Which Star Trek Character Actually Has the Most Wasted Potential?

[@OpinionVille]

Dude. Our Ensign's Log Podcast DEPENDS on the underdeveloped characters in Star Trek!

[@SteveShives]

Which is why we've got material for years and years!

[@ZagnutBar]

@@SteveShives With regard to Majel Barrett being nixed from the series due to 60s sexism, did you ever listen to that audiobook of TOS executives (Herbert "Sulu" Solow and Robert Justman- search KZbin for "Inside Star Trek") who "set the record straight"? They claim that Roddenberry frequently tried to get his girlfriends into the series, and the execs resented this. They even claim Nichelle's "casting" was set up by Gene. I'd love to hear your take on this, and on that audiobook in general. It's a fascinating listen. Edit: here's the link kzbin.info/www/bejne/j2iUgoqNeq-EZtk

[@mammon_is_god]

Thank whichever teenager with godlike powers you personally pray to for that!

[@russellhallett]

I love the it's Travis mostly the second time had me laughing for more character development in this video lol

[@ttintagel]

I also think Spock was the more interesting character, regardless of the acting ability of anyone involved.

[@ttintagel]

It was touched on incredibly briefly in one episode, but I wish they had taken a closer look at the fact that back home, among full Betazoids, Deanna has a disadvantage that's practically a disability, but out in Starfleet where she chooses to work, she has an advantage. As a person with disabilities I found that fascinating, and I would have enjoyed watching them explore that idea.

[@theevilascotcompany9255]

Not so sure about that, it seems that even among full-blooded Betazoids, there's a lot of variation in terms of their telepathic/empathic powers (e.g., Lon Suder had effectively no active telepathic abilities, and that was likely the least remarkable thing about him; Sabin Genestra was a full-blooded Betazoid and a renowned Starfleet counterintelligence operative but seemed to only be slightly more powerful than Troi). It's possible that telepathy to Betazoids is like physical strength to humans, with significant variations in the species that's still considered normal.

[@tsharabrown3719]

@@theevilascotcompany9255 Even so, it's the difference between being in a social/professional community where almost no one has telepathic/empathic abilities versus being in one where it's as common an attribute as physic strength. That could be an interesting comparison. It could still work as an allegory for ability/disability like OP suggested.

[@robertt9342]

@@theevilascotcompany9255​​⁠… I am more in agreement with the OP here. Suder had a known disability among betazoids, and I think Genestra was a product of early writing about the species and required limitations for the sake of the plot. Also is there an imbalance between male/female capabilities? Has this ever been addressed? Maybe Genestra was a gifted male betazoid.

[@thedarkestowl4224]

Healthy way of looking at it!😊

[@TheMadMaple]

I used to jokingly call Harry Kim "the world's toughest redshirt" 'cause he was always getting his ass kicked on away missions.He even technically died a couple of times. And he STILL didn't get promoted by the end of the show.

[@vguyver2]

Yeah, him Scotty, and O'Brian. Difference is Harry had the second lowest rank and was never promoted. Well, that's not exactly true. He had a alien ooze duplicate who was promoted and by the end of that episode he was acting captain as the ship and crew splattered into the vacuum of space. But still not the either of the 4 other "real" Harry Kim's we met. Scotty was a chief engineer and a legend in the federation, but he was still the first Red Shirt to be killed but be resurrected. I used to joke he was the patron saint of Red Shirts as a kid. O'Brian, he is ranked lower than Harry despite being the engineering chief of the station. He's more if a warrant officer and Nov became his superior in Star Fleet as an ensign. Of course Chief could still order him around due to his special station authority, but Nog could order him around off the station.

Harry was a stone-cold badass with more emotional strength than most of the crew put together. One episode that stands out is when the ship is passing through a starless void: everybody else was going stir-crazy and he was just sitting on the bridge composing clarinet pieces. Janeway lucked out with him because if he had been less intrinsically motivated he would have checked out after 3-4 years of zero acknowledgement.

[@Darlf_Sevil]

From kid to men who can fight aginst borg kill dammm Janeway

[@hyrinshratu]

The absolute worst part about Harry not getting promoted was the fact that Paris was demoted and then got his rank back. Harry even commented on how he wasn't promoted!

[@JaredLS10]

That always annoyed me. Janeway could have promoted Harry before promoting Paris back to JG. I can see Tom saying something to Harry like "can't boss me around anymore Harry" Jokingly.

[@hharvey3]

@@JaredLS10 Then there was the episode, Nightingale, where he comforted Janeway and said he would be Lt, even Lt Commander, if they were not in the Delta quadrant and she still didn't promote him.

[@munkykng416]

harry was such a punching bag, didn't even get the girl(s). I was hoping star trek picard was going cancel Seven and Chakotay for Seven and Harry. But she's batting for the other team now, so...

[@chencalo]

Also that Tuvak was promoted to Lt Commander while they were out there! If she could promote him, why not Harry? Hmmm

[@Mortlupo]

@@oddish4352 Kind of like when they can't even get military uniforms right even those there a whole military base right next to them.

[@H4hT53]

Concerning Troi: She did have that one episode where she infiltrated the Tal Shiar, though...that was awesome.

[@Zachomara]

Clearly she could have single handedly annihilated the Romulans without firing a shot. But her potential was wasted being shiny object for people to dismiss.

[@AprilGabrielle]

I'm not a big fan of Deanna, but I can't deny that was an awesome episode.

[@gustafsone]

That's not just my favorite Troi episode, it's one of my favorite in all of TNG. Marina acted the shit out of that episode. She was amazing!

[@InJeffable]

I don't know if this is true, but I've heard that Troi would have been written off the show if Denise Crosby hadn't decided to leave. So it could be that the writers were kind of forced to keep her on the show and then didn't really know what to do with her. But yes, that Tal Shiar episode is a really good Troi episode.

[@tsukikage]

Troi had a somewhat useful arc in Voyager as well, at least to the extent that she actually got to be a therapist.

[@Borgking79]

Garrett Wang apparently went to the producers and asked why his character wasn't getting a promotion. The answer he got was "But who's gonna be the Ensign? We need an Ensign."

[@munkykng416]

Acting ensign icheb? Talk about wasted...

[@GuineaPigEveryday]

Jesus christ, sorry but idk why ppl defend this show so much, the writers clearly didn’t give a fuck. Why did they ‘need’ an ensign? Thats not how a ship works, besides Harry does most of the science officer job anyways

[@andrewbullock4665]

I just had a thought. In the Kelvin Timeline Uhura could speak Klingon, Romulan and a few other unnamed languages, and had superhuman hearing abilities that even Superman could envy. What if in TOS Uhura had the same ability and lost it when Nomad wiped her memory. It would explain why she couldn't speak Klingon in The Undiscovered Country, and why she became heavily reliant on the universal translator...

[@markpierce4416]

I like that idea. To qoute Mr. Spock, it's the most logical explanation.

[@Jozjazz1952]

One of my favorite Uhura moments is when she needs to do that re-wiring of the ships communication system and Spock tells her how confident he is in her ability. I can’t remember what episode it was, but it was a great moment.

[@francoislacombe9071]

It was Who Mourns for Adonais?

[@bjturon]

I recall that too! Great moment.

[@ComradeOgilvy1984]

Yes, it is a nice touch for someone like Spock to acknowledge that she is undoubtedly the most qualified person on the ship to complete this difficult technical task. While it is perfectly like the Spock character we love, it is a common error for writers to let the main character hog these moments.

[@Thefailgamercom]

Her and Scotty do it together in another episode and she is shown to be way more competent than Scotty with what she can do. Really enjoy seeing her do things like that.

[@almightylordsalamander2245]

@@ComradeOgilvy1984 Underplayed as it was, Uhura and Spock had a nice dynamic in TOS. Especially their very first interaction in The Man Trap and of course being the Enterprise musical duet. To me they always felt like the most reliable bridge officers if Kirk or McCoy or Sulu got into trouble, to the point where if Spock or Uhura is affected by the problem of the day (Like those plant spores from the "paradise" planet) It's a real "Oh shit" moment and emphasizes Kirk being alone against a problem.

[@thomaswilder2850]

I am pleased to always remember Uhura, under her console, rewiring stuff, telling Spock to sod off and leave her alone to do her job. And Spock leaving in a huff.

[@BrowncoatFairy]

god man i've only just discovered you but i love you. throughout your closing statement, i was just deadpanning "it's mayweather .... it's mayweather .... it's mayweather ..." and then you're just like "it's travis." YUP!

[@sigyn27]

I think Ziyal is more of a wasted potential than Ezri. With Ezri's character they did all they could in one season. With Ziyal they did not bother. We can see how other characters in the show seem to care about her, but it's difficult to care about her as a viewer. She seems nice and she has a few scenes where she seems intelligent and funny, but not enough to become an interesting character. It's a pity because she was important to Kira, Garek and Dukat, but not really to the viewers. A half Cardassian half Bajoran character seems great on paper. A huge wasted potential.

