Characters: Hero Worship Or Character Assassination?

[Edward Jellico]

Writing a Star Trek novel has certain limitations. Writers have to work within a box, no major changes can be made while shows are running, they can't be killed off, promoted or maimed, without express permission.

Do you feel that some characters get cut too much slack? They may have made questionable decisions during the show, or have been incompetent. Yet they always seem to come out smelling of roses. Conversely, other characters may always take the blame when they don't really deserve it.

A character I've never particularly liked is William Riker. I can think of two occasions when he lost the ship to inferior opposition, Rascals and Star Trek: Generations. He should have been court-martialed and cashiered out of the service, yet instead he gets promoted to the Admiralty.

Who do you think has been unfairly sainted or scapegoated and why?

 

[Kilana2]

Picard during the Borg Invation crisis. He was rewarded with a bunch of unlikeable, incompetent or illoyal new crewmen like T'Lana and Leybenzon. Because he once was Locutus SF mistrusted his judgement.

 

[marlboro]

I think some of the older writers would occasionally fall into hero worship mode when writing the TOS characters. I can't really think of any instances of intentional character assassination though. For the most part, I think the tie-in writers have done a better job of nor effing up the characters than the Hollywood guys.

If you ever want to see writers shit on characters for silly petty reasons, just read some old superhero comics. No perceived insult or grievance was too small for some guys to respond to.

 

[Mysterion]

A character I've never particularly liked is William Riker. I can think of two occasions when he lost the ship to inferior opposition, Rascals and Star Trek: Generations. He should have been court-martialed and cashiered out of the service, yet instead he gets promoted to the Admiralty.

Agreed. How he got he got his own command, much less promoted at all after the way he acted in Chains of Command is way beyond me. Not only did he totally abdicate is duties and responsibilities as the XO of a major Starfleet vessel, he was openly insubordinate toward his CO and tacitly encouraged the same behavior from the ships other officers. Willie should have found his butt transferred to a desk job somewhere at best, or invited to hit the bricks at worst.

 

[Tim Thomason]

A character I've never particularly liked is William Riker. I can think of two occasions when he lost the ship to inferior opposition, Rascals and Star Trek: Generations. He should have been court-martialed and cashiered out of the service, yet instead he gets promoted to the Admiralty.

Of course, Edward Jellico wouldn't like William Riker.

 

[Nyotarules]

He should have been court-martialed and cashiered out of the service, yet instead he gets promoted to the Admiralty.

Starfleet has a tradition of crazy or/and incompetent admirals so make of that what you will