• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Most Anoying Star Trek Character ever

I’d love to see the case made for how Burnham is a character without flaws. She got her captain killed and ship destroyed while sparking an intergalactic war and that’s just her first few episodes. She is the most flawed lead Trek has ever had, something that was still being lampshaded as far as the beginning of Season 4.

I find her annoying at times, but she’s not a Mary Sue. Not by the Google definition of the word anyway.

If X person doesn’t like her, more power to them. She’s not always a likeable character and she’s certainly annoying at times. As far as saving the day though, she does that with the same regularity as any other Star Trek lead. I’d say for example that the majority of TOS episodes are won by Kirk, with Spock coming second and everyone else making up the minority. Star Trek leads are by nature heroic and in Star Trek it tends to be heroic characters who win. Burnham is no different in this regard.

If you’re looking for an annoying captain who’s always framed as being right, presented as near flawless and manages to save the day 9 times out of 10, Janeway is much closer to the mark.

This is closer to my feelings on the matter. Burnham can be annoying (a lot too). But she never comes across as flawless, to me. She struggles similarly to many captains, especially like Pike or Kirk, with more the existential style questions. While not always the best captain I do find her engaging enough to get by the annoying parts.

‪‪‪‪Well said, both of these posts echo a lot of my feelings. ‪‪I really don’t find Burnham annoying, but I understand that’s entirely subjective and different for eveyone. Really, ‪‪I just don’t think to date Michael Burnham’s portrayal has been substantially different from the other Star Trek captains in terms of being right/saving the day.

And as you both noted, Burnham has made mistakes often, and has been consistently portrayed as having flaws, and blind spots about her deficits and shortcomings, which has only made her feel more developed, to me.

Archer hosting Surak’s katra made him feel a little Mary Sue-like to me, but even that was just one event/story arc, and not the entirety of his character, and not a fair characterization. Really, beyond an assessment based on a cursory reading, classifying any of the leading Trek captains to date as a Mary Sue seems reductive at best.
 
Last edited:
Since it has been brought up, Vorik's behavior in "Blood Fever" deserves its own separate topic as it involves powerful neurochemical factors completely out of his control. Of course it wasn't okay, just like Spock (apparently) killing his captain and friend wasn't okay. Vulcan culture/society needs to come up with better ways to deal with it all instead of just writing it off as something that can't be addressed logically, or however Tuvok put it.

But anyway, getting back to the main topic, my most annoying character is Neelix.
Watching TNG as an adult, Wesley Crusher is rather annoying. When watching as a kid, Wesley looked closer to being one of the grown-ups, so just seemed like another older character.

Kor
Vulcan sex is pretty rapey by its nature.
 
I thought Tuvok's tryst with holo-T'Pel seemed pretty conventional. Of course, we didn't actually see things get hot and heavy between them.
 
I’d love to see the case made for how Burnham is a character without flaws. She got her captain killed and ship destroyed while sparking an intergalactic war and that’s just her first few episodes.
Now now: don't be that hard on her.

It was only an interstellar war.
Not to go out of my way to defend Michael, but -- if memory serves -- she shouldn't get the blame for starting the war. T'Kuvma was bound and determined to start that war, and there was no way she was going to head it off.
 
I've been watching Trek since childhood and never had any real issues with any of the characters, be it good guys or bad guys. However, that has changed since the introduction of the character of Grey (Star Trek: Discovery). I can barely watch any of the scenes involving this character, as I find the character super anoying in every possible way.

Just as you said. It's potty break time whenever Gray shows up.
 
It’s that grimace or grin. And all they have him and Adira do is make googoo eyes and smile at each other and say cute things. As authentic a portrayal of the young by the old (writers, showrunners) as was The Way to Eden. It grinds my twenty-something daughter crazy how cheesily they were written.
 
Not to go out of my way to defend Michael, but -- if memory serves -- she shouldn't get the blame for starting the war. T'Kuvma was bound and determined to start that war, and there was no way she was going to head it off.

Alternately, if Georgiou had listened to Michael, the Vulcan Hello might have worked.

We'll never know, of course...
 
As do I. I still wish he could have been Nick Lacarno, though. ;)
Agreed. And, essentially, he was. Whether you believe the version that says they didn't want to pay Ron Moore and Naren Shakar (the creators of the character) or whether you believe the story that they simply thought his character 'irredeemable,' I think it was a bad call.
 
Not too Trek to consider someone irredeemable. Would have been a very nice arc and offer people hope.
 
Ya. Who really redeems themselves? (Or is redeemed by others?)
Tom, of course.
Someone who truly does bad, and turns around.
Ro Laren? Not familiar enough.
Chakotay? Not sure being a Maquis is “bad.”
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top