[@gustafsone]

Although I feel like they could have done better with Ziyal as well, I think one issue was that she was portrayed by three different actresses during the run of the show.

[@sigyn27]

@@gustafsone I think this just shows how badly the character was treated. The last actress was the best though and she could have been given more scenes before the character was killed. The problem with this character is the dissonance between how important this character is for other characters in the show and how little she actually does in the show.

[@md-vq8sp]

One thing that I wouldn't have done is pair garek with ziyal as it just came off as creepy.

[@anewredtruck]

from Ziyal's first introduction it was obvious she was destined to be fridged. her sole purpose was to die in order to develop Dukat's character..i was surprised got any development at all

[@Shakeshift]

Also keep in mind Ziyal was played by three or four different actresses in her time on DS9. Talk about not caring about a character!

[@jamescampion4393]

I think Porthos could've had a more well-rounded character arc; his most interesting development was when he turned into a Rottweiler in the mirror universe!

[@robertt9342]

All we really get to explore is his fondness for cheese as a treat.

[@PolevayaMysh]

I don't think the mirror Porthos was really the counterpart to prime Porthos. He was a different dog who had the same name because mirror Archer preferred a different breed but still liked that name. The real counterpart for Porthos probably had a different owner .

[@CarlEusebius]

I must respectfully dissent when it comes to Ensign Ro. As you point out, the producers (okay, Ron Moore) wanted to develop her more on DS9, but Michelle Forbes didn't want to commit. I don't think we can say that's "wasted" potential so much as "lost" potential. And while I can't disagree with anything you said about Troi, I think Dr. Crusher was also pretty thoroughly wasted. How would you describe her character beyond "she's a doctor" and "she's Wesley's mom"? Troi got her "badass Tal'Shiar spy" episode and her "I'm in command of the ship" episode (where she faced off with Ro), and Beverly got a "faking an orgasm with a space ghost" episode. To me it's a toss-up. Still, let me say I'm in agreement with pretty much everything else, especially the Harry Kim thing. Compare DS9's treatment of Ensign Nog to Voyager's treatment of Ensign Kim (oh wait you did that). And is it disturbing that nearly all of the "wasted potential" characters are PoC or women or both? I'll let you decide. But the answer's yes.

[@Nehelenia3000]

Carl Eusebius but Beverly had also that episode when’re she investigates the death of the Ferengi scientist which is one of my favorite in the series. The least is said about Sub Rosa the better. They’ll definitely bring her for s2 of Picard so fingers crossed.

[@CarlEusebius]

@@Nehelenia3000 Okay, I give you that one. Still, isn't that still firmly within the confines of "being a competent doctor"? Plus it's 1 good episode to at least 2 of Troi's. (Wait there was "Remember Me" where Beverly loses people on the ship and is pretty damn smart about it, including my favorite moment where she asks the computer "If I'm the only crewmember then why is the ship so freaking big?" and the computer is like "Does not compute." Okay, 2 for Bev and 2 for Deanna.)

[@estherbarba1409]

That's what I was thinking. "Wasted potential" are almost always women or racialized characters, and now some "fandom" are complaining that "we're shoving feminism and SJW wokeness down their throats". Really? I'd love to shove something down their throats, and it would not be my "agenda"!

[@estherbarba1409]

@@oddish4352 Virility' How do you know that the Space Ghost is not a lady ghost? (¬‿¬)

[@maxwellschmidt235]

I was going to try giving a counterargument for an "in fairness". Then I realized all my examples of most realized characters who were women or POC were from DS9, where O'Brien is the only white male in the main crew (Bashir is white-passing, but both in life and on screen he is middle eastern). Other than that, yeah, there are some well realized women and poc, but def problematic.

[@katelafontaine7119]

As far as Harry Kim is concerned, one thing that always came to mind for me is that there was a huge opportunity wasted with his big thing being Tom's Best Friend. I would have liked Harry to have developed a BFF relationship with B'Lanna instead. Literally his first major character interactions were with her on the Caretaker's Array and later on they always worked well together and played well off of each other whenever they had episodes together. That could have made for some really great character development for both of them.

[@MichaelJohnson-vi6eh]

It seems clear that the writers ran out of ideas for the "lost ship" scenario. Harry and B'ehlanna would have had multiple opportunities to save everyone from starving or being poisoned or asphixiated on a regular basis. Voyager should have been a laboratory of how to just survive in an unknown environment - but it always seemed to be functioning at 100% all the time.

[@hdufort]

In Enterprise, I was very disappointed at how Ensign Hoshi Sato was a greatly written characters with a few interesting episodes at the beginning. But then they just choose not to use her character much anymore.

[@aarona.aaronson9621]

I would like to point out one character on DS9 who had literally unlimited potential and never got their fair share of spotlight. Full of wisdom, wit and charisma, a true friend to his friends, a ladies' man yet always respectful, with loads of awesome stories to tell yet we never see any of them fully explored. Plus he is also hilarious, but not in a goofy way and he would have made a great representative of a species whose culture we still have to further explore. I get it that with him already having some of the series' most memorable dialogue the showrunners were probably worried he might overshadow the main cast, but I do not think it would have been too much to ask to have at least one episode to focus on the true lad that is Morn.

[@MyMagnificentOctopus]

Pulaski wasn't beamed into space, she stepped into an empty turbolift shaft.

[@kingbeauregard]

I get the reference, even if nobody else did. What, is everyone like 19 years old?

[@gkarenko9593]

I thought she did that on another show. Didn't she play at least three characters in Star Trek?

[@therealhawv]

This made me belly laugh. Well played, sir.

[@thegrayshaws]

Was going to make the same comment.

[@NeilBlumengarten]

@@kingbeauregard I got it, too! For some reason, even though I didn't watch the show, I did end up seeing that episode and thinking, "Poor Pulaski!”

[@LordBloodraven]

Another underdeveloped character on TNG was Chief O'Brien. He seemed to shift in rank and duty throughout his early stint on the show, more due to their lack of continuity than just lazy writing. Also, his most established characteristic was being the married guy who becomes a father. I'm just glad they gave him some proper character moments in DS9.

[@bjorn00000]

Oh, you forgot one series! Star Trek: The Animated Series is often forgotten (like you had noted before!), and only having a handful of half-hour episodes meant that a lot of character development wasn't possible. But TAS did add bridge officers that were distinctly non-human: M'Ress, a cat person (voice by Majel Barrett), and Arex, a humanoid with a third arm in his chest (voiced by James Doohan). It was an interesting idea to do this, but they were really just background characters that fared worse than even the previous supporting cast in the cartoon. But man, while M'Ress got a little bit of something (I think she flirted with Scotty in an episode?), they literally did *nothing* with Arex. So it seemed like a *bit* of wasted potential. But heck, in the end even the three-armed random animated guy bit player probably got a better deal than Travis.

[@MultiEinsteinium]

Arex would definitely have been awesome, had SFX/Costumes allowed it. And definitely a good shout on forgetting The Animated Series.

[@bjorn00000]

@@gregbauer4433 Well, you are in luck! kzbin.info/www/bejne/hZvXaJmpqpenlc0

[@williammitchell4695]

Dr The Animated series actually gave more for Nichell (may her soul ascend) to do and for her character to grow

[@singingbanana]

Agreed the heck out of this. I only take issue with the claim that Uhura was the only female cast member in TOS. I would say that Yeoman Rand and Nurse Chapel were just as prominent in the series, (or at least the first season) even getting their own episodes. It is only the movies that demoted their status in the cast.

[@willvgo2950]

Actually, there were no female main cast members in TOS. Season 1 only had Shatner & Nimoy and seasons 2 & 3 added Kelley. Doohan, Takei, Koenig, & Nichols are often though of as part of the main cast because they were in a lot of episodes & the 6 feature films, but they were recurring guest cast.

[@achtsekundenfurz7876]

Exactly. She was not part of the main cast, but the only woman in the bridge crew. A black women at that, in a darker decade, where ironically, TV shows were less "dark." ;) But seriously, she was not a "switchboard operator" in space, but a much more visible "secretary in space." During her day and age, that was almost unheard of, and the execs were taking quite a leap of faith there putting her on the bridge. Sure, from today's perspective, she could have so much more. But ST:TOS was half a century ago, where she didn't have today's potential. If anything wasted her potential, it was primarily the society back then as a whole. Uhura was FAR closer to full potential than, say, Troi two decades later.

