What's the worst canon decision in the history of Trek?

[Nyotarules]

This isn't necessarily a contradiction. Lester's line "Your world of starship captains does not admit women." may not have been intended to mean "Starfleet doesn't allow women starship captains," but rather that Kirk's world as a starship captain didn't include her, since they were talking about their relationship not Starfleet.

Yeah it can be retconned like that but based on the whole plot at the time, I suspect Dr Lester wanted to be a Starfleet captain and thought the only way was to body swap with her ex.
The last line 'her life could have been as complete as any woman'...what the hell is that supposed to mean?

 

[Oddish]

It means that human beings have made a lot of progress, socially speaking, since the 1960's. Let's celebrate that instead of trying to fit it into canon.

 

[Swedish Borg]

Another bad canon decision, to imply women could not be Starfleet captains Thanks to Turnabout intruder and The Enterprise incident the Romulans were less sexist than the Federationistas (humans)

I am more annoyed at Shatner's terrible impression of a woman. Wasn't there a director or something to tell him to put a lid on it?

 

[Farscape One]

To be fair, Janice Lester did seem unhinged while she was in her own body, so I don't think it was much of a stretch seeing Shatner play as her while Janice inhabited his body.

 

[fireproof78]

I am more annoyed at Shatner's terrible impression of a woman. Wasn't there a director or something to tell him to put a lid on it?

Put a lid on someone who is supposed to be crazy?

 

[Nerys Myk]

I am more annoyed at Shatner's terrible impression of a woman. Wasn't there a director or something to tell him to put a lid on it?

This assumes the director thought there was something wrong with the performance.

 

[Swedish Borg]

Put a lid on someone who is supposed to be crazy?

I don't get "crazy", I get "preteen brat at the mall".

Picture Shatner as a little girl (or even a little boy for that matter) who's just been refused something by their parents.

 

[fireproof78]

I don't get "crazy", I get "preteen brat at the mall".

Picture Shatner as a little girl (or even a little boy for that matter) who's just been refused something by their parents.

Ok...people can still act crazy and appear to be regressive too. It's not like "crazy" as one set way of acting.

 

[Swedish Borg]

Ok...people can still act crazy and appear to be regressive too. It's not like "crazy" as one set way of acting.

Well, I guess in the end it's a matter of opinion but to me, it's a combination of bad acting, bad directing, and bad storytelling. Even the ending is stupid. The woman is guilty of mass murder and they treat her like she was some poor hysterical woman. Revolting.

 

[Oddish]

Picture Shatner as a little girl (or even a little boy for that matter) who's just been refused something by their parents.

I can just imagine William Shatner screaming and throwing a tantrum on the floor...

 

[The Wormhole]

Silver goes to the decision to have Enterprise feature...
* Photon torpedoes instead of spatial ones.
* Regular use of the Transporter.
Made it too much like regular Trek, instead of a prequel.

Don't know about the torpedoes, but Enterprise having a transporter and being more "regular Trek instead of a prequel" are because of studio interference. Berman and Braga did want an authentic prequel to the point the first season of the show was to be set entirely on Earth or the Sol system, but Paramount told them "No, that's not Star Trek." Likewise, they at first didn't want the transporter to be in the show at all, but again Paramount came down and said "Star Trek has to have a transporter."

 

[fireproof78]

Well, I guess in the end it's a matter of opinion but to me, it's a combination of bad acting, bad directing, and bad storytelling. Even the ending is stupid. The woman is guilty of mass murder and they treat her like she was some poor hysterical woman. Revolting.

It's a terrible story but I don't lay that on the actors.

 

[Oddish]

. Berman and Braga did want an authentic prequel to the point the first season of the show was to be set entirely on Earth or the Sol system, but Paramount told them "No, that's not Star Trek." Likewise, they at first didn't want the transporter to be in the show at all, but again Paramount came down and said "Star Trek has to have a transporter."

Then for once, I agree with Rick Berman.

Not sure about a whole year of prep, but a few episodes might have worked, as long as they had some space travel, either in system or on a Vulcan ship. And yes, Enterprise could have featured transporters, but only when the Enterprise encounters aliens who are more advanced than them. They could have even made it a running gag: Trip or Reed keeps trying to develop a transporter prototype, but it never works. Whenever they beam something (always an inanimate object), the item always winds up exploding or splattering or dissolving into dust.

 

[Hofner]

Now all they have to do is explain why the Gorn looked so fake!!!

That was going to be a six episode arc in Enterprise's 5th season along with an eight episode arc explaining the TNG Romulan foreheads.

Robert

 

[dupersuper]

This isn't necessarily a contradiction. Lester's line "Your world of starship captains does not admit women." may not have been intended to mean "Starfleet doesn't allow women starship captains," but rather that Kirk's world as a starship captain didn't include her, since they were talking about their relationship not Starfleet.

That's how I always took it, from the first time I watched it as a little kid. I was surprised when I learned of the other interpretation some had.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Another bad canon decision, to imply women could not be Starfleet captains Thanks to Turnabout intruder and The Enterprise incident the Romulans were less sexist than the Federationistas (humans)

It's hard for me to pick a very "worst canon decision in the history" of Star Trek, but the dialog of "Turnabout Intruder" would be in my list of five worst, for sure.

Another entry on my list of five worst decisions would include the execution of TOS-R. The new VFX are problematic, not all shots, but more than enough for it to be an overall bad decision. Also, I cringe every time I listen to the remix of the season two and season three themes.

Watching Star Trek V in the theater was a real downer, so that film's on the list.

The augment virus would make four. I mean, the actual mistake is offering an explanation in-universe for the change in Klingon appearance from the way they were in TOS.

 

[The Wormhole]

Another entry on my list of five worst decisions would include the execution of TOS-R. The new VFX are problematic, not all shots, but more than enough for it to be an overall bad decision.

While I agree they got a bit overzealous with TOSR, and it certainly can be jarring watching high quality 2000s CGI between very distinctively 1960s looking live action footage. But I'm not sure I'd go so far as to call it a "mistake." The originals are still available, and indeed are included on the TOSR Blu-ray sets. I view TOSR as a diverting alternative, it can be somewhat interesting to see a new take on TOS episodes, such as it is. Besides, they didn't really do anything that Ships of the Line calendars weren't already doing with TOS scenes for several years prior, and continue to do over a decade later.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Agreed on TOS-R. It was this weird halfway revisionist thing, unsatisfying as an update (Discovery went all in, for example) or a recreation in HD. I wish they'd just made exact copies of the 17 (or however many there were) original shots like Star Trek Continues did early on, with a CG model scaled to the size of the original studio miniature. And no weird faceless officers in the windows.

 

[trekshark]

for me, the worst canon decision was to make DSC a visual reboot. It should always have been set in the future.

I can handle the tech changes but the klingons looking so completely different really bothers me

 

[fireproof78]

Give me all the Klingon changes in the world if it means actually diversifying the freaking Klingon Empire!