characters or character development that went nowhere

[JoeZhang]

I was thinking about this (again) after re-watching the best of both worlds - there is some wonderful character development in that two parter, where we see Riker step up to the Captain's role and make the big decisions, take command and take action.

Fantastic - then the next episode he's back to being second in command and is happy about it. That entirely killed the character for me, I just used to watch it and think what is he still doing here? I just couldn't buy that he's undergo that ordeal, prove himself as captain and then not be busting for a ship.

Yes I know the real-world reasons he couldn't become a captain but giving him that character development for no real purpose just made the character seem paradoxically more weak and confused in the long-term.

What characters do you feel were particular ill-served by the real world constraints of the series? who's characters developed in ways that made no sense?

 

[sbk1234]

Honestly, in TOS, all of the characters, except for Kirk, Spock and McCoy we re under-utilized. IMHO, none of them gained any development until after the series and new books and movies started along.

That being said, I always felt that they could have had some great characters with Riley and Garrovick. Kyle was another one that was simply a button pusher, but could have been more.

As for TNG, as much as I really didn't like the character, Pulaski had potential, but they made her stay a one-trick pony. TNG's answer to McCoy.

 

[blakbyrd]

I was thinking about this (again) after re-watching the best of both worlds - there is some wonderful character development in that two parter, where we see Riker step up to the Captain's role and make the big decisions, take command and take action.

Fantastic - then the next episode he's back to being second in command and is happy about it. That entirely killed the character for me, I just used to watch it and think what is he still doing here? I just couldn't buy that he's undergo that ordeal, prove himself as captain and then not be busting for a ship.

Yes I know the real-world reasons he couldn't become a captain but giving him that character development for no real purpose just made the character seem paradoxically more weak and confused in the long-term.

What characters do you feel were particular ill-served by the real world constraints of the series? who's characters developed in ways that made no sense?

I think it was actually considered by the production that Riker would have become captain, and Locutus becoming a recurring enemy.

This was when Patrick's Stewarts contract was up for renegotiation/renewal.

 

[JiNX-01]

T'Pol, the trellium junkie. Not only did the development come out of nowhere, dramatically it went nowhere. Medical confidentiality be damned, IMO Phlox should have told Archer that his first officer was suffering from diminished capacity (certainly manifest in her conduct in Azati Prime), yet Archer never learns about it.

And considering the development of her relationship with Trip, she should have told him why her behavior is so erratic.

 

[erastus25]

In general I was disappointed with the development of the TOS and TNG characters. Despite a number of fairly extreme events, none of them seemed to go through any major personality development. It is a little more forgivable for TOS as that was the nature of TV in the 60s.

 

[Forbin]

Ensigns Leffler and Gomez, both of whom showed up in two episodes each (one each as a major guest player). In each case, I came to like them and hoped to see more of them.

But nNOOOooooooo!

 

[Defcon]

Ensigns Leffler and Gomez, both of whom showed up in two episodes each (one each as a major guest player). In each case, I came to like them and hoped to see more of them.

But nNOOOooooooo!

FWIW both of them got some rather major roles in Lit only series:

Lefler in New Frontier by Peter David and Gomez in Corps of Engineers.

 

[amdmiami]

Harry Kim from Star Trek Voyager

 

[captcalhoun]

travis, reed and hoshi on ENT

 

[CaptainJon]

TOS
Most of the supporting characters, who weren't given much to do throughout the run of the series

TNG
Riker's character development stopped right after Season 3. They had worked him towards becoming the Captain in case Stewart didn't come back, but once Stewart agreed to stay, where else could they go with Riker except no where?

VOY
Chakotay came to a halt during the last few seasons of the series as well.

Harry Kim stayed a fresh-out-of-the-academy-ensign for the entire series.

ENT
Basically all of the cast, with the exception of maybe Archer. But any development that did happen with anyone wasn't that great.

 

[Good Will Riker]

TOS

Harry Kim stayed a fresh-out-of-the-academy-ensign for the entire series.

