Take Away One Character From Each Series

[Nerys Myk]

TOS- Sulu/Uhura/Chekov. All are interchangeable and easily replaced.
TNG-Riker. Character quickly became redundant as Picard became more of a leading man/action hero/heart throb
VOY- Chakotay, Uninteresting character and disinterested actor. Bring in Seska as XO.
DS9- Hard one. Like them all. Maybe Jake, but I like his relationship with Sisko too much. So pass.
ENT- Easy one. Mayweather. He's barely there as it is.
DISCO- Sticking to the real main cast and not the seat fillers on the bridge, I'd Culber.
PIC- The TNG crew
SNW- Una. She's the character I'm least interested in.
LD- Ransom Same reason as Una
PRO- Jankom Pog.

 

[Farscape One]

TOS- Chapel. Ironically, SNW's existence is the reason why I'd take her out. The writers would have more freedom with her storylines if Chapel didn't exist in TOS.

TAS - Chapel again, but bring in Chekov. You can still have Arex and M'Ress... just doing different things. (Like how Leslie or Kyle did multiple jobs in TOS.)

TNG - Wesley, but only because I found it ludicrous he didn't get to go to the Academy until after he was already given a full ensign commission.

DS9 - you can't have this show without the major cornerstones of relationships: Ben/Jake, O'Brien/Bashir, Quark/Odo. Kira was not only (arguably) the best female character written in the franchise, but one of the best written, period. So she definitely stays. Worf was also better written here, so he stays. And Dax was just too integral to so many characters and bounced off so well with everyone that she is equally needed. DS9 wrote all of their characters so well and with so much depth that I'm going to break the rules and eliminate NO ONE. Sorry. (Well... not really sorry. )

VOY - this is tough, because several characters could have been written out without changing the show much, particularly after Seven arrived. Chakotay just became a 'yes man', Kim had no growth, Kes didn't seem to have much else going for her, and Neelix was made a background character much of the time (though he was given some really great episodes, like "MORTAL COIL"). I'm going to go with Kes, because her biggest contribution was being the vocal advocate for the The Doctor, but that could easily go to Neelix because he could have been written as someone so in awe of how lifelike he is that he becomes the advocate in early episodes for The Doctor. (Chakotay still worked in the first few seasons, Kim/Paris friendship was too good, and Neelix was a good character.)

ENT - Mayweather. He was basically a living cardboard cutout, anyway. And I'm sorry to say, but the few episodes that did center on him, he was just boring.

DIS - Burnham. Saru is a better captain.

PIC - Raffi. I just never liked her character much. Felt like she dragged others down. (Though her and Worf were awesone together in season 3.)

LDS - this is tough because they are all so great. Like DS9, I'm going to break the rules here and say no one.

PRO - honestly, everyone here is so good that I can't bring myself to take out anyone. So I guess I'm breaking the rules again and go with no one.

SNW - this is tough because I love everyone. I'm going to go with Uhura, but only because she didn't have to be a legacy character. Spock obviously had to be here, and they've done very well with Chapel... well enough for me to take her out of TOS so the writers aren't put in a stranglehold on her character end path. Uhura could easily be a different character with a couple minor tweaks.

 

[Oddish]

I understand the difficulty. A competently run ensemble show (which DS9 was and LD and PRO are), it's hard to find a weak link. With an ineptly run ensemble show, you have a cornucopia of worthwhile choices.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

TOS
Chapel

TAS
Kirk

TNG
Troi

DS9
Jake

VOY
Neelix

ENT
T'Pol

DIS
Book

PIC
Picard

LD
Boimler

PRO
Jankem

SNW
Ortega

 

[maneth]

TNG - Wesley, but only because I found it ludicrous he didn't get to go to the Academy until after he was already given a full ensign commission.

DS9 - you can't have this show without the major cornerstones of relationships: Ben/Jake, O'Brien/Bashir, Quark/Odo. Kira was not only (arguably) the best female character written in the franchise, but one of the best written, period. So she definitely stays. Worf was also better written here, so he stays. And Dax was just too integral to so many characters and bounced off so well with everyone that she is equally needed. DS9 wrote all of their characters so well and with so much depth that I'm going to break the rules and eliminate NO ONE. Sorry. (Well... not really sorry. )

VOY - this is tough, because several characters could have been written out without changing the show much, particularly after Seven arrived. Chakotay just became a 'yes man', Kim had no growth, Kes didn't seem to have much else going for her, and Neelix was made a background character much of the time (though he was given some really great episodes, like "MORTAL COIL"). I'm going to go with Kes, because her biggest contribution was being the vocal advocate for the The Doctor, but that could easily go to Neelix because he could have been written as someone so in awe of how lifelike he is that he becomes the advocate in early episodes for The Doctor. (Chakotay still worked in the first few seasons, Kim/Paris friendship was too good, and Neelix was a good character.)

Yeah, I like Wesley well enough, but he should've been allowed to go to the academy when he passed his entrance exams. They could've done a handful of episodes at the academy during his time there, it worked well enough with the Locarno episode.

