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11"[[Recap/StarTrekS3E1SpocksBrain Spock's Brain]]" may be [[Literature/WhatWereTheyThinkingThe100DumbestEventsInTelevisionHistory one of the most infamous blunders in television history]], but it's far from the only one in this franchise. Let's count the times that we wish that the creators of Star Trek hadn't [[CatchPhrase made it so]] during the many decades that the show has been around.
12
13Keep in mind:
14* Sign your entries
15* One moment per show to a troper, if multiple entries are signed to the same troper the more recent one will be cut.
16* Moments only, no "just everything he said, " "The entire show, " or "This entire season, " entries.
17* No contesting entries. This is subjective, the entry is their opinion.
18* No natter. As above, anything contesting an entry will be cut, and anything that's just contributing more can be made its own entry.
19* Explain ''why'' it's a Dethroning Moment Of Suck.
20* No RealLife examples, including Reality Television and ExecutiveMeddling. That is just asking for trouble.
21* No ALLCAPS, no '''bold''', and no ''italics'' unless it's the title of a work. We are not yelling the [=DMoSs=] out loud.
22----
23!''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''
24* Tropers/OlfinBedwere: "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E4AndTheChildrenShallLead And The Children Shall Lead]]" was already an '''incredibly''' bad episode in just about every way, but what really puts it beyond the point of no return is Gorgan's first appearance. The horrifying creature who manipulated the adults on the Triacus survey team into killing themselves and turned their children into psychopaths... turns out to be a lawyer wearing a shower curtain, who is clearly reading every one of his lines from cue cards without having the slightest clue what any of his dialogue means. Quite possibly the worst villain, and definitely the worst performance by any actor in the entire ''Star Trek'' franchise.
25
26----
27!''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''
28* Tropers/JackassOfTheCentury: "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E11TheBigGoodbye}} The Big Goodbye]]". There were two plots, one involving an interesting test of Captain Picard's ability to establish good diplomatic relations with a race of sentient insects, another involving a rather boring 1940's drama (which is something Sci-Fi watchers clearly do not watch Sci-Fi to see). Guess which plot overshadowed the other? Worse still, they didn't even show a visual of the bugs, not once. Normally, the {{Bottle Episode}}s from the series were the better ones. This, clearly, was an exception.
29** Tropers/GrumpyOldMan: This was mine for ''TNG'' as well. In addition to the reasons above, it's made even worse by the fact that the 1940's characters were all cliche stereotypes. It comes off as a cookie cutter detective story that pretended to be something interesting.
30** {{Tropers/JunkManDan}}: This was basically the writers' way of saying "Here's an interesting plot to lure you in, now watch this low budget stock plot that we wanted to film instead." The dethroning moment is really the mere mention of the Jaradar, as, while not top notch, the no-so-subplottish holodeck thing would have been more tolerable if not the bait and switch.
31** Tropers/ScumBagMan: This definitely counts as mine. Being a generic period piece story would have been bad enough, but throw in a false promise of an interesting plot that ends up being barely acknowledged and finishes up in a very unsatisfying way, and you get one of the worst episodes of all time. Not just for ''Star Trek'', mind you, but for all of television.
32* Tropers/IraStevenBehrSucks: The end of "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E7Reunion}} Reunion]]". Worf kills a problematic Klingon politician who no one misses, and does so in accordance with Klingon law, creating no actual problems, and arguably solving a few. Picard still reprimands him for this.
33** Tropers/{{Falcon2484}}: This one gets my vote as well, especially seeing as how Picard gives no similar reprimand to Riker after he arguably violates the Prime Directive in " [[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E17TheOutcast}} The Outcast]]".
