History Main / KlingonScientistsGetNoRespect

** Noticeable in the fiftieth episode as he wins a card designer contest with his card "Ayers Rock Sunrise." He needs to undergo one more test against his professor. He goes all out and uses his own card no less. While he does not win (despite being pretty darn close to), he does go with his professor's blessing since the whole point was to test his mettle. He's more confident when we see him in future episodes working with Pegasus.

* ''Manga/YuGiOhGX'': Hayato Maeda/Chumley Huffington is going to Duel Academia to learn how to be a card designer, which is an important role since they're the ones maintaining the development of the game. Nevertheless, he's in Osiris Red (making him a social pariah by default), and even was held back a year, all because he himself isn't a very good duelist. Granted, part of it seems to be more his attitude than anything else and one does need to have an understanding of the rules to design cards.

** In ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', another Ferengi, Rom, is horrible at business but a skilled engineer and handyman. Nog cites this as part of the reason he [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fuzh6RT0wx8 wants to join Starfleet.]] Seeing the scorn his father went through for not making a profit, despite his skill with machinery, gives Nog the inspiration to sacrifice some of his Ferengi beliefs as he strives towards, and succeeds at, becoming the first Ferengi in Starfleet. He may not make much profit for himself, but he learns to adapt his cultural upbringing (trying to get people what they want, by whatever means available) to the Federation's more open-minded ideology, becoming a talented quartermaster and [[TheScrounger creating unofficial channels when the official ones aren't fast enough]] to keep the ship he's serving aboard fully supplied and combat-ready. He does this so well that it suggests that had he chosen a more conventional career for a Ferengi, he would have been able to do that quite well. However, Starfleet is clearly his destiny: In one potential future, he's shown to be a respected ''captain.'' Nog's decision to pursue a Starfleet career also helps Rom realize his full potential; over the course of the series Rom grows a spine (he seems to be inspired by his son's example), and he eventually quits his job at the bar and becomes a station engineer, where he quickly gains respect from both the Bajorans and Starfleet for his skill. [[BeyondTheImpossible This eventually culminates in Rom succeeding Zek as the Grand Nagus of the Ferengi Alliance in the]] GrandFinale.

* Turians, who are a proud soldier race rather than warriors, avert this entirely. While their scientists and engineers are often paramilitary roles, they are highly respected within the meritocracy. [[DeconstructedTrope Which is why they won the Krogan Rebellions.]]

* Turians, who are a proud soldier race rather than warriors, avert this entirely. [[DeconstrctedTrope Which is why they won the Krogan Rebellions.]]

** in Recap/StarTrekLowerDecksS3E05Reflections Boimler and Mariner are harassed by two outpost scientists (as well as an AdventurerArchaeologist in the next booth over) while they're manning a Starfleet recruitment booth, leading to boimler reaching his RageBreakingPoint and wreaking havok.

-->"I should just study bugs on a far-off planet, and then eventually get eaten, and no one will even know until they stumble upon my distress call, but it'll be way too late, and then they'll have to spend a bunch of time deciphering how things went wrong based on my final shaky video logs."

-->"Once again we're cleaning up a mess for a bunch of outpost scientists. You know why these guys are always getting eaten, dissapearing or getting eggs layed in their chests? Cause they're weirdos! You wanna explore space? Join Starfleet, go to the academy, but no, that's too much effort. They just gotta get their degrees in studying spores or whatever, then head out to the Quadrant and get devoured by a plant!

** in Recap/StarTrekLowerDecksS3E05Reflections Boimler and Mariner are harassed by two outpost scientists (as well as an AdventurerArcheologist in the next booth over) while they're manning a Starfleet recruitment booth, leading to boimler reaching his RageBreakingPoint and wreaking havok.

