But that's the point. In the episode the Dominion are revealed, a ship of the same class as the Enterprise D gets dicked on like it was no big thing. A ship identical to the flagship couldn't use shields against Dominion weapons. It was the big "shit just got real" moment.
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The most godawful Star Trek moments (with spoilers and gifs)
- Thread starter Mama Robotnik
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Except it wasn't just the dominion. Watch this entire battle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XwQKWUkrLg
I don`t think I see shields visible at any time ever, on either side of the battle.
Dat Breen ship getting one-shotted by a Cardassian phaser.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
Eh, the ship was already damaged, and it a suicide run that did the ship in.
Just assume that everyone had upped their phaser game by that point due to necessity. They are certainly meatier-looking beams, anyway.
I think a large part of it was an aesthetic choice - phasers would make contact with the hull but sometimes not penetrate - the shields being visually re-worked for the series to be snug-fit rather than a squashed sphere.
THEY WOULDA KILLED PICARD HAD HE BEEN THERE MAN DOMINION ARE HAX SHIT JUST GOT REAL OKAY JEEZ
blindrocket
Member
This.
It was clear the writers had no idea what to do with Kes as a character. They threw in some psychic powers to make things interesting, but in the end they ditched that character. And of course it was done in the most stupidest way
I rationalized it by thinking that all sides had access to each others shield frequencies or some shit. It makes sense seeing as how much espionage and deception was going on during the war on all sides. Besides, it made for more drama seeing shit being blown up left and right.
Yeah it`s not really a huge issue, just one that personally bugs me because it doesn`t make any sense technically. I mean if phasers where that powerful, why even send capital ships in, just strap the most power phaser bank you have to an engine and mass produce those.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
You see that more in alter ship designs, but the Galaxy Class was not designed strictly for combat, it was a science vessel.
I wouldn`t say it was a science vessel but I digress, I guess starfleet was just throwing everything it had at the dominion.
In the novel Shatner wrote himself, the borg find Kirk`s body and reanimate it. I forget how that storyline ends.
Oh god no. That sounds even worse.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
What is it with Ricks?
Damn, I was skeptical as all hell after reading this effusive little description here, but that really was outstandingly filmed. Even the last little shot of Dax awkwardly, shakily sitting down on the windowsill is spot-on. Surprised I didn't remember this.
I will add that I enjoyed that list very much, but I disagree deeply with your characterization of Dear Doctor, which is one of my favorite episodes of Enterprise:
There are both logical and plot reasons offered in the episode, so this is just disingenuous. You may not like them or feel they were strong enough but to say there were no reasons given at all is just wrong!
In the episode, the planet with the sick aliens is home to two species of intelligent life. The dominant species of the two is the one with the fatal genetic disease, and the disease is mutating rapidly. The minority species, which is less evolved and less technologically advanced, are apparently immune. The Enterprise spends the vast majority of the episode treating the sick aliens and helping them deal with the symptoms while looking for a cure. Eventually the doctor is able to synthesize one after viewing the genetic code of the less advanced minority species. But with this comes the realization that the less evolved species are poised to become the dominant species in the wake of the genetic disease, and humanity would be dramatically altering or possibly even reversing the evolutionary path of life on the planet by administering a cure.
You make it seem like the Enterprise showed up, found some sick aliens, found a cure in sick bay and just decided to withhold it from them for shits and giggles. But the Captain is completely obsessed with helping them throughout the entire episode, to the point where the Doctor points out to him that he might be acting irrationality on blind compassion, and he is still committed to intervene:
It isn't until the last minutes of the episode that it sets in and Archer realizes that the crew of one ship would literally be deciding which of two different intelligent species on a pre-industrial planet gets to survive. The Enterprise crew has saved aliens they have encountered from various disasters and catastrophes plenty of times, but this was a realization that intervening here would alter the course of history for a pair of civilizations that had not yet even reached the sky. His little closing speech, when he was describing the Prime Directive without realizing it, gave me goosebumps.
soundscream
Member
The Ricker vs Admiral Quinn fight during season 1 was one of the worst fight scenes ever made, ever!
@ #9 I never watched any of season 1 trek cause I always avoided the reruns when I saw a no beard Riker. But when I watched it on my Netflix rewatch last year my jaw dropped. Couldn't believe they actually wrote it then filmed it and aired it without thinking, "this might be kind of offensive.".
The all black planet with faux African culture was the least of its problems.
