Narm / Star Trek

As a franchise that's been around since the 1960s, Star Trek is bound to have some excessively campy moments from time to time.

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TV Series

Star Trek: The Original Series

• “Charlie X”. The ending of this episode is particularly narmtacular. The episode had a good concept, but the delivery of Charlie’s final lines is… hilariously awesome. “I want to stay… stay… stay…” is not bad in concept; but when the actor sounds utterly bored and is trying to drop his voice much lower than what it’s normally been, the laughs start coming.
• “Balance of Terror”: When the Romulan vessel fires its weapon at the outpost, which is talking to the ‘’Enterprise’’ at the time, the outpost commander throws his head back and screams as if he’s being burned alive. That, plus the lights flashing for an extended period of time, pretty much ruins the somber atmosphere that the show tries for as they realize the outpost is gone.

• "And the Children Shall Lead". Special mention to where Kirk looks like he's suddenly come down with a bad case of the runs right before the children's power takes effect on him. And then there's the "I'm losing command" scene in the turbo lift. And just the fact that children cause chaos on the Enterprise with magic and use it by making a jerk-off motion.

• This exchange from what should be a dramatic scene in "Amok Time":
  Spock: It's about biology. Vulcan biology.
  Kirk: You mean, the biology of Vulcans?

Star Trek: The Next Generation

• An earlier example of Star Trek Narm changed the course of an entire species. When Star Trek: The Next Generation began, Gene Roddenberry was involved in the series and trying as hard as he could to make it match the feel of the original series. Thus came the new "big menace for the Federation" in "The Last Outpost", the Ferengi, who hooted and howled like monkeys, cracked energy whips, and dressed in furs. It would have fit in perfectly with the original series's cheesy Sci-Fi of the day; to modern audiences, it just looked ridiculous. The Ferengi were quickly retooled into being a mostly comedy relief species and, ironically, probably became a favorite race of the series because of it. And Roddenberry & Co. quickly performed a make-good by bringing back the Romulans.
• The parasitoid aliens in "Conspiracy" were a bust, and the planned arc was retooled with a new, far more menacing enemy, the Borg, which paid huge dividends. Imagine how different the show would have been without the god-awful scene in which Picard and Riker shoot at Remmick and the alien in his chest until they both blow up. The special effects technology of the time, at least what could be had with a TV show's budget, really wasn't up to making this not hilarious.

• In "Night Terrors", we are subjected multiple times to Deanna floating through a cloudy, green-screen dreamscape with arms outstretched, desperately shouting, "WHERE ARE YOOOOOUUU??? I'M TRYING TO FIND YOOOOOOUUU!!!"

• Another moment of Riker Narm appears in the otherwise excellently creepy "Frame of Mind"; he lets out a Big "NO!" so unconvincing that you'll be ready to forgive James Earl Jones for everything.
• "Home Soil", which is one long narmfest of an episode - from the three terraformers (the young female one who spends almost the entire episode crying (and the few times she isn't crying she sounds totally bored), the young male one with the oh-so-'80s mullet, and the older one who gets most of their dialogue and borders on ham with his delivery of lines such as "I CREATE LIFE... I DO NOT TAKE IT!"), to the cast asking each other rhetorical questions over and over for most of the story, to the entire bridge crew feeling free to chip in and comment during the initial first contact dialogue between humans and the "microbrain" inorganic lifeform that continually calls the Enterprise crew "UGLY BAGS OF MOSTLY WATER" serving as the episode's antagonist. Special bonus points go to Dr. Crusher, whose delivery of the line "Life - force! Do - you - under-stand - us!?" is excruciating.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

• Season 1's infamous "Move Along Home" sees the crew trapped in a strange tabletop game that Quark is playing. If that sounds silly, wait'll you see the crew forced to play a hopscotch game and sing a little girl's chant ("Allamarine, count to four, Allamarine, then three more...") to get from one room to the next.
• During the otherwise soul-destroying "O'Brien must suffer" episode, "Hard Time", O'Brien violently snaps and goes on a rampage in the cargo hold. Unfortunately, this is depicted not by him actually getting to smash any actual props, but by him angrily shoving around some plastic cargo containers a totally anachronistic modern socket wrench like something out of a cartoon. It wouldn't have stood out quite so much if there wasn't an entire scene earlier in the episode devoted entirely to O'Brien going over all his fancy sophisticated space-tools.