** in Recap/StarTrekLowerDecksS3E05Reflections Boimler and Mariner are harassed by two outpost scientists (as well as an AdventureArcheologist in the next booth over) while they're manning a Starfleet recruitment booth, leading to boimler reaching his RageBreakingPoint and wreaking havok.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'' reveals that Starfleet itself has a bitter rivalry with unafiliated or ''Outpost'' scientists as Starfleet calls them. The reason for this is that outpost scientists have a tendency to get killed by whatever they're researching, leading to Starfleet being called in to investigate, which Starfleet considers a thankless chore, the outpost scientists for their part consider Starfleet to be self righteous hypocrites because their members [[RedShirt die in droves a lot more often]] and because [[MildlyMilitary Starfleet picks fights with alien species despite claiming to be only interested in science and exploration]]. Several examples include:

** in Recap/StarTrekLowerDecksS3E03MiningTheMindsMines commander Ransom voices his hatred for outpost scientists and the one that appears in the episode turns out to be trying to scam Starfleet.

** in "Recap/StarTrekLowerDecksS1E02Envoys" Boimler has a breakdown and goes on a tangent about becoming an outpost scientist and Mariner reacts as though Boimler is talking about commiting suicide and [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan tries to get him to come to his senses]]

** in "Recap/StarTrekLowerDecksS3E03MiningTheMindsMines" commander Ransom voices his hatred for outpost scientists and the one that appears in the episode turns out to be trying to scam Starfleet.
** in "Recap/StarTrekLowerDecksS3E05Reflections" Boimler and Mariner are harassed by two outpost scientists (as well as an AdventureArcheologist in the next booth over) while they're manning a Starfleet recruitment booth, leading to boimler reaching his RageBreakingPoint and wreaking havok.

** in "[[Recap/StarTrekLowerDecksS1E02Envoys]]" Boimler has a breakdown and goes on a tangent about becoming an outpost scientist and Mariner reacts as though Boimler is talking about commiting suicide and [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan tries to get him to come to his senses]]

** in "[[Recap/StarTrekLowerDecksS3E05Reflections]]" Boimler and Mariner are harassed by two outpost scientists (as well as an AdventureArcheologist in the next booth over) while they're manning a Starfleet recruitment booth, leading to boimler reaching his RageBreakingPoint and wreaking havok.

* ''Literature/KnownSpace'': The Kzinti are a species of felinoid who are NOT naturally gregarious, and can only remain banded together in a civilized state by being obsessed with status and rank (and frequent duels to the death). The shlubs who do whatever work can't be done by slave races are at the absolute bottom of the totem pole. Telepaths are an odd case. On one hand, they are as remote from the perfect warrior image as possible: weak, neurotic, with matted fur. On the other hand, everybody recognizes their high value for the society. In the end they are tolerated, they get away with behaviour that would cost another Kzin his life (or at least his ears), but they are not promoted to higher positions. Low-status Kzinti don't even have ''names'', and are instead referred to by their job title, rank, or MOS. Higher-caste Kzin get a partial name ("Chuft-Captain"), and actual nobility get the honor of having a name that's exclusively theirs with no reference to their job. No explicit word on how they distinguish between the guys on different shifts/watches who perform the same job. Oddly enough, the Patriarch of Kzin is always called that or "The Patriarch", which would seem to be a rank/job title.

* Averted in ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross'': the Zentraedi are a Proud Warrior Race to the point that warfare is literally the only thing they ever do, so one would think that any non-fighter among them would get this by default. Nonetheless, they seem to hold their noncombatant strategists in high regard, and even the highest-ranking commanders are usually shown listening intently to what their adviser has to say. However, the Zentraedi manage to avoid the whole deal with scientists/engineers by having all their hardware built by a [[RagnarokProofing perpetually functioning, self maintaining]] satellite factory left behind by [[{{Precursors}} the ancestral race who created them,]] and [[SpaceAgeStasis having virtually no advancement in tech levels for centuries at all]].

* It's mentioned in ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' that the prevalence of superheroes has lead to ordinary cops getting a bum rap. While this is more justified than most examples -- legally, cops can't use their powers even if they have them and are consequently useless in most villain takedowns -- it's easy to forget that the cops are still the ones responsible for actually enforcing the law and deciding which cases do or do not require superhero intervention. For the record, All Might, the world's greatest hero, doesn't share this sentiment. In the first episode he tells Midoriya that becoming a police officer is an admirable path to take, and that no matter what the public thinks they're just as noble and trustworthy as anyone in the hero community.

