Trek’s biggest missed opportunities

[Oddish]

Meh. It had a fantastic scene with him and 10, but the whole "Terry is Bruce's son" thing was complete trash.

It might have been Ok, if not for the sheer level of coincidence involved. Terry just HAPPENED to find Bruce Wayne, he just HAPPENED to discover the Batcave when no one else had, he just HAPPENED to lose his father to crime right at the same time... yeah.

 

[James H]

I kind of wish Picard's romantic relationship in Insurrection had been with Crusher instead of a guest character - even if this had been at the expense of Troi and Riker's romantic subplot. That Picard and Crusher dynamic was one of my favourite aspects of the show and it would have been lovely to see it paid off (and to've seen Crusher given more to do) in a story like Insurrection

 

[Pikirk_Janesisko]

I kind of wish Picard's romantic relationship in Insurrection had been with Crusher instead of a guest character - even if this had been at the expense of Troi and Riker's romantic subplot. That Picard and Crusher dynamic was one of my favourite aspects of the show and it would have been lovely to see it paid off (and to've seen Crusher given more to do) in a story like Insurrection

You could write a book about the missed opportunities of the TNG movies. They forgot that it was an ensemble show, so they tranaformed TNG into the "Picard and Data" show. I think only Generations kinda takes advantage of the whole cast, but the whole script sucks.

 

[Oddish]

Of the five classic and Berman era shows, only DS9 was really good at spreading the love to all or most of the characters.

TOS neglected Uhura, Sulu, and Chekhov.
TNG neglected Geordi, Beverly, and Deanna.
VOY neglected Kes, Harry, and Chakotay.
ENT neglected Hoshi and Travis

It just seems to be an early Trek thing.

 

[The Wormhole]

TOS neglected Uhura, Sulu, and Chekhov.

Uhura, Sulu and Chekov were never part of TOS's main cast and therefore the show was under no obligation to do anything more with them than it did.

 

[Oddish]

Very well... but the overall result was the same: it focused on a small number of characters, to the exclusion of others. Although Anthony Montgomery's name was in his show's credits and George Takei's was not, the two characters were similarly used.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if George Takei had more lines than Anthony Montgomery in the last seasons of their shows. It's incredible how underused that character was.

 

[Oddish]

True. Some TNG characters were neglected, but nowhere near the extent that their VOY and ENT counterparts were.

 

[dupersuper]

Of the five classic and Berman era shows

Actually, there were 6...

 

[Lord Garth]

With "Flashback" (VOY), they missed a chance to tell a completely new story aboard the Excelsior. They didn't need TUC to tell a story about Tuvok serving under Captain Sulu. I get that they did it because of the 30th Anniversary, and they wanted to tie into something pre-existing, but there was a real interest at the time in more Excelsior stories.

 

[Oddish]

Actually, there were 6...

I stand corrected. The five non-animated shows from that era.

 

[The Wormhole]

the overall result was the same: it focused on a small number of characters, to the exclusion of others.

Not really. TOS's main cast consists only of Kirk, Spock and McCoy, and even then McCoy wasn't promoted to the main cast until the second season. TOS is one Trek series in which its entire main cast got fair screen time and material. TNG, Voyager and Enterprise are the strange ones having characters in their main casts which ended up ignored, though that was mainly because they for some reason filled the cast with bridge and senior officer positions rather than characters they had story material for. And even then, TNG at least realized after Wesley left they didn't need a helmsman in the main cast.

If anything, that's something the modern shows are getting right, only including characters relevant to the show's story in the main cast.

 

[Oddish]

TNG, Voyager and Enterprise are the strange ones having characters in their main casts which ended up ignored, though that was mainly because they for some reason filled the cast with bridge and senior officer positions rather than characters they had story material for.

That's actually about right. Most of the work done by Harry Kim could have been done by a series of extras: say a line or two of technobabble, push a button, whatever. That was even more true of Travis Mayweather: Harry at least got a clarinet and a best friend.

I guess that because my main exposure to the TOS characters was the movies (which give billing to Doohan, Nichols, Koenig, and Takei), I see them as part of the main cast. Going by the show, they're not.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

The modern era's problem (or Discovery's at least) is that it makes the extras and minor characters feel like main cast, so it's just as weird and frustrating when Detmer doesn't get anything to do as it was when Mayweather didn't. This is something the Berman era series nailed, as no one was ever left wondering why Broik, Jae or Nozawa didn't get more focus.