Worst Character Assassination Episodes

[Oddish]

Ben Sisko: I feel Ben Sisko was character assassinated when he started taking this prophet thing too seriously and got way to caught up in the destiny thing. I wish he stayed on the skeptic/believer line.

Must respectfully disagree here. Ben Sisko was the character in Trek who evolved more than any other, thanks in part to his transition from skeptic to reluctant believer to genuine believer. I wouldn't have had him lose that.

Picard: I feel he had already made his peace with the Borg by the end of the series and he was even able to accept a one Hue a "reformed " borg, and then there was that whole Lore leading the Borg thing. He did not seem a bit traumatized or angered even being surrounded by them. He even tried to reason that Lore wasn't the answer to their independence. First Contact totally obliterated that in a rage by Picard, granted it's the only film from TNG sill worth watching more than once. I chalk it up with them probably wanting to compete with DS9.

"First Contact" seems to ignore both "I, Borg" and "Descent", restoring the Borg to their "Best of Both Worlds" state. Including Picard's issues with them.

 

[Kor]

I never got the sense that the entire Borg collective had been "individualized" by reintroducing Hugh; only that ragtag bunch with the weird ship that we saw in "Descent."

And strong emotional reactions to something that caused trauma can come back later even if we think we're "over it." That's just part of human psychology.

Kor

 

[cooleddie74]

Yep. The Collective was far too enormous for one reprogrammed and disconnected drone to cause significant damage. Even the Borg rebellion in Unimatrix Zero didn't inflict long-term much less catastrophic damage to the Collective. Hugh was a bug in the system but not a fatal one.

 

[Oddish]

Yep. The Collective was far too enormous for one reprogrammed and disconnected drone to cause significant damage. Even the Borg rebellion in Unimatrix Zero didn't inflict long-term much less catastrophic damage to the Collective. Hugh was a bug in the system but not a fatal one.

The MC Escher figure that they intended to give Hugh probably wouldn't have erased the collective either.

 

[Odo]

Bashir erasing Kurn's mind because the plot resolution needed it was...something.

 

[Laughing Dragon]

"First Contact" seems to ignore both "I, Borg" and "Descent", restoring the Borg to their "Best of Both Worlds" state. Including Picard's issues with them.

Yes, I heard that's what many fans actually wanted but I didn't mind the outcome of the Borg in the series. And a prefer continuity and if they are going to change it I rather there at least be a explanation or a simple reference like Hue and what happened with his whole collective and their quest to make the Borg more independent. We ended up with the Borg Queen so reverting back to what they used to be was already ruined with her, and I still feel conflicted about the Borg Queen.

And strong emotional reactions to something that caused trauma can come back later even if we think we're "over it." That's just part of human psychology.
Kor

Yes, real life maybe but in story it doesn't really make much sense to me still. But the amount of time may even differ from person to person in the healing process and some people don't have anything recurring at all. If they chose to go with what you are referring to than that was their choice on where the story goes but it's nothing I really needed to see revisited. Oh, well..

Bashir erasing Kurn's mind because the plot resolution needed it was...something.

YES! And Worf eventually agreeing with it. May I add Worf? Though you may disagree with that, That aside I didn't really even understand the logic behind it.

 

[Odo]

Yeah, Worf as well in that ep. That script needed more scrutinizing eyes on it I think.

 

[PCz911]

Picard: I feel he had already made his peace with the Borg by the end of the series and he was even able to accept a one Hue a "reformed " borg, and then there was that whole Lore leading the Borg thing. He did not seem a bit traumatized or angered even being surrounded by them. He even tried to reason that Lore wasn't the answer to their independence. First Contact totally obliterated that in a rage by Picard, granted it's the only film from TNG sill worth watching more than once. I chalk it up with them probably wanting to compete with DS9.

indeed, Picards character through the entire TNG movie run seemed off to me. …. He seemed to have been written as a different character, so I guess you could call it character assassination as he was replaced by movie Picard.

 

[dupersuper]

Must respectfully disagree here. Ben Sisko was the character in Trek who evolved more than any other

Nog and Rom leave him miles behind, IMO.

 

[Oddish]

Nog is probably in second place, given how fundamentally and completely he changes, but Sisko changes on more axes. Broken to whole, widower to boyfriend to husband, skeptic to believer to prophet, student to mentor, commander to fleet captain, father of a teen to father of a man to expectant father, and mostly moral officer to a man imbued with shades of gray.

 

[Kor]

Bashir erasing Kurn's mind because the plot resolution needed it was...something.

I think things turned for the better for Kurn in the game-verse. As Rodek he rises to the rank of general in the Klingon Defense Force. Then Mar'tok tells him about his true past, he has his memories restored (that was easy), and he becomes Kurn again. Or something like that.

Kor

 

[suarezguy]

Neither Barclay nor Geordi should be using real people as holodeck playthings.

Is it OK if they're real but dead? If so why the difference?

I hated how Worf was depicted in "The Sword of Kahless" (though I don't remember a lot of details, way too obsessive-ruthless) and in I think "Afterimage" (intolerant to being directly violent against Bashir pursuing a romance with Ezri).

DS9: "The Darkness and the Light"

Brave, selfless Kira Nerys willingly and deliberately endangers the life of the O'Brien's baby, the one she volunteered to be a surrogate mother for, specifically to save said baby's life. (Side note; I'm very pro-choice, but she was like, half a week away from giving birth by this point; so it's a "baby.")