* In the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' story series ''Fanfic/OfSheepAndBattleChicken'', krogan warlord Ganar Okeer is written as such. In this continuity, he is ancient to the extreme, well over 7,000 years old and the last known survivor of the Krogan Empire before war and the [[SterilityPlague Genophage]] caused it's collapse. In a case of the Klingon Scientist striking back, though, he saw that the [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Krogan]] had become too reliant on their high birthrate to replace casualties and were throwing themselves too recklessly into wars they couldn't win... so he helped ''create'' the Genophage to instill the value that Krogan lives should be precious, a lesson that the Krogan are still learning millennia later. It comes to full fruition when he introduces Shepard to his crowning achievement, Grunt, who is not only genetically engineered to be the perfect Krogan from Okeer's perspective, but emits an airborne pathogen that will interact with the Genophage in any Krogan Grunt encounters and then spread; it does not affect the reduced birthrate, but makes it far less traumatic and changes the gene structure of the surviving offspring to prioritize intelligence and other traits. He leaves it in Shepard's hands with a SadisticChoice: Either keep Grunt asleep in his statis tube or destroy him and continue to watch the Krogan walk a path to self destruction, or release him and eventually subject the entire Krogan race to genetic manipulation on an unheard-of scale to make them the race a millennia-old extremist would have them become. In short, because science was not respected by his race, his drove his race to the brink of extinction then held out a half-treatment that would ''force'' them to respect it.

* In ''Webcomic/ArtOfDomination'', Saramis scientists look down on those among them who aren't developing weapons. Medical genius Koda Serivi was pressured into designing a rifle, which came out with some glaring flaws.

** Averted with Leck from the ''[=DS9=]'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E10TheMagnificentFerengi The Magnificent Ferengi]]", a Ferengi]"Eliminator" (read: assassin-for-hire, he "eliminates competition") who's in it for the [[BloodKnight killing and combat]], not the profit. Other Ferengi are too afraid of him to show any disrespect.

-->-- '''Dr. Beverly Crusher''', ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', "Suspicions"

[[folder:Star Trek]]

* In "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E7DayOfTheDove Day Of The Dove]]," Kang introduces Mara as his "Science Officer" and it's clear that it's a respected position. Alas, she doesn't get to do much Science Officering during that episode.
* In one episode of ''[=DS9=]'' we heard a snippet of a Klingon science vessel's log where the captain spoke of winning battles against ignorance, and bringing home vast spoils in the form of new knowledge.
* In the ''[=DS9=]'' episode "By Inferno's Light", Worf is forced to fight several Jem'Hadar in a row, all brutal hand-to-hand fights to the death. Bashir treats his injuries between each fight as best as he can, and Martok vows to write songs about both Worf's combat prowess ''and'' Bashir, "the healer who bound the warrior's wounds so he could fight again!"

** The ''[=DS9=]'' Episode ''"Rules of Engagement"'' features another Klingon lawyer, Ch'Pok, who explicitly compares the court to a battlefield.

* In the ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' episode "The Augments" a Klingon doctor and medical researcher finds a cure for a bioweapon that is being used dishonorably by his superior. He considers himself being executed for delivering the cure to be equivalent to a warrior sacrificing himself to win a great battle. The idea seems to make him very happy.

* B'Elanna Torres, the half-Klingon main character on ''Series/StarTrekVoyager,'' is portrayed as being torn between her two cultures. As a Starfleet engineer, she is quite respected. Problem is that she is half-Klingon, and her focus as a Starfleet officer leads her to being dishonored for ''not'' being a Klingon ''ANYTHING''. By not embracing her Klingon heritage and bloodline, she risks sending both herself and her mother to Gre'Thor (Klingon Hell). Sins of the Child, as they put it. So while she gets respect for being a Klingon Engineer by Starfleet, she gets no respect by Klingons for not being Klingon. But late in the series a Klingon captain tells her that as the ship's engineer she keeps it in battle ready condition, so every battle the ship has ever won is her victory.

