So many dead parents

[GrowlingDog]

This has probably been discussed on this site before but after just completing watching Voyager seasons 1-7 for, i think the 3rd time and now moving on to DS9, it occurs to me that in Star Trek land, it's very likely you will grow up either an orphan or with only one parent.
On TNG, from memory:
Worf- parents died (at Kitamar i think)
Riker- His mum died when he was 12
La Forge- His mum died, i think in season 4
Data- His creator died during show
Tasha- An orphan
Wesley Crusher- His Dad died
not sure about Picard or Troi

Voyager:
7of9- Parents assimilated
Neelix- parents dead (actually he lost his entire race)
Not sure about the rest of the crew but Paris doesn't seem to have a Mum, Tuvok doesn't seem to have parents and Chakotay always talks about his Dad like he's dead. I do know that both Kim's parents are still alive

DS9:
Jake Sisko- Mum died at Wolf 359
Nog (you know the Ferengi boy)- does not seem to have a mother
Kira- guessing her parents were killed by the Cardassians
Odo- no parents
Not sure about the rest

At 38, i cant think of any of my friends that have lost their parents at a young age. I'm sure that there are people out there that have but it does seem that in the 24th century, you can expect to lose your parents at a young age. In fact, the only character that i can think of that still has both parents is Kim (i'm sure i will be corrected on that though) Any thoughts?

 

[RoJoHen]

In my experience, this seems to be fairly common of a lot of TV characters, from Trek or otherwise. So many kids in TV seem to be raised by single parents. And it's either because one of their parents left (and disappeared forever) or died.

Not to mention all the Trek episodes about random kids whose parents die in the beginning of the episode and then they have to deal with the loss...either by being tricked by a weird alien or by acting like Data....

 

[Timo]

Well, out of the stiffs listed, most were soldiers, by vocational choice or association. In that line of work, an early death isn't all that unlikely.

Wesley's and Troi's dads, Geordi's mother, Yar's, Kira's and Worf's parents and Jake's mom were killed in action. Annika Hansen's parents went hunting for the Borg, another not entirely risk-free profession.

In that sense, there's some bias to the statistics that we should take into account before analyzing it further. But all that said, there may still more single-parent families there than in today's mostly-white-upper-middle-class-peacetime US. Or then not. Riker seems to be the only one who lost a parent to something else besides deep space.

Nog in turn is a true Ferengi: his mother was basically a contracted womb who wasn't expected to stick around beyond the first opportunity for her family to sign a more lucrative contract. I'm not sure we should include these alien cultures in our analysis if we expect to do comparisons with today's familiar societies.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[D'deridex]

I think I can complete your DS9 list as far as we get to know something about parents:

Ben Sisko - his father Joseph ist still alive, the human part of his mother and his stepmother are both dead, but Sarah ist alive
Nog - his mother is alive but she left Rom with all of his money
Julian Bashir - his parents are still alive
Ezri - her mother is alive, I'm not sure abot her father
Rom/Quark - their mother is alive, their father is dead
Jadzia/O'brien - no information about parents I think
Garak - his mother is probabliy dead, his fahter dies in season 5, but he's already an old man then

Most of the parents died through violence or accidents (Worf, La Forge, Data, Tasha, Wesley, Seven, Jake, Kira) because they either were in Starfleet or in another way went into dangerous situations (like Seven's parents or Jennifer Sisko). So they are no examples for the average citizen of the 24th century.

 

[LeadHead]

Just to add on a little,
Based on "Tapestry" it seemed to imply that Picard's father was dead. Troi's father died when she was young. Geordi's mom died or dissappeared in Season 7's "Interface,"

In DS9, O'Brien's mom had passed away, as had Jakes mom. Kira's dad was killed by the Cardassians whil her mom passed away from ilness presumably during the occupation, Jadzia's mother was still alive since she was leaving a message for her in case she didn't come back from a battle, no mention of her dad. And I think Quark and Rom's father had died, Nog's mom wasn't dead she had just left Rom.