34** Tropers/TheMasterChand: I'm going to go ahead and 3rd this. Most of the time Picard has a stick up his ass, I don't really mind since it is usually in character, and easily a flaw that keeps him from being a GameBreaker. But this? It was certainly at odds with the times he took liberties with Federation Policy. Stopping a drug running operation that posed zero threat to the Federation in Symbiosis? That was just peachy, allowing his First officer to ''actually violate'' another species' law because he was horny in The Outcast? It got be overlooked, violating the Temporal Prime Directive in Yesterday's Enterprise? It was at least acceptable[[note]] Granted, he forgot the event, but you'd think Guinan pointing out what he did would make him reflect before taking action against his crew for lesser things.[[/note]] but following Klingon Law to dispose of someone who'd have surely started a war with the Federation, and likely gotten the Romulans involved? Nope, Worf still gets a reprimand, because how dare he avenge a murder and prevent a war. Yeah... [[SarcasmMode makes sense to me]]...
35* [=InTheGallbladder=]: "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E18UpTheLongLadder}} Up The Long Ladder]]" I've seen some pretty bad episodes, but none of them have gotten under my skin as seriously as this one. It starts with a plot that could have seen Pulaski actually demonstrating those positive traits they keep saying she has, then promptly ignores it, but that's not my biggest issue. The A-plot revolves around Star Fleet interacting with the Bringoldis, whose character amounts to no more than "blatant Irish stereotype + blatant Pilgrim sterotype", but that's not my biggest issue. My biggest issue is... Riker. The writers turned him into human garbage, then pretty much wrote the script around either justifying or validating his godawful behavior. I could point to many examples, but the biggest one is this: When the Mariposans, who reproduce entirely by cloning, ask Riker for a DNA sample so they can save their colony from the impact of nearly 300 years of replicative fading, he turns them down because he feels that cloning him would make him less special. He is considered to be in the right for this, to the point where he faces no retribution for destroying a clone the Mariposans make of him, using a stolen DNA sample.
36* * {{Tropers/Brianify}}: "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E7Rascals}} Rascals]]". Not least because the episode accidentally points out one of the dumber running themes in ''The Next Generation.'' Riker tries to guilt the Ferengi leader by saying that it was cruel to imprison the children on board the Enterprise. The Ferengi ripostes that it's cruel to bring children on an armed warship that regularly sees combat. The Ferengi is entirely right.
37* Tropers/NineTailedCat: Tasha Yar's death in "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E22SkinOfEvil}} Skin of Evil]]". As if killing off an awesome character wasn't bad enough, they had to do it in such a cheap and stupid way. She just gets slapped with an energy blast and then she's dead, without any warning or dignity. Sure, they had to write her out somehow with Denise Crosby leaving, but couldn't they have reassigned her instead, or at least killed her in a more dignified way? Heck, having her get sucked into Armus (like Riker, but without surviving it) would have been more satisfying. An otherwise promising episode was ruined by a good character dying senselessly. Such a waste.
38* Tropers/SomeCallMeBob: Most of the first season for the most part for me was terrible, but "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E16WhenTheBoughBreaks When the Bough Breaks]]" was terrible in terms of how the children were handled. Six children under the age of 10 were kidnapped by aliens, yet most of them seemed to take to it without much problem, not even a whimper of longing for being kidnapped and wanting to go back with their parents. The youngest girl, Alexandra, seemed to take to anyone and didn't have any attachment with anyone. Harry, the boy who went to live with the artists, felt bad bringing up his family when talking about carving his dolphin. It seemed to be automatic Stockholm Syndrome with the kids with only Wesley caring about going back.
39* Tropers/{{Unicorndance}}: For me, it's "Genesis". There's such terrible writing that it's impossible to take seriously. Not only did they get a bunch of stuff about evolution wrong, but some of it is just bananas, like Reg devolving into a spider thing and Spot the cat (who is inexplicably female in this episode) devolving into an iguana! And why did Dr. Crusher say that Picard would devolve into a creature similar to a lemur or a -pygmy- marmoset? Like why specifically a pygmy one? That's so specific!
