I had what I think is a really obvious idea for a thread/poll, but I searched the forum for a similar one and couldn't find anything. If there was one and I just didn't look hard enough, I apologize and just hope this one won't be a total retread.
So I was thinking about how we've seen a lot of couples in Star Trek. I know there have been discussions about the couples and how well their relationships were developed, but I'm not sure if the forum has ever voted on which one(s) they liked most and why, so that's what I propose we do.
A few ground rules - I'm asking only about couples that we saw together in multiple episodes in a relationship that we know developed over a fairly long period. That means I'm not including short affairs, even if they meant a lot to characters. For example, Data's relationship in the episode "In Theory" or Worf and K'Ehylar (since we only saw these couples in one episode), or Kirk and Carol Marcus (since we only saw her in one movie).
Here are the choices and my take on each:
Ambassador Sarek and Amanda Grayson - I bend my rule a bit by including them since they only appear together in one episode, because they're married and appear in at least two movies (even if they don't share any scenes together in "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home").
I like how their relationship shows that Vulcans and humans can have a healthy marriage despite the obvious difficulties that would arise from the Vulcan not being able to show a lot of affection. While it was apparently said with some sarcasm, I thought Sarek's reason for why he married her at the end of "Journey to Babel" was really sweet and expressed genuine affection for her.
Troi and Riker - I liked them together, especially when they were flirtatious with one another, but sometimes it was hard to watch them together because of Troi being so melodramatic.
Troi and Worf - In my opinion, this was a bad idea. I thought "Parallels" was a fun episode, but it seemed like a bit too much of a stretch for Worf to suddenly see Troi as a potential partner just because she'd been a good babysitter to Alexander and he learned she was his wife in an alternate universe.
The Worf and Troi relationship's prominence in "All Good Things..." diminished my enjoyment of the episode a bit, but I am grateful for the interesting drama it injected into Picard's experience in the future by creating tension between future Riker and Worf.
Miles and Keiko O'Brien - I appreciate this couple more than I like it. I appreciate that the writers were trying to show a marriage that wasn't too romanticized and constantly wrought with conflict due to very natural problems like personality clashes and different career paths.
The problem was that Keiko was so often shrill and grating. I couldn't help but sometimes think Miles deserved better. He was such a sweet, likable, and patient person who was tough and resourceful, yet vulnerable enough to be sympathetic. Most of the time, Keiko didn't seem nearly as kind, smart, charming, or endearing, so it was often hard to understand what he saw in her.
Sisko and Yates - This is my favourite couple and the one I'll probably vote for. It's delightful to watch how affectionate these two are towards one another. They seem perfectly matched.
The only things I didn't like were that I thought the Prophets' warning and Kassidy being involved with the Maquis were rather forced ways to bring some tension into their relationship. I'd prefer if they had conflict based on something more natural than some story contrivance seemingly designed just to throw a wrench into their relationship.
Worf and Jadzia Dax - I love them as individual characters, but putting the two of them together often highlighted their worst qualities. For example, Worf's stubbornness in "Let He Is Without Sin..." being a wet blanket while Jadzia was trying to have fun made me hate Worf, who I almost always loved.
I feel similarly about Jadzia's wise cracking in the jungle in "Change of Heart". I usually love her sense of humour, but her making jokes while Worf worried that she might die any moment was excruciating.
Fortunately, "You Are Cordially Invited..." did a convincing job of showing how Worf and Jadzia were well-suited to each other despite their differences (a strong example of opposites attract being proven nicely) and their kidding with each other at the start of "Change of Heart" reinforced that. Their chemistry was just too inconsistent.
Odo and Kira Nerys - This couldn't be my favourite couple only because I hated the two characters for such a long time before they got together. What I find amazing about the way this relationship was developed is that it took two characters I disliked so much and made me root for them to end up happily together and feel overjoyed when they finally did.
