Trek romances - the good, the bad, and the boring?

Discussion in 'General Trek Discussion' started by DevilEyes, Sep 5, 2009.

  1. apenpaap

    apenpaap Commodore Commodore

    The Good:
    Kira/Odo
    Jadzia/Worf
    Picard/Crusher
    Troi/Riker
    Picard/Darren
    Doctor/Seven
    Janeway/Chakotay
    Paris/Torres
    Trip/T'Pol
    Dax/Kahn
    Garak/Ziyal

    The Bad:
    Most of the one-episode romance thingies.
    Mirror Kira/Mirror Ezri
    Chakotay/Seven

    The Boring:
    nuSpock/nuUhura
    Kirk/Rand
    Kira/Bareil
    Ezri/Bashir
     
  2. WillsBabe

    WillsBabe Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I don't think that Trek did romance well over the years. I'm not sure of the reason for that - maybe it's because the writers were poor at writing for it; maybe it's because they didn't really want to go there with the demographic they were aiming at. Generally speaking, if I enjoyed romances over the years I think it was despite the way they were written rather than because of it.

    I enjoyed Worf and Jadzia and thought they made a good couple and I enjoyed their relationship. I thought Odo and Kira was a good idea although I didn't care for either character very much so it didn't really gab my attention. Although I'm not a big fan of romance of the week, I've always thought Edith and Kirk was a good romantic story that worked on different levels. I was pleased to see Riker and Troi get together in the end, although I think that they work really very well as friends and maybe I see less romance in their relationship. I think maybe it's all happening in their heads, which is why we don't see much of it on-screen (well, you have to rationalise these things somehow!) I'd like to have seen the sparks fly with Ro and Riker. I've read K/S over the years and I really enjoy the idea of those two. I wouldn't call myself a slash fan but I do see some definate chemistry between Kirk and Spock (Nimoy and Shatner in the roles, I'm not sure what it is).
     
  3. Mareika

    Mareika Captain Captain

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    The J/C romance isn`t only a part of fanfiction, it`s also real. Watch Resolutions or look at the interaction between them both and their screen chemistry. Unfortunately the writers wrapped it up in the later seasons.
     
  4. Disillusioned

    Disillusioned Commander

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    The steamiest scene on Star Trek has to be that dream sequence on the Enterprise episode "Damage". Of course what ruined it was that it turned out to be a dream, and that T'Pol turned into a zombie before she woke up.
     
  5. Mach5

    Mach5 Admiral Admiral

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    With all due respect, there's a difference between romance and flirting. And I didn't see much of that either. It was mostly just hints and some sexual tension.

    Look, I'm not trying to offend J/C-ers, I'm aware that there are legions of them (including you, I presume... "J/C 4ever" and all that). I just really dislike the idea of a Captain and his/hers XO playing house. I mean, it would turn the ship into a huge station wagon full of kids with mommy and daddy sitting in front seats.

    The symbolism behind that sequence was discussed in detail in the ENT forum. That's probably the most explicit lovemaking ever seen in star trek, not counting that horrible mind-rape scene in Nemesis.
     
  6. JustKate

    JustKate Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I agree with this roughly 1000 percent. The tiny bit of flirting and so on was fine, but the threat of a full-scale romance was the thing I most dreaded when I first started watching Voyager. The thought of a captain (or even, to a slightly lesser degree, a first officer) in a romantic relationship with someone under his or her command just made me go, and I quote, "Euw."

    (Yes, I know it happened on TOS - though it was mostly hinted at, not actually overt, as far as I can remember - and TNG...but it was wrong then, too. At least on TNG when it happened to Picard, they showed the consequences. That was great...and incredibly rare.)

    On a more general note, it also made me go, "Oh, dear God, not again. Not another Trek 'romance' that they're going to tease us with for years and then mess up! Not another situation in which there are two hearts yearning for each other but kept apart by circumstances or fate or whatever! Not again."

    I thought the friendship between Chakotay and Janeway was great, and a little bit of sexual tension was fine - and realistic. That kind of thing happens in real life all the time. But I didn't want any more than that...not so long as they were trapped in the DQ with a crew that was depending on those two to get them home.

    Which brings me to Riker/Troi and Picard/Crusher. Talk about a "'romance' that they're going to tease us with for years and then mess up," talk about "two hearts yearning for each other but kept apart by circumstances or fate or whatever" - these are the perfect examples.

    Yes, I know they finally resolved one in a movie and the other in the books, but the way they were handled on TNG was...just awful. Awful. For one episode, they were each others' own true love, two hearts yearning for each other but kept apart by circumstances or fate or whatever. And then an episode or two or three later, one or the other of them would fall deeply, deeply in love with someone else. That "deep love," of course, generally lasted just until the closing credits rolled (although to be fair, they did show some hints of consquences with some of Picard's romances. This never happened with Crusher, Riker or Troi as far as I can remember.) Then an episode or two or three later, they were again each others' own true love, two hearts yearning for each other but kept apart by circumstances or fate or whatever.