[@GuineaPigEveryday]

@@achtsekundenfurz7876ery true and also weirdly enough TOS felt like it made much better use of Uhura than Troi, who was given a prominent role and position yet was far more useless and wasted than Uhura was? Idk even when Uhura was sidelined she was a lot more interesting than Troi in the limelight. Troi’s character also felt way more patronisingly male-perspective, the episode where her and Beverly are doing yoga and gossiping about this hot dude, like jesus, or Troi being obsessed with chocolate, having a temper tantrum when her half-psychic power disappears, all these really obviously condescending qualities of what TNG’s writers think women are like, that and Beverly as the maternal archetype. The only one who stood out was Pulaski and Ro as decently written

[@MichaelHaneline]

I think almost every character on Voyager should be high up on the wasted potential list. Chakotay's base premise in particular could have made for a very interesting character if built upon properly. Instead we got... what we got.

[@andrewh5568]

Harry was originally meant to have a Mentor-Mentee relationship with Chakotay which would have been amazing, a Star Fleet idealist and a Marquis "traitor" learning from each other, Harry learning about how to compromise a little and survive and Chakotay rediscovering the spirit of the Federation and idealism. Don't know why they never followed through, I think they were going for a Belana/Harry friendship in a similar vein that was derailed by Paris/Belana falling in love

[@nicolasbazzano2028]

Personally, I think Keiko was the most underutilized character on DS9. Which is odd when you consider how hard they worked to get couples together on the show for story purposes, and how well used everyone else was. And then Keiko just kind of fades into Mrs O’Brien instead of Keiko pretty early on, and just shows up to usually fight with Miles. And come on, you know it was Harry. I think even Chakotay has more wasted potential than Travis, and Chakotay is practically 3D compared to Ensign Kim.

[@geoffallshorn5167]

Keiko was an embarrassment in the way she was written. When the writers didn't know what to do with her, they made her a school teacher, because everyone knows that teachers require neither training nor qualifications. Keiko as teacher was a throwback to the dated sexist attitudes of Little House on the Prairie.

[@thork6974]

Keiko's limited screen time was due at least in part to Rosalind Chao not wanting to commit to playing a regular character.

[@shadowboss3]

I never even realized that Harry Kim did not get promoted during his time on Voyager. The Captain even let him be in charge of the Captain chair(I can not remember what the correct term for watching the ship on the bridge when that Captains not there) during the night shift.

[@IanZainea1990]

I'm a dipshit talking about star trek while wearing the cap of a fictional baseball team. This is why I enjoy your videos. You don't take it too seriously, and you're able to maintain perspective.

[@OnTheNerdySide]

We actually see Troi's wasted potential turned around in her appearance on ST:Picard. Gone are the setups to her psychic abilities, and she's just able to know and empathize with Picard and Soji in a much more natural way. She counsels both Picard and Soji, giving both of them reasons to begin to trust each other, although Kestra helps with Soji, as well. Best of all, she was written as a person, not just a T&A character as she was throughout much of TNG. If this version of the character was in the show, we wouldn't be asking if Guinan would have actually been a better counselor than Deanna. As for her personal life, with just a few lines, we know exactly how much it hurts that she's lost her son, and how much she loves her daughter. We see that she still loves her friend Jean-Luc and would help him any way she could. We also see that Troi and Riker's romance shouldn't have waited until the second-to-last movie to start up again. Her detour in dating Worf should have been spent rekindling her spark with Will. That's a character development arc that was introduced in the pilot and should have been paid off by the series finale.

[@alanpennie8013]

I have a niggle about killing off her son but it was a very good episode as you say.

[@Falconman1121]

Steve: Which character has the most wasted potential? Me: He's going to rant about Voyager. Steve: *rants about Voyager* Me: *Stuffing popcorn in my face and loving it* Called it.

[@achtsekundenfurz7876]

Also Steve: 01:08 * _sets main title in Babylon 5 font_ *

[@MrOuter]

RE: Discovery, I'd make the argument for Detmer over Owosekun for similar reasons to why Harry and Travis had the most wasted potential on their shows. Detmer had a built in arc regarding her past with Burnham. It was implied early on in the show that Detmer did not like Burnham due to the events of the Battle of the Binary Stars which sets up some real potential for a character arc surrounding how the two of them cope with serving together again. I know some of that ground was already covered by Saru, but it's pretty much never touched on again and by season two we're seeing the two of them getting along reasonably well (probably thanks to both being friends with Tilly) with the potential for tension quietly forgotten about. Plus they gave her some fancy prosthetic.

[@robertt9342]

It also seems like they were going to do something with Detmar, but then nothing happened. At Least Owosekun still seems to have better opportunities for future use.

[@H4hT53]

Also, she's only the second Starfleet officer from Germany seen on screen - the first being Carl Jaeger in TOS' The Squire of Gothos.

[@horizonbrave1533]

This. Been fascinated with Detmer and the "Daft Punk" character on the bridge of Discovery...but alas....we get Burnham crying... And Owosekun, Rhys, hell even Airiam would have been great to see more of.. I liked how in the beginning of Season 2 we got a few cute scenes of Detmer and Owo, having their 'girls' moment, it was looking up for a while....but then we got nothing more....except....Burnham crying..

[@NeilBlumengarten]

I came here to say this. Imagine if as a subplot every time Lorca depended on Michael, Detmer was seen seething, leading to a confrontation where she reveals what she's been through because of Michael. Imagine if the shame of being present on the bridge when Michael mutinied was a mark against them. No one but Lorca wanted them present, explaining why both Saru and Detmer are there. Imagine if Michael had to come to the realization that her actions negatively impacted others. And, now, she had to deal with that as Lorca gave her more and more responsibilities. How cool would it be, then, if she were to be the one to question Lorca, but ultimately keep it to herself, afraid to end up like Michael, realizing, like her, Michael must have felt her commanding officer was wrong. And then, after everything is revealed, she must come to terms with her failure to have stopped everything if she'd had the courage of convictions Michael had. A mutiny against Lorca might have gone horribly wrong, but it also could have saved everyone a lot of aggravation and potentially prevented the months of Klingons running roughshod over the Federation. Now, imagine if Detmer were able to work through that and the scene where she joins Tilly at Ash's table after he kills Culbert is because she's learned to forgive others. And imagine it allows her to grow as a person.

[@CaptainPikeachu]

I imagine season 3 will fix background cast issues given we’ve removed some of the bigger names at the top and left them in the past. It opens up space for the recurring characters to get their time to shine.

[@inikoli]

My thing with Harry Kim is that, he should not have received the posting of the Bridge Ops Officer as an Ensign. You don't have green officers as part of the senior staff. It would have made more sense if he was made the Ops Officer due to his Academy records, after the assigned Opp officer died during the incident with the Care Taker.

[@Elnont]

As much as Bones was a main staple of the original series, I’m a firm believer of his character being incredibly under utilised.

[@glen1555]

He wasn't the original doctor, there was no introduction he just appeared.

[@johnchedsey1306]

It's a shame that the Voyager concept didn't get put off until the current era of ST shows. I think they'd be willing to serialize it, go darker and actually create genuine story and character arcs that were very powerful. Voyager's concept is still a fantastic one but the alien/medical/pickle of the week format definitely kept it from reaching its true potential of a lonely, stranded ship far from home.

[@jasonarthurs3885]

Agreed. This was the true wasted potential in Voyager.

[@JessieGender1]

I, for one, am shocked and appalled that you didn't mention M'Ress from The Animated Series. For shame...

[@danilejai7801]

Uhura definitely! Once i saw Uhura’s skills in the mirror universe, I knew they were desperately wasting Nichelle Nichols talent. Next definitely Pulaski, her character had the most potential for growth.

[@kaitlyn__L]

She wanted to quit after the first season because of the under-use, in fact!

[@c0t0d0s7]

“It’s a big galaxy, Mr. Spock.”

[@cainsolo1]

YES, Travis Mayweather was THE most underutilized and underdeveloped character in ALL of Star Trek. There is one particular episode of Enterprise where T'Pol is chasing a fugitive and Archer and Mayweather are helping her. Archer's involvement was COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY. This was a perfect opportunity to develop Travis as a character. Or the episode "minefield"; Sulu, Riker, Ro, Crusher, Rager, Paris, & Dax could NEVER fly a starfleet vessel through a cloaked Romulan minefield, with a mine attached to the hull while the captain and weapons officer are EVA on the hull disarming that mine! In my book that makes Travis Mayweather THE BEST pilot in all of Star Trek!!

[@Russell_Crockett]

Ok, I know it will never happen but I want to just hang out and binge DS9 with you. Out of all my Trek friends throughout my entire lifetime I have never met one that had DS9 as their best Trek and damnit I want to watch it with someone who shares my love for it! Added bonus you just seem like a cool dude to hang out with, and thanks again for these amazing vids.

[@sovak75]

The really sad thing is that Uhura was in 70 of the 78/9 episodes, more than any other character except the big three (even more than Scotty) and was sidelines the most.

[@RagnarokiaNG]

When it comes to characters who got the most unexpected development I think the DS9 Farengi in general especially Rom got good treatment, it's hard to imagine at the start how all their stuff would end up being such a large side part of the show.