40* Tropers/{{Eggy0}}: For me, it has to be "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E4SuddenlyHuman Suddenly Human]]" that gets this honor. My reason, however, has nothing to do with the words "I hate this"; I do not hate the episode nor do I think it's badly written... the problem I have with it is that it included something that affected me on a level that no other episode did so far, and not in a good way. The deal is that the Enterprise finds [[RaisedByOrcs a human boy named Jono who was raised by a xenophobic, patriarchal alien race who killed his parents]], and Picard does his best to remind him of his human origins. It seems to work and Jono even appears to be happy... but then, out of nowhere, he attacks Picard in his most vulnerable moment and almost kills him, [[SuicideByCop expecting to be executed for it]] because he didn't want to abandon his alien culture. And then, [[BlamingTheVictim Picard is blamed for it]] and a war almost starts as a result, leading to Picard saying that he commited a crime and Jono being returned to his adoptive family instead of his biological one. The even more painful part is that his grandmother was so eager to meet her long lost grandson, and [[PoorCommunicationKills Jono could've probably told about being conflicted instead of attacking]] (and Picard would probably understand and let him go). The betrayal and resolution came to me as such a shock that I was crying my eyes out and had to be consoled, even being surprised that there wasn't a {{Tearjerker}} entry for this episode. Long story short, while I don't actually dislike the episode per se, the eventual twist was far too shocking for me to take and even hit too close to home, resulting in the episode becoming almost completely unenjoyable.
41
42!''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''
43* Tropers/IraStevenBehrSucks: The part in "[[{{Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS07E25E26WhatYouLeaveBehind}} What You Leave Behind]]" where they cured the changelings. Sure, it's prefaced as a peace brokering deal, but the changelings had a history of violence and genocide; to trust that this would never happen again is, at best, extremely naive.
44* Yukaphile: I didn't want to do this, I really don't want to hate a [=DS9=] episode, since it's my favorite ''Star Trek'' series because it dared to go where ''Star Trek'' had never gone before, and it kept the franchise fresh while ''Voyager'' had the franchise growing stale. But I just absolutely cannot stomach the presentation of the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E17WrongsDarkerThanDeathOrNight Wrongs Darker than Death or Night]]" and its sickeningly offensive depiction of wartime rape. So a bunch of women are rounded up to serve as sex slaves for the Cardassians during the Occupation of Bajor. Not without historical precedent, sure. However, the story just doesn't seem to put as strong a focus on this as I think it should. The women at the party are not portrayed as bogged down, crushed under the weight of a SadisticChoice, that to endure rape for comfort or endure rape in hellish conditions, which would certainly happen if they refused their Cardassian's advances, but in a bland and rather noncommittal fashion, which leaves you wondering if we're supposed to hate them or to sympathize with them. But if that wasn't bad enough, then the episode goes on to present how Kira Meru, who is being coerced through sweet words, BlatantLies, and careful psychological manipulation to fall for Gul Dukat, is a traitor. I find this so repulsive and insensitive to the subject of rape that it's the one [=DS9=] episode I try to actively avoid. This is uncomfortably reminiscent to how World War II era Germans would spit on women who prostituted themselves to an officer for protection from the patrolling rape gangs, and how the Germans and many historians today tend to view those women and female children who endured endless rape beyond the scope of the average human suffering as "perpetrators of crimes against humanity" simply for being German, when the vast majority of all those women and their children were not responsible for the crimes of the Nazi Party like the concentration camps and what their soldiers did in other countries, so to blame them, like it does here with Kira Meru, feels so disgusting and as far removed from normal human compassion as you can get that it ultimately killed the episode for me, and it came very close to ruining Kira's character for me. If you're new to [=DS9=], skip this episode. You're better off not seeing this piece of trash.
45
46!''Series/StarTrekVoyager''
47* Tropers/{{Tuomas}}: " [[{{Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS2E15Threshold}} Threshold]]". After all the bogus science and general stupidity in "Threshold", the final straw, the thing that made this the worst Trek episode I've ever seen, is the last plot twist: the Voyager crew discovers Janeway and Paris, who have devolved into these weird salamander creatures (because [[HollywoodScience that's what traveling at Warp 10 does to you]])...and they also discover the two have mated and have produced offspring! So in the three days they were missing, they've turned into lizards, mated with each other, and conceived children; their offspring clearly aren't newborns, either, so that's one helluva fast reproduction process. Chakotay then inexplicably leaves the baby salamanders on the alien planet, and they are never ever mentioned again. So the whole twist of Janeway and Paris having kids was absolutely pointless: it doesn't have anything to do with the themes of this episode, and it's completely forgotten by the next one. They just added an utterly silly and unscientific plot twist on top of all the other ridiculous things in "Threshold" for no reason at all.