* The ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Suspicions" has the Klingon scientist Kurak, mentioned in the page quote. Dr. Crusher theorizes that her status as "not a people person" is due to being mistreated and disrespected by her own people, though she admits that this is just a guess.

* ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' "Judgment" has a Klingon Lawyer represent Captain Archer, and he laments how the Warrior Caste is bullying the rest of the population. He claims that this is a fairly recent trend. How recent exactly is unknown though, as his father was a teacher and his mother a biologist, and both were seemingly respected for it, but Klingons are long-lived. An implication given is that Klingon society goes through phases where they start leaning towards the easiest claim to fame; kill anything, strong or weak, and go brag about it at the bar. The lawyer resolves to be a voice to pull society back from that mindset at the end of the episode.
* In "Blood Oath", Kor, the first-ever Klingon from TOS's "Errand of Mercy", complains about how the old ways are dying, using the aforementioned Klingon restaurant serving aliens as a specific example.

* In The IDIC Epidemic, a Klingon engineer is in a weird mix of "working for the Empire" and "exiled for being a mere nerd." He is naturally part of the cure for said epidemic.

** Ferengi scientist Dr. Reyga, from ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Suspicions", wished to be taken seriously by the scientific community and had to fight against his own people's mindset. He invents "Metaphasic shielding" and is then murdered. Initially, only Dr. Crusher and a small team of visiting alien scientists realize just how valuable his discovery was. Later Dr. Crusher uses the same metaphasic shields to escape and later defeat the Borg... [[spoiler:by hiding in the corona of a '''star''']].
** On ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', another Ferengi, Rom, was horrible at business but a skilled engineer and handyman. Nog cites this as part of the reason he [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fuzh6RT0wx8 wants to join Starfleet.]] Seeing the scorn his father went through for not making a profit, despite his skill with machinery, gives Nog the inspiration to sacrifice some of his Ferengi beliefs as he strives towards, and succeeds at, becoming the first Ferengi in Starfleet. He may not make much profit for himself, but he learns to adapt his cultural upbringing (trying to get people what they want, by whatever means available) to the Federation's more open-minded ideology, becoming a talented quartermaster and [[TheScrounger creating unofficial channels when the official ones aren't fast enough]] to keep the ship he's serving aboard fully supplied and combat-ready. He does this so well that it suggests that had he chosen a more conventional career for a Ferengi, he would have been able to do that quite well. However, Starfleet is clearly his destiny: In one potential future, he's shown to be a respected ''captain.'' Nog's decision to pursue a Starfleet career also helps Rom realize his full potential; over the course of the series Rom grows a spine (he seems to be inspired by his son's example), and he eventually quits his job at the bar and becomes a station engineer, where he quickly gains respect from both the Bajorans and Starfleet for his skill. [[BeyondTheImpossible This eventually culminates in Rom succeeding Zek as the Grand Nagus of the Ferengi Alliance in the]] GrandFinale.

** Averted with Leck, a [[ProudMerchantRace Ferengi]] "Eliminator" (read: assassin-for-hire, he "eliminates competition") who's in it for the [[BloodKnight killing and combat]], not the profit. Other Ferengi are too afraid of him to show any disrespect.

** In the [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries original series]] episode "Elaan of Troyus," Elaan contemptuously dismisses engineering as a "menial" occupation, much to Scotty's irritation.
** Happens to humans too, via cultural shift. The season 1 episode "The Neutral Zone" has a group of humans who were frozen get thawed out, one of them being a financier. He has an especially hard time adjusting to his new life compared to the others, reason being that with Earth moving from a capitalistic to [[PostScarcityEconomy post-scarcity society]] means that his profession is of little interest to people outside of historians. One of [[FixFic the novels]] has him find a niche as an ambassador to the Ferengi: as a businessman, he's able to relate to and earn the respect of the Ferengi in a way that humans native to the post-scarcity Federation aren't able to, and his ability to open diplomatic channels with a difficult race in turn earns him the respect of the Federation.