• The best and worst example occurs during the climax of “In The Hands Of The Prophets”. The episode itself was good but Sisko’s slo-motion “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!”, complete with dropped pitch, at the most tense moment was jarringly funny.

• "Broken Link", Odo returns to the Great Link for judgment. He's later thrown to the surface of Great Link "ocean," gasping, shouting, and thrashing around, before washing up on shore unconscious. The scene is meant to show that something is wrong and the Great Link has rejected him, but he just looks like a ridiculously bad swimmer with a leg cramp instead.

• In "Defiant", Riker comes to visit the station. At one point he pulls off his fake sideburns to reveal... a goatee! It's supposed to be a dramatic moment, as his lack of full beard means this is not William Riker but Thomas Riker, his doppelgänger. However, the scene comes off as incredibly goofy, especially if you haven't seen the Next Generation episode where Thomas previously appeared, and therefore have no idea what this beard-pulling business is all about.
• In "The Ship", we meet Chief O'Brien's report Enrique Muniz, a character we've only seen before briefly (in season 4, episodes 7 and 19). The main crew, plus Muniz and some others, are on an away mission when they are attacked by a group of Jem'Hadar soldiers. Muniz is injured during the firefight, and spends much of the episode slowly bleeding out in the hold of a grounded Vorta ship the Jem'Hadar are attempting to take back. As his condition worsens, O'Brian and Dax, who we have never seen previously interact with Muniz, become increasingly informal and tender with him, referring to him by the nickname Kiké (short for Enrique), to a degree and frequency that becomes comical - it almost seems they're lampshading the fact we've rarely seen Muniz before. This is only topped by Muniz becoming delusional as he nears death, speaking in Gratuitous Spanish, believing that he's a child again, watching fireworks with his father. The overall effect is narmy in the extreme and has the unfortunate effect of positioning Muniz as a token Latino.

Star Trek: Voyager

• Voyager was loaded with them, but the topper has to be this:
  "Get the cheese to Sickbay!"
• In "Twisted", the ship is being crushed by a mysterious space wave and Janeway falls unconscious after accidentally touching the phenomenon. While the other officers stand around discussing how to save the ship, she suddenly sits bolt upright, gasps, "it's tALkiNg tO MEEEE," and then falls back down on the couch.
• In "Prototype", Torres describes how she created a prototype robot. She dramatically told Janeway that when she "installed that module, the prototype looked up at me, and asked me for programming."
• "Meld" is mostly Nightmare Fuel, which you'd think would include the epic Take That, Scrappy! moment where Tuvok strangles Holodeck!Neelix. Except the way his body collapses, with the weird head-tilt, isn't so much "corpse" as it is "say whaaaaat?"
• Klingon B'Elanna Torres in "Faces". Her speech patterns and accent made her sound more mildly annoyed than angry.

Star Trek: Enterprise

• The opening theme to Star Trek: Enterprise - which was a sticky sweet power ballad.
  • "Damage": Pirates versus ninjas!
• Archer's hamhanded metaphor in his now infamous "gazelle speech."

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

• "Strange New Worlds": Spock warning that the pain is becoming unbearable, screaming out in pain, then being perfectly fine.

Film

Original Continuity

• In Star Trek: The Motion Picture, there's the wormhole scene in all its overacted, slowed-down Narminess.

  NO! Beeeelaaaayyyyy thaaaat phaaaaser oooorrdeerr!