48* Tropers/{{Doodler}}: "[[{{Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS2E9Tattoo}} Tattoo]]". Chakotay's status as the resident MagicalNativeAmerican varied in levels of offensiveness, but this episode was what proved that the writers had no idea what they were doing. To quote, the reason that the Native Americans are magical? They were [[TouchedByVorlons touched by aliens]], who were played by white actors. [[MightyWhitey White]] [[WhiteMansBurden actors]]. Oh, and until they were touched by these white aliens, they were backwards, language-less cavemen. First time I felt the need to take a shower after watching ''Star Trek''.
49* {{Tropers/JunkManDan}}: "[[{{Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS5E17CourseOblivion}} Course: Oblivion]]": While I am not of the opinion that ShootTheShaggyDog is never okay to use myself, it certainly has to be used right before I will tolerate it. WordOfGod pretty much confirms that this was done for the sake of it, and any ShootTheShaggyDog done as such, is an automatic dethroning moment.
50** {{Tropers/Bronnt}}: What makes this a DMOS for me is it's relation to the series. Too often Voyager ends with a literal reset button so the characters stay bland without real character development. The characters on the fake!Voyager experience a lot more character development than their real counterparts ever do. Fake!Harry was more interesting in this episode than the real Harry Kim 99% of the time. The lack of consequence was a frustrating theme of the show, and this episode got to tease character development while once again being consequence-free for the real Voyager.
51* 13thman: "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS7E9FleshAndBlood Flesh and Blood (Part 1)]]". This is actually a retroactive [[DarthWiki/DethroningMomentOfSuck DMOS]], starting with "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS4E17TheKillingGame The Killing Game]]", but it culminates here. Plot summary: the Hirogen are being killed by holodeck technology that Janeway gave them at the end of "The Killing Game". Janeway decides to save the Hirogen from the homicidal holograms against the Hirogen's will. Now that that is out of the way, here's the DMOS: why? Just why? I don't need to go into any particular details about the morals, motivations, actions, or logic of anyone in particular in this episode. All you need to know, in order to understand why Janeway taking the Hirogen's side against ANYBODY (even arguably the ''Borg'') is just wrong, is this: the Hirogen are the serial killers of the galaxy. The Hirogen's [[PlanetOfHats hat]] is using superior strength and firepower to hunt down any sentient creature, whether or not it is armed, whether or not it is a physical match for them, whether or not said creatures are surrendering, fleeing, trying to make peace with them, whatever. They strip their kills down to the bone and display various body parts around their ships as trophies. These aren't the Cardassians, or the Klingons, or the Romulans, or the Kazon or Jem Hadar, who kill for country, or honor, or for their master or state. Unlike the races just mentioned, there's no such thing as a target being unworthy for any reason (sick, old, not involved in a conflict, etc). The Hirogen kill because it gives them wood. Nowhere is this made more evident than in "The Killing Game", where the Hirogen turn all of Voyager into a holodeck, so they can ''repeatedly kill and resuscitate'' the members of the crew in various fantasies. Their evil is so ridiculous: the Hirogen get pissed at the doctor because the holodeck weapons are killing the crew members faster than the doctor can resuscitate then, however they refuse to turn on the holodeck safeties, because holodeck safeties make the killing less interesting. Wait - if Holodeck weapons and soldiers are good enough to kill the crew, why waste time with the crew? Why not just turn all the safeties off on the holodeck and shoot at 100 foot lava monsters that bleed fire all day? Well, because like I said before, the Hirogen are the serial killers of the galaxy - their goal isn't to satiate violent urges like a Klingon or Jem Hadar, their goal is to kill people. But, enough about TKG: when "Flesh and Blood" rolls around, the Hirogen have managed to program holograms smart enough to cruelly kill every Hirogen they come across. Given what was just described in TKG, the question we have to ask here is, once again, ''why?'' These serial killers made a weapon so powerful it kills them, and the first time Janeway offers to help, they threaten to turn her into prey, again? Why is there a plot about Janeway detailing the moral and philosophical reasons why Voyager has a duty to help the sadistic homicidal aliens that want nothing more than to kill them all and wear their bones for necklaces? ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Picard]]'' wouldn't have put up with that shit, and he is infamous for being slower on the phaser button than Kirk or Sisko. That Janeway did ANYTHING other than leave these animals to die the KarmicDeath they deserved turns this into a [[DarthWiki/DethroningMomentOfSuck DMOS]] for this troper.
