No............
Worst lines of dialogue in Trek?
- Thread starter BlueStuff
- Start date
I have a certain fondness for some of the idioms that were peppered throughout Season One (and sometimes later) in order to make it sound "more future-ish".
In addition to those mentioned:
The Naked Time - SPOCK: It could be some form of space madness we've never heard of
Arena - SPOCK: Nothing specific, Captain. Unscientific rumours only. More like space legends.
Conscience Of The King: MCCOY: You can look that up in a hundred volumes of space regulations somewhere.
Menagerie Part Two - KIRK [OC]: ...his former captain. Mutilated by a recent space disaster, now a shell of a man
Savage Curtain - MCCOY: Well I think Starfleet should forget about those old space legends.
Turnabout Intruder - KIRK: I never stopped you from going on with your space work.
There's a whole bunch in TAS as well
A selection:
All the dialogue in Code of Honour, especially Lutan's dialogue and:
Picard: Some of it I do understand. She is a rather lovely female
and
Troi: Betazoid blood is also practical
Riker: I suppose you mean that as a compliment, Q. Or maybe it's my limited mind. But to become a part of you? I don't even like you. (also pretty silly in the way Frakes delivered it, though the whole line is so bad that I can't exactly imagine how the writer imagined it to be delivered to make it not sound stupid)
The entirety of Justice
All the dialogue in Angel One, especially this exchange:
Data: Interesting. An alcohol-based synthetic, artificially reproducing a floral scent.
Troi: It's called perfume, Data.
Data: The purpose of which is?
Tasha: Certain cultures consider perfume an aphrodisiac.
Data: I am unfamiliar with that term.
Riker: An aphrodisiac is something used to stimulate or enhance sexual pleasure.
Everything in 11001001 that involved Minuet, especially:
Riker: Great job, boys. But, computer, blondes and jazz seldom go together.
and
Picard: Incroyable! Vous etes Parisienne? (Incredible! Are you a Parisian?)
Minuet: Au fond, c'est vrai, nous sommes tous Parisiens. (Yes, deep down we're all from Paris)
The Last Outpost:
PICARD: I understand the allusion. Colours representing countries at a time when they competed with each other. Red, white and blue for the United States. Whereas the French more properly used the same colours in the order of blue, white and red.
(too bad he didn't mention the British using white, red and blue as well...)
Those are just the lines I can think of that take me out of the episode with their clunkiness.
From "The Outrageous Okona":
The badness of the episode aside, nobody talks like that. It's simply not a sentence that would ever come out of the mouth of a human in any century.
". . . since the pattern of my life has relegated me to interplanetary speed deliveries rather than universal exploration, I'm forced to add a flamboyancy and a zest to the doldrums of my existence." (Note: this is from the shooting script; the actual dialogue is slightly different IIRC)
The badness of the episode aside, nobody talks like that. It's simply not a sentence that would ever come out of the mouth of a human in any century.
Picard: "But at least he wouldn't have died alone."
What a horrible thing to say!
What a horrible thing to say!
That is a really bold claim to make, that "nobody talks like that".
See my post at:
https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/general-trek-questions-and-observations.284733/page-87
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Nobody normal.
Maybe it's more for his delivery, but in Trouble with Tribbles, Shatner's "storage compartments? storage compartments?" and "the what? the what?" have always annoyed me.
My friends in High School used to quote those to each other all the time. Yeah, none of us had girlfriends...
My friends in High School used to quote those to each other all the time. Yeah, none of us had girlfriends...
On the topic of bad TNG season 2 dialogue, from the Royale:
Troi: I don't believe this dialogue. Did humans really talk like that?
(Gee, I don't know, Deanna. Did any sapient being ever talk like you or your shipmates did in Seasons 1 and 2?)
And generally all the dialogue that keeps pointing out how bad the novel the casino is based on is. We got it the first five times.
And of course, from the Outrageous Okona:
Guinan: You're a droid, and I'm a 'noid!
And the following insistence that it's, supposedly, a funny joke.
Troi: I don't believe this dialogue. Did humans really talk like that?
(Gee, I don't know, Deanna. Did any sapient being ever talk like you or your shipmates did in Seasons 1 and 2?)
And generally all the dialogue that keeps pointing out how bad the novel the casino is based on is. We got it the first five times.
And of course, from the Outrageous Okona:
Guinan: You're a droid, and I'm a 'noid!
And the following insistence that it's, supposedly, a funny joke.
It is quite a diminishment from "nobody" to "nobody normal".
Well, in general, when someone says "Nobody does that or nobody talks like that" it's more like a figure of speech... a hyperbole if you will.
You mean it acted like a girl repellent?
LOL! My very existence in High School acted like girl repellent. Nothing I could say could help or hurt that.
Stephen Maturin might, forsooth.
Sure, it’s over the top for all love, but Okona was the rougish space captain of the world! Outrageous, so he was, too.
ETA: Harry Mudd channeling the late Captain Leo Walsh. Or Cyrano Jones and his ceaseless search for knowledge.
ETASM Oh, and this dandy:
Who happened to be played by William Campbell.
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Okona’s pickup line to Teri Hatcher.
“Drugs…make you feel good.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Oh Wesley, I hope you never do.”
“Drugs…make you feel good.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Oh Wesley, I hope you never do.”
Everything Okona says.
Tasha Yar is not very well played. Frankly, I wasn't sad to see her leave the show. She's a bit off-key if you see what I mean. Take her outburst in the pilot. Frankly, I wanted to shut her up myself.
To be fair, most characters in early season one weren't exactly what they would become later. Picard was mainly an unlikable grumpy man with a lot of preconceived notions, for example. They started becoming better over time, including Tasha.
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Very true. I don't think any Trek series has hit the ground running. Stumbling is more apt; they often take a season or two to find their proper identity. Tragically, sometimes it takes too long (looking at you, "Enterprise").
