyone else.

I've thought it over and Riker comes up for me. He made an effort to come across as a no-excuses-accepted guy, and it worked. He cared about results and anything else was gravy if it was gotten, not important. He really didn't care about Worf wanting to die--Riker saw it his way and that was the way it was. He reveled in rubbing Jellico's face in it (no question Jellico had it coming--he'd be the king of mean I think were he recurring!)

I can't really think of anyone on DS9 or Voy,and certainly not in TOS, who approaches Riker's level of unforgivingness. I'm not too familiar with Ent, so enlighten me if you got 'em!

 

[Chronos]

I can't really think of any regular characters who are truly mean. Winn in DS9 comes to mind, but I'm not sure whether she appears often enough to really count. Spock (TOS) and T'Pol (ENT) can be a bit tactless at times, but that's due Vulcans having very different ways of interacting with one another. Quark (DS9) is a criminal, and he often skews things for his personal benefit, but he makes up for it, and he is a product of Ferengi society as much as Spock is a product of Vulcan society.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

ENT: Soval

TOS: Most of those "Commissioners" we always used to see

TNG: Ro Laren

DS9: Winn

VOY: Janeway

 

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

Voyager: B'Elanna

I can't really think of any TOS characters that are considered mean. McCoy and Spock are constantly at each other's throats but I'm not sure if I'd truly classify that as being mean. Though McCoy can be a little racist.

 

[Captain Rob]

I think that DS9 has it locked with Winn, Damar, and Dukat.
All three I'd like to shove out the airlock. At the same time.

 

[svenden]

Frankly, I always found Tuvok to be something of a jerk. Especially the way he treated Neelix and the Maquiis crewmembers.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Odo could be a bit of a jerk sometimes.

I think Tuvok and Neelix were both kind of jerks toward each other. Neelix treated him like he was in the wrong just for being introverted.

 

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

I always got the impression that Neelix was trying to get Tuvok to like him rather than being jerky towards him. I remember him saying that he valued Tuvok's opinion.

 

[Greg Cox]

I wouldn't think of any of our heroes as "mean" exactly. But thank goodness some of them were cantankerous or grumpy or whatever. How boring would it be if everyone on the shows were "nice" all the time?

 

[Zonker]

Pulaski always gave me mean vibes. Shran beat archer pretty badly the first time they met. Archer and the Vulcans had a mutual hateboner in season 1 and Archer got pretty mean during season 3.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I always got the impression that Neelix was trying to get Tuvok to like him rather than being jerky towards him. I remember him saying that he valued Tuvok's opinion.

Neelix knew Tuvok wasn't emotionally expressive and wasn't interested in things he considered fun and continuously tried to force them on him, judging him negatively for not reciprocating.

 

[LadyT'Anna]

Frankly, I always found Tuvok to be something of a jerk. Especially the way he treated Neelix and the Maquiis crewmembers.

In defense of Tuvok, svenden, that PT he put the Maquis crewmembers through saved their skins later in the episode.

 

[Terok Nor]

Pulaski is the only regular character I could describe as mean. For a doctor her interactions with others left a lot to be desired. I don't think I ever forgave her for how she treated Data.

Some of the main characters are grumpy or rude but I don't think any of them are mean.

As far as recurring characters go, most of the villains were mean as hell!

 

[LadyT'Anna]

Pulaski is the only regular character I could describe as mean. For a doctor her interactions with others left a lot to be desired. I don't think I ever forgave her for how she treated Data.

Some of the main characters are grumpy or rude but I don't think any of them are mean.

I'm afraid I'll have to disagree with you there, Terok Nor. McCoy was downright mean to Spock in TOS. Their imprisonment during "Bread and Circuses" and their scene in Kirk's quarters at the end of "Requiem for Methuselah" come most readily to mind. I'm given to understand that Pulaski was created as McCoy, v. 2, and in that context, her callous if unjustified treatment of Data makes perfect sense.

 

[Greg Cox]

The Pulaski thing was an interesting miscalculation. They're were obviously trying to recreate the McCoy/Spock dynamic, but missed the fact that Data is not Spock.

Spock was McCoy's equal, who gave as good as he got and who seemed to enjoy the banter in his own dry Vulcan way. But Data is Pinocchio, an guileless innocent without a snarky circuit in his body, so Pulaski just came off as a bully, picking on a clueless puppy who just wanted to get along with everyone.

Now if Pulaski and Odo had regularly exchanged barbs, or if Pulaski had been pitted against Seven of Nine . . . then she probably would have come off a lot better.

 

[Terok Nor]

The Pulaski thing was an interesting miscalculation. They're were obviously trying to recreate the McCoy/Spock dynamic, but missed the fact that Data is not Spock.

Spock was McCoy's equal, who gave as good as he got and who seemed to enjoy the banter in his own dry Vulcan way. But Data is Pinocchio, an guileless innocent without a snarky circuit in his body, so Pulaski just came off as a bully, picking on a clueless puppy who just wanted to get along with everyone.

Now if Pulaski and Odo had regularly exchanged barbs, or if Pulaski had been pitted against Seven of Nine . . . then she probably would have come off a lot better.

This is pretty much what I was going to reply to Lady T'Anna so thanks for saving me the effort

 

[LadyT'Anna]

The Pulaski thing was an interesting miscalculation. They're were obviously trying to recreate the McCoy/Spock dynamic, but missed the fact that Data is not Spock.

Spock was McCoy's equal, who gave as good as he got and who seemed to enjoy the banter in his own dry Vulcan way. But Data is Pinocchio, an guileless innocent without a snarky circuit in his body, so Pulaski just came off as a bully, picking on a clueless puppy who just wanted to get along with everyone.

Now if Pulaski and Odo had regularly exchanged barbs, or if Pulaski had been pitted against Seven of Nine . . . then she probably would have come off a lot better.

This is pretty much what I was going to reply to Lady T'Anna so thanks for saving me the effort

Laughing--thank you both! And yes, I'd very much like to have seen Pulaski go up against Odo. Watch the fireworks!

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Will Riker kind of dodged a bullet on that one - Pulaski once said she almost married Kyle. So she would have been Will's stepmom !!!

 

[Greg Cox]

Will Riker kind of dodged a bullet on that one - Pulaski once said she almost married Kyle. So she would have been Will's stepmom !!!

But he still ended up with Lwaxana as a mother-in-law . ..

 

[Kilana2]

Will Riker kind of dodged a bullet on that one - Pulaski once said she almost married Kyle. So she would have been Will's stepmom !!!

But he still ended up with Lwaxana as a mother-in-law . ..

...... and he prefers to stay away from her aboard Titan as far as possible......

I can't remember any Lwaxana scenes in the Titan novels. That's odd, considering the fact that Lwaxana is a grandmother now.