52* WhyNotNow: For me, it's Neelix's actions in the two-parter "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS2E26S3E1Basics Basics]]." We all know Neelix was a CreatorsPet, and that all his claims to grandeur and his posturing were something we just had to live with, no matter how stupid it was, but those were the episodes which literally killed his character and ''Voyager'' as a whole for me. Why? Because Neelix gets two people killed. Neelix...gets two people killed! First, the entire reason he decided to join ''Voyager'' in the first place was because he claimed to be a survival expert, he knew the region, etc, but the thing you need to know about Neelix is that he has a massive ego, and he boasts about abilities he does not possess, so when the time actually comes that the Captain puts him in charge of one of the teams sent out to help gather supplies during one of the most basic survival situations of all, the ship stolen, stripped of their technology, he winds up not only getting two members of the ''Voyager'' crew killed due to his incompetence, but poor Hogan, the first victim, SwallowedWhole by the vicious land eel hiding in a nearby cave, the most gruesome and horrible end for any sentient being, but only after ordering Hogan to gather a bunch of bones, picking one up, and then dropping it right in front of Hogan and leaving him alone to pick it up again. It's amazing Neelix or ''Voyager'' ever had any fans after that.
53* Tropers/{{Unicorndance}}: "Leap of Faith" did that whole FalseDichotomy that ''Star Trek'' usually doesn't, with the whole "science vs. faith" thing. Science is ''not'' a belief, and it's not mutually exclusive with faith, yet here, Janeway is made to give up her devotion to science just to take the eponymous leap of faith.
54
55!''Series/StarTrekEnterprise''
56* Tropers/BryceBryans: "[[{{Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS01E13DearDoctor}} Dear Doctor]]" in which Archer decides not to help a race of dying people because he is led by HollywoodEvolution and believes helping them would violate a directive that hasn't come into existence yet. "Until I have that... ''directive''..."
57* Tropers/{{Lancel}}: [[GainaxEnding The last sixty seconds]] of the third season finale "[[{{Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS03E24ZeroHour}} Zero Hour]]". What very nearly redeemed the entire show with easily the best episode of the series to date was instantly destroyed when Enterprise is, without explanation, suddenly and randomly thrown into 1945 Earth. Archer is randomly found by Nazis, and one of those Nazis is an alien. [[http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/040528.html I am not alone in this]], but this moment tends to be overshadowed by "These Are The Voyages..." (see below). [[http://www.ditl.org DITL]] couldn't give the episode 5-stars because of just how much that ending sucked, and Graham admitted it easily had five stars up until that moment.
58* Tropers/{{Crazyrabbits}}: [[Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS04E21TheseAreTheVoyages "These Are the Voyages..."]] is almost universally reviled by fans (and the cast!), and for good reason: the series (and franchise finale) is a ''Next Generation'' episode in disguise, mixing {{Retcon}}s, out-of-character moments and a genuinely pathetic premise. However, in spite of all that, it might have been possible to excuse it as just being another lame episode... until the speech scene. Captain Archer is asked to give a speech during a ceremony making the founding of the United Federation of Planets, considered to be one of the defining moments in the history of that universe (and something the audience has never seen before). Captain Archer steps up to the podium, opens his mouth to say his first words... and it cuts to Riker and Troi watching the ceremony for a few seconds before terminating the holodeck program and leaving. It could have been one of (if not the) best moments in a series that was ridiculed during its entire existence, but it ends up being a woeful end to the original franchise (as ''Enterprise'' was the last Star Trek series aired in the original universe). Why, Braga, why?