I stand by my choice to eliminate O'Brien somewhere around season 4. Sure, his bromance with Bashir was fun for a while, but the episodes that centered on O'Brien were among my least favorite DS9 episodes, and Dax could've taken over his job as the most senior engineer easily enough. The bonus of that would be that we'd get rid of Keiko as well, she's by far my least favorite recurring female character on DS9.

Neelix may have been a "good character" in the sense that he helped the crew find their way around the Delta quadrant, at least in the early seasons, but he was also a sexist and misogynistic creep (and we have no reason to believe that all/most Talaxians are like that), at least to females he considered his dependents in some way. I hated the way he treated both Kes and Naomi Wildman. Sure, Naomi was a child, but Neelix was a bit too patronizing even for a "godfather" figure. He had no excuse whatsoever to treat Kes the way he did. Her biological age may have been around 2 when we first met her, but she was an adult by the standards of her species and deserved to be treated like one. I have no idea how or why Kes accepted that paternalistic treatment as proof of his love for her, I'm only sorry that she dumped him off screen. Losing Tuvok would've been a small price to pay to get rid of Neelix fairly early on, while ensuring that the crew still had access to his knowledge in Tuvix.

 

[gweeps]

ENT: Mayweather... did you have to ask?

SNW: The lady who drives the ship. Sorry, but she doesn't do much else.

DIS: too many to choose from...

TOS: Sulu (hard, but he didn't have much to do.)

TNG: Troi (Guinan was a better counsellor.)

DS9: Worf (The show jumped the shark adding him.)

VOY: Chakotay (Getting rid of him gets rid of the stupid NA cliches, the botched Seven romance, and adds tension to Janeway having to command a crew without a 2nd officer.)

PIC: Raffi... didn't care about her drug/family problems.

LD: not a f**king one!

POR: hologram Janeway... should've been The Doctor from Day 1.

 

[Oddish]

Hmmm...

Well, with TOS, most of the votes are for either Chapel or Chekhov.

TNG, we have a near three-way tie with Riker, Troi, and Wes. Maybe the two lovebirds could have gotten married, then Riker takes his own command... once Wes is off to Academy, that wipes the whole trio. Like "Nemesis", but 12 years sooner.

DS9, I think we had the most abstentions, and everyone save Odo and Sisko had at least one non-fan. But as the late addition, Worf was the biggest loser.

VOY, the ever-unpopular Neelix only takes the bronze. I guess it's better to be obnoxious than boring.

ENT, the competent but painfully underutilized Mayweather is unsurprisingly the big loser. But Reed was second, and even Archer got a few votes.

DIS was pretty even, but had the dubious distinction of the lead character tying for first. Throwing out multiple votes, many other captains (Picard in TNG, Sisko, Janeway, Freeman, and Pike) got no votes at all.

No thoughts on PIC, since the list of candidates was so much shorter.

LD shows that the main four were very well liked. Mariner and Boims got one vote each, the others got away clean. And, some voters abstained.

PRO got an abstention or two, also. Those who did vote mostly went with Murf, maybe because he was seen as the pet of the group.

And I was surprised at SNW, with Uhura trying for first. I liked seeing the origins of one of TOS's iconic characters. Maybe that shows just how strong the cast was.

Finally, our big winner is... SPOCK. Despite being a main character in three different series, more than any other character... he got no votes at all.

 

[aquova]

TOS - Chapel is easily the least significant of this list, to the point that casual fans probably forget to mention her as a main part of the crew.

TNG - Since Wesley was included, definitely Wesley. I don't think Wesley is all that bad, and that the writers did him dirty, but as a teenager he never really fit in, and leaving to attend the academy was a better fit for him. Troi or maybe even Dr. Crusher would've been my runner up.

DS9 - This one is probably the hardest. Jake never really had all that much to do, but I think his relationship with Sisko is a valuable part of the show. Instead, I'm going to have to go with Worf. I liked having him on the show, and he fit in well, but he never quite felt like as central of a character as the others.

VOY - Kes is the one they got rid of, but that wouldn't have been my choice. She was actually getting some character development up until she left (although many characters were before Seven took the stage). I think Neelix or Chakotay are my choice, with Neelix narrowly beating them out. I really wanted to see them have more Delta Quad aliens in the cast, even as extras, but the one they had never really worked.

ENT - Sorry Mayweather. I did like you, and I thought you had potential, but the writers clearly didn't want to bother.

DIS - Mirror Georgieu, easy. She's an awful character who never should've been added to the cast.

PIC - Likewise, I've never liked Raffi at all. I find her completely unlikable and spends most of her life blaming Picard for her problems, despite Picard himself having given up his career.

LD - I thought killing Shaxxs was a bit of a mistake and I was happy to see him return, so I'm narrowly going to have to go with T'Ana. I like her fine, but of the crew listed she's simply the least significant.

SNW - This one was hard as well. I think the show could still function pretty much the same without Uhura. However, they've actually been giving her her own episodes, unlike Ortega, who really could use some more attention.