The way they act when the blond Tasha Yar comes on the screen was embarrassing. Its like the writer had just watched blazing saddles and couldn't get the "where the white woman at" joke out of his head and wrote an episode around it.
@ #9 I never watched any of season 1 trek cause I always avoided the reruns when I saw a no beard Riker. But when I watched it on my Netflix rewatch last year my jaw dropped. Couldn't believe they actually wrote it then filmed it and aired it without thinking, "this might be kind of offensive.".
The all black planet with faux African culture was the least of its problems.
The way they act when the blond Tasha Yar comes on the screen was embarrassing. Its like the writer had just watched blazing saddles and couldn't get the "where the white woman at" joke out of his head and wrote an episode around it.
I think the concept of that episode was great, but it shouldn't of been the series finale, it should of just been a regular episode during the season.
SteveWinwood
Member
Voyager was awesome.
/crosses arms and pouts thinking about all the shit that stinks the series up.
/crosses arms and pouts thinking about all the shit that stinks the series up.
John Rabbit
Banned
kirk's death definitely belongs in that list. i don't even care for him that much, but seriously what a terrible end to a long and storied character arc.
First Name
Member
The OP likely repressed that moment into oblivion like a lot of us have. I for one, had successfully forgotten about it before reading this thread. >:[
Dear Doctor is bullshit.
It was essentially the non-denominational, generic universal life force version of "God wants these people to die." That's not how evolution works. They condemn an entire race, which had sought out help by sending ships out away from their planet to find help, based entirely on the fact that it was a generic disorder. Since there was another sentient race on the planet, they figured that somehow Evolution has chosen the other species to live. Based on the false assumption that it was exactly like neanderthal and cro-magnon man on earth, where only one could survive for the other to thrive (assuming that's even the way that happened), they found a cure and withheld it from millions of dying people on the strength of a hunch, and pretended that calling it a hunch was an attack on the concept of evolution.
Never mind that the species had already discovered interstellar fucking travel, and that they could simply expand to other planets if there weren't enough resources for both species on the home world. It wasn't choosing between one or the other. It was making a stupid-ass assumption that two species that had been living in harmony for as long as anyone could remember, would suddenly kill each other if the Enterprise gave one species a cure for their deadly disease.
It was the next best thing to genocide. They didn't avoid choosing between two species' survival. They decided, based on flimsy fucking evidence, that it WAS about a choice, and then by withholding the cure they made a fucking choice anyway. Fuck that episode.
It was essentially the non-denominational, generic universal life force version of "God wants these people to die." That's not how evolution works. They condemn an entire race, which had sought out help by sending ships out away from their planet to find help, based entirely on the fact that it was a generic disorder. Since there was another sentient race on the planet, they figured that somehow Evolution has chosen the other species to live. Based on the false assumption that it was exactly like neanderthal and cro-magnon man on earth, where only one could survive for the other to thrive (assuming that's even the way that happened), they found a cure and withheld it from millions of dying people on the strength of a hunch, and pretended that calling it a hunch was an attack on the concept of evolution.
Never mind that the species had already discovered interstellar fucking travel, and that they could simply expand to other planets if there weren't enough resources for both species on the home world. It wasn't choosing between one or the other. It was making a stupid-ass assumption that two species that had been living in harmony for as long as anyone could remember, would suddenly kill each other if the Enterprise gave one species a cure for their deadly disease.
It was the next best thing to genocide. They didn't avoid choosing between two species' survival. They decided, based on flimsy fucking evidence, that it WAS about a choice, and then by withholding the cure they made a fucking choice anyway. Fuck that episode.
BigJonsson
Member
Dominion War exploding ships make sense, the Federation advanced their weapon tech with canons and quantum torps
Go play Star Trek Online and see the difference between using a cruiser or science vessel vs an escort with dual heavy canons........things go boom really fast
Go play Star Trek Online and see the difference between using a cruiser or science vessel vs an escort with dual heavy canons........things go boom really fast
Man, I don't think that's accurate at all. They didn't know what was going to happen. And the two species didn't live harmoniously, or at least not moreso than 2000s-era humans. The less-evolved species was oppressed and held back by the Valakians. And they'd already met other warp-faring species including the Ferengi, who I would imagine sold them a bunch of shit. So who the hell knows if the dominant sentient species would actually die out? If humans didn't interfere at all, they'd have tens of thousands more years of evolution to go, at least. They would just be using an unprecedented level of technology well beyond either of the species on the planet to deliver the cure. I don't remember the species having interstellar travel though.
edit: just checked... they absolutely did not. The Enterprise just detects a pre-warp ship and goes to check it out and finds sick Valakians. So neither civilization had interstellar travel, and the Federation is just by and large against that. Comparing it to genocide is pretty extreme, too. They didn't create the virus and they didn't say evolution had chosen, they just said they weren't going to interfere. But whatever, the prime directive didn't exist back then anyway, so if that's what you're saying, fuck it.