59** Tropers/[=SorPepita=]: Trip Tucker blows himself up during a hostage situation. Not once does he think to wait for a security team to arrive (T'Pol alerts everyone to intruders on the ship), nor does he try to stall for time. Instead, he has the aliens knock the captain unconscious and then leads them to a room where he intentionally blows himself up... and for what? (There is an [[ExpandedUniverse officially licensed]] FixFic out there.) This one is so bad that one of the writers apologized to the Enterprise cast on a commentary.
60* Tropers/Thatsnumberwang: The whole idea behind "[[Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS01E05Unexpected Unexpected]]" is a classic case of DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale. Because date rape is exactly what the Xyrillian woman did to Trip by passing off that bowl of ice that they both stuck their fingers into as a harmless game instead of the sex toy that could get him pregnant that it really was. No mention on her part as to what it was or what it could do, no form of contraception offered, not even a "hey, maybe you should get checked out" warning when it was all done or even a "sucks to be you, I've had my fun, better do something about that" which would have at least been something. All she does is let him wander back to the ship with a child growing inside him that - and let's be clear about the best case scenario here - was going to rip his insides apart even before he gave birth to it as he was not biologically equipped to carry it to full term. And yeah, when pressed later she admits that she didn't know that they were compatible but so what? How does that justify her not informing him as to the nature of that sex toy she handed him? But the cherry on the cake, the bit that calls that very hateful double standard comfortably to the foreground, is that this whole thing is played for laughs by the ''Enterprise'' crew from start to finish in a way that it never would have been if Trip was a woman who had ended up pregnant thanks to a man who had invited her to "play an innocent little game with me".
61
62!''Series/StarTrekDiscovery''
63* Tropers/ModelOmega: The scene in [[Recap/StarTrekDiscoveryS1E10DespiteYourself "Despite Yourself"]] where Doctor Culber is killed out of nowhere by Tyler. This is the episode right after the one confirming the series first canonical, explicitly same-sex couple in six television series (and 12 movies) and right away the writers went for the tired BuryYourGays trope. And the producers even knew this was a bad look, having to immediately explain that "no this isn't over" and "we avoided the worst parts of it" but I'm done, this scene left me so disgusted I'm done with the entire project. It just feels like the only reason Culber and Stamets were made a romantic couple was for this scene to have extra emotional impact, and if that was the case it worked, it left me a raging, furious mess.
64
65!''Series/StarTrekPicard''
66* Tropers/CurtisMarauder: Several episodes after the revelation of Icheb's brutal murder, we have Hugh's death at the hands of a forgettable villain whose name I don't remember. In quick succession, ''Picard'' killed two beloved xB's from the Next-Gen era, in order to provide a single episode's worth of motivation for Seven and... further traumatize Elnor.
67
68!!''Star Trek'' films:
69* Tropers/OlfinBedwere: Data's death in ''Film/StarTrekNemesis'' somehow manages to make Kirk [[DroppedABridgeOnHim getting a bridge dropped on him]] seem like a masterpiece of good film-making. Even leaving aside the stupidity of how the situation came around to begin with, the way it's filmed makes it feel like it's just some random redshirt who's dying, not a character we've known and loved for fifteen years. And then just to ''really'' ruin any emotion that might still be in the scene, about thirty seconds later they add in a gag about Picard forgetting that the bridge viewscreen has been destroyed.
70* [=DevNameless=]: Every time they bring up "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" as a RunningGag in ''Film/StarTrekVTheFinalFrontier''. It felt like an insultingly childish gag from the start considering how the franchise had proved it could be very mature, but the fact they did not just let the gag die made me audibly groan when it got brought up in the film, especially when it's how they choose to end the film, basically.
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