Definitely one of the best, most natural romantic relationships in all of Star Trek that I would expect to rightfully get a lot of votes. They weren't as openly affectionate as Sisko and Yates, but it was always very clear how deeply they loved and cared for each other thanks to the writing of their relationship and the performances of the actors in it (which is even more impressive given the knowledge that Nana Visitor was against it).
Ezri and Bashir - Well it made sense and it was nice to see the characters together, but their relationship was a bit rushed and short-lived for us as fans. The build-up and pay off only happened in the last few episodes, so it was developed and played out in too short a time to be considered one of the strongest relationships in Star Trek.
Rom and Leeta - A bit irritating because the whole relationship seemed to be mostly conceived as a lazy joke about a clearly gorgeous woman finding a clearly hideous man sexy. Not that there's anything wrong with the appearance of the actor playing Rom...he just had gross make-up.
On the other hand, I like the idea that part of why Rom winds up with such a babe is because he's so warmhearted, morally upright, and hard-working. There's still a weird contrast, though, because what you end up with is a stupid-looking guy who has an admirable heart/personality paired with a beautiful woman who is mostly presented as a bimbo. While there is some logic to it, I still think their relationship ultimately feels like a visual gag more than anything else.
Trip and T'Pol - I haven't seen much of "Enterprise", but I saw enough to watch this relationship develop a bit and I thought it was done excellently. To me they came across as sort of a modern day Sarek and Amanda (although chronologically they're more like the precursor to Sarek and Amanda) and I mean that entirely as a compliment.
I don't know what kinds of relationships happened on "Star Trek: Voyager", so I didn't include any on the poll. "Star Trek: Voyager" fans feel free to enlighten me.
I'm sure that even after all the thought I gave to explaining my rules and trying to be as inclusive in the poll choices as possible, people will still suggest other choices. After all, this always happens when I make a poll.
For that reason, I'll include some 'other' poll choices this time, and ask those who vote 'other' to state and explain their choice(s). Just to try to reduce the number of 'other' suggestions further - I considered Picard & Crusher as well as Garak & Ziyal, but despite all the romantic sparks between them, they never officially became couples, did they?
So I was thinking about how we've seen a lot of couples in Star Trek. I know there have been discussions about the couples and how well their relationships were developed, but I'm not sure if the forum has ever voted on which one(s) they liked most and why, so that's what I propose we do.
A few ground rules - I'm asking only about couples that we saw together in multiple episodes in a relationship that we know developed over a fairly long period. That means I'm not including short affairs, even if they meant a lot to characters. For example, Data's relationship in the episode "In Theory" or Worf and K'Ehylar (since we only saw these couples in one episode), or Kirk and Carol Marcus (since we only saw her in one movie).
Here are the choices and my take on each:
Ambassador Sarek and Amanda Grayson - I bend my rule a bit by including them since they only appear together in one episode, because they're married and appear in at least two movies (even if they don't share any scenes together in "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home").
I like how their relationship shows that Vulcans and humans can have a healthy marriage despite the obvious difficulties that would arise from the Vulcan not being able to show a lot of affection. While it was apparently said with some sarcasm, I thought Sarek's reason for why he married her at the end of "Journey to Babel" was really sweet and expressed genuine affection for her.
Troi and Riker - I liked them together, especially when they were flirtatious with one another, but sometimes it was hard to watch them together because of Troi being so melodramatic.
Troi and Worf - In my opinion, this was a bad idea. I thought "Parallels" was a fun episode, but it seemed like a bit too much of a stretch for Worf to suddenly see Troi as a potential partner just because she'd been a good babysitter to Alexander and he learned she was his wife in an alternate universe.
The Worf and Troi relationship's prominence in "All Good Things..." diminished my enjoyment of the episode a bit, but I am grateful for the interesting drama it injected into Picard's experience in the future by creating tension between future Riker and Worf.
Miles and Keiko O'Brien - I appreciate this couple more than I like it. I appreciate that the writers were trying to show a marriage that wasn't too romanticized and constantly wrought with conflict due to very natural problems like personality clashes and different career paths.