Kira has always been pretty obsessive-ruthless (good-bad, us-against-them, ends-justify-the-means) against Occupation Cardassians.

TNG "Relics"

The way EVERYONE treats Scotty seems very cold, for an old man that was just freed from decades in transporter limbo, who's just learned all his friends are long dead. But this old man is SCOTTY. It's like if NASA discovered Neal Armstrong frozen in carbonite, and none of the NASA workers found anything interesting or remarkable about him. Most ludicrous of all is Geordie, the engineer. Scotty should be to Geordie what Kirk is to captains.

Later in the movie "First Contact," Geordie wastes no time fangirling over Zefram Cockblock or whatever his name is. But he doesn't care about meeting Scotty?

Living 80 years later (growing up probably 60 years later) and also having a lot of achievements pretty much weekly themselves I don't think the crew would or should be particularly awestruck by him. Similarly I don't think for example Lincoln would be awestruck by Washington or Jefferson.

 

[Oddish]

Depends on what you're doing with them. I suppose that shagging holo-Einstein would be just as disturbing as shagging holo-Troi. But playing cards or talking physics with him is probably Ok.

 

[Farscape One]

Speaking of using dead people as holodeck characters, what about dead loved ones? I can see it as a way of saying goodbye if someone lost a parent, sibling, or spouse on a ship far away. I can also see it as a way of keeping them around and not actually starting the grieving process.

It can be a very mixed bag of results.

 

[Orphalesion]

Similarly I don't think for example Lincoln would be awestruck by Washington or Jefferson.

I think he would be awestruck by Washington and Jefferson, since they were among the founding fathers of the United States. However Scotty was not a founding father of Starfleet or the Federation, so maybe a better comparison would be that Lincoln wouldn't be awestruck by a state representative who served during the presidency of Zachary Taylor.

 

[Oddish]

Speaking of using dead people as holodeck characters, what about dead loved ones? I can see it as a way of saying goodbye if someone lost a parent, sibling, or spouse on a ship far away. I can also see it as a way of keeping them around and not actually starting the grieving process.

It can be a very mixed bag of results.

I expect that it happens. With enough biographical data on a subject, you could make a very convincing holographic facsimile. I think that some of the villagers in "Shadowplay" might have been based on the people their creator (don't remember his name) knew.

 

[Laughing Dragon]

Is it OK if they're real but dead? If so why the difference?

I hated how Worf was depicted in "The Sword of Kahless" (though I don't remember a lot of details, way too obsessive-ruthless) and in I think "Afterimage" (intolerant to being directly violent against Bashir pursuing a romance with Ezri).



Kira has always been pretty obsessive-ruthless (good-bad, us-against-them, ends-justify-the-means) against Occupation Cardassians.



Living 80 years later (growing up probably 60 years later) and also having a lot of achievements pretty much weekly themselves I don't think the crew would or should be particularly awestruck by him. Similarly I don't think for example Lincoln would be awestruck by Washington or Jefferson.

I think Deep Space Nine just wanted to have Worf finally really let loose and I think that was even their aim coming from their own lips and it was obvious but letting loose also involved all these social social gaffes too. And I think it kind of backfired at times and this thing with Julian left me a bit cold at times. I think it's because Bashir is the brain. And they wanted a Worf/Data approach. I don't remember Worf having this much animosity towards Data though. He was mostly grumpy. And it was done for laughs is my feeling. The cloned Kahless I can see, he wasn't a friend or crew member.

 

[Farscape One]

With "THE SWORD OF KAHLESS", Kor and Worf were both blinded by what the sword represented. I thought it was pretty realistic, given how in real life people do worse things and change for the worse when faced with something as religious and iconic.

In "AFTERIMAGE", I can see this putting Worf in a very bad light. But he lost his wife only a few months earlier, and a new person who has all her memories just stepped onto the station. Of course he's going to go make some bad choices. Especially after he only just secured her place in Sto'vo'kor. He thought he moved on, or at least can start grieving... only to have it all go out the window with a new woman with all his wife's memories just burst into his life again.

I can excuse it, because how well would any of us really act in similar circumstances?

 

[Gul Sengosts]

Bashir in "Sons of Mogh". We don't know what to do with Kurn, so how about you erase his memory while he's drunk asleep? -- Bashir: "ok".

 

[Farscape One]

Actually, I defend Bashir here, for 2 reasons.

First, Kurn already tried to die, in the same episode, by the time of the memory erasure. TWICE! Bashir knew Kurn would find a way to die because he was dead set on it. (pun intended) This was the best way to make sure he stays alive.

Second, in Klingon culture, the elder brother speaks not just for the House, but the younger sibling. Worf is the eldest. Bashir almost certainly studied Klingon culture and ethics in relation to situations like this, particularly since he helped treat a ship full of Klingons in the same episode. (The damaged one when the mine went off.) Think of it as a full power of attorney.

I honestly think Bashir came off better here than Crusher did in "Ethics". He at least respected the culture of the patient he was treating, instead of forcing a decision on said patient. And Bashir did ask Worf if he was absolutely certain. I think he comes off as the best CMO of the shows because despite his own personal code of saving lives, he understands that the final decision is the patient's or his family.