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10 Most Frustrating Star Trek Moments
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00:00Frustration can be a really nice feeling. Like you can be teased with something to the point
00:05where the payoff is worth it but it's actually the build that made it even more fun. So when
00:10you have moments of Star Trek that frustrate you but the payoff is wonderful it can be great.
00:16This is not that list. These frustrating moments are such that they built and they built and they
00:21just left us wanting more. So with that in mind I'm Sean Ferrick for Trek Culture and here are
00:28the 10 most frustrating Star Trek moments. Number 10 Dukat kills Jadzia. This entry's our jumping
00:34off point as it was so utterly unnecessary for Deep Space Nine to lose Terry Farrell the way that it
00:39did. While the shocking nature of Gul Dukat transporting into the Bajoran Shrine, remorselessly killing Dax
00:43and beaming away has still yet to properly fade from our minds, it's long since been overtaken
00:48by the stories that came out of the way it came to be. Farrell had after 6 years of more
00:53than 20
00:54episodes a season approached the producers with the request to be reduced to a recurring character.
00:59Their response was that it was all or nothing. Either she was going to be in every episode like
01:03the other seasons or none at all. Presented with such a choice she elected to leave. It was an
01:07unworthy exit for one of the main cast. To add further insult to injury the seventh season saw both a
01:12Mirror Universe episode and a montage of previous episodes neither of which featured Farrell. Both sides
01:18at one point or another stated that there was contract and permission issues yet it boils down to a
01:22deeply unsatisfying exit for one of our most popular characters in Deep Space Nine.
01:26Number 9. Warp Restrictions. While the Next Generation 7 season is certainly not its strongest
01:31there are still many truly great episodes. One such episode is the Pegasus. It opens with Captain
01:35Picard Day, a celebration on board the Enterprise D to honour Picard. This draws the amusement of the
01:39Admiral tasked with sending the Enterprise to meet with Pressman, Commander Ryder's former captain. Warp
01:44restrictions are lifted for the duration of this mission. Ah yes, there it is. The only other mention of
01:49there being any sort of restrictions on warp travel outside of the episode Force of Nature.
01:53The latter episode, arriving earlier in the season, saw the explanation that warp travel was doing
01:58damage to subspace and an alternative was badly needed. The soliton wave was suggested instead,
02:02a method by which starships would ride the current of an artificial phenomenon, dragging them along at
02:07warp speed. It was an exciting, if slightly impractical idea, but one sure to address this hugely
02:12important development that warp was harming the galaxy. Then outside of that single mention in the
02:17Pegasus was never alluded to again. This feels less like Starfleet managed to fix the problem,
02:21and more as though the writers simply weren't interested in continuing to explore this idea.
02:25To this writer, it was less frustrating that the idea was scrapped, and more that it was such a
02:28massive deal in one episode, and then it was gone. Number eight, her life could have been as rich as
02:33any woman's. The final episode of the original series, Turnabout Intruder, has the sad honour of
02:38finishing the show with a line that suggests women are looking at a pretty grim version of the future.
02:43This would come after three years of many, many missteps, a concerted effort to show that in the
02:48future equality really was possible. This is something that would be fixed in future series.
02:53Here it is suggested that Janice Lester was unable to become a starship captain and thus lost her
02:58sanity owing simply to the fact that she was a woman. In a show set in a future of equality
03:02and
03:02enlightenment, female starship captains were considered too risque. While Star Trek would quickly
03:07work to brush this aside, as early as the animated series with Uhura taking command of the ship and
03:11Star Trek IV the voyage home with Madge Sinclair appearing as the captain of the USS Saratoga,
03:16it is a deeply annoying stain on the show's history. It is compounded by the fact that the
03:20final words spoken seem to confirm that Star Trek of the 23rd century had a less than enlightened view
03:26towards women in general. Bad enough that the idea is there, but that it's the last idea offered by the
03:31original series to boot. Number seven, Leland dies before Discovery enters the wormhole. Star Trek
03:36Discovery's second season finale, Such Sweet Sorrow, sees the ship catapulted into the far
03:41future. The data in the ship's computer banks, full of the information dumped there by a being
03:45hundreds of thousands of years old, has the power to offer sentience to a computer virus that is not
03:49dissimilar to the Borg. While there are several issues with the time travel plot in Discovery's
03:53second season, it is the fact that they didn't really need to go to the future in the end. Leland,
03:58who by this stage was the embodiment of Control, is killed by Georgiou. This causes the rest of
04:03Control to die. Control was the only being chasing the sphere data. Control is dead, Discovery goes
04:07anyway. Now it is explained that sending them into the future negated the risk of there ever
04:11being a similar situation like that again, but it unfortunately felt more like a desperate attempt
04:16to get Discovery into its own time period, something which has absolutely benefited the show to be fair,
04:21rather than a climax that was simply inevitable. None of this is to say that the episode itself isn't
04:25fun and thrilling to watch, but that moment with Leland just sticks out too much to be accepted.
