Hello and Welcome to Truth OR Myth, a Star Trek Web Series that speaks the Truth, or canon, to dispel any myths that have cropped up about a given topic. Star Trek is filled with characters that we love to see, or wish they would show up time and time again. But Star Trek is also filled with those characters that we wish never had shown up in the first place…
In today’s episode, we’re counting down my top 10 worst secondary characters in All of Star Trek. As this is an opinion piece id like to remind everyone there are no right or wrong answers here, it’s simply my choices and should not be considered a definitive list.
When I do these list videos I make both at the same time, the top 10 and bottom 10, so I can clearly put my thoughts in order, and usually I start with the top 10 Best on any given topic. I thought through this time Id switch it up, since I love to keep you guessing…
10 – Michael Eddington – Star Trek: Deep Space 9
Now I love the “Star Trek: Deep Space 9” episode, “For The Uniform,” I think it adds great depth to the character of Sisko, and the whole idea surrounding a traitor that isn’t actually a traitor but is, was an amazing choice. I just don’t feel that Eddington fills that bill for me. I think the issue here is with the actor, he’s not bad, but for me, he doesn’t add the depth a character like this one should have in that role.
Often times he comes off wooden and almost villain of the week-ish. I would have loved the actor to be more torn by his decisions emotionally, you know to look into his eyes and see he doesn’t want to fight but has no choice. But this character seems instead to feel 2 dimensional in its presentation.
9 – Dr Kathrine Pulaski – Star Trek: The Next Generation
I know some of you Pulaski lovers out there are going to flip that I’ve put her here at number 9, but I’m sorry she just didn’t do it for me. Because she didn’t make it into the credits, not wanting to sign a long term contract, she IS only a secondary character. In this instance I don’t think it’s the actor’s fault the character is disliked as much as she is, I think this one’s the writer’s problem. they just made her too harsh and cantankerous.
They wanted a McCoy for Picard and wrote her as such, but where Deforest Kelley got away with it because of the twinkle in his eyes and the delivery of the lines, it just didn’t work for Pulaski. She’s cold and condescending, something I would not expect for a major hero secondary character…
8 – Captain Braxton – Star Trek: Voyager
Played by 2 separate actors, Captain Braxton didn’t come alive enough for me by either one. Time travel episodes can be hit or miss given the nature of them, but in 2-parter “Futures End” and the episode “Relativity”, Braxton just came off as a 2d character, in fact in Relativity he really just felt like a villain of the week. What I mean by 2d is when you look at a character and realize that character could be easily replaced by another and you wouldn’t even notice or are. For example, take a look at Lursa and Betor in “Star Trek: The Next Generation”.
They owned their characters from the outset, and in the series run, when they were used, you could see that, and so the characters were generally 3 dimensions. But here you could have put any other villain of the week into it and no one would have batted an eye. it’s a sad thing really since Braxton had great potential to show us what a great time travelling Starfleet captain could be while at the same time how that character could fall from grace…
7 – Ensign Jetal – Star Trek: Voyager
Ensign Jetal was written as a flashback character, and in my opinion, written badly. Again this has nothing to do with the actor who played her but more how she fits into the episode. Here we see a lowly ensign that apparently is besties with everyone on board and that doesn’t really make sense. Why? you ask? because we don’t ever see this type of interaction between the lower decks and the command staff.
Is it believable that in the Delta Quadrant stranded and alone that this sort of thing could happen? Sure it is, it’s a family after all… But then why isn’t this happening with everyone else? In fact, in other episodes, it seems like some of the characters haven’t even met each other before. It just makes the character stick out as a bad choice and the character would have been better served by having a bunch of other ensigns, the Doctor, Torres and maybe Kim throwing this birthday Bash, not the entire command crew…
6 – Admiral William Ross – Star Trek: Deep Space 9
So what do you get when you have an Admiral who is in charge of military operations during the Dominion War? You get William Ross. the problem I have here I think actually stems from the actor in this case. The way he plays the character seems a rather odd choice, to be honest. I would expect an Admiral in charge of such an important area to be confident and decisive, William Ross isn’t any of those traits. Most times he’s shy and seems unsure of what he’s actually doing, and for that reason, he’s on this list!
5 – Calvin “Cal” Hudson – Star Trek: Deep Space 9
When Deep Space 9 got a character right, they seemed to have gotten it perfect, but when they got it wrong, they bombed unbelievably and Cal Hudson was one of those bombs for me. Like Admiral Ross, he just didn’t seem to fit the leadership role the character was given I mean it takes a certain type of person to turn against everything he grew up believing and become a leader fighting the good fight, and he just didn’t convey it to me at all.
The acting seemed very forced at times and condescending, which again would have been better served if we could see the inner struggle the character SHOULD have been going through, I found myself agreeing at the end with Dukat to kill him off.
4 – Latika – Star Trek: Voyager
Oh boy, Star Trek has a huge problem when dealing with children in their series. I’m sure getting great child actors can be hard, but generally speaking, secondary child characters are written horribly. They’re usually written as spoiled know it all brats and Latika is no exception. there’s something so annoying about this character though that puts him on this list, again this was one of those situations where I was hoping the planet would be destroyed anyhow at the end!
3 – Vedek Bareil – Star Trek: Deep Space 9
Who doesn’t admire big love scenes between a Bajorin Major and a potential religious leader? me, that’s who… Vedek Bareil for me did not encompass the same feeling that characters like Kai Opaka had. Time and again he’d show up and time and again I was struck with a huge feeling of dislike and how bad the actor played the part.
He’s wishy-washy and forced, and the actor was really over the top far too much for me to enjoy any of the episodes he was in… In fact often, Ill skip that episode when re-watching simply to save my brain from being harmed. And the ones I don’t skip, I watch for other exceptional characters like Kai Winn…
2 – Lutan – Star Trek: The Next Generation
What do you get when you combine racism, stereotypes and 2-dimensional writing? You get Lutan for season 1 of “Star Trek: The Next Generation”. To start off the episode, “Code of Honor,” isn’t a treasure to behold at all, so this character didn’t have a good starting point, but Luton was every stereotype given to people of colour since the slave trades, and this episode somehow tries to entertain us with that? Stereotypes exist for a reason I get that, and displaying some of those traits makes sense, but not overloading the audience so much with them that most people don’t even acknowledge the episode’s existence…
So here the problem definitely isn’t with the actor at all, but simply the character that was written. How was this episode even made?
Dishonourable Mentions:
- Star Trek: Enterprise-Lorian
- Star Trek: The Next Generation- The Outrageous Okona
- Star Trek: The Next Generation- Timothy
- Star Trek: Deep Space 9- Melora Pazlar
- Star Trek: Deep Space 9- Lee Nalis
- Star Trek: Deep Space 9- Martus Mazur
1 – Aquiel Uhnari – Star Trek: The Next Generation
My brain screams every time I see this episode. the episode itself is a boring mess and the additional of Aquiel Uhnari just compounds that fact. the actor here went way over the top in some scene while underwhelming me in others. And her interaction with Geordi just feels way off. When you look at other secondary character interactions with LaForge you can see the charm between the 2 characters, See Leah Brahms or Sonia Gomez for examples. but here, even though Levar Burton is trying his best, there’s just nothing, nothing at all… The is a prime example of Star Trek at it’s worst when it comes to secondary characters…
Well, there we have it, my top 10 worst Star Trek secondary characters… Now it’s your turn, what are your least favourite secondary characters and why? Leave your answers in the comments section below. And don’t forget to like the video and subscribe to the channel hitting that little bell icon so you won’t miss a single video we release.
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Thanks again for watching, live long and prosper…
Watch episode 89