The problem was that Keiko was so often shrill and grating. I couldn't help but sometimes think Miles deserved better. He was such a sweet, likable, and patient person who was tough and resourceful, yet vulnerable enough to be sympathetic. Most of the time, Keiko didn't seem nearly as kind, smart, charming, or endearing, so it was often hard to understand what he saw in her.
Sisko and Yates - This is my favourite couple and the one I'll probably vote for. It's delightful to watch how affectionate these two are towards one another. They seem perfectly matched.
The only things I didn't like were that I thought the Prophets' warning and Kassidy being involved with the Maquis were rather forced ways to bring some tension into their relationship. I'd prefer if they had conflict based on something more natural than some story contrivance seemingly designed just to throw a wrench into their relationship.
Worf and Jadzia Dax - I love them as individual characters, but putting the two of them together often highlighted their worst qualities. For example, Worf's stubbornness in "Let He Is Without Sin..." being a wet blanket while Jadzia was trying to have fun made me hate Worf, who I almost always loved.
I feel similarly about Jadzia's wise cracking in the jungle in "Change of Heart". I usually love her sense of humour, but her making jokes while Worf worried that she might die any moment was excruciating.
Fortunately, "You Are Cordially Invited..." did a convincing job of showing how Worf and Jadzia were well-suited to each other despite their differences (a strong example of opposites attract being proven nicely) and their kidding with each other at the start of "Change of Heart" reinforced that. Their chemistry was just too inconsistent.
Odo and Kira Nerys - This couldn't be my favourite couple only because I hated the two characters for such a long time before they got together. What I find amazing about the way this relationship was developed is that it took two characters I disliked so much and made me root for them to end up happily together and feel overjoyed when they finally did.
Definitely one of the best, most natural romantic relationships in all of Star Trek that I would expect to rightfully get a lot of votes. They weren't as openly affectionate as Sisko and Yates, but it was always very clear how deeply they loved and cared for each other thanks to the writing of their relationship and the performances of the actors in it (which is even more impressive given the knowledge that Nana Visitor was against it).
Ezri and Bashir - Well it made sense and it was nice to see the characters together, but their relationship was a bit rushed and short-lived for us as fans. The build-up and pay off only happened in the last few episodes, so it was developed and played out in too short a time to be considered one of the strongest relationships in Star Trek.
Rom and Leeta - A bit irritating because the whole relationship seemed to be mostly conceived as a lazy joke about a clearly gorgeous woman finding a clearly hideous man sexy. Not that there's anything wrong with the appearance of the actor playing Rom...he just had gross make-up.
On the other hand, I like the idea that part of why Rom winds up with such a babe is because he's so warmhearted, morally upright, and hard-working. There's still a weird contrast, though, because what you end up with is a stupid-looking guy who has an admirable heart/personality paired with a beautiful woman who is mostly presented as a bimbo. While there is some logic to it, I still think their relationship ultimately feels like a visual gag more than anything else.
Trip and T'Pol - I haven't seen much of "Enterprise", but I saw enough to watch this relationship develop a bit and I thought it was done excellently. To me they came across as sort of a modern day Sarek and Amanda (although chronologically they're more like the precursor to Sarek and Amanda) and I mean that entirely as a compliment.
I don't know what kinds of relationships happened on "Star Trek: Voyager", so I didn't include any on the poll. "Star Trek: Voyager" fans feel free to enlighten me.
I'm sure that even after all the thought I gave to explaining my rules and trying to be as inclusive in the poll choices as possible, people will still suggest other choices. After all, this always happens when I make a poll.
For that reason, I'll include some 'other' poll choices this time, and ask those who vote 'other' to state and explain their choice(s). Just to try to reduce the number of 'other' suggestions further - I considered Picard & Crusher as well as Garak & Ziyal, but despite all the romantic sparks between them, they never officially became couples, did they?
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Not sure they would have got many votes, though, so I guess that's a bit of a consolation. 