For Voyager, It was established that Janeway's Father had died, as well as Chakotay's, I think Tuvok's were both alive, There was never any mention made of Paris' mother one way or the other, but we did see his father. We saw both of Torres' parents although depending on who you talk to her mom is either alive or dead. We saw Kim's parents in season 7,

 

[captcalhoun]

Picard's 'rents seem to be dead since he referred to her in the past tense in WNOHGB and she didn't appear in "Family" when he went home and visited his brother, nephew and sister-in-law

 

[Fencer]

I think I can complete your DS9 list as far as we get to know something about parents:

Ezri - her mother is alive, I'm not sure abot her father
O'brien - no information about parents I think

Ezri mentions parents in Shadows and Symbols. There were mentions of her father in the script for Prodigal daughter that weren't filmed and if you really want to squint you can kind of make something that might be her fathers name in her personal record from Field of Fire.

O'Brien's father is still alive and married a younger woman a year after Miles's mother died.

 

[GrowlingDog]

Ok, so either way, whether you're in Starfleet or not, it seems there is more than a 50% chance that you will not have both of your parents alive by the time you reach 20. Now, even if both your parents were in the armed forces in this country (Australia) there is only a very small chance that you will lose one of them in combat.
It would just seem that if you REALLY want to develop a character, then you should kill one of his/her parents. Maybe it makes us more empthatic (not sure that's the word) towards them, so when they do something a little nasty or something we can go, "Oh, but that's understandable, i mean he did lose his mother when he was 12, no wonder he is such a dick". Hahahaha

 

[erastus25]

Nog in turn is a true Ferengi: his mother was basically a contracted womb who wasn't expected to stick around beyond the first opportunity for her family to sign a more lucrative contract. I'm not sure we should include these alien cultures in our analysis if we expect to do comparisons with today's familiar societies.

IIRC that's not entirely true. I believe Nog's mother scammed Rom and left him with nothing, except Nog. Isn't there a scene in which Rom talks about how he got the better end of the deal and Quark rolls his eyes?

 

[Timo]

Yeah, that's what happened, too. The marriage contract was supposed to be signed for five years only. The smitten Rom signed on for an extension without reading the fine print written by the wife Prinadora's father, after which Prinadora left with all of Rom's money and entered another contract with a richer male.

But to say that Nog's mother scammed Rom is a bit at odds with the general idea that the males do all the swindling in the Ferengi society, and the females barely think rational thoughts. Rom and Quark at least attributed all the brainwork to Prinadora's dad.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[erastus25]

But to say that Nog's mother scammed Rom is a bit at odds with the general idea that the males do all the swindling in the Ferengi society, and the females barely think rational thoughts. Rom and Quark at least attributed all the brainwork to Prinadora's dad.

That's always seemed like a smoke-screen to me. In DS9 we see at least two females who are very smart and scheming. I always assumed that 1. Prinadora was also heavily involved and 2. it's another reason Quark has no respect for Rom - he got pwned by a female.

But, I'm just speculating.

 

[Timo]

I'd argue pretty much the same. The subjugated position of the females is real enough, at least as far as public appearances go. But the difference in mental capabilities is unlikely to be real, and indeed no Ferengi ever quite claims that it would have an actual biological basis. It's just a cultural quirk, even if it might be much more interesting in science fiction terms if it actually were biological reality instead.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[T'Cal]

This was brought up here before but I think the focus of the post was on TNG. The theme of the post was that it was far more common among the main characters to have other than a nuclear family. Picard's parents had died and he and his brother didn't get along. Riker was an only child whose mother died when he was young and he and his father didn't get along. Troi's father, a human SF officer, died when she was a child as did her older sister; her mother was overbearing and smothering. Data's father was presumed dead until Soong summoned him and Lore, whom he didn't share much with, to him and then he died. Worf's parents were killed and he was raised by humans who were still alive; his might have been the most normal family life due to the Rozshenko's (sp?) parenting. Wasn't Beverly raised by her grandmother or aunt? Then she gets married and her husband is killed leaving her a single parent. Geordi's mom and dad were SF officers and she went MIA. Was dad around much and did Geordi have any sibs? With all of these broken homes, is it any wonder the senior staff replaced their biological families with their crewmates? Their friends filled that void, which is why they most often got along very well; they worked hard at it.