[@johnymustacio]

the ferengi got development but i still want their entire civillization burned to the ground, so i wouldn't be bragging about their development... i mean they ar3 worse than the borg and the one or two developed ferengi are an ecception. and this raises a bigger issue, since like in really life, how much a person is defined by their work is a matter of how much they devote to their job, so using describing someone away from their job as a metric feels entirerely like bullshit to me.

[@JohnDoe-sl6di]

@@johnymustacionah

[@risemixFGC]

I don't know how common this knowledge is, but Deanna Troi was not originally a "mental health professional." Her title was "counselor" because she was the Captain's "counsel" (or military adviser) which is why she was sitting on the bridge next to him. In season 2 they realized how difficult it was to write for her without most of her lines being "I'm sensing..." so they started to shift her towards being more of a therapist, although that didn't mean "I'm sensing..." went anywhere, really.

[@kingbeauregard]

I didn't know this, but man, they had to know there was a central problem there. If people aren't clear on what a "counselor" is -- I sure wasn't -- then maybe don't call her that! Make her a "diplomatic officer", there, I just pulled that out of my ass, that would have been an easy fix. Still wouldn't have fixed the writing, but at least it wouldn't cause needless confusion.

[@k1productions87]

Hmm, that actually makes a lot of sense, i never thought of that. There could have been a lot of story potential there too,... if Troi wasn't originally just repurposed Lt. Ilia. For all intents and purposes, Dr. McCoy was the Captain's Counselor in TOS as well, which I think is why they made this more official (though not really recognized in canon) position.

[@alanpennie8013]

@@k1productions87 Having a telepath on board could give you a massive advantage in a Space battle if she could anticipate the enemy's moves.

[@TopherIsATribble]

I don't get all the hate on the Kelvin films. But maybe that's because they got me into Trek. I developed a crush on Chris Pine when I was 7 and he was in Princess Diaries 2, and when I sat down with a family friend while waiting for his daughter to come back so I could hang out with her and he put the movie on, it was Chris Pine that got me into the movie. And The Kelvin Timeline got me into Trek, but also other great stuff like Heroes. And it'll always be special to me. (I wrote this comment right after hearing you talk about the hip/edgy stuff and I just... Had to get it off my chest. At 5 AM.)

[@ethelwulfmountbattenderoth2286]

DS9 was written so well that even secondary characters were so fleshed out that they had their own episodes.

[@stareyedwitch]

DS9 needed another season to properly wrap up the Pah Wraith story line, and there's so much they could have done with it. As side story lines there's the end of the war; the victors working out how to deal with the Cardassians; Nog trying to fill O'Brien's shoes despite not being chief engineer; Quark coming to terms with Rom being Grand Nagus; Garak struggling with becoming a leader on Cardassia because of his role in the war and association with Damar, and feeling out of place in a public facing role; Sisko torn between the Prophet-insisted hunt for Dukat and his excitement about having another child, and everyone worrying about him; Ro Laren as DS9's new chief of security and her butting heads with Kira; Ezri showing us the scope of a Star Fleet counselor's role and helping people with their PTSD; Bajor finally joining the Federation... war stories have rich story telling potential, but the aftermath has more. Also, I really want an episode, or even just a long scene, focusing on Picard negotiating something with Martok and Garak.

[@SiriusMined]

RE: Harry's rank I'm reminded of Father Mulcahy in MASH. Even he got a few episodes devoted to him being frustrated about his rank.

[@johnlockhart7751]

Yeah but he did get promoted.

[@CaptainAndy]

I was also very confused by Uhura having her memory erased. When she's being re-schooled she is speaking Swahili, so are we to believe she's had her memory erased except for early childhood? Even then, how the hell is she supposed to be educated enough to be a Star Fleet officer within the incredibly short amount of time given? If they can educate people from child level to Star Fleet officer level so quickly we should see a lot of very young Star Fleet officers.

[@logiciananimal]

I sometimes wonder if the crew were supposed to be massively younger in some cases - read the descriptions of Dehner and Mitchell in "Where No Man Has Gone Before". (In their twenties? What??)

[@c0t0d0s7]

Did they have to re-potty train Uhura?

[@andscifi]

I have watched all of Enterprise twice and when you got to it I thought Hosie, not because it was right, but because I forgot that Mayweather existed. A shame because he's a good concept for a character. He wasn't just the fresh faced young man. He had grown up in space and if they wrote him that way could have known more about living on a spaceship than anyone on the crew. Imagine if they had bothered to write a character who was both the lowest ranking person on the bridge as knowing more about many of the situations they were going into than the captain.

[@robertt9342]

This actually comes up a couple of times in the series. However, given that they are traveling further than and faster than his family's freighter, his "experience" can only go so far. Still, it would have been more interesting to see a better focus on his abilities in scenarios where his experience would come in handy.

[@Tuning3434]

@@robertt9342 Agreed, I'm sure they've had some close calls in their freighter at times too, and for a crew that is mostly specialized around the Warp 5 project, and doesn't really show to have that much expertise on actual space exploration, he was a bit of the odd ball out. Archer and Trip seem to be fully stationed in the Warp 5 project, Archer seems to spend a good part of his career as a test pilot / (advisor) and Trip as an R&D engineer. Hoshi is even new to space. Reid we don't get told to much about, but apparently he's been around, just like Phlox and T'Pol.

[@ChromeJob]

Enjoying your videos…. Agree with many of your choices here, except -. For the TOS movies, my pick is Saavik. Clearly at her starting point in her career in ST II and her frustration with the simulator is a strong “B” story, with a bit of growth when she learns what the legendary ADM Kirk did. Then ... well even with a new actress, she had kind of an interesting position in ST III, of soothing, and “nurturing” the reincarnated form of her Academy mentor Spock. Then … there’s a little awkward exchange with the recovered Spock in ST IV, then poof gone in ST V. Presumably, she’s off on a real post-Academy posting, getting some experience and skills and confidence and all. Then in ST VI she was supposed to be back, serving on the 1701-A with her mentor and Kirk, and … - Roddenberry didn’t like the twist they served Saavik’s journey, so she was renamed Valeris. You can tell, in the scene between Spock and “Valeris” in his quarters, it plays like it’s Saavik that Spock is hoping will take his place as an important Vulcan serving in Star Fleet. Who’s this Valeris chick coming out of nowhere?? BS. It’s Saavik. And I love how it turns out that her character, her perspective, the sum of her experience off on her own career path away from the 1701-A in ST V, has turned her into someone we won’t agree with. Perhaps for her own good reasons. The scene of Spock all but mind-raping her in front of the bridge crew to get information, is so so SO much more emotional and heartbreaking if you think that it’s Saavik. Spock is clearly moved: he angrily swats the phaser (set to heavy stun, or kill) out her hand with as near a look of fury that a Vulcan could muster. When he’s done mindmelding with her on the bridge, it seems that a part of him has died. ST VI was not only the final bow for the TOS crew, but it brought to a bittersweet end the arc of Saavik, but - they screwed the pooch. Renaming the character robbed us of a great character tale, robbed the movie of a strong thread, and robbed the actress of added meaning to her performance. When *I* watch ST VI: TUC, it’s Saavik. Dammit. ;) Keep on Trekkin’.

[@chinsin24]

THANK YOU for saying Harry. It's so hard to watch him sit on the sidelines the whole time. He could have become an iconic actor for Asian Americans, just like George Takei. Sigh...

[@ronin7997]

Absolutely, and Garrett Wang is such a cool guy at conventions too. Voyager wasted so much potential with him, glad that Steve had a nice long -rant- discussion on his character.

[@Zachomara]

It's not even about being an asian actor for some people. I'm not asian. I always thought he was the most identifiable person to me on Voyager when I first started watching it.

[@dingle2987]

@@Zachomara I think he’s pretty relatable for young preteens who aren’t interested in ladies and money.

[@SeruraRenge11]

You say just like George Takei but...Sulu didn't actually DO much in the original series. That's why it's kind of a longrunning joke that you can tell a TOS watcher from someone who's only seen the TOS movies by how important they think Sulu and Chekov are.

[@jasonarthurs3885]

Did you watch TOS?

[@BlUsKrEEm]

I 100% agree with this assessment. I was already to argue in the comments, but you nailed it. So either I watch to much of your show, or you made a personalized version for each viewer.

[@basiliskxviii]

I totally called Travis from the start. I loved the guy, he was such a happy, enthusiastic character, more of a puppy than Porthos, and he had the weird position of being both the rookie, and the person with the most experience in space of anyone. He could have got a lot of mileage out of that paradox, but then they basically dumped him front and centre on the bridge where he was apparently expected to be very quiet and to pretend he didn't exist. Also, the Harry Kim promotion thing got so much more egregious after the Equinox two-parter "Equinox". Janeway suddenly gets this dump of a handful of new crew, all of whom are in the shit for being murderers, including at least one new ensign (Marla Gilmore), and Janeway couldn't make them take over whatever Ensign-level scut work that Harry had to be doing so she could reward what is probably the most accomplished ensign in the history of Starfleet with a nominal increase in rank? REALLY? Hell, by the end of the franchise, Seven had more authority than Kim, and she wasn't even commissioned. Alas, poor Harry.