04:30This, coupled with the slightly ham-fisted explanation that Discovery must never be mentioned again,
04:34for reasons, as a way to explain why Spock never spoke about Michael Burnham, was simply a little
04:39too underwhelming for such a large storyline. Number 6. Why are the locks only on one side of
04:44the doorway? Honestly, did Admiral Cornwell have to die? And if so, was it really necessary to kill
04:49her simply to highlight the need for locks on both sides of a blast door? When a torpedo impacts the
04:54saucer section of the Enterprise in Such a Sweet Sorrow Part 2, Cornwell volunteers to go down in an
04:59attempt to disarm it. She's joined by Una, then later by Pike, none of them are able to disarm the
05:03warhead, so they need to seal the blast door in order to contain the explosion. Now, wouldn't you
05:07know it, the only access to the locking mechanism is on the explodey side of the door. Cornwell pulls
05:11rank and orders Pike to leave the room, she locks the blast door, and as the torpedo detonates, Pike
05:16watches from behind one of the sturdiest pieces of transparent aluminum known to Starfleet. While Such a
05:21Sweet Sorrow Part 2 has appeared on this list twice, it's not a truly bad episode by any means, but
05:25both of these
05:26gaps in logic stuck out awkwardly. If the crew at the front of the saucer section were able to
05:30evacuate with enough time, why not simply pull back a deck or two, then try a different blast door? Or
05:34was this torpedo sitting in the only room on the Enterprise with blast doors installed? If so, handy.
05:40Much like the blatant decision that Discovery needed to jump to the future, this feels awfully like it was
05:44decided early on that someone recognisable had to die in this episode. Cornwell was well known enough for
05:50this to hit the right emotional beats, sure, but it still felt completely unnecessary, and not in the good,
05:55oh no, their pointless death has affected me greatly kind of way. This felt like, so that happened, right so?
06:01Number 5. Admiral Forrest deserved better. Star Trek Enterprise in its fourth season delivers an excellent
06:07three-part story that's set on Vulcan. The Forge trilogy sees the reintroduction of Tipal to the Star Trek
06:12universe, along with the gradual lessening of restrictions around mind melds. This, in turn, leads to Tipal
06:16being cured of Panar Syndrome. So far so good. So what's wrong with the story? The opening chapter kicks into
06:22life
06:22with the bombing of the Starfleet embassy on Vulcan. In the course of saving Ambassador Soval's life,
06:27Admiral Maxwell Forrest is killed, a heroic death for one of Archer and Enterprise's greatest
06:32supporters. However, the way that it is handled is far from heroic, or even barely satisfactory.
06:37For a start, though we see Forrest dive to protect Soval, we don't actually find out his fate until it
06:42is discussed by Archer. That's right, this character who had been from the beginning was given an ignoble
06:47off-screen death. Adding insult to this, there's no memorial service for the man. Though Von Armstrong
06:52would thankfully return later in the season as a Mirror Universe version of the character,
06:55that was it for Admiral Forrest. It just felt so rushed, and the emotional beats are missing
06:59entirely. Rather than feeling grief for this character, there is instead only a deep frustration
07:03to have removed a character so quickly and coldly from the show without giving them anything like the
07:08appropriate respect or honours. While that other death from These Are The Voyages might seem like a sure bet
07:14for an entry here, this one occurred within the established timeline of Enterprise. That is not
07:18to say, much as we don't want to say it, that Voyages isn't canon, but those events took place
07:22on a holodeck recreation that was being watched back. There's even a scene with Trip after he dies.
07:28There's no such moment with Forrest, he is simply a semi-core player for three and a half years,
07:32and then he's gone. Number 4, the copy and paste fleet. The finale of Picard's first season was meant
07:38to offer a fist-pumping, cheer-inducing moment toward the climax. Unknown to the Romulan fleet,
07:42which has apparently been hiding just, um, over there. Picard has requested that the planet
07:46Julian IV be given Federation protection. Having done this, acting Captain Riker arrives to save
07:52the day. The groans were heard around the world. The fun part of the episode is of course seeing
07:56Riker in uniform, totally in control, storming to his former captain's aid. The ship that he's on,
08:02the Inquiry-class Zhang He, isn't even a bad design at all, depending on how you feel about
08:06deflector dishes. It's the fact that there are hundreds of them, almost all identical, dotted through
08:10the scene. This is coupled with a similar situation on the Romulan side. To put it simply, there were
08:15absolutely no stakes to this face-off at all. As the title suggests, it really does feel like the
08:19copy and paste buttons were used a lot while putting this together. Now while we must acknowledge that
08:24there were four distinct versions of the Inquiry-class, best identified by the length of their nacelles,
08:28that really does seem like a bit of a pointless change. The second season of Picard saw an immediate
08:32addressing of this problem. The very first episode, The Stargazer, introduced the new Sagan-class ship,
08:37with ships like the Sovereign and Akira returning and the Luna making its live-action debut, and
08:42several ships previously seen in Star Trek Online appearing for the first time on screen. It was
08:46quite frankly, bloody obvious what they were doing, and considering how the copy and paste scene was
08:50received, it was very, very much appreciated. Number three, Admiral Necheyev underestimates the Maquis.