Harry Kim was rewarded by becoming the captain of the USS Rhode Island in the future segment of "Endgame." Mind you, the ship was named after America's smallest state.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Any character that wasn't on DS9 got screwed.

 

[drasche]

I was ready to agree with you, Temis. But I think there's more. Spock was the only character in TOS series as well as movies to have real development. You can't say that the Spock from Where No Man Has Gone Before is the same as in The Undiscovered Country.

The only other series where I see a bit of character development is Voyager: The Doctor, Tom, and B'elanna. All other characters remain consistently the same.

 

[Dane_Whitman]

A couple of characters went through some shit that should have changed them.

Picard lived about a hundred years with the Resikans, had children and grandchildren and was suddenly forced to give all that up and accept that it was a simulation. Sure it was not completely forgotten ("Lessons"), but we should have seen him deal with it over a long period of time.

Neelix lost his faith and almost commited suicide, yet he seemed unaffected in the next episode.

The EMH lived for three years on the "Blink of an Eye" planet. It was suggested that he found someone special there. Yet he seemed to forget quite easily.

What a waste!

 

[Delta Belle]

ENT should have had Travis struggling emotionally for a while after his prisoner experience in "Detained." The freight haulers were accustomed to being in control of their surroundings, and were able to handle any rough spots they ran into along the way. While in the Tandarans' custody, Travis was totally at someone else's mercy.

 

[Navaros]

Any character that wasn't on DS9 got screwed.

That pretty much sums it up. All of the Trek characters other than the ones on DS9, almost exclusively had characters and character development that went nowhere. Slight exceptions for Doctor and Seven on Voyager, but that's it.

Also DS9 had characters and character development that went nowhere with both Jadzia and Ezri.

It is a far larger list of Trek characters who went nowhere than it is of Trek characters who went somewhere.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Even on DS9, the Starfleet characters sort of got screwed. I understand why Terry Ferrell was so frustrated seeing the writers spending a lot of energy on recurring characters and not bothering much with Jadzia. Okay she wasn't the best actor ever, and I understand why the writers would want to spend more time writing for actors like Jeffrey Combs and Casey Biggs who could really make their scripts look brilliant, but even DS9 suffered some from the Starfleet Must Be Bland ideology left over from the non-conflict Roddenberry days.

 

[Kegek]

Kes. She's this mysterious nymph from this weird planet who is slowly revealed to have powers... and the moment those powers begin to get interesting in episodes like "Warlord", she's swiftly shown the door and brought back later to go into super-villainess mode.

I think TOS handled its characters very well. Uhura, Scotty, Chekov and Sulu were basically supporting characters, little more than scenery, and they worked on that level. Of the principals, Spock was the most fleshed out, but both Kirk and McCoy had material. There were no character arcs, but there were compelling characters, and that's what counts.

TNG had two major character arcs - Worf's struggle for redemption in Klingon culture, which I felt handled it very effectively (despite DS9's later reset, rinse and repeat approach) and Data's quest to be human, which despite the fact Data was one of the best characters and this produced some classic episodes was on the whole a hit and miss affair.

 

[Frodo Lives]

I lost track of the amount of times B'elanna came to terms with her Klingon heritage, only for her to hate it venomently the next time an episode to focus on her came around, only for it to end with her coming to terms with her Klingon heritage again, rinse and repeat.

I understand that coming to terms with your heritage is an ongoing process, blah, blah, but seriously, by the end of the show she hadn't change one bit, still hated Klingons, etc.

 

[erastus25]

A couple of characters went through some shit that should have changed them.

Picard lived about a hundred years with the Resikans, had children and grandchildren and was suddenly forced to give all that up and accept that it was a simulation. Sure it was not completely forgotten ("Lessons"), but we should have seen him deal with it over a long period of time.

Neelix lost his faith and almost commited suicide, yet he seemed unaffected in the next episode.

The EMH lived for three years on the "Blink of an Eye" planet. It was suggested that he found someone special there. Yet he seemed to forget quite easily.

What a waste!

O'Brien also served a 70 year prison term or whatever in his head and was fine the next episode. In The Changeling Uhura had her memory wiped and was fully recovered by the end of the episode.