Nice list Robotnik. Definitely some big fuckups in the franchise over the years. I had never realized there was a change in the way the Prime Directive was handled, but I really don't recall many situations in my viewing that really struck me as a 'the fuck are you doing' moment signifying the change.
Definitely do it. Dukat's final arc is a bit out there, but the rest is just fantastic.
Definitely do it. Dukat's final arc is a bit out there, but the rest is just fantastic.
Not having homosexual characters in Star Trek may just be a nod to the sensitivity of the audience. It is regrettable, sure, but it is not the premier most godawful Star Trek moment.
In this spirit, I would like to add my own horrible moments.
1. Wesley Crusher -- a 16-year old boy is not only allowed to fly the flagship of the federation, but also routinely saves the ship from impending danger. There are roughly 1,500 people on his Enterprise and Crusher is their MVP.
2. Every holodeck episode ever -- the holodeck is shit. You'll be able to cite one one or two holodeck-centered episodes that are not shit, but the ones that are shitty are so shitty as to spoil the decent ones.
3. Kirk's death in Generations -- Absolute garbage.
4. Kathryn Janeway taking advice from a holographic Leonardo Da Vinci.
5. The pilot becomes the chief engineer -- I don't care what you say. You do not become chief engineer after piloting the ship. Maybe you transfer from navigation to engineering and spend 10 years learning there before you become the chief engineer of the flagship of the federation ... if you're lucky.
6. You do not get to become captain of a starship by picking a fight with the previous captain. Starting a fight on the bridge with the captain gets you thrown in the brig and court martialed.
7. Star Trek: The Motionless Picture
In this spirit, I would like to add my own horrible moments.
1. Wesley Crusher -- a 16-year old boy is not only allowed to fly the flagship of the federation, but also routinely saves the ship from impending danger. There are roughly 1,500 people on his Enterprise and Crusher is their MVP.
2. Every holodeck episode ever -- the holodeck is shit. You'll be able to cite one one or two holodeck-centered episodes that are not shit, but the ones that are shitty are so shitty as to spoil the decent ones.
3. Kirk's death in Generations -- Absolute garbage.
4. Kathryn Janeway taking advice from a holographic Leonardo Da Vinci.
5. The pilot becomes the chief engineer -- I don't care what you say. You do not become chief engineer after piloting the ship. Maybe you transfer from navigation to engineering and spend 10 years learning there before you become the chief engineer of the flagship of the federation ... if you're lucky.
6. You do not get to become captain of a starship by picking a fight with the previous captain. Starting a fight on the bridge with the captain gets you thrown in the brig and court martialed.
7. Star Trek: The Motionless Picture
The ship was almost a light year away. It had traveled that distance in almost a year. That's pretty much interstellar travel, just not warp.
There wasn't a virus. It was a genetic disorder.
The captain gives a speech near the end, just in case the audience didn't know they were referencing the not-yet-existing prime directive, where he actually says "some sort of...directive." It's stupid. The whole thing is really dumb. I happened to watch that episode a few hours ago before reading this thread.
In the part about the Prime Directive and the show Enterprise, you forgot to mentioned that in a few episodes before or after the one where they refuse to help, the Enterprise crew get pissed off at aliens for not curing their crew. The prime directive is so fucking stupid and as the SFdebris guy goes into, it is pure religious dogma.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
This always confused me, what were they doing that first season and how did they go through casting without casting an engineer as part of the main cast.
BigJonsson
Member
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
While I loved ST 2011, I thought they should have just skipped Sulu, Chechov and Uhura all together as alternate timeline or not, they would have been children (or in Chekhov's case not even born) when Kirk and the others were at the Academy. They were VERY minor characters in the old TV series, and it would have been a chance to get some new faces in the cast and not be chained as much to the old series.