[@Ensgnblack]

Nice shout out to the RLM Star Wars reviews. I love those reviews for both their humor and their actual film criticism. Thanks for another video, I love your content!

[@starfox1]

re: troi , "...almost never actually said or did anything intelligent or useful" lol i love it. her episode on picard is a great example of how good the character could be .

[@meandmyEV]

This. And also the incredible quality of Marina Sirtis’ acting.

[@johntousseau9380]

@@oddish4352 "It took thee shots of something called Tequila just to find out he was the one we were looking for." So... she didn't know what he looked like? Which is strange because the movie goes on to say what a hero Cochrane was and there were statues of him, and they had to learn about him in school. It seems a bit absurd.

[@gustafsone]

@@johntousseau9380 I wonder if that was more of a joke on Zefram being a lush. It wasn't that Troi didn't recognize him, it was that Zefram himself wouldn't acknowledge that he was Zefram until after having more drinks.

[@jimslancio]

A meeting between Worf's brother Kurn and his adoptive human brother Nikolai could've been interesting.

[@MB-sq7yn]

From a potential story perspective I feel as though Troi's potential was honestly the biggest waste in the franchise for one reason. Sure Travis and Harry could have had a lot of character growth through their respective series we didn't get to see, but we've had the 'New Blood' story many times before, including IRL since that's something we can experience ourselves really depending on our place in life. But exploring the depths of what it could mean to be Psychic, and better yet, what it means to be a little Psychic fish swimming in a big Psionic pond, all the while surrounded by even smaller fish who aren't Psychic at all. All the different experiences she would have to translate to people who can't feel them on their own, all the different phenomena she alone would have to deal with, or perhaps only be able to deal with, the way she might be closer to the universe than her peers, and what that might mean for her opinion of them and their kind as opposed to hers. What sort of culture and philosophy would a species of Psychic beings have in regards to other races who in their eyes are basically crippled? Lacking in a fundamental sense to really thrive in the universe? We got bits and pieces of that sort of thing, but it felt very surface level, I suppose a proper exploration of such themes would have taken the entire show in a completely different direction, although with the likes of the Borg and Q's lessons already delving into what it means to be a person, that look into Psychics and how all things considered they may as well be the next stage of sapient evolution considering the 'Higher Beings' all being esoteric and with great personal power over the cosmos, it really wouldn't have been out of place IMO.

[@heavysystemsinc.]

It was nice that she had something intelligent to say and do in Picard. As well, Riker stuck up for her independence and agency quite a few times in TNG, so it is strange that the writers didn't do the damn same for her!

[@alanpennie8013]

Nobody much liked Nightfyers but the relationship between the psychics Thale and Dr Agatha was very well handled.

[@achtsekundenfurz7876]

I got the impression that nobody on the TNG writing staff knew how to do non-medical professional female characters properly. Her empathic traits were hardly if ever used for anything a non-empath couldn't have guessed (though there were a few eps where she sensed that something was off, e.g. nightmares or depression which the rest of the crew didn't experience yet). And when she was in charge of the bridge (when the Enterprise was hit by some disaster which threatened to compromise the antimatter containment), she more or less asked what that would mean, instead of e.g. whether there's a way to shield the rest of the ship from the explosion. All of that a few lines after she had been established as a fully qualified Lt. Cmdr. who would be in charge of the bridge in that case (main crew was out and couldn't return due to lift failures). And the writers let her down with a line that's not the equivalent of asking if jet fuel could melt steel, _but if jet fuel is flammable._ That was probably meant as an exposition hook, to get confirmation from Engineering that the entire ship is in danger, rather than a character-establishing line, but that's high-school level writing, if that much.

[@jasonarthurs3885]

But Troi was half Betazoid. She understood, viewed and acknowledged her psychic limitations as a disability. Regrettably, this aspect of Troi was not explored further.

[@erf3176]

Kinda agree with the overall vote for Travis as most wasted potential. He had kinda of a contradictory story. He was the young rookie, as far as his Star Fleet experience. But he also had more time in space, been to more planets and met more aliens than anyone else in the ship. So he was both them most experienced and the youngest, lower ranked officer. The reasons for it always struck me as odd and unexplained by the show. The people running trading ships like Travis' family should have a lot of space time. But you'd think that even w/o warp 5, start fleet crews would be out there, using similar warp tech as the traders and making trip to some of the same planets those guys were visiting, even if those trips took a bit longer. If the private cargo ships could do it, Star Fleet should had been able to handle it too.

[@MatthewCaunsfield]

The whole "TV executives prevented a female second in command" was quite well refuted in "Inside Star Trek: The Real Story" by Robert Justman - the execs definitely wanted females in prominent roles, they just didn't want Roddenberry (a married man) casting his mistress there! Of course, Gene could hardly tell Majel that, so the "meddling executives" story was born.

[@willgillies5670]

oooooh, SCANDAL GOSSIP! lol

[@NorthernPlainsAero]

Matt Bell Just saying, Mabel Barrett (later Roddenberry) was a good actress, a fact that often gets glossed over, including in your comment. Yeah, Roddenberry was a horndog, and if you didn’t know, also had a thing with Uhura (I can’t imagine Nichelle Nichols with him. I suspect it was a casting couch thing to an extent, though he was known to be a ladies man and a charmer). I don’t think Majel or Nichelle should be shortchanged of their acting ability, though the bigger victim there was Majel. So, just sayin’ give credit where credit it due. Also, I will be commenting to the OP here because he failed to mention Majel being the actress who was underused in his analysis of the original pilot. She deserved a mention there.

[@ttintagel]

I'm still not 100% convinced. If their only objection was to that particular actress, they could have just insisted on a recast. I'm not certain either version of the story is completely true or untrue.

[@k1productions87]

Roddenberry was a masterful spin doctor. He invented the "sexist studio execs" story, the "Pravda was complaining that there were no Russians on the Enterprise" story, even the "Wrath of Khan makes Starfleet look too militaristic" story. The REAL reason for his objection to Wrath of Khan was the death of Spock, because he felt the studio was taking away everything Roddenberry created so they could take Star Trek itself away from him. He felt the same about Search for Spock because they destroyed the Enterprise, and were clearly creating a new ship to take its place.

[@kademcarthur5362]

I think it was a mix of both personally

[@NeilBlumengarten]

Another great video, Steve, but you released it on KZbin, which means everybody and their mother gets to jump in on the comments and tell you why their opinion. And why let others have all the fun (okay, to be honest, I already jumped in to back Detmer, who I think had so much potential, not that Owo doesn't, but being present on the Shenzhou, being injured, side-eyeing Michael, all tell me so much more could have been done with her. Not that they can't flesh her out, but I laid out already how I would have handled her. As far as your choices, again, all really good ones, and well argued. For TOS, yes, it's Uhura, though I do want to throw a special mention to Chekov who appears out of nowhere (even though, as TWoK would have us believe, he was there the whole time). Special shout-out to M'Benga who was basically stored into a closet for the majority of the show. Hell, even Chapel and Rand got to re-appear in the movies. Not Riley, though. Never Riley. I saw Ro in the thumbnail and thought, "Yeah, she did get little development, but how could Steve pick her over Troi, he did a whole Trek, Actually on Troi's wasted character!" But, you came through. Anyway, the main point of my comment is the back Saavik as the TOS Movie character. David is a fine choice, but by his very nature as a long-lost child he was either going to be ignored/never seen again or killed. But, Saavik, man. If what I've read/heard is true, then there was a lot planned for her that never got to screen. First and foremost being the tidbit that maybe she's half-Romulan. As we'd see with Simon Tarses in the 24th Century, she'd either need to keep that buried or face a lot of issues because of it. For all we've seen of Spock reconciling his humanity with his Vulcan heritage, it would have been interesting to see that conflict play out with a half-Romulan. Then there's her relationship to Spock. It's clear she's his star pupil, but is that based on her standing in her class of cadets, her half-Vulcan nature, or was Spock seeking out young Vulcan women for some other reason? Granted the idea was to have Saavik in Star Trek VI and wouldn't that have been something if she were the traitor instead of Valeris, but it does seem odd that Spock kept seeking out young, Vulcan women as proteges. And then there's the dropped story idea that Saavik would stay on Vulcan in TVH because she was pregnant with Spock's Pon Farr baby. While, ultimately, it's a good thing they didn't go there, it would have been interesting for Saavik's character. When you think about it, Saavik was in half of the TOS films (granted the scene in TVH barely counts) and might have even brought the total up to 67% if they had used her in TUC.