  • Remember the (loooooong) Enterprise-approaching-V'ger scene? All the bridge crew gaping at the lovely SFX? Now re-watch it, and consider how much they look like they've each been hit on the head with a large mallet.
• In Star Trek II, a red-faced Kirk yelling "Khaaaaaaaaan!" into his communicator. Classic Narm.
  • Made even more ridiculous when we find out that Kirk knew that the ship would probably rescue them soon. Fridge Brilliance when you realize that he was faking Khan out, in all likelihood.
  • Khan's Number One's pathetically whiny "I can't!"
  • Narrowly averted in Spock's death scene - originally McCoy was meant to say "He's dead, Jim." It then occurred to the production that since that line had become something of a meme after the Original Series, it might ruin the drama of the scene. Instead Scotty says "He's dead already."
• Star Trek III: Robin Curtis' performance as Lt. Saavik is total Narm. Curtis' attempts at playing an emotionless Vulcan often come off as wooden and forced, and thus unintentionally funny. The most notorious example of this:
  Admiral... David is dead.
  • What was even worse than her Narmtastic performance was her 1980s bouffant perm. Kirstie Alley's updo was more Vulcan than Curtis's borderline Afro. And Alley was much better at pulling off a Vulcan; that said, however, Alley was actually playing Saavik as half-Romulan and, thus, emotional. A scene establishing her as half-Romulan was filmed but deleted, and Curtis wasn't given the memo, so she played the role as a straight Vulcan, without the emotion Alley did.
  • Kirk's overlong reaction when told David was dead.
    You Klingon bastards! You killed my son!
• In Star Trek: Insurrection, Ru'afo, the fiendish villain of the movie, plots and schemes from the depths of his command chair of his imposing starship. Unfortunately, the chair from which he practices his Slouch of Villainy is a plush, cozy-looking red couch with gold embroidery.
  • Both of Ru'afo's NOOoooOOOOooooooOOoOOOOoooooooOOOos!!!!!!
  • While the Enterprise is getting pounded by Ru'afo's ship, things look so desperate that Riker decides he should pilot the ship himself... with an obviously off-the-shelf joystick that pops out of the floor. And it doesn't do anything that the helm console doesn't already do.
  • Crusher and Troi comparing how their boobs have firmed up was meant to be a private conversation and isn't actually all that different to Worf having a pimple or Picard losing some wrinkles. These are just physical manifestations of the crew growing younger. It's the immediate aftermath where Data walks up to Worf and talks about his boobs firming up that pushes the whole thing into narm. Especially as this really is something that season 1 Data would do as opposed to post season 7 Data who has a much greater understanding of human interaction - although that may have been the point.

Reboot Films

• Star Trek (2009):
  Nero: I WANT SPOCK DEAD NOW!
  • "SPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCK!"
  • Or the unforgettable:
  Pike: I'm Captain Christopher Pike. To whom am I speaking?
  Nero: Hi, Christopher. I'm Nero.
  • ... with all the formality and menace of a passive aggressive boss at a company picnic.
    • Then again, that's probably the point.
  • "FIRE EVERYTHING!!!" made even more hilarious when the line is reused by both the good guys and the bad guys.
  • The renegade Romulans look like an alien biker gang with a leather fetish; it's the Trench Coat Brigade Recycled In SPACE! The Badass Longcoat apparently has staying power across the centuries and across the galaxy.
  • And then there's Nero screaming at Pike. "I SAAAWWW IT HAPPEN! I WWWWAAATCHED IT HAPPEN! DON'T TELL ME IT DIDN'T HAAAPPEN! "
• Star Trek Into Darkness:
  • Many found Kirk's dramatic failed attempt to beat an increasingly confused Harrison on Qo'noS hilarious.
  • The somber engine room scene that ends up sounding silly after re-using multiple lines from a previous movie. Much of that sequence can be this for some. It can be hard to feel an emotional connection to the moment where Kirk saves the ship when it is not only the exact scenario from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, but re-uses the same dialogue in some parts, except unlike WoK, no one believed Kirk was going to die. Also, the reason that scene is so powerful in Wrath of Khan is that Kirk and Spock have a friendship that's grown so strong over many years and many shared adventures. This version of Kirk and Spock really haven't known each other that long.
  • Spock's exclamation of "KHAAAAAN!" during the engine room scene also spoiled the solemnity of Kirk's (temporary) death as well. Possibly deliberate as a Homage to a similar scene in one of the old movies.
  • The Klingons' redesign look more like Psychlos wearing a trenchcoat.
  • The absurdly gratuitous Lingerie Scene.
  • Into Darkness was the first Trek film shot in 3D. Cue a scene straight out of an SCTV parody in which Khan is asked to put his arm through a hole and of course he does so right at the camera. Even 3D aficionados groaned at this.
• The legitimately awesome Klingon music is almost totally deflated by the goofy-sounding lyrics the choir is chanting in the background.