Part of O'Brien's appeal was that he was one of the most relatable characters in Trek. He was Mr. Everyman.

 

[chancellorjake]

Garak - his mother is probabliy dead, his fahter dies in season 5, but he's already an old man then

Wasn't Garak's mother Mila? She was the woman who maintained Tain's house. They seemed to have a mother-son relationship. When the Dominion soldiers murdered her in WYLB, Garak had a pretty visceral reaction.

 

[Frodo Lives]

Well, it was hinted at that Mila was Garak's mother, and Andrew Robinson actually wrote that she was in A Stitch in Time, nothing onscreen was said either way.

Anywho, to the question at hand: sure there were a lot of main characters in Star Trek who had lost one or two parents, but hey, that's life - I can think of very few people I know who still have both parents alive and still married - and I'd like to think I'm fairly young. Is 24 young anymore? I don't know, kids these days. People die, it's a fact of life. Parents die, another fact. Sure in Star Trek's future we may not lose as many to illness, car accidents, random shootings, etc, but there's plenty more stuff out there to get you and it does, apparently.

 

[mythme]

Archer - father died of Iverson's disease. No mention of mother, but seemingly deceased as well.
T'Pol - Mother alive. Father deceased (reason unknown)
Trip - Parents alive
Reed - Parents alive
Sato - Mother alive, father unknown
Mayweather - Mother alive, father deceased
Phlox - Unknown

Kirk - unknown (perhaps Trek XI will shed light on this)
Spock - Mother and father died, but WELL into his adulthood
McCoy - Father died during McCoy's 20s, mother unknown
Scott - Unknown
Uhura - Unknown (Shooting script for "The Man Trap" contained a line which indicated that her mother was deceased)
Chekov - Unknown
Chapel - Unknown

Picard - Parents deceased after reaching adulthood
Riker - Mother died when he was he is 2
Data - Creator killed by Lore
La Forge - Father alive, mother MIA
Beverly Crusher - Parents died before her teen years
Troi - Father died when she is 7, mother alive
Worf - Orphaned
Wesley Crusher - Father deceased
Yar - Orphaned
Guinan - father spoken of in present tense. Mother unknown

Ben Sisko - "Natural mother" wormhole alien who abandons her son
Jake Sisko- Mother deceased, father MIA
Kira - Father and mother dead
O'Brien - Mother died during his adulthood
Julian - Parents alive
Jadzia - Mother spoken of in present tense. Father unknown
Quark & Rom - Father dead
Odo - N/A
Ezri - Mother alive. Father unknown
Keiko - Mother alive. Father unknown

Janeway - Father drowned. No mention of mother
Chakotay - Father killed. No mention of mother
Paris - Father alive. No Mention of mother
Torres - Father alive. Mother deceased (?)
Kes - Father dead. Mother alive (presumably)
Neelix - family killed
Tuvok - unknown but father seemingly deceased
Kim - parents alive
EMH - Creator struck with fatal illness
Seven - parents assimilated

 

[alicelouise]

Almost everyone in Trek is a Bambi character. You know Bambi losing his mother to the hunters in Felix Salter's story.

 

[GrowlingDog]

I can think of very few people I know who still have both parents alive and still married - and I'd like to think I'm fairly young. Is 24 young anymore?

Wow! where do you live? I mean sure parents still together, that's not very likely these days but not having both parents alive at 24. I've been going through my friends list on facebook and i dont have any friends under 35 that have lost any parents.

 

[RoJoHen]

^Agreed. I'm 23, and I can name one person whose dad died from illness in high school. Otherwise, everybody's parents are still alive.

Hopefully the rest of this year isn't full of parental deaths.

 

[Therin of Andor]

That's always seemed like a smoke-screen to me. In DS9 we see at least two females who are very smart and scheming. I always assumed that 1. Prinadora was also heavily involved and 2. it's another reason Quark has no respect for Rom - he got pwned by a female.

For the full (non canonical) story, plus the future of Rom & Leeta, see "Ferenginar: Satisfaction is Not Guaranteed" by Keith RA DeCandido in "Worlds of DS9, Book 3".