[@ebonspace]

I agree about Pulaski. They could've brought her back for guest spots. Ensign Ro actress did not want to carry on. Kira is a continuation.

[@scottbilger9294]

That is my understanding as well. The producers basically created the character of "Major Kira" for Michelle Forbes as Ro Laren but she turned them down. I was heartbroken. She was one of the best characters from any Star Trek franchise.

[@Peaceforall20111]

I love your analysis in your videos; very engaging, entertaining, and enlightening.

[@borimirtheboring]

On Uhura's wasted potential: I agree with what you're saying completely but at least some of the problems with her character development are due to the limitations of the way television shows were written at the time. All shows were one off episodes, written by separate writers. The Original series is more like an anthology centered around the same characters and situations, rather than a modern series with plot continuity and series long story arcs. Shows only develop the characters that this week's writing team want to write about and the show runners would balk at a story that gave too much time to a secondary character. Apparently so did William Shatner. There's a story that Shatner tossed a fit when Spock started getting as much attention as he was. Spock was originally intended to be a second tier character, like Mr Scott or Mr Sulu. The fans were the main reason that Spock started coming up to the front of the stories.

[@glen1555]

She was going to quit but was told to stay because she was a rare black character on 1960s tv

[@glen1555]

Read about a scene in which Mr Sulu was the main character. Kirk had a word with the director, and it was reshot so the camera was mainly on Kirk, with brief cutaway to Sulu. eg

[@michelleann1910]

​@@glen1555She was advised that by no less than Martin Luther King Jr himself. He told her that her role was essential to the black community and its struggle for equality and recognition. He told her that she was a role model and heroine for the aspirations of all young black girls in the country. He's the reason she decided to stay on the show.

[@MatthewTurland]

Re: Harry Kim, I think the excuse about not being able to promote people was BS. She promoted Tuvok from Lt. to Lt. Cmdr. in the opening of S04E05 "Revulsion." She demoted Tom Paris (S05E09 "30 Days") and then repromoted him (S06E26 "Unimatrix Zero"). Kim just got screwed. I also agree with others who've commented on this video who've stated that Chakotay deserved at least an honorable mention for wasted potential on Voyager. Agree on most other points, though. :)

[@ultimatedbz2]

RE: TNG, I have to put my foot down here and stand up for Ensign Sonya Gomez. She started out as a very promising addition to the cast. Surrounded by the best of the best on the Enterprise she comes across as a more down to earth, relatable character, she's actually excited to be assigned to the enterprise, eager to impress the senior crew, if not a bit clumsy and awkward making mistakes. She basically acts like how one of us would if given the chance to serve on the enterprise, a very down to earth relatable character whose ideas eventually get reused in Barkley and Tilly. What really upsets me though is for one, she's the only Latina character I can think of out of all of Star Trek until Rios came along THIS YEAR (though granted I'm just finishing DS9 now so there's still room for me to be wrong here). For a show priding itself on its diversity and inclusiveness, it's surprising to see them barely work to have more racial representation than TOS, especially given the state of the world and how important representation can be (where's my Muslim character, my trans character who isn't an alien trill, an African character FROM Africa). Outside of that she had really REALLY good chemistry with Geordi, proving that the writers could have given him a meaningful relationship WITHOUT making him a creepy weirdo, it's clear the writers had plans to make her a love interest for La Forge in the couple episodes they had of her and once those plans fell through she was just gone. Hell, she was important enough to get introduced alongside the god damn Borg! She could have been the Tilly of the TNG era if the writers just stuck to their guns and found a way to keep her on, but I guess once you spill coffee on the Captain you're out the airlock.

Yes! And she appeared for only 2 consecutive Episodes. When I was watching, like 3 or 4 episodes later, I found myself thinking "where's she????".

[@kaitlyn__L]

Geordi was said to be from Africa, and Crusher was born on the moon, not that it ever came up in dialogue - just on screen personnel files once or twice. Of course their actors are all from America. But there is a recurring engineering guy in DS9 called Enrique Muniz, he's introduced in the fourth season and is a recurring extra for a little while. Not exactly a long list though, eh. There was all of one time an Indian person was seen in Starfleet before Bashir, too.

[@k1productions87]

I think the character of Sonya Gomez was re-written to be Reginald Barklay.

[@ChristianAkacro]

There was Ensign Martinez in DS9, but he was a one-off character

[@ultimatedbz2]

Thanks for bringing the voy cast up, I'm not up to it yet so I won't be able to judge whether or not they're latinex roots play into their characters (chakotay I thought was just portrayed as indigenous american and from what little I remember of voy tores only ever came across as half klingon though I don't know enough to say if her human side comes into play) also we're probably getting to a decade after she appeared in tng for us to get to the voy cast. But if we want to give credit I do think I forgot to mention hugh from disco as well

[@vampirefrompluto9788]

Personally, I think Wesley Crusher had the most wasted potential (at least in TNG) because the writers never seemed to know what to do with him. He was Dr. Crusher's son who sometimes showed up, then he was a science/math wiz, then he was an ignorant child (TNG: Justice), then he is the only observant person on the ship (TNG: DataLore), he is honest to a fault & then becomes a liar due to peer pressure (TNG: The First Duty), & then he became a cosmic being because the writers didn't know how else to end his story even though they could have just left it to our imaginations.

[@Niko-hi5my]

The Trill, as a whole culture, were badly neglected in DS9. The series explores Bajorans, Cardassians, Ferenghi, the Dominion, but strangly we learn hardly anything about the Trill, even though there are two main characters. They are just like humans with spots and symbionts, and I feel both Jadzia's and Ezri's character are suffering from that, Jadzia being like a Klingon with spots...

[@floydlooney6837]

They did have a couple of episodes dealing with it, just not anywhere near enough

[@JonathonV]

Floyd Looney I might disagree with you there. I think there's quite a bit In TNG's “The Host”, where they got their start, Odan and Beverly talk at length about it. When Jadzia visits the home planet because of her flashbacks to the psycho killer, we see the planet, the Symbiosis Commission, and the symbiont keepers. We first learn that it's gauche for symbionts to fraternise with friends of their former hosts in DS9's pilot, then more so when a lover of Dax's former host comes to DS9. Then there's the episode with Varrad, the Jian'tara, Ezri's family, the initiate that Jadzia has to train … I actually think there's quite a lot of material about the Trill as a species and a culture. But of course there could be more.

[@Niko-hi5my]

@@JonathonV True, there are episodes about the Trill, but they all focus on the symbiont-host relationship, while at the same time we are told that only a select few Trill actually get a symbiont So these are not your 'typical' trill. What I am really missing is what makes the Trill society and culture special. Are they a people of commerce like the Ferenghi, of science like the Vulcans , are they religious like the Bajorans, warriors like the Klingons, militaristic like Cardassians? We just don't know! Not that I want to stereotype, but hey, that's what Star Trek does with the non-human races :).

[@rotwang2000]

Remember, everything in Trek is about human nature. Bajorans are about religion and faith, Cardassians are about fascism, Ferengi about greed and the Dominion represents colonialism. Klingons were militaristic space Russians while the Romulans were the sneaky communist Yellow Peril. As for the Trill they seem to be somewhat tangentially referring to Trans people, but Trek didn't really weigh in on those matters much for most of its run and what there is it's all hidden layers of subtext because it was the 60s-90s ...

[@GuineaPigEveryday]

Idk i like that Ezri is the furthest from the klingons. I never get the impressions trills are klingons with spots, its very clearly a Jadzia obsession left over from Curzon’s involvement with many klingons. Ezri clearly does not share that sentiment

[@Nerd704]

Ro Laren is an interesting case in that while we didn't get to see nearly enough of her herself we did get a glimpse of her potential in Kira who was written to be her. And then Voyager was also written to include her but didn't. Although her replacement there wasn't nearly as interesting as Kira. Ro is the character you could tell the producers KNEW there was potential for and kept trying but the actor just wasn't interested in being a series regular.

[@thegrayshaws]

Nowhere Man was an awesome show! It would be so cool if you did a episode about it. I even have the DVDs.

[@cprince7609]

Yes! But do you have the negatives ? ;)

[@thegrayshaws]

@@cprince7609 lol

[@richarddeese1991]

Thanks. With around 150 people onboard, Harry Kim cannot possibly have been the only newbie. I'd have liked to see at least a nod toward something like this: Janeway tells Kim that she knows this is his first gig. She says that there are a few others there who are also new, and - although none of them are bridge officers - she'd like him to talk to them as a group; provide them some leadership. Berman's seeming distaste for running story lines didn't do this show any favors (even though it managed to have a few). And he apparently had it in for Garrett Wang, who's the only Trek actor not allowed to direct. tavi.

[@1monki]

Agree on Harry Kim. He was established to either transform and become a more important character or doesn't transform and doesn't make it. But VOY producers chose an odd middle ground where he dies but doesn't change, weird.