08:57This one stings because of the character of Necheyev overall. While she was presented initially as a
09:01thorn in Picard's side, not to mention Riker's, she slowly was shown to be a bit more than simply a
09:07Starfleet badass, ready to slap our favourite characters down to size. This is best evidenced
09:11in Journey's End, where she reacts positively to Picard's attempts to make her feel comfortable
09:15by providing her favourite food. Though barely an icebreaker, it offers the slightest warming
09:20of the character, thus allowing the audience to see her as more than one note. This is then undone
09:24in Deep Space Nine. While the Maquis is one of the strongest stories of the show's early years,
09:29it unfortunately just deposits an intransigent Necheyev back to us. She arrives at the station,
09:33ready to address the Maquis threat, then effectively barks at Sisko that he just needs to try harder.
09:38She clearly is only there because she has to be, badly underestimates the Maquis and then leaves.
09:42It's so frustrating as Journey's End should have been a lesson to her character about just how far
09:47the Maquis were willing to go to protect their homes. Whatever growth had been shown in that
09:51episode was washed away in one short scene. While it sets up a fabulous exchange between Sisko and Kira,
09:56it comes at the expense of a character who had, for better or worse, started to melt away the icy
10:00exterior, only to have that suddenly freeze up again. Number 2, Janeway destroys the Array. Now
10:05for the most part, Caretaker is a strong pilot episode of Star Trek Voyager, and to be very clear,
10:11we know that Janeway had to destroy the Array, otherwise the show doesn't have a catalyst to
10:15keep it stranded, so we're not suggesting that it shouldn't have happened, or are we? With the Kazon
10:19closing in around them and their sights set firmly on the Caretaker's technology, Janeway orders Tuvok to
10:23fire two tricobalt devices directly at the Array. This serves to keep the technology out of the hands of the
10:28Kazon, but strands the Starfleet ship in the Delta Quadrant. First, as is later mentioned by Seven
10:33of Nine in the Voyager conspiracy, tricobalt devices are not standard issue on Starfleet vessels. Why
10:38would Janeway fire the only two in their arsenal at the Array? Next, despite the fact that they were
10:42outnumbered, Voyager could have turned the tide against the Kazon by firing tricobalt devices at
10:46them. Now the real frustration here is the pitfalls of Caretaker itself. The Array had to go,
10:52sure, but did it had to go in such a way? Did the Valjean have to be destroyed? Did the
10:56Mackie have to suddenly put all of their uniforms into the replicators and then adopt Starfleet
10:59field commissions? As has been stated about Voyager before, the second the Mackie members
11:03put those uniforms on, the most interesting part of Voyager's premise, two crews learning to work
11:08together, died. There is a version of Star Trek Voyager that would see the ship face struggles,
11:12take a beating, learn to overcome and have genuine peril. It's called Year of Hell. The toothless way in
11:17which Voyager is stranded, while also looking like it's been to a space dock every week, is one of the
11:22most frustrating things in all of Star Trek's history. Number one, forgive my friend, he's a...
11:27The city on the edge of forever is regarded as one of the greatest episodes of Star Trek,
11:31one that keeps its premise throughout the story, one that shows off strong performances from all,
11:35and one that ends on such a dark note that it was honestly quite a shock for Trek at the
11:39time.
11:39It also contains the line, you'll have to forgive my friend, he's a Chinaman. This is Kirk's attempt
11:44to explain Spock's strange appearance to a contemporary police officer. The story of the making of this
11:48episode is as interesting as the show itself, though in any version of the episode, this ill-thought,
11:53racist attempt at humour leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Another version of the story would have
11:57seen a crewman selling drugs to Starfleet officers, then escaping through the Guardian of Forever.
12:01Roddenberry absolutely vetoed this idea, along with several others, leading writer Harlan Ellison
12:06to remove his name from the episode altogether. While the episode is one of the all-time great one
12:10episode love stories in Star Trek, with Joan Collins playing the doomed Edith Keillor, it's just
12:14impossible not to notice something as overtly racist as the assumption that one's perceived
12:19oddness could be explained away as them simply being Asian. Star Trek has addressed its own past
12:24many times through the years. This is not to say that they've shied away from problematic portrayals,
12:29perhaps this one hits much harder because, there but for the grace of a line, the city on the edge
12:33of
12:33forever could be one of the greatest pieces of television in history. That's everything for our
12:38list today folks. Do we include everything that you found most frustrating in Star Trek? Let us know in
12:41the comments below. You can reach out to us over on Twitter at TrekCulture, you can catch myself at
12:45SeanFerrick on all the various socials as well. Until I see you again make sure that you live long
12:49and prosper, make sure that you stay well, our friends in Ukraine keep fighting, stay strong,
12:53we love you, everyone have a wonderful week, make it so.
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