SteveWinwood
Member
I can randomly watch any episode of star trek even the real stinkers. But as soon as wesley shows up I just turn off the tv right there. Fucking worst thing ever.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
When you have the means to prevent a mass-scale extinction targeting a species of intelligent beings, and you decide not to intervene, you have done a heinous thing. While technically not genocide, letting billions die because you decided you don't want to distribute a cure for their deadly disease is morally worse than any genocide in human history. It's orders of magnitude worse than the Holocaust or anything Stalin did. If you want to argue that maybe they found their own cure or invented warp drive on their own at some point between now and their extinction, that doesn't mean you're off the hook, for the same reason that attempted murder isn't morally less bad than successful murder. If "only" millions died because you didn't give them the cure rather than the entire species, the crew of the Enterprise is still utterly morally reprehensible.
Okay, I didn't remember how far away the ship was and I misspoke about that, they would be correcting a genetic disorder using information in the DNA (or their equivalent) from the other species.
Yeah, I think that's generally accurate though "not technically genocide" is a pretty crucial caveat. If they do go extinct I think I'd agree the crew was morally responsible; I'm just saying it's consistent with Federation policy in the "future" whereas the bullet point describes the nature of the prime directive changing over time.
Pretty sure it wasn't billions. I remember them saying millions, although I don't know if it was several million or hundreds of millions. Can't remember.
I agree with your point. Just a small correction.
Well, the Enterprise did have, I think, at least two different chief engineering officers that first season of The Next Generation. One was a woman and the other was that Argyle guy... neither was particularly interesting, and were only mentioned/shown in passing.
EDIT: http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Argyle (This seems to indicate there may have been four chief engineers on Enterprise before LaForge.)
The specific instance you cited, however, was from the new Star Trek movie. It always bugged the crap out of me that Kirk got to be captain after provoking Spock into a fistfight.
Well, I think the difference is that Chekhov actually seemed to be a part of Starfleet. He had the uniform and the title!
Wesley was just some stupid kid whose mom was the doctor.
Billions seemed off to me, but generally his philosophical point has to hold true even if it's like 12 people.
davepoobond
you can't put a price on sparks
that starfleet didnt have a militarized fleet from the getgo was pretty asinine. what did they expect would happen when the federation got big enough? people would want to attack them, like the dominion and the romulans, etc.
they should have had a "Defiant" type ship way before they decided to actually make one.
plus, i think their excuse for not using cloaking technology for pretty much all of star trek was dumb.
they should have had a "Defiant" type ship way before they decided to actually make one.
plus, i think their excuse for not using cloaking technology for pretty much all of star trek was dumb.
Great OP
I know this isn't what the poster was talking about, but DS9 itself did have shields in a few episodes.
I know this isn't what the poster was talking about, but DS9 itself did have shields in a few episodes.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
Billions of people is what you expect from an industrial, space-faring (but pre-warp) civilization on an approximately Earth like planet. I haven't seen the episode (I don't watch any Star Trek, yet I know many of the episodes and characters because I watch every single SFDebris Trek review, lol) so I don't know actual numbers for their planet if they gave any.
Almost every time they come across some planet like that, there are significantly less than a billion people. It's just something weird I've noticed, so I listen to the number whenever they spout it.
Guardian Bob
Member
I dislike it when there is only one starship (the Enterprise) between the Earth and something that will destroy it. Where are all the ships protecting Earth?!
Voyager having 0 damage after 7 long years is fucking stupid. Battlestar Galatica (came out after Voyager) really shows you what the show could have been.
Most of the stupidness happened between TNG and Enterprise. It's a shame Enterprise was cancelled after season 4, because you really started to get a sense they were getting serious about great Star Trek storytelling and a solid canon with no reset buttons.
PS, I'm glad 'Dear Doctor' is getting debated; I think that's the entire point of that episode. Also, the prime directive didn't exist in Enterprise.
Voyager having 0 damage after 7 long years is fucking stupid. Battlestar Galatica (came out after Voyager) really shows you what the show could have been.
Most of the stupidness happened between TNG and Enterprise. It's a shame Enterprise was cancelled after season 4, because you really started to get a sense they were getting serious about great Star Trek storytelling and a solid canon with no reset buttons.
PS, I'm glad 'Dear Doctor' is getting debated; I think that's the entire point of that episode. Also, the prime directive didn't exist in Enterprise.
Neuromancer
Member
I love Mama Robotnik's Star Trek threads even though I have very little interest in the series. They're always fun reads.
BigJonsson
Member
Lack of CG/models budget for Earth shots lol
Or the fleet is already engaged in another part of the galaxy
Noooooo bandwidth exceeded picture. I can't see it anymore. Is it possible to rehost the pictures somewhere that there's no bandwidth cap?
damn photobucket
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