* The head of the combined Demon army in ''LightNovel/{{Maoyu}}'', the Demon Queen, is an excellent strategist and a master of logistics, as well as an knowledgeable economist and a persuasive diplomat. Unfortunately for her, the Demon tribes are mostly Proud Warrior Races and she's thought of as one of the weakest Demon Kings ever. Even though she ''did'' acquire the job [[KlingonPromotion in the traditional manner]].

* In ''LightNovel/KinosJourney'', one country Kino visits is focused on increasing their crop yields to the exclusion of all else, and judge their citizens by how well they contribute to that goal. One old man who studied in another country and learned about many things unrelated to farming ends up being ostracized, as does his protege when she works on making an airplane. Luckily, the town comes around after seeing the airplane fly.

** This also explains why [[MagneticHero even the nicest Paragon Shepard]] easily earns the krogans' respect; if Wrex of all people was willing to follow them and defer to their command, [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking they must be doing something right.]] Bonus points if Shepard is an Engineer, on top of all that.

** Similarly averted in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'', where a Mage Hawke is adored by the population of Kirkwall for single-handedly ending the Qunari invasion, despite having been outed as an illegal Apostate who'd been secretly operating under the Templars noses for several years. This effectively makes Mage!Hawke [[HundredPercentAdorationRating politically untouchable]] by the Templars in Kirkwall.

* Creator/JohnVarley: In the Eight Worlds series, surgeon is considered a menial job and teacher the most venerated one. There are explicit references to the way people talk about grease monkeys in our own culture.

* ''Webcomic/DriveDaveKellet'': Tesskans have no scientists of their own: they enslaved the Fillipods to do the science for them. [[spoiler:And the Fillipods secretly bit them back during the war against humans, because they knew a human victory was good for them.]]

* Creator/JohnVarley: in the Eight Worlds series, surgeon is considered a menial job and teacher the most venerated one. There are explicit references to the way people talk about grease monkeys in our own culture.

** ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' has another example with the Jedi Service Corps. These are made up of Force Sensitives who were brought into the Order as infants, but for one reason or another, were not suited to becoming "warrior class" Jedi. They are put to work exploring new hyperspace routes (Exploration Corps), teaching underprivileged children, running orphanages, and doing scholarly work (Education Corps), acting as the Order's medics and going into natural disasters and plague outbreaks as healers (Medical Corps), or terraforming new colony worlds, restoring worlds blighted by disaster and war, or growing crops to feed the Order and relieve famines (Agricultural Corps). Yet, while these positions are called "valuable contributors" on paper, the rank and file Jedi see the Corps as a humiliating life-long punishment and a sign of failure and disgrace with the people in the Corps as washouts and screw-ups.

** Happens to humans too, via cultural shift. The season 1 episode "The Neutral Zone" has a group of humans who were frozen get thawed out, one of them being a financier. He has an especially hard time adjusting to his new life compared to the others, reason being that with Earth moving from a capitalistic to [[PostScarcityEconomy post-scarcity society]] means that his profession is of little interest to people outside of historians. One of [[FixFic the novels]] has him find a niche as an ambassador to the Ferengi: as a businessman, he's able to relate to and earn the respect of the Ferengi, which in turn earns him the respect of the Federation for his work as a diplomat.

** Happens to humans too, via cultural shift. The season 1 episode "The Neutral Zone" has a group of humans who were frozen get thawed out, one of them being a financier. He has an especially hard time adjusting to his new life compared to the others, reason being that with Earth moving from a capitalistic to [[PostScarcityEconomy post-scarcity society]] means that his profession is of little interest to people outside of historians. One of [[FixFic the novels]] has him find a niche as an ambassador to the Ferengi, which is the best of both worlds: the Federation respect him as a diplomat, and the Ferengi respect him as a shrewd man of business.

* Speaking of Rudolph, in ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'', a small red robot by the name of Randy wants to carve wooden reindeer, despite being seen as a failure to his robot brethren for not having a desire to destory things.