 

[Oddish]

How Riker could have exited...

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[Oddish]

Hmmm... never noticed Worf had three different hairstyles in that video. I knew Klingon hair grew fast, but wow.

Returning to the above, I really should have responded to an "Abstain" vote the way I originally planned to, i.e. by picking a random character and saying "oops, you just deleted Kira from the timeline" or "ouch! Rutherford just got impaled by a Naussican". Alas, I don't have my percentile dice.

 

[1001001]

Bumping your own thread after 6 months of no activity?

People have been warned for doing that. This is your one “friendly.”

 

[Oddish]

Apologies, I thought that the limit was one year.

 

[Farscape One]

Bumping your own thread after 6 months of no activity?

People have been warned for doing that. This is your one “friendly.”

Question: as far as I know, we aren't supposed to post in a thread that has had no activity for a year. This is 5 and a half months later. Have the rules changed?

(Genuine question, because I don't want to get some warning for posting in a thread because the rules about lack of activity have changed. I don't know how to link a thread from another section, so I copied and pasted the paragraph from the rules thread that is relevant.



Resurrecting dead threads. If you find a thread that has not had a post in it in over a year, don't post in it. Start a new thread instead. You can, if necessary, link back to the old thread if something crucial is in the thread.



There are multiple threads that are several months old that I have been looking at and will likely post in, but what is the cutoff now if it's no longer a year?)

 

[1001001]

Two different situations.

One is posting in any thread that’s been inactive for more than a year.

The other is bumping a thread that you started AND were the last to post in.

Moving on.

 

[Humanoid #77]

TOS
Chapel - I'll be Frank, she's only in it because Roddenberry wanted to give his girlfriend a job. I like Number One better.



TAS
Chapel -idem

TNG
Wesley - This one was easy, because all the others are so essential



DS9
Jake - This one was harder than TNG, but I choose Jake for the same reasons I chose Wesley



VOY
Kes - Not even a contest. but I liked Jennifer Leen in that episode she was possessed by an evil alien


ENT

Mayweather - Maybe if Travis was possessed an evil alien

 

[Starry-eyed]

TOS
Chapel

 TNG
Welsey, but he was removed.

Voyager
Neelix
Harry Kim
Seven stopped all development for the rest of the characters.

Discovery
Book
Grey

Picard
Laris
Elnor

SNW
Ortegas

 

[Skywalker]

TOS: Chapel - I hate to be boring and have the same answer as most everyone else, but she just didn't add much and her counterpart on SNW is vastly more interesting. Removing Chapel from TOS would also give the writers in SNW more freedom with their Chapel.

TAS: N/A - I haven't watched any of TAS.

TNG: Beverly - I preferred the contentiousness Pulaski brought to the table. (I would also be tempted to go with Picard, post-BOBW. Frakes has shown enough chops in his later years to make me think he could have done some strong work as the man who reluctantly steps into the shoes of the captain he was forced to kill.)

DS9: Worf - I actually thought DS9 did a lot of good for Worf, but he and the extra emphasis on the Klingons that he brought along with him took away from the others.

VOY: Kes - Just a poorly thought-out character from the start.

ENT: Archer - Genuinely a terrible captain. The show spends more time telling us why he's so important instead of making us believe he was important. Scott Bakula is a very likeable actor but he was all wrong for this part, and the inconsistent writing didn't do him any favors, either.

DIS: Adira - But only because their initially promising start was all too quickly thrown aside. A human bonded with a Trill symbiont, particularly the one that used to be bound to their dead love, sounds like a great idea. And then they did nothing with it. Plus their relationship with Stamets made the latter too nice; he was much more interesting when he was a jerk.

PIC: Jurati - Good actor, mediocre character forced to go through some terrible choices by the writing staff. I did like her better in season 2, but still not as much as the others.

LD: Ransom - Only because his absence would hurt the show the least.

PRO: Murf - Cute, but superfluous.

SNW: Una - Just not a lot going on outside of her genetic engineering storyline, which should have been more of a thing for La'an given her heritage.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

TOS: There's no way I'm picking any of the main cast, so that leaves Chapel.
TAS: Arex, for similar reasons.
TNG: Wesley.
DS9: Worf is the most expendable out of a cast where everyone is great. Jake gets less to do but I'm not getting rid of Sisko's son.
VOY: I'm going to say Kes instead of Neelix or Chakotay, because Neelix eventually became a decent character and I don't think anyone else would be improved by getting Chakotay's chair.
ENT: Mayweather.
DIS: Probably Adira, because they're another Wesley and almost nothing was done with their symbiont. My first idea was Culber, but I don't want to erase Stamets' husband!
PIC: From that list, it's Raffi. I like the character, but my options are limited... and I think it would dramatically improve season 3.
LD: Even tougher than DS9. I'm going to say Shaxs, because the show survived a bit without him.
PRO: Murf.
SNW: I feel like she's a guest star in her own show sometimes, so I'm picking Una.

 

[Oddish]

Seven stopped all development for the rest of the characters.

Except Harry. Development must be started before it can be stopped.