[@pauln6]

I agree with much of this but it's untrue to say Uhura was the only woman in the main cast. As Strange New Worlds has shown, Nurse Chapel had a ton of potential but my top pick for TOS would be Yeoman Rand - the female lead who was fired in season one. Her character was badly written and forced into a very menial role, usually being stalked or sexually assaulted but if you look at the early draft of City on the Edge of Forever, she jury-rigged a transporter and took command of a security team. Rand could have been amazing.

[@thegrayshaws]

Yes to all. ENT- The interesting thing about Travis is that he has more experience in space than anyone else on the ship. But he needs to learn how to be an officer and how to lead people. TOS- Uhura- I think it is important to mention that Nichelle Nichols wanted to leave the show because she was tired just sitting there and answering the phone as you discussed, but Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. convinced her to stay saying even if you don't say anything, just you being there on the bridge is so important to the cause of civil rights. TNG- Troi- Yes! Troi and Riker were the ones who gave the promotions! So she is essentially the 3rd most powerful person on the ship... And the worst part is even when she did have episodes they usually featured Lwaxana too, so I never liked them. DS9- Ezri Dax. Yes, I think Ezri Dax is great. Is it wrong to say I like her better than Jadzia...well, I do. VOY- Harry is such wasted potential. He was even going to be written out wasn't he? I forget the details but there was that cliffhanger where he was dying and I remember reading that he almost did.

[@aaroncalhoun337]

My money for the character with the most wasted potential of all it would be Uhura. I can imagine Nichelle thinking " I sware if my only line again is ' hailing frequencies open sir ' in this episode I am walking out". No wonder she wanted to leave the show.

[@beefsuprem0241]

I thought the MACOs in enterprise, or at least their CO could have had a bit more development. Or an episode of their own.

[@robertt9342]

Looking back, I am surprised they didn't make a MACO centric episode where it's of the lower ranked characters that are just thrown into the fray of the events not knowing the context, just dealing with the missions and consequences of events. You could even use the plot of multiple episodes as a basis.

[@LazsloPanaflex]

I spent long stretches of season 3 thinking "where are the MACOs?" Hayes is only in 5 episodes or something. Then they just became set dressing in season 4 when there was still potential to do stories about the presence of soldiers in peacetime.

[@odinlindeberg4624]

@@robertt9342 Generation Kill, but with space marines. Generation Trek. Except Trek isn't nearly as much of a crapsack as real life, so that's a no go.

[@gustafsone]

Did you know that the actor who played Major Hayes (Steven Culp) also appeared at the end of Star Trek: Nemesis as Picard's First Officer Commander Madden? If you're scratching your head right now, the reason is likely because his scene was deleted. It can be found in the dvd/bluray extra features (or a quick youtube search). Apparently he was to take over for Riker when he left the Enterprise to captain the Titan.

[@medusaswan3899]

I agree with all what you said and I'll add some other characters: - PU!Philippa Georgiou (DSC): We didn't get to know her or see why she's an amazing character. We know she's very important for Saru and Michael but that's all. - Kimara Cretak (DS9): she could have been an interesting recurring character and we could have learn more about Romulans. - Sela (TNG): I'm not a fan of Sela, I think she's more like a cartoon villain but her backstory was interesting, she's half-human, she's the daughter of Tasha Yar and.... nothing. We never meet her father ?! What the hell was going on with him ? Why everybody believed her when she said Tasha Yar was dead ? She could have been still a prisonner. The crew didn't seem to be shock with Tasha's fate. Even if it was an AU!Tasha. It could have been even better if our Tasha was alive and meet the daughter of an alternate version of her. A weird Romulan family drama is always interesting to watch. - K'Ehleyr (TNG): I feel like her story isn't really complete. I'm very frustrated with the turn of her plot. And I'm not sure Star Trek Picard did well with Narek and Narissa. They were kind of creepy with each other and they became interesting around the end of the season. like Sela they were cartoon villain. But yes, Laris and Zhaban win on this case. I'm glad to have fanfics.

[@thescifiZipacna]

The rank issue with Harry Kim is a general issue I have with Star Trek - Data should’ve been a Commander by First Contact, dammit! - but here’s where TV & reality can clash. In a military structure people get promoted and/or move on to new postings all the time but we want to see our characters stick around. Saru for Captain!

[@NeilBlumengarten]

The alternative is the TOS movies where you had Kirk, Spock, and Scotty all technically having the rank of Captain and serving on the same ship.

[@BenjaminWirtz]

The original series movies were better with it. Everyone got a promotion.

[@shawnlion8181]

For some reason, Wang somehow drew the ire of Moore. He was actually going to be written out of the show. However, Kes ( Jennifer Lien) was let go, either to keep the male - female ratio balanced, or to keep it "multicultural."

[@aussiewanderer6304]

The reality is that Data was wasted on a star ship. In reality, a being with the knowledge and abilities of Data would have been utilised more than a role that anyone else in Star fleet could have done.

[@bosyber]

@@aussiewanderer6304 And that's probably exactly why he was stuck, yes, on the flagship, but still stuck in a 3rd in command position for so long - fear of such a being (as shown in the multiple instances he takes over the ship to go to his dad/lore/something, something the Orville used to get a good story out of, and which Picard uses as part of the set up, I guess)

[@captainx5246]

Thanks youtube for not sending me notifications or putting any of steve's videos in my sub feed for a week.

[@chrisbullard5901]

Once Tom Paris gets demoted, then promoted again, I just threw my hands up in frustration. He gets the chance to be the captain of a cloaked ship in “Nightengale”, and I was strongly hoping he’d just take the captaincy, and like the Last Starfighter, rebuild the legion.

[@RmsOceanic]

My favourite Troi moment was actually in "Chains of Command". No, not the uniform. When Jellico is talking up a big game about his plans to Riker and Troi, and Riker comments that Jellico seems full of himself, and she just says "No, he's not." No need to explain any further, to Riker or the Audience. We know who she is by now, and what she can do, and why she could say that with such confidence, and everyone present on both sides of the fourth wall is respected enough to figure it out. She needed more subtle moments like that, I think. It also fleshed out Jellico himself in a clever way, but I'm getting off track.

[@JonathonV]

RMS Oceanic She got a bit more development after that episode. Marina always jokes that according to the producers, Deanna could have looks or brains but not both. Once she started wearing the uniform she started a friendship with Beverly, she got promoted to Commander, she gave up on Riker and went to Worf because Riker kinda forgot about her … and of course her Voyager appearances, which quickly made her character much more three-dimensional than her TNG appearances.

[@jjb-tv1cp]

Tora Ziyal..."in terms of execution." I see what ya did there.

[@ilanbachar3162]

I know you wouldn't think he fit the bill - but the wasted potential in TNG for me, is actually Riker. I didn't realize it at the time before rewatching it as an adult - but the truth is, he really doesn't get the depth I always thought he had. he's said to be a brilliant officer and commander, but he's stuck in his job for... what? 12 years? 15? and that's in a military hierarchy, where promotions are the norm. we see a bit of his internal world, but never really enough of it. Spock, TOS 2nd, gets a lot of weight and story. but Riker? other than a few alternate timelines where he's captain, a conflict with his father, and a lot of missed potential with Tom Riker that didnt quite made it to the story - they never delivered on his character. even on ST Picard - we get told this heart breaking back story about his Son, but just matter of factly. where is the story??? even his marriage do Dianna seems like checking a box on a check list. Dianna and Worf's almost-love-affair had more build up than the "the pilot says they're in love so they should get married in the finale" plot. 'I mean, as a rule, when you say most wasted potential, you eventually pick a lot of characters that weren't touched on almost at all, like Travis, but I think we don't know really how much potential he had, BECAUSE he wasn't touched almost at all. there are characters that we're given a glimpse to and we see the potential, and wish we could see more.

[@renatocorvaro6924]

Uhura lost out a lot. Do you have any idea the kind of technical expertise a communications officer requires? She should have been brilliant. Instead she just told the men in charge who was calling.

[@leafruns7672]

She was shown doing more than that. I agree she came off as just an operator but she was shown to track frequencies, break codes, translate and fix her station. She also was a great "secret agent" when called on to do it. It's actually telling that with everything she does the fans see her as the woman who answers the phone, myself included.

[@glen1555]

Actually yes. I recently looked at the Facebook profile of someone who was in my class at High School. He left after GCE O (ordinary)- levels, didn't stay to do A-levels (Advanced). Joined the Army Signal Corps, then picked up a series of qualifications from Technical college, Polytechnic and University eventually getting an engineering position with the Independent Broadcasting Authority

[@anothercleverusername992]

_"Captain... I'm frightened..."_ That *seriously* stuck in my mind too...

[@therealhawv]

Because of the on going nature of Discovery and Picard, I only feel confident considering the characters who’s arcs are closed. For Picard, I think the winner is Dahj. She’s set up as a potentially interesting character, but that potential is sacrificed to kick off Picard’s hero’s journey. For Disco, I think the argument can be made for the prime universe versions of its season one captains. We spend an episode and a half with Georgiou prime, and then the writers spend some time •telling• us she was exceptional instead of having shown us that she was; which I thinks really hurts the impact of meeting her mirror universe counterpart. But that’s still better than Lorca prime got. This is a character we never meet, we just get someone pretending to be. All we every really know about him is a few fleeting mentions by Admiral Cornwell about how the man she had known was different. No flashbacks. No Short Trek. Nothing. Such a wasted character.

[@estherbarba1409]

Indeed. I missed Lorca Prime.

[@JosephDavies]

It's weird to me that in the short time we saw her, Dahj felt more developed than Soji was by the end of the season. I feel like they hoped we'd just treat them as the same person, being twins, transferring the emotional attachment they built up during the pilot onto the bland shadow we spend the rest of the episodes with. That just didn't work for me at all. And I'm still very irritated that we keep having evil Georgiou shoved in our faces and being given a spinoff because she's "cool" but can't get anything with the actually (so we're told) amazing Captain Georgiou.

[@bjturon]

Good points.

[@alanpennie8013]

@@JosephDavies Rarely has there been a more pointlessly fridged character than Dahj. It felt particularly weird since so much of the first episode was devoted to establishing a character who was killed off at the end of it. Honourable mentions to Hugh and Maddox, both with plenty of potential that got squandered.

[@jimslancio]

A badly underutilized NextGen character is Ben, the waiter in Ten Forward. He appears in only one episode, "Lower Decks," but he radiates charisma and steals every scene he's in.

[@chesaak]

For wasted Characters in TNG i ve one Question. What about Guinan? I mean what do we know about her? She is not a normal "creature" . Why Q seems to feel uneasy in the presenece of Guinan. I think there is so much more potential with Guinan. Hopefuly we get much more development in Star Trek Picard Season 2

[@FlanylShirtman]

I absolutely, 110%, emphatically agree that Travis got the shaft on his series, and in all of Star Trek. Porthos the dog got more character development. All Travis really got was one episode about his family's shipping business, and his brother's disappointment that he left for Starfleet. Then it was back to the conn, and repeating the ship's course when he was told to change it.

[@danielrhouck]

3:56 “Like, remember in ‘The Changeling’, when Nomad wipes Uhura’s memory, and she *never gets it back*?” *YES*, I remember that. It’s bugged me ever since I saw that episode. I don’t know if it’s a sexist thing saying that she doesn’t actually need any specialized skills to do her job, or what.

[@RydarkVoyager]

I totally agree with you on Uhura. She mentioned that Martin Luther King asked her to stay on the show, and I'm glad he persuader her.

[@JanetDax]

I always felt Harry Kim was deliberately picked on by the writers. No promotion for you, Harry and don't even try to have a relationship with a woman.

[@kevingriffith6011]

Let's not even mention that he's basically the Kenny of Voyager. "Oh my god, they killed Harry Kim! Those bastards!"

[@alanpennie8013]

There are certainly rumours that Rick Berman didn't much like Garrett Wang.

[@blankb.2277]

For Deep Space Nine I think the character with the most wasted potential for development was Gul Dukat. I feel like he had the best setup in the first few seasons, but then the writers didn’t do anything interesting with him. Honestly, I think it should have been Tain that paired up with the Dominion (who was set up as very scary, yet we got to see very little of that. Not even the Romulans he allied with respected him). Plus, that way the writers could have used the Obsidian Order more. Which was another thing that was set up as very powerful and influential in Cardassia, but had the dumbest reason for collapsing.

[@ala5530]

I'd actually argue Wesley deserves at least an honourable mention for TNG

[@BikeStuffPDX]

He had quite a few episodes devoted to his character development though

[@johntousseau9380]

Not only was Harry Kim wasted potential, Garrett Wang was never given much to do. In the very few Harry Kim Voyager episodes that aren't terrible Garrett has proven he can deliver much more than what he was given. The same goes for Jenifer Lien as Kess. In the episode Warlord, you really get to see Jenifer Lien's range. But I think for Kess, the writers realized Kess was OP AF and had to nerf her powers by making her appear in less episodes and giving her less important things to do. By season 3 she's basically just the Doctor's assistant, with the exception of a few episodes, until Scorpion parts one and two.

[@shibolinemress8913]

I've heard conflicting things about Number One in The Cage. Some say the "suits" didn't like having a female XO. Others say that they didn't like Majel's acting or the fact that she was Gene's mistress at the time. Maybe the truth is a bit of all that. It's hard to imagine that the "female XO" thing would be their only objection, since several shows of the time already had strong female leads. Cathy Gale and Emma Peel of The Avengers, for example.

[@Seal0626]

That's the version that's most believable to me - the suits were happy to have a female supporting lead, but not played by the showrunner's mistress. He couldn't really tell *her* that, so he spun the story that it was the authoritative female lead that they couldn't stomach.

[@shibolinemress8913]

@@mitchellmelkin4078 Thanks! 🖖🐱 😉 And I see what you mean. If memory serves, The Avengers started broadcasting concurrently in the U S. from Season 5 onwards. Back then a lot of British spy shows were popular there. That's when I started watching, and I LOVED Emma Peel! But apart from that, the U.S. had Honey West, The Girl From U.N.C L. E. and probably some much better examples I'm not thinking of right now. That said, you're right, there definitely weren't many strong female role models. However, at least the concept was out there.

[@bradywells1293]

Jake Sisko comes to mind for a DS9 candidate. It's been awhile since I watched the show, but one-by-one I can generate a pretty in-depth description of character for everyone in the regular cast with the exception of Jake. He was the commander/captain's son, went to school, friends with Nog, and ???. I had to look him up to be reminded of the becoming a writer thing, but even that feels like it was far too little too late.

[@Veran1337]

The only character i can think of from ds9 who appeared more than once but didnt have their own arc or episode was the personal assistant to grand nagus zeck. I could argue that the guy never spoke and argue that it is hard to make an episode about them, but they managed it with morn! (Though admittedly he was absent from most of ‘who mourns for morn’). The fact that almost every character who appears more than once had a story revealing background or an arc is an impressive feat!

[@bigpoppa1234]

In the same amount of time that Sisko got promoted from Lt Commander to Commander to Captain to acting as a Fleet Admiral, Kim stood around doing nothing interesting professionally or personally, at Ops as an Ensign. For seven years. Even Barclay got better development, a character who showed up deep into season 3 of TNG and was in about 10 episodes all told compared to a main character with some ~170 episodes.

[@RedCaio]

Picard in Picard imo. His name is the show's name and he does a little bit but he often felt like he didn't belong on the show. Just along for the ride. Also Elnor. Epic and tragic backstory; just wings swords and that's it.

[@NefariousElasticity]

Reminder to everyone that Garrett Wang (Harry Kim) and Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris) will be launching their ST:VOY commentary podcast called The Delta Flyers in May.

[@allurbase]

~18:00 there's an episode when Paris gets a promotion and Harry mentions "I didn''t find a box on my chair", guess he never gets one.

[@shadout]

Paris: Well, Harry... if you spent more time making one-liners on the bridge, playing in the holodecks and chatting up women, you too could have a box on your chair.

[@xoxtoddxox]

Chakotay, indigenous representation in star trek, is always told through the colonies. Chakotay was supposed to be indigenous, yet he was also a colonizer. Also, the magical indigenous person still exists centuries into the future. I am looking forward to Star Fleet as the bad guy! Thanks for the thought-provoking videos.

[@tophatjones179]

There might well have been more development of the Ensign Ro character. Unfortunately, Michelle Forbes declined a role in DS9. What a loss. That was a great character.

[@paulmiller7838]

She would have been a billion times better than what we ended up with.

[@stevemeyer6303]

And Michelle Forbes was a terrific sci-fi actress. Just look at her knockout performance as Admiral Helena Cain on the Battlestar Galactica 2004 reboot. If Forbes had been interested, imagine a Lt or Lt Cmdr Ro Laren of the Maquis assuming the Chakotay role at the beginning of Voyager.

[@deadandburied7626]

MF did good in BSG: Razor.

[@Seven35888]

@@stevemeyer6303 that would’ve been awesome, Ro and Janeway together, two badass women fighting their way through the Delta Quadrant

[@shawnlion8181]

I think one of the reason why Voyager was situated the way it was and why DS9 is very lauded is that Ron Moore was more focused on Voyager that he practically let the inmates take over the asylum with DS9. With Voyager, he wanted that vaunted 18 to 49 demo, hence that's why we got Seven and many of the series regulars were put in the corner. Also, I agree with you about Travis. He was basically a token.

[@colindunnigan8621]

Well, if it makes you feel any better, Uhura did take over the Enterprise in that animated series episode where the male characters were all besotted by the space sirens.