    And so on and so on and so on. AND so on.

    I hate it. TV does this with regular characters all the time and I hate it each and every time.

    And may I also say that to me it's also quite, quite boring? What makes it boring is that it's so damn predictable. On how many shows and with how many characters have we seen this exact same pattern? I have no idea, but the short answer would be "a LOT."

    It's one of the reasons that I rather liked Worf/Troi, Worf/Dax and Paris/Torres. All three of these romances had a beginning and a middle, and therefore went beyond the usual "two hearts yearning for each other but kept apart by circumstances or fate or whatever." The first one was ended entirely too abruptly (I mean, jeez, they couldn't have given Worf a couple of lines of explanation? had him writing a letter to Troi? or something?), but up until that, there was a refreshing sort of...realism to it, and to Worf/Dax and Paris/Torres, too - well, as realistic as romances involving fictional species on episodic TV can be. We actually got to see a courtship going on. It was an important break with tradition for Trek, a tradition that is, to me anyway, booooooorrrrring.
     
    Last edited: Sep 10, 2009
  7. Disillusioned

    Disillusioned Commander

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    The zombie part really bothered me though. I know it was supposed to be symbolic, but they seemed to have a thing for uglying up a really beautiful woman and that's just plain disturbing. Not to mention that really ruined what they had going there. Whereas pretty much everything else they did came off as really cheap titillation (the decon scene, the massage stuff), the shower scene was one of the few fan service scenes that actually came off fairly well and was actually pretty good. At least up until T'Pol started going overboard, and it was really ruined when she turned into a zombie.

    As for Nemesis, I've tried not to think too much about that movie since the first time I saw it.
     
  8. Pemmer Harge

    Pemmer Harge Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Umm, wasn't Voyager kind of like that anyway?

    I agree with JustKate about Picard/Crusher and Riker/Troi. What I liked about Worf/Troi was how we saw their relationship emerge and develop, which I found refreshing.
     
  9. JustKate

    JustKate Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Not really. They certainly didn't play house. And we didn't have to live through all those "relationship" episodes - you know, the kind where True Love travels a bumpy road. Which can be interesting, but not when it's combined with a captain and her XO who are supposed to be running a ship. We were spared that, thank goodness.

    And that's what I liked about Worf/Troi, too.
     
  10. Sovay

    Sovay Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    I have to say Trip/T'Pol is the best IMO. Maybe it's just because I hated Troi and TNG in general but always seemed a boring relationship with no real chemistry. Trip/T'Pol was exciting, with a whole bunch of tension for ages leading up to it, and they had chemistry (or maybe they were just better actors, who knows.) God damn I wish they hadn't cancelled ENT...
    *bitter*
     
  11. Agenda

    Agenda Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Jul 28, 2009
    Not a big fan of Trip/T'Pol because it was the obvious ship on that ship. Less obvious would have been Archer/T'Pol. More exciting. More forbidden.
     
  12. Too Much Fun

    Too Much Fun Commodore Commodore

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    You call THAT a romance? :lol: Why not throw in Leeta and Ezri too? :p
     
  13. Sovay

    Sovay Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    Word. Personally that's what I was hoping for, but trip/t'pol is still good in comparison to the others
     
  14. Reanok

    Reanok Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Good trek romances Trip& T'Pol, Riker& Troi, Kira& Odo. Tom Paris & B'elanna Torres Kirk & Edith Keeler.Picard & Beverly Crusher.Miles O'brien & Keiko.Bad romances Worf& Troi, Worf& Ezri.Janeway and her holographic boyfriend.:crazy:
     
  15. Axesoleve

    Axesoleve Ensign

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    [​IMG]


    Kill me, please.
     
  16. DevilEyes

    DevilEyes Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    ^ Aaaargh, did you have to do that? My eyes are aching! :eek: :crazy: :klingon: :eek: :eek:
     
  17. Mach5

    Mach5 Admiral Admiral

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    [​IMG]
     
  18. Rackon

    Rackon Commander Red Shirt

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    MEEP!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you. Couldn't bear to quote and look at that...thing...again!!!!
     
  19. Axesoleve

    Axesoleve Ensign

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    I don't know why they had to make Neelix quite so ugly.
     
  20. DevilEyes

    DevilEyes Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I'm watching VOY "Darkling" right now, and right at the beginning I learn that Kes has dumped Neelix! Now when did this happen, and why did I miss it? Or did it happen off-screen? In any case :beer::hugegrin::techman: