tv tropes star trek races

• View history

A species or race was any class of lifeform that had common attributes and were designated by a common name .

• 1 Observations
• 2.1.1 By location
• 2.1.2 By evolution
• 2.1.3 By association
• 2.2 Noncorporeal
• 2.3 Artificial
• 2.4 Trans-dimensional
• 4 External links

Observations [ ]

According to Data , " in the game of military brinksmanship , individual physical prowess is less important than the perception of a species as a whole. " However, according to Worf , if " no one is willing to test that perception in combat [..] then the reputation means nothing. " ( TNG : " Peak Performance ")

Data also " observed that in most species, there is a primal instinct to perpetuate themselves. " ( TNG : " The Offspring ")

Classifications [ ]

Corporeal [ ].

Corporeal lifeforms have a physical body , usually composed of carbon- - or silicon-based cellular structures . Most corporeal species metabolize energy by consuming food or by photosynthesis , and have a finite life cycle consisting of distinct periods of growth, maturity, and senescence. Intelligent corporeal species frequently enhance their capabilities with technology .

By location [ ]

• Alpha and Beta Quadrant species
• Gamma Quadrant species
• Delta Quadrant species
• Extra-galactic species
• Spaceborne species

By evolution [ ]

• Anthropomorphic species
• Humanoid species
• Non-humanoid species
• Omnicordial lifeform

By association [ ]

• Borg species
• Dominion species
• Starfleet species

Noncorporeal [ ]

Non-corporeal species were composed of various forms of coherent gas or energy . Most noncorporeal species absorb and utilize energy directly from their environment. Generally, noncorporeal species do not utilize technology, compensating with intrinsic physiological capabilities. Some noncorporeal species have evolved beyond the need for sustenance, and wield substantial control over space and time .

Artificial [ ]

Artificial lifeforms were usually created by another species, and can be sentient by design or have attained sentience spontaneously. There are two general types of artificial life: The first is a machine constructed from mechanical components. The second is a software program, which is reliant on a suitable computer in which to exist. These programs may manifest themselves physically in the form of holograms , which sometimes developed self-awareness .

Trans-dimensional [ ]

Trans-dimensional beings were lifeforms originating from a reality outside the normal space-time continuum. They can take a variety of forms which may or may not be comparable to those in this universe, depending on the nature of their native realm. Some trans-dimensional species are unable to survive in this universe without assistance.

See also [ ]

• Civilization
• Joined species
• Master race
• Race (species subclassification)
• Shapeshifting species
• Species reassignment protocol
• Telepathic species

External links [ ]

• Species at Wikipedia
• Race at Wikipedia
• 2 ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

• Science Fiction Series
• The Nineties
• Vector Game
• Science Fiction Tabletop Games
• The Seventies
• Franchise Index
• The Golden Age of Video Games
• Illusion Arts
• The Eighties
• Film Series
• The Sixties
• Films of the 1990s
• American Series
• Trope Overdosed
• Films of the 2000s
• Military Science Fiction
• GURPS Settings
• Shoot'Em Up
• View history

Space — the final frontier...

An iconic, long-running science-fiction franchise with eight live action series, three animated ones, and thirteen movies spanning generations of characters, decades of television and multiple realities in the Multiverse .

The setting in every series is about an Earth-based interstellar government called the United Federation of Planets and their fleet of starships, which form Starfleet . Every series dealt with a particular crew, mostly of various ships named Enterprise . As originally envisioned by its creator, Gene Roddenberry , the science fiction nature of the series was just a method to address many social issues of the time that could not have been done in a normal drama. As such, it was not above being Anvilicious or engaging in thinly-veiled social satire, but considering its origin during the 60's, some anvils needed to be dropped .

It was, for the most part, way on the happy end of the Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism , at least partially because of its solid allegiance to the Enlightened side of Romanticism Versus Enlightenment . But it still found some sort of balance between a Dystopia and a Crystal Spires and Togas future. In general, it is a future you hope will come true, albeit after Humanity endured terrible troubles like a third world war and the Eugenics Wars led by the genetically enhanced conqueror, Khan Noonien Singh, and rose above them. All series have sought to show that while you may think the world is falling apart and there is no chance of global unity, all this crap will eventually work itself out.

The series has also had a profound impact on modern culture and media. Everyone with any exposure to Western pop culture has heard of the Starship Enterprise , and the series predicted (and possibly inspired) the PC, tablet, automatic doors, cell phones, natural-language AI and more, decades before their invention. Not so incidentally, the first African-American woman in space was inspired to become an astronaut because of Nichelle Nichols ' pioneering role. Also not so incidentally, the space shuttle Enterprise was named after the iconic starship, as is the first commercial spacecraft.

And finally, Star Trek also gave rise to Fandom as we know it: when Star Trek: The Original Series began to pick up steam in syndication, fans organized conventions, wrote fanfic, dressed in costume, and generally made enough noise to keep the franchise going for forty years and counting. Every fandom since has grown from that original outpouring of fannish activity and devotion.

Television Series in the franchise include:

• Star Trek: The Original Series ("TOS", 1966-1969) Set from 2265-2269 — The one everyone has heard of (at the time, of course, it was just called Star Trek ). It suffered in the Ratings , but gained a devoted fanbase. Uncanceled after the second season, and then Cancelled again at the end of the third. It really picked up steam in syndication, which was about the time demographics came into play - and the Real Life moon landing happened a week after its last episode aired. Nowadays, it looks incredibly cheesy and dated, but the show's writing was good, the cast had great chemistry and the characters themselves were very memorable, to the point of creating three new archetypes: The Kirk , The Spock , and The McCoy . In fact, this series created so many new tropes that it has left an unmistakable mark on both television and pop culture ever since. Not to mention inspired a lot of mostly affectionate parodies .
• Star Trek: The Animated Series ("TAS", 1973-1974) Set from 2269-2270 — Used most of the original cast (and a few additions) to provide voices for the animated versions of their characters. The quality of the show was hit and miss, with some being mediocre cartoon fare while others were excellent, and the series got the franchise's first Emmy award. 22 episodes were produced. The official canonicity of this series has gone back and forth, but at least some elements have bled over into the rest of the franchise (most notably, identifying the "T" in James T. Kirk to stand for "Tiberius" ) and the addition of the cat-like Caitians to the mythos (see Star Trek 2).
• Star Trek: The Next Generation ("TNG", 1987-1994) Set from 2364-2370 — The other one everyone has heard of. Takes place in the 24th century on the Enterprise - D , with the same mission of exploration as the original. Introduced the holodeck (although a version of it appeared first in the Canon /noncanon "TAS"), defined the Klingons as being a society of honor and war , and really hit it home with creating the cybernetic alien race, the Borg. Also, there was Q .
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ("DS9", 1993-1999) Set from 2369-2375 — Takes place concurrently with the end of Next Generation and the lion's share of Voyager , and conceived as a Spin-Off of TNG. Set on a former Cardassian space station (formerly Terok Nor, renamed Deep Space Nine) in a politically unstable part of space near the planet Bajor, with exclusive access to a rare stable wormhole that leads from the Alpha to the Gamma Quadrant. From the fourth season onwards, former TNG character Worf joined the cast and the whole series got much darker with a massive interstellar war between the Federation, Cardassians, Klingons, Romulans and the Dominion. Was also the first Trek series to use Story Arcs extensively, rather than persisting with a strictly episodic format. Generally considered the Oddball in the Series as far as the television shows go.
• Star Trek: Voyager ("VOY", 1995-2001) Set from 2371-2378 — Another Spin-Off of Next Generation , conceived as its successor. While searching for a group of rogue Starfleet people called the Maquis, both the title ship and a Maquis ship are flung across the galaxy and stranded in the Delta Quadrant, 70,000 light years and seventy-five years' travel from home ( Lost in Space a la Star Trek ). Had the first main character female captain in the franchise. In the mainstream, this show is best — perhaps only — known for its Ms. Fanservice character, Seven of Nine . Among fans, it's infamous for the Villain Decay of the Borg, the obscene levels of Techno Babble , and mashing the Reset Button after roughly every other episode, but it is also notable for tackling controversial topics even other Trek series wouldn't touch.
• Star Trek: Enterprise ("ENT", 2001-2005) Set from 2151-2155 — Prequel to the original series. Set a hundred years or so before Kirk and the Federation, when humans are just getting their space legs (and the Applied Phlebotinum is not nearly as reliable), aboard Earth's first, experimental Warp 5-capable starship, the Enterprise NX-01. It began with a Myth Arc involving the Enterprise crew getting caught up in a "Temporal Cold War" being fought by several rival Time Travel factions, though it gradually fell victim to the The Chris Carter Effect . The series was then Retooled twice: first with the third season introducing an ambitious season-spanning Story Arc centering around the sudden appearance of a mysterious new aggressor called the Xindi, and then with the fourth and final season consisting of several two-to-three-episode-long "mini-arcs" that laid the groundwork for the Federation in earnest. Sadly, just as it began to pick up steam, it was abruptly cancelled. Infamous for the pop song in the opening credits, and for being the first Trek series since the original to be canceled before the usual seven seasons.
• Star Trek: Discovery ("DIS", 2017-) Set in 2256, ten years before the original series, it focuses on the USS Discovery , an experimental science vessel, caught in the midst of the latest Federation-Klingon war. Its second season, focused on the crew hunting down mysterious signals across the galaxy, leading to a confrontation for the fate of the galaxy. Its third season brought a major Retool , sending the crew to the 32nd century and finding a much changed galaxy.
• Star Trek: Picard ("PIC", 2020-2023) Set in 2399, twenty years after the TNG era ended, a long-since retired Picard gets dragged out of retirement by a mysterious young woman who needs his help, setting him on a quest to discover an eons old secret with Data right at the centre. More of a character study than anything else, it followed Picard closing the book on his life and looking back on the legacy he's left behind on the galaxy, finding that the past, however fast you run or however well you hide, will always catch up to you.
• Star Trek: Lower Decks ("LD", 2020-) Set in 2380, Lower Decks follows four of the lowest ranking ensigns in Starfleet, posted on one of the least important ships in the fleet, the USS Cerritos , as they try and move up in the world. Trek Template:'s second animated series and its first comedy, every episode of Lower Decks bursts with Continuity Porn .
• Star Trek: Prodigy ("PRO", 2021-) Set in 2383 in the Delta Quadrant, the show follows a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits seeking to escape a slave camp. Discovering the beached USS Protostar , the group claims it as an escape ship, taking with them the daughter of their captor, the Diviner. Aided by a hologram of Kathryn Janeway, the group soon discovers that their little Protostar is much more important than previously believed.
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ("SNW", 2022-) A Spin-Off to Star Trek: Discovery Template:'s second season, Strange New Worlds is another Prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series , focusing on Pike's tenure as captain of the Enterprise . Essentially what the original show was originally meant to be, it's much Lighter and Softer than its contemporaries, opting for a Revisiting the Roots approach to Star Trek by being episodic rather than having a Myth Arc .

In addition to these, Star Trek: Phase II was a series concept designed as the cornerstone of a Paramount Pictures -based network in 1976. A continuation of the original series and featuring a second five-year mission, it would have introduced a number of new characters in conjunction with the original crew. When the network project died and the insane success of Star Wars made sci-fi films profitable again, Paramount elaborated the series pilot into The Movie , which ultimately led to a whole new line of movies:

• Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) (c. 2273) — Kirk rallies the old crew to intercept a technological Eldritch Abomination heading towards Earth. Said to be a padded out Phase II episode script, and bears resemblance to a couple original series episodes.
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) (2285) — Khan from The Original Series returns intending to go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge .
• Star Trek III: The Search For Spock (1984) (2285) — The crew find that for Vulcans, Death Is Cheap . Kirk and crew risk everything to get Spock back.
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) (2286/1986) — To save Earth from a destructive, silent alien probe, Kirk and crew Time Travel to The Eighties and save the whales . Also, they need nuclear wessels.
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) (2287) — After a botched attempt to rescue hostages, the Enterprise is commandeered by a radical Vulcan who intends to find God.
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) (2293) — Klingons sue for peace in a near perfect recreation of the Cold War finale. Quite blatantly a rip on the Cold War and its concurrent real-life end, precipitated by a lunar equivalent to the Chernobyl explosion. (In)Famously establishes Klingon blood to be a lovely lilac colour, but only for this installment.
• Star Trek Generations (1994) (2293, then 2371) — A Mad Scientist seeks to destroy billions to reach a Negative Space Wedgie that allows Kirk to meet Picard. The first movie featured the TNG cast and intended as a torch-passing moment rather than a final farewell to the original cast that Star Trek VI was.
• Star Trek: First Contact (1996) (2373/2063) — The Borg attempt to assimilate Earth in the past, with Picard slowly becoming Captain Ahab against them.
• Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) (2375) — Finding that The Federation intends to pillage a Shangri-La planet , Picard actively rebels to save them.
• Star Trek Nemesis (2002) (2379) — The forever secretive Romulans make a surprising effort for peace, but their leader has much more devious intentions. The last film of the prime Star Trek universe and one that nearly mortally wounded the entire franchise, being the only one not to make its money back at the box office.

Many of the concepts from Phase II made their way into Star Trek: The Next Generation and the series itself is considered deuterocanon - not "true" canon, because it never made it to the screen, but allowed in Broad Strokes to fill a gap in Trek chronology (notice the fictional length of time between The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Khan ).

After the cancellation of Enterprise , 2006 was the first year with no new Star Trek stories on film or TV since 1985 . Then, when all seemed lost, Star Trek was revived with a Film Of The Series which promises to kick off a whole new series of movies:

• Star Trek (2009) (2233 — 2258) — A mixture of Continuity Reboot and Broad Strokes with new actors showing that the The Original Series characters will always end up together on the Enterprise , no matter the universe.
• Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013) (2259 — 2260) — Set a year later, the crew discovers a militarization conspiracy within Starfleet with them as the Sacrificial Lambs .
• Star Trek: Beyond (2016) (2263) — In the third year of their five-year mission, the Enterprise crew find themselves trapped on an alien planet with a ruthless warlord who aims to destroy the Federation. Released to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the franchise.

In total, to watch every minute of "canon" Star Trek (series and movies) would require over 23 days. Of Science Fiction franchises, only Doctor Who and its various canon spinoffs are even within a week.

Star Trek Expanded Universe [ ]

The Star Trek Expanded Universe consists of the expected novels, comics and videogames; these are somewhat infamous in many circles (compared to the Star Wars counterparts) for the casual disregard the producers of the shows often hold for them. Though starting from Star Trek: Discovery Template:'s second season, some of the Expanded Universe had been upgraded to Loose Canon and/or Broad Strokes , featuring adaptations of some novel storylines.

See also the Trek Verse - a discussion of internal Trek history as viewed from a real-world perspective as well as how it affected modern culture.

Tropes common across all series: [ ]

• Abusing the Kardashev Scale For Fun and Profit : Most societies hover around the Type I mark, though some Type III and above existed in the galaxy at one time. And a handful of extra-galactic races have shown up, seeming to be at least Type IIIs.
• AI Is a Crapshoot : Self-aware computers are Always Chaotic Evil in TOS. Later series had more nuanced explorations of the concept. By the 32nd century, the Federation was outright banned Ridiculously-Human Robots because they keep turning out evil and destroying things. Though Season 1 of Star Trek: Picard suggests that this might be a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy , the AIs fighting back against the organics' desire to destroy synthetic life once it gets too powerful.
• Alien Non-Interference Clause : Trope Codifier via General Order Number 1, the Prime Directive, that generator of so many plot devices.
• Almighty Janitor : Boothby, the groundskeeper at Starfleet Academy.
• Alternate History : In Star Trek , the late 80s and early 90s were a genetic renaissance, and superhuman products of genetic manipulation. After the Eugenics Wars , humanity made a push to the stars in the early 21st century, reaching to the point that they could send manned missions to Jupiter's moons in 2024, but this diverted resources away from the very real Earth-bound problems, resulting in World War III erupting in 2026 and ending in 2053. In 2063, humanity discovered Faster-Than-Light Travel and the Vulcans arrived to help them rebuild their world.
• Alternative Number System : According to The Klingon Dictionary , the Klingons used to count in a ternary (base-three) system, but have since switched over to decimal.
• Always Chaotic Evil : The Borg, Romulans, and Cardassians. The original series and Enterprise also portray Klingons this way, and The Next Generation does likewise with the Ferengi.
• Always on Duty : The main characters are always on the bridge whenever something interesting is happening. The only time across the entire franchise that we see evidence of any kind of shift system is in a few TNG episodes where Data is shown commanding the night shift, and once when Captain Sulu of the Excelsior in The Undiscovered Country gets woken up by Christian Slater.
• Arc Number : 47, from the middle of Next Generation on.
• Arson, Murder, and Lifesaving
• Artificial Gravity : Rarely mentioned, but always present whenever the action takes place aboard a starship or space station.
• The Assimilator : The Borg.
• Author Appeal : Rick Berman has admitted that he is the one mostly responsible for so much Time Travel in the various shows. He just loves the time paradox of "this is the reason this happened but that is the origin of that event and here is where we have to make a choice as to whether this or that occurs..."
• Badass Army : The Klingons wish they were these but they are more of a subversion. Starfleet qualifies, at least in space--they tend to be somewhat underprepared for extended ground combat.
• Beleaguered Bureaucrat : Starfleet Command sometimes give the impression of being between this and Obstructive Bureaucrat .
• Big Damn Movies : The movies feature far more action than you're likely to find in a typical season of the original series or Next Generation . While episodes of the series typically involve stories about exploration and dealing with touchy political issues, the movies are much more likely to involve clashes with full-on Card Carrying Villains .
• Boarding Party : Beaming aboard the enemy ship.
• Blunt Metaphors Trauma : Data, Spock, and most Vulcans.
• The Chains of Commanding
• Chekhov's Gun
• Classically-Trained Extra : Patrick Stewart, most famously. He even said that he considered it training for his role as Picard. But the franchise is famous for casting many stage actors over regular TV guest actors.
• Cleavage Window : Female Klingon uniforms.
• Clothes Make the Legend : The black and primary color uniform scheme. Only the first six films and Enterprise didn't follow this... though the uniforms with Wrath of Khan ' s emblematic red-vest-division-turtleneck-and-black-pants is also very popular.
• The colors were shuffled around a bit on TNG , with red (formerly Security and Engineering) and gold (Command) trading places. Blue still stands for Science and Medical.
• The Federation is a rich blue (on star charts, on their seal, in their warp plasma) supplemented by other light pastel shades and grey (for ship bulkheads).
• The Klingons are red (on star charts, on their banner, their graphic displays and ship controls, their warp plasma, their transporter effect). They also prefer red lighting aboard their ships and in their buildings.
• Romulans are deep green (on star charts, on banners and display graphics, their warp plasma, their transporter effect). Their ships also have a deep green hull colour.
• Cardassians are usually yellow-ochre or pink (both colours were used for their weapons - pink in their first few appearances, later yellow, their transporter is yellow-ochre, on star charts they're either yellow or pink). Their ship hulls are ochre. Their graphics and display panels use orange/beige and green, colours that sometimes appear on their cultural emblem.
• The Dominion is purple (their warp plasma, on star charts; their graphics are purple and green).
• Ferengi warp plasma and ship hulls are orange.
• Andorians, to no-one's surprise, like white and blue, along with a pale beige.
• The Borg favours black and a sickly green.
• Bajorans uses gold-tan and dark red.
• Cool Starship : Every series has one.
• Collectible Card Game
• Command Roster : Star Trek is likely the Trope Maker or at least set the standard of how this trope is used.
• Communications Officer : Every series has one except DS9 (though in TNG , Worf gets shuffled out of the position pretty quickly and nobody really replaces him).
• Deadly Training Area : The holodecks were intended to be used for training, but they're one of the most hazardous areas on the ship thanks to Holodeck Malfunctions .
• Death Wail : The standard practice when a Klingon dies is for his/her comrades to hold their eyes open while screaming loudly to the sky to warn those in the afterlife that a great warrior is on his/her way to join them.
• Deflector Shields
• Destructo-Nookie : Klingons.
• Development Gag : Quite a few. Jeffries Tubes were named after the visual designer of the original series (and designer of the original Enterprise) Matt Jeffries. Various shuttlecraft, such as the Justman, were also named after notable production crew. A section of Stage 16 at Paramount Pictures used to portray alien planets had the nickname of "Planet Hell," which was used as a description of an appropriate planet in Star Trek Voyager .
• Dress Up Episode : most common in the Original Series ("A Piece of the Action", "Return of the Archons", "Assignment: Earth"), but happens in the Next Generation a fair amount too ("The Big Goodbye").
• Doctor's Orders : The medical personnel can remove the captain from command.
• Due to the Dead : A good number of funeral customs, at that.
• Dying Alone
• Emotion Suppression : The Vulcan culture has Emotion Suppression at its core.
• Emotions vs. Stoicism : Romulans vs. Vulcans.
• The Empire : The Klingon Empire, Romulan Empire and Cardassian Alliance. The Terran Empire in the Mirror Universe.
• Epic Tracking Shot : It's an interesting thing to note as the next generation of shows progressed in special effects.
• Everything Sensor : EVERY scanner is like this.
• Evil Is Not Well Lit : Of all the species, only the Borg and Cardassians have an excuse for this - the Borg's minimalism, and the latter's sensitivity to light. Incidentally, this is the excuse for Deep Space Nine being so dimly-lit, since it was designed by the Cardassians.
• Evil Is Visceral : Species 8472, also known as the Undine, are introduced as the only threat to the hitherto biggest threat (the Borg). Their ships are organic and the (CGI) aliens themselves look "more organic" than the usual Rubber Forehead Alien because they don't wear clothes, have extra limbs and strange eyes with complicated irides. Also, they hail from something called fluidic space. To top it all off, the crew of the Voyager are willing to team up with the Borg to fight against them.
• Exotic Eye Designs : Betazoids have black irises.
• Exposition Beam : Vulcan Mind Melds are essentially this, along with a host of other Applied Phlebotinum uses.
• Expositron 9000 : The ship/station computers.
• Fan of the Past : Too many to name.
• Fantastic Racism : There will always be at least a few members of each species that has issues with humans, other species, or vice versa.
• Some Expanded Universe sources imply that biogenic is the equivalent of weapon of mass destruction in current parlance. That is, this is a weapon you had DAMN well better not get caught actually using.
• The Vulcans use "Red Matter" to create pocket black holes . Nero got the bright idea of using it to eat a planet (specifically Vulcan ).
• Fantastic Rank System : Everyone except the Federation has a different one. See the trope page for more details.
• Starfleet - The United States Navy (Both the Earth & Federation versions of Starfleet have individual ranks & systems of hierarchy that correspond with the USN's. The color of Starfleet personnel's uniforms are based on the specifics of their job, just as its done with the flight crews aboard USN aircraft carriers. Also, during the Dominion War, "Deep Space Nine" has Starfleet deployed in the numbered fleet configurations used by the USN, with the 3rd Fleet referenced as protecting Earth & the 7th Fleet all but destroyed in a failed offensive.)
• Vulcans- Great Britain (Not a perfect match-up, but Enterprise depicted them as a regional superpower who eventually lose much of their realm of control as Earth increases theirs.)
• Klingons also had some similarity to post-Soviet Russia in The Next Generation in terms of politics. But as part of Gene Roddenberry 's plan to not make them evil and a race of "black hats", they turned into... vikings. They also had no analogue to the KGB, where the Romulans have the Tal'Shiar (Ministry of State Security), and the Cardassians have the Obsidian Order (The Gestapo).
• Starting in The Next Generation , the Romulans also started to become a bit like Iran, for similar reasons.
• Cardassians as generic colonial powers works just as well as the obligatory Nazi comparison, since Bajor is always called a colony and is run along those lines: occupy and obtain resources (with local slave labor), rather than being a matter of living space or an ideology.
• Cardassians as a version of undefeated (pre-WWII) Japan is a popular alternative, especially among those who look at details like what food they eat and many of the cultural notes in Deep Space 9.
• Bajorans as generic colonized people. (Would support the Cardassians as generic colonial powers interpretation.)
• Bajorans as the Irish, especially in the Circle (IRA) plot-arc.
• Bajorans actually work as a variation of the Jews and the Israelis as well. The episode "Ensign Ro" suggests this with its tale about the Bajorans losing their homeland, treated as pariahs and then resorting to terrorism (Irgun, etc) to try to regain their homeland.
• Orions- The Mafia/ Criminal Underground
• Nausicaans- Gang Leaders
• Ferengi- The East India Companies (most closely)
• Faster-Than-Light Travel : Rather hard to imagine the series without it.
• Fiction Science : The series have produced a large number of Technical Manuals , many of them official. These fill in many details of life in the Trekkian future, especially the inner workings of the Enterprises and other starships.
• Forgot the Call
• Genericist Government
• Generican Empire : The United Federation of Planets, the Dominion.
• God-Emperor : The Klingon treatment of Kahless the Unforgettable.
• Cardassians (and, by extension, the crew of DS9 ) have yellow transporter beams.
• Good Old Ways
• Government Drug Enforcement : Used a couple of times in TNG and Deep Space Nine , also used in the movie Insurrection .
• Graying Morality : From series to series, at least for a while. TNG is grayer than the original series, and Deep Space Nine is even grayer than that.
• Gunboat Diplomacy : The Federation definitely believes in "carrying a big ship " to negotiations. They don't usually push their self-interest too hard with this show of force, but it still makes three things clear. "We are strong." "We are rich." "You don't start fights when we're trying to negotiate."
• Half-Human Hybrid : Spock, Deanna Troi, B'Elanna Torres, Sisko .
• Have I Mentioned I Am a Dwarf Today? : Klingons tend to do this a lot; Worf is only the most prominent example.
• Hero of Another Story : It is implied through the various Star Trek shows that the sort of adventures the Enterprise and her crew get in is just the far side of typical. Lampshaded by Captain Janeway when she stated in Star Trek: Voyager that "Weird is part of the job."
• Humans Are Diplomats : Especially during TOS and early TNG. Gene Roddenberry opposed the idea of a military Starfleet.
• Highly-Conspicuous Uniform
• Hollywood Tactics : Went up and down depending on the series and the point in the series, but pretty much everybody is woefully under-equipped and fights very poorly in land combat.
• Human Outside, Alien Inside : While most of the species that are encountered look fairly humanoid, many of them turn out to have truly bizarre biological differences .
• This is a bit of Fridge Brilliance . Humor is usually about the incongruity between logic and reality. So, basically, Vulcans have spent hundreds of years watching every other race act like clowns, and they get the joke. They may not guffaw, but their sense of humor is finely honed.
• Sulu tells a young Tuvok once, "Don't tell me Vulcans don't have a sense of humor, because I know better." True enough!
• If You Taunt Him You Will Be Just Like Him
• Inertial Dampening : Occasionally mentioned by the characters, Inertial Dampeners allow an Impulse-drive-powered starship to accelerate from a dead stop to a substantial fraction of the speed of light in under a minute, without turning the crew into crepes. The technology isn't quick enough to compensate for random, unexpected impacts, however, which can result in the Star Trek Shake .
• Inexplicable Cultural Ties : In Roddenberry's Star Trek pitch, he explains how culturally (and biologically ) familiar aliens would make Science Fiction feasible for TV. Star Trek has since been true to what he called the Parallel Worlds concept that prescribes that alien civilizations will usually be very much like humans culturally and therefore not too foreign to the audience.
• Interdimensional Travel Device : Transporters can act this way under certain circumstances (which occur accidentally in the original series, and then are intentionally reproduced in Deep Space Nine ).
• Jabba Table Manners : The Klingons universally gulp and slurp down food like slobs. In their case, it is to show how tough and free of pretentious "good manners" and straightforward and honest their society is, not to show how "evil" they are.
• Law of Chromatic Superiority : The gold uniform worn by Kirk (and also Archer).
• Life Imitates Art : Take the sliding doors, for one thing.
• Letter Motif
• Memory Alpha calls the full-on 'cause the computer to shut down' version induced self destruction , and counts five cases (one inadvertent), all of them by Kirk.
• Long Runners : The second longest running sci-fi show in the world, beaten only by Doctor Who - and Star Trek has more total hours (as stated earlier).
• Love Is in the Air : Several episodes in the different series.
• Ludd Was Right : By means of Space Amish .
• Ludicrous Precision : The Vulcans are prone to this, as is Commander Data.
• Made of Explodium : When a computer blows up in Star Trek, it BLOWS UP. This extends to either independent computer equipment or even the consoles on the bridge. Sometimes characters even die from the exploding bridge consoles.
• Made of Phlebotinum
• Taken to its logical extreme in Voyager , where the ship recorded all of the crew's brainwaves.
• Magnetic Plot Device : The various starships. The Holodeck. The Bajoran wormhole in Deep Space Nine . The Temporal Cold War in Enterprise .
• The Man Behind the Monsters
• Not unintentional, as Roddenberry reportedly based the Starfleet hull-numbering system after the US civil aircraft registration system deliberately referencing the "N" or "NC" numbers used on US aircraft.)
• Considering that the original concept for the series was Hornblower in deep space, and that ship captains during the Wooden Ships and Iron Men era usually were their respective country's highest representative in any area where they were stationed...
• Janeway in Star Trek Voyager once made a comment about how strongly she had to hold onto Starfleet regulations so far from home, but also admired the gung-ho attitude of earlier Starfleet captains ("I would have loved to ride shotgun at least once with a group of officers like that!").
• The Milky Way Is the Only Way : Other galaxies are inhabited, and their inhabitants show up from time to time, but given that most races are Type I on the Kardashev scale, actual travel to them is uncommon. The overwhelming majority of Star Trek media sticks to the Milky Way.
• Monumental View : Every iteration puts Starfleet academy on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco (and directly across from Starfleet headquarters.) There's a bit of a problem with that as the land there is almost exclusively deep, steep, hills.
• More Hero Than Thou
• Narrating the Present : the Captain's Log .
• National Weapon : The Klingon bat'leth.
• Negative Space Wedgie : From a well-known parody.
• Never Give the Captain a Straight Answer
• No Poverty : A central part of the setting, humanity solved this problem after meeting the Vulcans. Though DS9 notes that this only really applies on Earth.
• They would arguably be the most deadpan of snarkers, ever.
• Novelty Decay : The Borg start out in Next Generation as a mysterious, frighteningly advanced and implacable species from beyond known space. Then Enterprise has them show up about 300 years before that, while their Villain Decay on Voyager makes them seem distinctly nonthreatening.
• Now Do It Again Backwards
• Referring back to the handrail, it came to a head in Enterprise when a crewman actually calls something a handrail, then when its pointed out that where it's placed on a lift would actually sever fingers, is clearly confused and asks why anyone would put their hand there. Considering its Trip of all people , who's asking the crewman this, its even more baffling?
• No Such Thing as Alien Pop Culture : Occasionally subverted or averted, it's still the rule rather than the exception. Notably, Klingons have opera and something like heavy metal.
• No Such Thing as HR : A common point of confusion in the otherwise enlightened future of Star Trek is Mc Coy's humorously treated Fantastic Racism towards Spock, along with the number of physical altercations the crew get into without really getting into trouble. Justifiable in the original series since the ship's on the edge of known space; by the time the franchise moved closer to Earth with Star Trek: The Next Generation , a more established bureaucracy seemed to be in place (though occasionally characters like Worf seem to be allowed a huge amount of leeway as a Proud Warrior Race Guy ).
• Officer and a Gentleman and/or Cultured Warrior : To some degree, almost all Starfleet personnel are one or the other of these. Even the Closer to Earth types have scientific and literary interests. Many enemies are Wicked Cultured as well.
• The Omnipotent : Q is a lower version of this; while he claims omnipotence, other Q can still hurt him or take away his powers.
• The Omniscient : Q.
• Our Doors Are Different : Sliding doors everywhere. Everywhere .
• Palette-Swapped Alien Food : Romulan and Andorian Ale is blue.
• Perfect Pacifist People : Several species in the various works exhibit this trope.
• Photoprotoneutron Torpedo : Photon torpedoes are the Trope Maker . There are also quantum, plasma, and polaron torpedoes, just to name a few.
• Planet of Hats
• Planet Terra : Used a few times (the Mirror Universe has the Terran empire; the original series occasionally contrasts "Terrans" with "Vulcans").
• Precursor Killers : The ancient Type III races of the galaxy are generally thought to have been wiped out by La Résistance , overwhelmed by the lesser races or simply fled the galaxy. Picard suggests that the Higher Synthetics may have cleansed the galaxy of organic life whenever a Robot War began turning in the organics' favour.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy : The original series had the Klingons as being mostly warlike with few redeeming traits. Gene Roddenberry didn't like them being the "Black Hats" of the saga so in The Next Generation he made a Klingon a regular cast member and quickly established the "honor" aspect to their society.
• Ray Gun : Phasers and disruptors.
• Raygun Gothic : The Original Series solidly fits this trope. By the Next Generation era the Federation is in transition between Raygun Gothic and Crystal Spires and Togas .
• The Rez : Whole planets of it.
• Even the slower-than-light Impulse Engines appear to be some kind of reactionless drive. Although they glow an ominous red color while in operation, there's no apparent ejection of matter, and no mention is ever made of the need for propellant storage. (The top speed under impulse drive is supposed to be 0.25 c , which even for antimatter-powered Newtonian engines would require a substantial amount of propellant mass to be expelled.)
• The Reptilians : Some of the most prominent examples include the Gorn, the Cardassians, and the reptile Xindi.
• Sapient Cetaceans : A frequent theme in the series.
• Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale : Zig-zagged. The franchise is generally very good with astrological terms (no one ever speaks about travelling to a different galaxy unless the plot very much means so) but when it comes to power generation figures, the franchise often just throws terms around arbitrarily.
• Screens Are Cameras : The viewscreens behave like this, in all the show's incarnations.
• Screen Shake
• Shout-Out/To Shakespeare
• Sighted Guns Are Low Tech
• Slow Electricity : The console displays always go on/off in sequence around the bridge. If there's a ship-wide outage, expect an outside shot of windows lighting up/going out one at a time.
• Smart House : The ships behave much like this from TNG onward.
• Space Fighter : Fighters are rare, but did turn up now and then — especially in Deep Space Nine . Later Trek series started having a stronger military influence and ships like the Defiant and the Delta Flyer are surprisingly battle-hearted fighters.
• Space Navy : Starfleet
• Standard Sci-Fi Army : Codified the use Security personnel. Follows the visual media model of focusing mostly on Infantry.
• Standard Sci Fi History : Earth's history follows this.
• Standard Sci Fi Setting : One of the most famous Trope Codifiers .
• Standard Starship Scuffle : A likely Trope Codifier .
• Standard Time Units : Stardates.
• Starfish Aliens : While the series is often mocked for excessive use of Rubber Forehead Aliens , special mention must be made of the Tholians that appeared in the original series episode "The Tholian Web", who were so strange, while visible only partly through the main viewscreen during negotiations, that the writers themselves (like anyone else) couldn't figure out what they actually were implied to be for the better part of 30 years, even while being passingly mentioned once or twice in different series. Only toward the end of Enterprise did they finally settle on the head being a carapace, and the Tholians as a race of advanced arachnids.
• State Sec : Romulans and Cardassians both got their own little versions in the form of the Tal'Shiar and Obsidian Order respectively. Arguably Starfleet's Section 31. The Ferengi's FCA might also qualify given their cultural bias.
• Stealth in Space : The Romulans developed a Cloaking Device in the timeframe of TOS, which was soon stolen by the Federation; subsequently, the Treaty of Algeron prohibited the Federation from using or developing any cloaking technology of its own.
• Subspace Ansible : Except when the plot demands its absence.
• Super Doc : Any Sickbay doctor.
• Type 0: Jake Sisko, Kes, Neelix, the Ferengi
• Type 1: Most regulars who are Starfleet officers, Barclay, Klingons, Romulans
• Type 2: Spock, other Vulcans, Khan Noonien Singh , Deanna Troi , Julian Bashir , Seven of Nine, Holograms, Jem'Hadar
• Type 3: Data, the Borg, Species 8472, Changelings, Benjamin Sisko at the end of Deep Space Nine
• Type 4: Kes after her ascension, Armus
• Type 5: The Caretaker, Sphere Builders, The Prophets/Pah-Wraiths, the planet killer, the Whale Probe, Nagilum
• Type 6: The Q Continuum, The Guardian of Forever, The Douwd ( Kevin Uxbridge )
• Talking Animal : Lt. M'Ress, the felinoid alien from the Animated Series ; the Gorn, basically Lizard Folk .
• Techno Babble : More or less the Trope Codifier . In the script it would be labeled as [TECH] and they had a separate writer to put in whatever seemed appropriate.
• Technology Porn
• Teleporter Accident
• Teleport Interdiction : Since the transporters are such an integral part of the Star Trek franchise, it has a lot of this. For example, it's not possible to transport through a ship's deflector shields. Usually this is used as a way to add drama — with the ship having to drop its shields briefly in the middle of battle in order to beam back an away team — but it also means transporter-enabled boarding parties aren't a major part of battle tactics.
• Pre- Nemesis , authors had a standing order not to kill any character that had appeared on-screen. Afterwards, because Nemesis is likely the last time the original timeline will be seen on-screen, all bets are off. (Still non-canon, however.)
• Janeway is described as casually flaunting the timeline so frequently it actually managed to drive Captain Braxton insane . He comes up with something called "The Janeway Factor," meaning that you can fully expect her to blunder into any time-sensitive activities going on.
• Also, the time police hate Kirk; when Sisko gives his report about "Trials and Tribble-ations," and first mentions Kirk, the two operatives look at each other and say something along the lines of "we all hate the Kirk cases."
• Time to Step Up Commander
• Translator Microbes : The Universal Translator.
• Ungovernable Galaxy : The Federation manages its portion of the galaxy quite well. Trouble is, by the mid-24th century, it's only 11% of the galaxy. Even the quadrant it operates in, the Alpha Quadrant, is divided into several states. The Delta Quadrant is a Crapsack World full of pirates, scavengers, tribalists, and the Borg.
• Values Dissonance : There is some of this between the Star Trek shows, spanning decades, and the audiences of various generations, but this trope really comes into its own in universe, with the majority of plots being about or involving inter-species and inter-cultural values dissonance.
• Verb This : In First Contact :

Worf : Assimilate this. *cue Borgsplosion*

• The Verse : Widely recognized as quite possibly the most coherent, internally consistent fictional universe ever created .
• We Will Not Have Pockets in the Future
• What the Hell, Hero? : Every Captain. In every series. And not infrequently either. Either them at the crew for their crap, or the crew to themselves for their own crap.
• Will Not Tell a Lie : Vulcans, allegedly - something of an Informed Attribute . Of course, it's a good idea to pay attention to how the Vulcan said their sentence .
• Worthy Opponent  : The Romulan captain in Balance of Terror most notably. Used on other occasions.
• X Meets Y : Hidden by the influence of Trek on later productions, but the original premise was then novel at least for television, and could easily be described as " Horatio Hornblower meets The Outer Limits ".
• Zeerust : A given for the original series because of general budget restrictions of the time. Caused no shortage of Fan Dumb with Enterprise and the 2009 Star Trek movie because of an attempt to update. Next Generation mostly averts this even though it is over 20 years old now, mostly due to having an excellent--and Genre Savvy --visual designer in Michael Okuda.

• Star Trek: The Original Series
• E00 The Cage
• E01 The Man Trap
• E02 Charlie X
• E04 The Naked Time
• E14 Balance of Terror
• E20 Court Martial
• E21 The Return of the Archons
• E22 Space Seed
• E23 A Taste of Armageddon
• E26 Errand of Mercy
• E28 The City on the Edge of Forever
• E29 Operation: Annihilate!
• E01 Amok Time
• E02 Who Mourns for Adonais?
• E03 The Changeling
• E04 Mirror, Mirror
• E05 The Apple
• E06 The Doomsday Machine
• E07 Catspaw
• E09 Metamorphosis
• E11 Friday's Child
• E12 The Deadly Years
• E14 Wolf in the Fold
• E15 The Trouble With Tribbles
• E16 The Gamesters of Triskelion
• E21 Patterns of Force
• E01 Spock's Brain
• E08 For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
• E24 Turnabout Intruder
• Fanfic Recs
• Image Links
• Heartwarming
• Tear Jerker
• All Subpages

The first show in the Star Trek franchise. The origin of the show came when Gene Roddenberry was looking to write hard-hitting political and moral commentary and could not do so with the regular dramas of the time. He deduced that by creating a science fiction show borrowing heavily from the film Forbidden Planet , he could slip in such commentary disguised as metaphors for the various current events. As such he pitched Star Trek to the networks as a merging of the two most popular genres of the time, science fiction anthologies and Westerns, into the original " Wagon Train to the Stars ".

While troublesome to produce, it was a major Trope Maker , especially in Science Fiction (each of the three main characters has a trope named after them - and that's just for starters!). The cast was a dynamic mix of ethnicities and cultures, and while the focus was nearly always on Kirk , Spock and McCoy they still had a Russian , an Asian and a black African woman in positions of responsibility, authority and respect. It has been discussed by the cast members that near everyone in Hollywood wanted to be a part of Star Trek because of the steps forward it was making. In particular George Takei said that almost every Asian actor wanted to be Sulu because it was said Sulu would not be required to use an Asian accent or engage in martial arts. This also resulted in attracting multiple high-profile guest stars and guest writers, including Harlan Ellison , Theodore Sturgeon and Richard Matheson .

In some ways the show was way ahead of its time ; in others, hopelessly mired in The Sixties . The women wore go-go boots and miniskirts , and usually only appeared in the roles of assistants and secretaries (although at least some of that was due to Executive Meddling ). And while the visual design was ambitious, the actual production quality has not aged well.

Varied widely in quality from episode to episode and from season to season, depending upon who was writing. An episode chosen at random can be anything from high camp to geopolitical allegory to genuinely intelligent drama, and is likely to be at least two out of those three.

Common plots:

• Alternatively, the Planet of Hats will be a Cargo Cult worshiping a very theatrical god who turns out to be a computer . Kirk will show the natives how to outgrow such silly superstitions by dropping a Logic Bomb on it.
• The ship encounters a Negative Space Wedgie , which is defeated through Techno Babble or Deus Ex Nukina .
• A Sufficiently Advanced Alien is unkind, possibly putting Humanity on Trial .
• Our heroes get infected by The Plague and have to defeat it while being adversely affected.
• A godlike being will stow away or end up on the ship and wreak havoc with the crew, often manipulating laws of physics/reality or screwing with people's minds (examples: Charlie Evans, Gary Mitchell, the salt creature from "The Man Trap", the disease from " The Naked Time ", Id-Kirk, Kirk Android, and that's just in season one the first seven episodes).
• A Mad Scientist has plans for the crew. If alien, the scientist may be attempting to understand humans . If it's a female alien , she will ask Kirk What Is This Thing You Call Love? . He will show her .
• Kirk matches wits with a Worthy Opponent .

Some people are unaware of the original Trek pilot featuring Captain Pike (who would be a character in the Abrams movie ) played by Jeffrey Hunter, and Majel Barrett as first officer . The pilot was praised for a good story but was considered "too cerebral" and not as action packed as the network wanted to market it. This resulted in a near entire-cast replacement for a second pilot episode except for Spock. In fact Doctor McCoy didn't appear until after the second pilot was filmed. However, that first pilot did not go to waste considering Roddenberry used it as the series' only two parter, "The Menagerie", which proved a Hugo science fiction award winner.

The show was originally a commercial flop, barely managing out three seasons before being officially canceled, with a close call on the second season . Within a few weeks of its cancellation was the monumental first Moon Landing , and as a result the subsequent reruns of Star Trek were more popular than the original run. Television was also changing at the time, starting to account for Demographics along with the ratings and found that Star Trek snagged the most coveted 18-35 male group that nearly every show aimed for. Star Trek conventions were jammed with thousands of dedicated fans and seeing the potential for a revisit led into production for a new TV series. The first version was Star Trek: The Animated Series , which may have suffered from Filmation 's cheapo production values, but it more than compensated by having most of the original writers and cast to produce a great series that earned the franchise's first Emmy Award. Later in the hope of created a television network, a new Star Trek series was developed eventually turned into the first Star Trek film in 1979 after the monumental success of Star Wars . The success of the films led to the successor series in 1987, Star Trek: The Next Generation and another 18 straight years of Star Trek on television.

To be expected, the subtitle of "The Original Series" is used solely for commercial clarification once Star Trek: The Next Generation came out. It has always been referred to as Star Trek in its own opening sequence.

The 2009 Star Trek film, directed by J.J. Abrams , was an attempt to reboot the franchise by revisiting these same characters (of course played by new actors) with a new spin. It updates and modifies the general look and premise of the original series with modern special effects. The film has been a commercial and critical success (becoming the first Star Trek film to win an Oscar), but amongst the fans it has provoked debates . Despite the outcries of certain fans, a sequel has been announced for 2012.

If you're in the US , you can watch most episodes here . And over here we have a Re Cap page.

It also gave birth to the earliest recorded case of Slash Fiction - and, by extension, Ho Yay - when fans began to ship Captain Kirk with his First Officer Spock . Additionally, a 1970s Trek fanfic parody, titled " A Trekkie's Tale ", was the Trope Namer for Mary Sue .

Character profiles and roles in the script:

• James Tiberius Kirk ( William Shatner ): The Captain , albeit a Military Maverick , and Trope Namer for The Kirk . An Ethical Slut who sleeps with Green Skinned Space Babes . Played by Large Ham William Shatner , with multiple Chewing the Scenery moments in almost every episode.
• Spock ( Leonard Nimoy ): Number Two , Kuudere , The Stoic , the Straw Vulcan (at times) and Trope Namer for The Spock . Calling him "cold-blooded" or "unfeeling" will result in Insult Backfire .
• Leonard "Bones" McCoy ( DeForest Kelley ): Chief Medical Officer, The Heart , The Medic , The Watson and Trope Namer for The McCoy . Given a Promotion to Opening Titles in the second season.
• Montgomery "Scotty" Scott ( James Doohan ): A Mr. Fixit Engineer from Bonnie Scotland . Played by a Canadian (as was Kirk).
• Nyota Uhura ( Nichelle Nichols ): Twofer Token Minority and the original Bridge Bunny . She was essentially a glorified telephone operator and didn't even have a first name until an alternate timeline finally established one. Nonetheleess, at the time this was almost unthinkable authority to place in the hands of a woman or a minority, and when Nichols considered leaving the show, she was talked out of it by none other than Martin Luther King Jr.
• Hikaru Sulu ( George Takei ): A regular Token Minority and a Fan of the Past . Was the ship's pilot , again an almost unthinkable position then for a minority.
• Pavel Chekhov ( Walter Koenig ): Added in the second season , a young ensign with a Monkees -esque hairstyle and a bad Russian accent . His immensely patriotic attitude towards "Mother Russia" was a Running Gag .
• Christine Chapel (Majel Barrett): Ship's nurse in Mad Love with Spock. Given The Cameo in a couple of the films.
• Janice Rand (Grace Lee Whitney): Ms. Fanservice with a Beehive Hairdo . Early reviews of the series called her a "Playboy Bunny-type waitress". She and Kirk had Unresolved Sexual Tension until she fell victim to Chuck Cunningham Syndrome . Given The Cameo in a few of the films.
• Harcourt Fenton Mudd: Trickster Con Man ... and quite a scoundrel.
• Cyrano Jones: A more affable, less competent Trickster than Harry.
• Khan Noonien Singh: An Affably Evil Human Popsicle and Designer Baby Ubermensch who was once an Evil Overlord . Later became The Unfettered Big Bad of the second movie .
• Lieutenants Leslie and Kyle: The two most prominent Red Shirt characters. The former appeared in the background of most episodes and even managed to come Back from the Dead , and is known as "King of the Redshirts"; the latter was the only Red Shirt to have a steady job (transporter chief) and frequent dialogue, making him the closest thing the series had to a Mauve Shirt . He even appeared in one movie .
• Beam Me Up, Scotty
• Beard of Evil
• Boldly Coming
• Captain's Log
• Fascinating Eyebrow
• Green-Skinned Space Babe
• He's Dead, Jim
• I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder
• Kirk Summation
• Kirk's Rock
• Mirror Universe
• Redshirt Army
• Mauve Shirt
• Scotty Time
• Spock Speak
• Straw Vulcan
• Vulcan Has No Moon
• Wagon Train to the Stars

Trope-based episodes

• Aesoptinum : "The Apple", "The Cloud Minders", "A Taste of Armageddon", etc.
• The series itself inspired several Affectionate Parodies.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot : "The Changeling", "The Ultimate Computer", "The Return of the Archons", "For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky", etc.
• Amnesia Danger : "The Paradise Syndrome".
• Beard of Evil : "Mirror Mirror".
• Beethoven Was an Alien Spy : "Wolf in the Fold".
• Best Known for the Fanservice : SF Debris puts it best: ("The Menagerie").
• Blue and Orange Morality : Eminiar and Vendikar, the two warring planets in "A Taste of Armageddon," have so theorized their war with each other that they no longer send actual missiles—instead they just send computer signals signifying an attack and then have all civilians who happened to be within range of the theoretical attack disintegrate themselves in booths designed for that purpose . The leader of Eminiar considers Kirk a Complete Monster because he refuses to allow the same thing to happen to the crew of the Enterprise when the ship is calculated to have been "hit" by an "attack" , even more so when he destroys Eminiar's attack computers, immediately breaking the stalemate between the two planets .
• Bread and Circuses : "Bread and Circuses".
• Catch the Conscience : "The Conscience of the King" plays with this trope; a man suspected of being the murderous tyrant Kodos the Executioner happens to be an actor currently starring in a production of Hamlet.
• City in a Bottle : "For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky".
• Clip Show : "The Menagerie" (showed us most of the original pilot episode "The Cage").
• Combat by Champion : "Arena", "Amok Time".
• Courtroom Episode : " Court Martial ", "Wolf in the Fold".
• Cowboy Episode : "Spectre of the Gun".
• Daddy's Little Villain : "The Conscience of the King" (a tragic Double Subversion ).
• Death of the Old Gods : "Who Mourns for Adonais?".
• Death World : "The Apple", "The Way to Eden".
• Deus Ex Nukina : "The Doomsday Machine," "Obsession," "The Immunity Syndrome".
• Disney Death : "Amok Time", "The Enterprise Incident", "The Tholian Web".
• Downer Ending : "Charlie X", "The City on the Edge of Forever".
• Dramatic Chase Opening : "The Return of the Archons" starts with Sulu and another crewman running from some pursuers in a city street. They're both caught.
• Dying Race : The Talosians in "The Menagerie".
• Empathic Healer : "The Empath".
• Enforced Cold War : "Balance of Terror", "Errand of Mercy", "The Trouble with Tribbles", "Friday's Child", "Elaan of Troyius".
• Everybody Laughs Except Spock Ending : "Shore Leave", "The Trouble with Tribbles", "The Galileo Seven", "Spock's Brain". Was an actual plot point in "Day of the Dove", where the laughter drives the Energy Being away.
• Evil Twin : "Mirror, Mirror", "The Enemy Within".
• The Final Temptation : "This Side of Paradise".
• Forgot the Call : "The Paradise Syndrome".
• Gender Bender : " Turnabout Intruder " (via Grand Theft Me ).
• Giant Germs : Monster of the Week in both "Operation: Annihilate!" and "The Immunity Syndrome".
• Gladiator Revolt : "The Gamesters of Triskelion".
• Godwin's Law of Time Travel : "The City on the Edge of Forever".
• Gone Horribly Wrong : "Miri", "The Ultimate Computer".
• Grand Theft Me : " Turnabout Intruder ".
• The Great Repair : "Galileo Seven".
• Hate Plague : "Day of the Dove".
• Heart of Darkness : "Patterns of Force", "Bread and Circuses", "Return of the Archons".
• Hollow World : "For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky".
• Industrialized Evil : "A Taste of Armageddon".
• Literal Split Personality : "The Enemy Within".
• Logic Bomb : "The Changeling", "I, Mudd", "Return of the Archons", "The Ultimate Computer", "Wolf in the Fold".
• Lotus Eater Machine : "The Cage".
• Love Potion : "A Private Little War", "Elan of Troyius".
• Low Culture, High Tech
• The Mafia : "A Piece of the Action".
• Mars Needs Women : "Mudd's Women".
• The Masquerade : Gary Seven.
• Mate or Die : "Amok Time".
• Mirror Universe : "Mirror, Mirror".
• Monster Is a Mommy : "The Devil in the Dark".
• No Immortal Inertia : "Miri".
• No Social Skills : "Charlie X".
• Not So Stoic : "Amok Time" (especially Spock's reaction at the end).
• Outlaw Town : "A Piece of the Action".
• Parent Ex Machina : "The Squire of Gothos".
• People Puppets : "Plato's Stepchildren" (a literal example in the ending of the un-remastered version of "Catspaw").
• Poorly-Disguised Pilot : "Assignment: Earth".
• Portal Door : "All Our Yesterdays".
• Puppeteer Parasite : "Operation: Annihilate!", "Wolf in the Fold", "Catspaw".
• Psychopathic Manchild : Trelane from "The Squire of Gothos." Made even better by the fact that while he looks like an adult human, by his species' standards Trelane is basically a child .
• Really Seven Hundred Years Old : "Miri", "Requiem for Methuselah"
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right : "Amok Time", "Balance of Terror".
• Silly Reason for War : "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield".
• Solar CPR : "All Our Yesterdays".
• Spot the Imposter : "Whom Gods Destroy", "The Man Trap", "The Enemy Within".
• Stealth in Space : "Balance of Terror", "The Enterprise Incident".
• Stockholm Syndrome : "Metamorphosis".
• Strange Bedfellows : "Day of the Dove".
• Terminally Dependent Society
• Those Wacky Nazis : "Patterns of Force".
• Time Stands Still : "Wink of an Eye".
• Time Travel : "Tomorrow Is Yesterday", "The City on the Edge of Forever", "Assignment: Earth".
• Time Travel Romance : Kirk, in "The City on the Edge of Forever."
• Where's the Fun In That? : "The Squire of Gothos". Kirk asks his captor, "Where's the sport?" in simply hanging him, as he had planned. Instead, Kirk talks his captor into staging a "royal hunt" . This buys Kirk enough time for a Deus Ex Machina rescue.
• Who Even Needs a Brain? : "Spock's Brain".
• You Are in Command Now : "Catspaw".
• You Can't Fight Fate : "The City on the Edge of Forever".
• Aggressive Negotiations
• Air Vent Passageway : Used to escape in "Dagger of the Mind".
• Prime Directive : Former Trope Namer .
• All Cavemen Were Neanderthals
• All Planets Are Earthlike : Considering the technical and budgetary constraints, ridiculously so. The show hand waves it sometimes by making planets specifically based on Earth.
• And Your Little Dog, Too : Villains often find that this trope is what forces Kirk to comply to them. Textbook case in "The Squire of Gothos", with Spock as the collateral.
• Applied Phlebotinum
• As You Know : In "Wolf in the Fold", Spock explains to Captain Kirk how ordering the computer to compute the value of pi to the last digit will drive the Redjack creature out of it .
• Auto Kitchen : The Enterprise had slots in the wall which could produce any food desired by inserting the correct computer tape. In The Next Generation , these were replaced by replicators.
• Ax Crazy : Captain, no, Lord Garth. Also most of his "court" of fellow asylum inmates, notably Green-Skinned Space Babe Marta, who is compelled to murder those she "loves".
• Badass : Everyone . Admittedly, some of the supporting characters don't come into full bloom until the movies, but still.
• Badass Crew : Established a long and proud tradition of these in Starfleet.
• Batman Gambit : Kirk could pull these off in ways that would make Batman himself proud.
• Similarly, the space battle music from the episode "The Doomsday Machine" became a standard used over and over again in later episodes.
• Beeping Computers
• The Klingons found this out the hard way in "The Trouble With Tribbles". Then again, they were Klingons, so they may have been looking for that fight.
• Big Little Man : In "The Corbomite Maneuver", the Enterprise encounters an alien vessel, and is able to get a video feed revealing the bridge, which shows the alien captain, Balok, to be a scowling monster that looks to be about 7 feet tall. However, later they manage to get on board, revealing they had actually been watching an elaborate puppet show, and the real Balok is no larger than a child .
• Black and White Morality
• Bluff the Eavesdropper : In "The Deadly Years", due to having been rapidly aged by mysterious radiation and gone senile, Kirk has stepped down from command and his incompetent replacement has led the ship through the Romulan Neutral Zone and the latter are about to destroy them. Suddenly a cure is found, a restored Kirk appears on the bridge and gives an order to relay a message to Starfleet... using a code previously established as having been broken by the Romulans, which briefly causes the crew to wonder if he's still senile. Nevertheless, they open the channels and Kirk sends a message that the Enterprise will self destruct via the Corbomite Device and destroy any ship in a huge radius. The Romulans intercept the message and leave.
• Blunt Metaphors Trauma : Spock.
• Boldly Coming : Kirk . So much so that in "By Any Other Name", when they need to fight the aliens who have adopted human form , due to the Enterprise they have hijacked being suited to human life , each of the four remaining crew members uses their personal skills to take back the ship; McCoy secretly drugs the hijackers, Spock plays The Chessmaster and turns the aliens against each other, Scotty drinks an alien into a complete stupor , and Kirk... seduces the head alien's girlfriend.
• Bottled Heroic Resolve
• Brainwashed and Crazy : Numerous episodes.
• Brandishment Bluff : "The Corbomite Maneuver".
• Bunny Ears Lawyer : The things Kirk got away with...
• Butt Monkey : Chekhov always seems to get the worst of any mysterious affliction that affects the crew. Even on the one occasion where he proves immune in "The Deadly Years", he still gets to spend the whole episode being experimented on by McCoy in an attempt to find a cure.
• Call a Smeerp a Rabbit : In "The Enemy Within", Evil Kirk insists that his subordinates bring him some "Saurian brandy". It's unlikely that whatever world the Saurians come from actually has grapes that can be fermented and distilled into real brandy.
• Captain's Log : The Trope Namer .
• Cartwright Curse : So frequent you could almost take bets on whether the Girl of the Week was going to buy the farm by the end of the episode (or if she doesn't, pull a High Heel Face Turn ).
• Catch Phrase : Dr. McCoy's " I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder " and " He's Dead, Jim " (both Trope Namers ). Spock's "Fascinating" and "Illogical".
• Lampshaded in "Friday's Child" when Kirk wonders why "the cavalry doesn't come over the hill in the nick of time anymore". Then Scotty arrives with a Redshirt Army .
• Chekhov's Gun : And no, they didn't play Russian Roulette with it.
• Clear My Name : Happens once in a while. One time, Sarek got accused of murdering a Tellarite ambassador. It was an Orion pretending to be a staff member of the Andorian ambassador . Another time, Kirk was accused of causing the death of one of his crew members. The crew member had faked his own death and tried to sabotage Kirk's career as he blamed Kirk for ruining his .
• Cloudcuckoolander : Chekhov and his constant references to Mother Russia which appear to only make sense in his mind. To a lesser extent, Sulu and his Fleeting Passionate Hobbies which the rest of the crew regard as unusual for the time period.
• Continuity Snarl : This series is responsible for a good 90% of the continuity problems in The Verse . It took quite a few episodes before they settled on what year it was (sometimes as near as 2100s, sometimes as far as 2700 ), what group the Enterprise worked for (in some episodes it's United Earth Space Probe Agency, in some it's Starfleet, etc), the name of Spock's race (Vulcan is settled on later, but Vulcanian was still being used up till the end of the first season). References to the past that have already happened by the time the later series were being made (Khan's starship leaves in the 1990s, something plainly impossible today) and so on. Some of these have been Handwaved or attempted to be explained away, but a lot of them still cause big problems that fans prefer to overlook.
• Credits Montage : Featuring not only stills from the episode in question, but random shots from various other episodes as well.
• Creepy Children Singing :
• Cukoloris : Shadows from devices like these were often used to suggest structural detail that's off camera (and so doesn't have to actually be built). Look in the "overhead" area of the ship's interiors, particularly where a corridor opens onto a larger junction.
• Custom Uniform : Captain Kirk's deep green wraparound fatigue shirt, worn interchangeably with the usual uniform shirt in the first two seasons, is a good example of this trope in action. Kirk is the only person aboard who we see wearing this 'casual' alternative uniform.
• And cats. He has no particular fondness for the creatures .
• And dogs, too. See the space dog in "The Enemy Within".
• "Diplomats. The best diplomat I know is a fully armed phaser bank. "
• Deadpan Snarker : The epic snarkfests between McCoy and Spock are legendary for a reason.
• Death Ray : Phasers, at their highest setting, become a Disintegrator Ray .
• Deus Est Machina : Several episodes, notably "The Apple".
• Deus Ex Machina : "Charlie X" (the Thasians), "Shore Leave" (the Keeper), "The Squire of Gothos" (Trelane's parents), "Errand of Mercy" (the Organians).
• Devil's Advocate : Spock would occasionally preform the duty of the Devil's Advocate, typically countering McCoy 's or Kirk 's spontaneous, Gut Feeling -inspired actions.
• Discontinuity Nod : Various extra-series material (novels, for example), often refer in a disparaging way to the more "out there" episodes from The Original Series , usually in the form of Starfleet Officials claiming Kirk made up a large number of his reports, with his motive being contempt for his superiors. Invariably mentioned is the universally disbelieved incident in which aliens "stole the brain of Kirk's Science Officer", a reference to the episode in which Spock's brain was, indeed, stolen by alien temptresses and which is considered the worst episode of the Original Series, if not of Star Trek as a whole.
• Disney Dog Fight
• Dramatic Downstage Turn : Several instances, especially during dramatic scenes featuring female cast members. One simple example appears in a conversation between Leila and Spock near the end of the episode "This Side of Paradise".
• This trope was popular because it allowed them to use standard, preexisting costumes, props and sets, rather than having to make expensive new ones. There had been very few science fiction shows up to this time, and there were very few props hanging around to be re-used, unlike today where science fiction has been popular for a long time.
• Dude, Where's My Respect? : Averted. Among Kirk's various honors and awards: The Medal of Honor, the Starfleet Citation for Conspicuous Gallantry , The Kerrigite Order of Heroism.. The list goes on for so long that it has to be stopped early so that the episode can continue.
• Duel to the Death : "Arena", "Amok Time".
• Easily-Thwarted Alien Invasion : In "Errand of Mercy", the Organians refuse to use violence to stop the Klingons from taking over their planet, but easily thwart them with their Psychic Powers .
• Eat Dirt Cheap : The Horta.
• Empire with a Dark Secret : In "The Mark of Gideon", there was a germ-free "paradise" of a planet who was willing to join the Federation. However, the reason why they invited only Kirk to their planet was so they could decrease the planet's overpopulation by using Kirk, who had a rare disease in his blood to do it .
• Enemy Mine : The Klingons team up with the Enterprise crew in "Day of the Dove".
• Enemy Rising Behind : In "Where No Man Has Gone Before," Gary Mitchell used his newly-gained Telekinesis to make a length of power cable rise up behind and strangle to death a crewmember sitting on a console.
• Ethical Slut : Kirk at it again and again, while remaining morally upstanding.
• The series also had several subversions, among them the Horta, who is initially presented and believed to be (as the episode title states) a "Devil in the Dark", but turns out to be a mother protecting her eggs , and the Romulans, who are introduced by launching an unprovoked sneak attack... but in the same episode the two main Romulan characters are examples of My Country, Right or Wrong and What a Senseless Waste of Human Life . Even the Klingons get a minor subversion in "Errand of Mercy", where the Organians predict that at some future time the Klingons and the Federation will become fast friends, working together.
• There's also "Day of the Dove", when after learning they are being manipulated by an Energy Being into a senseless, endless war with Kirk's crew, the Klingons team up in an Enemy Mine .
• Explosive Breeder : The Tribbles.
• Explosive Overclocking : The ship's engines, frequently (probably the source of all the "she cannae hauld no muir!" parodies of Scotty). Also, phasers have a setting which allows them to be used as time bombs.
• Expositron 9000 : The ship's computer.
• Exposition of Immortality : Several of the alien beings that the TOS crew encountered had vastly expanded lifespans and/or had dabbled in Earth's history in some way . A key example to be found in the episode "Requiem for Methuselah". In Flint's home, Mr. Spock finds a waltz by Johannes Brahms written in original manuscript in Brahms' own hand, but which is totally unknown. Likewise Flint has a collection of Leonardo da Vinci masterpieces that have been recently painted on contemporary canvas with contemporary materials. Flint later admits that he was Brahms and da Vinci .
• The Face : Uhura is both the Token Girl and the token black as well as the Communications Officer .
• Fallen Hero : Gary Mitchell, John Gill, Garth of Izar.
• Many women find that the numerous Kirk-shirt tears of Season 1 would count as this as well.
• Dear god, "Mirror, Mirror" shows that Uhura has nice abs. And then there's "Patterns of Force" with its whips, chains, and shirtlessness.
• Sulu topless in "The Naked Time". Kirk topless several times (and naked in one episode).
• "Charlie X" has Kirk shirtless and in tights. It's very distracting.
• Legend has it that when Sherry Jackson walked into the NBC commissary wearing her Andrea costume from "What Little Girls Are Made Of" - bell-bottoms and two straps crossed over her chest - forks stopped halfway between plate and mouth.
• The costume designer for the show was William Ware Theiss, Trope Codifier for the Theiss Titillation Theory .`
• Several episodes also revolved around two alien species' hatred of each other for no good reason.
• Fascinating Eyebrow : The Trope Namer because when Spock raises his eyebrow, he says "fascinating" very nearly every time.
• A Fate Worse Than Death : Poor, poor Charlie Evans ...
• Five-Token Band : May well be the Trope Codifier .
• Food and Animal Attraction : In "The Cage", during one of the illusions the Talosians create for Captain Pike, a horse starts nuzzling his jacket pocket in search of the sugar therein.
• Forced Prize Fight
• Force Field Door : The ship's brig.
• In "Amok Time", McCoy uses the fact that Spock hasn't eaten for three days in an attempt to convince Kirk that something is wrong, and Kirk dismisses it as simply being Spock in one of his contemplative phases.
• Another example is "The Paradise Syndrome", where Spock hardly eats for weeks while studying the obelisk.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend : Pretty much everyone who got killed on the show ( and that's a lot ).
• A Form You Are Comfortable With : Trelane ("The Squire of Gothos"), the Organians ("Errand of Mercy"), and the Metrons ("Arena").
• Frequently-Broken Unbreakable Vow : The Prime Directive .
• Spock risks his career, and possibly his life, for his former captain (Pike) in "The Menagerie". Kirk does the same for Spock in "Amok Time", and again in the third movie.
• Get Back to the Future : "Tomorrow Is Yesterday", "All Our Yesterdays".
• Get It Over With : Dr. McCoy has a version of this when he is attacked by Khan in Sickbay in "Space Seed":
• Clever wordplay in "The Naked Time" with Sulu imagining himself a heroic swordsman.
• Star Trek did show the first televised interracial kiss between Uhura and Chapel in the first season, albeit as just a brief congratulatory peck on the cheek between two sisterly colleagues.
• What gets all the historical attention, however, is the first "romantic" interracial kiss between Kirk and Uhura in "Plato's Stepchildren" in the third season. This scene wasn't really that romantic as presented, since they were both being coerced, though it did have her confessing to her captain that she found his commanding presence very comforting in scary times such as this one. Also, the kiss was shown at an angle from which viewers couldn't see the actors' lips, although Nichols insists in her memoirs that it was entirely real.
• In "Mudd's Women", the title women have an obvious effect on the male crew-members. During a physical with one of them, a somewhat agitated McCoy notices an odd reading on the medical scanner as the woman walks past.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom : Gary Mitchell.
• In "The Paradise Syndrome", an amnesiac Kirk is mistaken for a deity by transplanted American Indians on a distant planet.
• "Who Mourns for Adonais?" has an actual surviving Greek God who reveals he's just a powerful alien who had become too used to being worshiped by mortals.
• In "The Omega Glory", Spock is mistaken for the devil (this was actually a real-life objection the producers had to his appearance).
• McCoy invoked this in "Bread and Circuses", saying he wished he could claim to be the Archangel Gabriel. When Spock said this was illogical, McCoy replied that Spock, of course, could never claim to be Gabriel. "But say you beamed down with a pitchfork ...."
• Good-Looking Privates : Let's face it, there's a reason this show was the Launcher of a Thousand Ships . All of the main cast were good-looking in their own way, and the innumerable girls of the week and the big strapping Red Shirts usually were as well.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil : In "The Savage Curtain", Surak, Spock and President Lincoln have a hard time understanding the motives and actions of the opposing "evil" side. Only Kirk seems to have a grasp of their potential for deceptiveness and duplicity.
• Good Republic, Evil Empire : Why the Federation is unlike the Klingons, according to Kirk.
• Got the Whole World In My Hand : The Terran Empire.
• The Great Politics Mess-Up : Wait, did Chekhov say "Leningrad" in My Grandma Can Do Better Than You below?
• Grudging Thank You : In the episode "Bread and Circuses", Bones gives Spock a Grudging Thank You and receives a Think Nothing of It in return.
• "A Piece of the Action" is the funniest example. Captain Kirk positively revels in giving all the mob chiefs offers they can't refuse.
• Of course, the series was partially inspired by the Horatio Hornblower books.
• Parodied in a line given to Kirk in one of the classic fan songs: " We Come in Peace, Shoot to Kill ".
• Halloween Episode : "Catspaw", which was first broadcast on October 27, 1967.
• Kirk and McCoy engage in the purely platonic "meaningful look" variant when they drop the friendly banter and display the fact that they are rock-solid best friends (or at least second best- see above).
• The Hero : Captain Kirk
• Heroic BSOD : Decker in "The Doomsday Machine"... that is until he faces the planet-killer one-on-one .
• Heroic Sacrifice : Several one-shot characters die nobly, but the undisputed champion (and not just for Star Trek ) is Spock sacrificing himself to save the ship and crew, at the end of the second movie . "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few... or the one."
• Heterosexual Life Partners : Kirk and Spock and their intergalactic b romance .
• High Concept : Many idea and concepts for episodes can be described thus but also the idea of the show itself, Wagon Train to the Stars was High Concept in its day.
• High Heel Face Turn : Frequently with women Kirk seduced.
• Hollywood Torches : In "Errand of Mercy" and "Catspaw".
• Holodeck Malfunction : Subverted in the episode "Shore Leave". The planet's safety protocols are working just fine, but the away team doesn't know that and think they are actually in danger.
• Human Ladder
• Humans Are Interesting : Or fascinating , even.
• I Can Still Fight : Justified, when Kirk was injured, but he insisted on being on the bridge because Spock was needed at the time to give a vital transplant to his father.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight : Kirk and Spock in "This Side of Paradise"; Kirk has to get Spock angry enough so he can overcome the influence of the mind-altering spores.
• I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder : Trope Maker .
• I'm Not Afraid of You
• Impostor-Exposing Test : In "The Trouble With Tribbles", the Tribble dislike for Klingons is used to identify the Klingon spy disguised as a human.
• Involuntary Group Split : Happens to Kirk and Spock in "The Devil in the Dark".
• I, Noun : "I, Mudd".
• Jerk Jock : Though not a jock, Kirk was tormented endlessly by upperclassman Finnegan when he was younger. One of his fantasies is finally getting to punch him out.
• Just Testing You : Kirk and Spock set up a challenge/response password before Kirk beamed down to a planet in order to prevent imposters from getting beamed up. Naturally a shapeshifter takes Kirk's form and tries to get Spock to beam him up. When he doesn't know the password, he tries to cover it up by saying that he was just testing Spock. Spock catches on immediately and concludes that Kirk must be in trouble, since the real Kirk would never "test" him like that.
• Kill the Cutie : Edith Keeler in "The City on the Edge of Forever". After all, You Can't Fight Fate .
• Kill the Poor : In the episode "The Cloud Minders", on the planet Ardana, rather then kill the poor, they were enslaved and forced to live out their entire lives underground.
• Knockout Gas : In the episode "Space Seed", after Khan takes over the Enterprise , Kirk orders that all decks be flooded with Neural Gas, which would render everyone aboard unconscious. That attempt fails, but later the attempt succeeds.
• Mr. Spock was first given his distinctive theme music in the episode "Amok Time". The wistful, romantic melody is usually provided by a bass guitar - a deliberate choice by composer Gerald Fried, as he felt it would be a terrible match for such a utilitarian instrument, a juxtaposition that suits the dichotomy of Spock's character .
• Scotty also has his own leitmotif, typically used in lighter moments. It is prominently heard in both "The Trouble With Tribbles" and "By Any Other Name".
• Liberty Over Prosperity : In "Space Seed", after Khan's attempt to take over the Enterprise fails, Kirk says that he and his followers can either be punished under Starfleet regulations (which would presumably involve a long prison sentence) or become colonists on an uninhabited planet.
• Ludicrous Precision : Spock's figures, constantly. Discussed in "Errand of Mercy".
• Possibly justified, because machines cause vibrations that engineers familiar with said machine can actually feel when touching it—such as through the hull of a starship.
• Scotty himself confirms this in the NextGen episode "Relics" when he compares the Enterprise D with 'his' Enterprise to Picard.
• Mad Love : Nurse Chapel and Spock.
• Memetic Hand Gesture : The Vulcan salute.
• Men Are the Expendable Gender : Only three female redshirts were killed in the whole series, whereas dozens of male Starfleet personnel were killed.
• Mildly Military : The crew of the Enterprise don't seem too keen on protocol and frequently question orders and argue with the captain. As well, what's the sense in the command staff (and thus the most important people on the ship) beaming down for every mission?
• Minored in Asskicking : The reserved, cerebral Spock and his skill at hand-to-hand fighting (Vulcan nerve pinch! Judo chop!).
• More Hero Than Thou : In "The Empath", when aliens offer Kirk the choice of sacrificing McCoy or Spock, McCoy takes out Kirk with drugs. Spock is glad; since this leaves him in command, he can make the sacrifice himself. McCoy proceeds to drug him as well and sacrifice himself.
• Multi Boobage : The cat creature in Star Trek V .
• Multinational Team : Each of the bridge crew represents a part of the world (and an alien).
• Mundane Utility : In multiple episodes, they use their phasers to create a heat source, by shooting a rock.
• Mundanization
• Spock's actions in transported Captain Pike to Talos IV constituted a mutiny, for which he was put on trial which was a ruse to buy him more time .
• Kirk considers the crew's actions in "This Side of Paradise" to be a mutiny: they abandon the ship due to being Brainwashed and Crazy .
• My Grandma Can Do Better Than You : The exchange where Scotty tells Chekhov that Scotch whisky is a man's drink, and Chekhov replies that it was invented by a little old lady from Leningrad.
• My Sensors Indicate You Want to Tap That : In the episode "Mudd's Women", the computer tells the all-male hearing board the effect the women are having on them - elevated heart rate, sweating, rapid pulse. All except Spock, of course .
• Neck Snap : The Vulcan tal-shaya technique performed by the Orion spy in "Journey to Babel".
• No-Paper Future : Although paper still exists, characters take notes on what are obviously tablet computers. Most characters find reading e-books off of screens to be more convenient than hauling wood pulp around. And this was over forty years ago.
• The character played by Majel Barrett in "The Cage" is referred to only as "Number One", the unofficial nickname attached to her position as Captain Pike's first officer.
• Neither the male Romulan Commander played by Mark Lenard in "Balance of Terror" nor the female Commander played by Joanne Linville in "The Enterprise Incident" were ever referred to by name.
• No Social Skills : Charlie Evans, due to being raised by Energy Beings .
• Not Love Interest : Kirk and Spock, for each other. See the trope page for more details, but... suffice it to say, Kirk and Spock have been the lodestars of each others' lives since almost the day they met.
• Moral Myopia : Come to think of it, it is not all that different from Kirk's intrigues with Klingons and Romulans .
• No Transhumanism Allowed : Discussed . When Khan is awoken in "Space Seed", he has a discussion with Kirk once they have determined his identity, lamenting the fact that the humans of the 2300s are practically indistinguishable from those of the 1990s. He was hoping to awaken in a world of genetically modified Ubermensch like himself, at the very least.
• Not Rare Over There : In "Elaan of Troyius", the ship's dilithium crystals crack in the middle of a battle. Unfortunately, there are none left... until they realize that Elaan's necklace has a bunch of them. She surrenders it gladly, bemused that they would want what to her planet are Worthless Yellow Rocks .
• Not So Different : In the episode "Balance of Terror", the defeated Romulan Commander says that he and Kirk "are of a kind", just before blowing himself up.
• The Klingon commander in "Errand of Mercy" is all over this, but Kirk shouts him down.
• Numbered Homeworld : Rigel VII ... XII... how many of those were there, anyway?
• Of the People
• Once For Yes, Twice For No : If not the Trope Maker , then certainly the Trope Codifier with Captain Pike's portrayal in "The Menagerie".
• One-Winged Angel : Sylvia in "Catspaw" turns into a giant cat when Kirk refuses to obey her.
• Our Vampires Are Different : The alien Kirk hunts down in "Obsession" is a shapeless cloud that can travel through space at warp speed without a ship, that subsists off of human blood.
• Out-of-Character Moment : "The Naked Time", "This Side of Paradise", and "Amok Time" were entire episodes about this trope.
• Panty Shot : The ridiculously short skirts of the standard female uniform lead to most of the female Starfleet officers doing this at some point.
• Polarity Reversal : The Trope Maker .
• The Power of Legacy : In his final log in "Where No Man Has Gone Before", Kirk merely notes that Mitchell "gave [his] life in performance of [his] duty", and omits the part where he first gained vast psionic powers and began to think of himself as a god who regarded humans as insects to be crushed.
• Precision F-Strike : There was only one curse in the entire series, occurring at the end of "The City on the Edge of Forever". It's notable for being one of the few curse words on American TV during the 1960s and showing just how hurt Kirk was as a result of the Bittersweet Ending .
• Pretty in Mink : Lenore Karidian wears a short fur dress. Seen here , at 12:55 - 14:47.
• Proud Warrior Race : The Klingons, of course, but also the Romulans and others.
• Also Trelane, as noted earlier. (Doubly?) subverted in that he's not (strictly speaking) a man, but is DEFINITELY a child .
• Psycho Serum : McCoy's adrenaline-like drug in "The City on the Edge of Forever", which causes temporary insanity when injected at overly high doses (which he accidentally does to himself).
• Public Secret Message : In "Space Seed", Khan Noonien Singh was named for Kim Noonien Singh, one of Roddenberry's buddies from World War II . Roddenberry hoped that the name would attract the attention of the Real Life Singh in hopes that they would reconnect.
• Punishment Box : In the episode "Mirror, Mirror".
• Radio Silence : In "Balance of Terror", the Romulan ship heads home under cover of a cloaking device and comm silence. Unfortunately for them, one of the officers violates orders in order to call home base to report the success of their mission, and the transmission is detected.
• Ramming Always Works : How Kirk destroys the titular device in "The Doomsday Machine".
• Raygun Gothic : The Original Series was the last of the classic examples. Soon afterwards, 2001: A Space Odyssey and the Real Life moon landings introduced more realism into the genre.
• Readings Are Off the Scale : Said by everyone : Spock, Chekhov, Uhura...
• Reality Warping Is Not a Toy
• Rebellious Princess
• Reckless Gun Usage : Two instances, both involving Time Travel and the not-gun-shaped Phaser. In "The City on the Edge of Forever", a 1930s bum gets hold of one and vaporizes himself playing with it . In "Tomorrow Is Yesterday", Kirk is captured by Air Police in 1969, and cringes (with priceless facial expressions) as they fiddle with his weapon, toss it around, and several times almost press the trigger, conflicted between justifiable fear and the need to not let them know who he is or what they have.
• Religion of Evil : The cult of Landru in "The Return of the Archons".
• Right-Hand-Cat : Isis (to Gary Seven) in "Assignment Earth" and Sylvia (to Korob) in "Catspaw".
• Rubber Forehead Aliens : Infamously, the Klingons (though they didn't even have the budget for that until the movies). Vulcans are Rubber Ear Aliens.
• Running Gag : Trying to explain Spock's ears to native people. The cake-taker has to be this gem, from "The City on the Edge of Forever":
• Sadistic Choice : Pretty much everyone was forced to make these every so often.
• Sailor Fuku : In the episode "Court Martial", Jamie Finney wears a futuristic version of this.
• Sarcastic Devotee : Both Spock and Bones are devoted to the captain, but are also quite willing to question/make sarcastic comments about his orders when the situation warrants it.
• Justified/Played with in "Charlie X", because he really doesn't understand the rules .
• Second Episode Introduction : McCoy doesn't appear in either of the pilots, but does appear in the first proper episode.
• Secret Test : Balok in The Corbomite Maneuver", the Ekosian Resistance in "Patterns of Force", and Korob in "Catspaw".
• Self-Destruct Mechanism : Multiple examples.
• Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains : The mirror universe.
• Might be somewhat justified, in that it's a visual representation of the woman gaining confidence (the movie Shallow Hal uses this as well to demonstrate Hal's new ability to see "inner beauty").
• Shapeshifter Swan Song
• Short-Lived, Big Impact : Star Trek: The Original Series originally lasted for just two seasons, being Uncancelled for a third season before dying completely. It's also a cultural icon, spawning four follow-up television series , a dozen movies (so far), countless novels and video games, and having an immense influence on science fiction, and possibly Western culture as a whole. Good luck finding someone who doesn't recognize Captain Kirk and Mister Spock, even if they were born long after the series was first aired.
• Single-Purpose Planet : "Wrigley's Pleasure Planet".
• As well as Kirk, who was stated to be quite bookish at the academy.
• Also occurs in "Day of the Dove", when Chekhov is ranting about the Klingons having murdered his brother Piotr. Sulu immediately knows something is wrong because Chekhov's an only child.
• Though Bones's Southern accent isn't (usually) quite as noticeable as Trip's .
• Space Mines : In the episode "Balance of Terror", the Romulan ship uses one of its self destruct devices as an impromptu mine in an attempt to destroy the Enterprise. In Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , in The Kobayashi Maru scenario that starts off the movie, the ship the Enterprise needs to rescue was disabled by a gravitic mine.
• Styrofoam Rocks : In "Return of the Archons", a melon-sized "rock" bounces off a stuntman's head and he keeps running. Apparently, it wasn't supposed to hit him at all, and was left in under time pressure.
• Sufficiently Advanced Alien : "The Corbomite Maneuver", "The Squire of Gothos", and more.
• Take a Third Option : Kirk was famous for these.
• Chekhov was supposedly introduced after an article in the Soviet state newspaper Pravda allegedly mocked the show for not having a Russian, when the Russians had been the first into space.
• The insult "Herbert" that the space hippies use in "The Way to Eden" was definitely a Take That at a real life Herbert. However, no-one is exactly sure who it was supposed to be—depending on who you ask, it was either Herbert Hoover or Herbert Solow, who was the show's production executive for the first two seasons.
• In "Charlie X", Uhura sings seductively to Spock (no, the 2009 movie didn't make up her having the hots for him) and jokingly describes him as being "in Satan's guise" (to which Spock struggles to suppress a smile)--a Take That to meddling executives who had feared that Spock's "devilish" appearance would offend conservative viewers (and doctored publicity photos to remove Spock's pointed ears and slanted eyebrows).
• Talking the Monster to Death : Usually with Kirk delivering a Logic Bomb to a psychotic computer.
• Tall, Dark and Snarky : Spock definitely fits into this trope.
• Tap on the Head : Spock's Vulcan nerve/neck pinch.
• Techno Babble : Although not as bad as later series, there is still a lot. Remember, this is the show that invented the Polarity Reversal .
• Teleporter Accident : Many (usually the transporter being out of order and unable to beam the heroes aboard), but notably in "The Enemy Within", which creates an Evil Knockoff and a wimpy knockoff of Kirk.
• "Dagger of the Mind". The Tantalus penal colony has a security force field that blocks the Enterprise transporter.
• "Whom Gods Destroy". The planet Elba II has a force field that prevents the Enterprise from beaming anyone down.
• That's an Order : Occurred in 13 different episodes .
• This Is No Time for Knitting : In "Court Martial", McCoy is aghast to find Spock playing chess against the computer while Kirk is losing a court martial for criminal negligence. However, Spock reveals that he has been using the chess games to confirm that the ship's computer's memory banks have been tampered with to frame Kirk.
• This Was His True Form : The shapeshifting creature in "The Man Trap"; the two telepathic aliens in "Catspaw".
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works : During one of the illusions that Captain Pike was subjected to in the original pilot episode, he wound up using this on a giant warrior threatening the Love Interest , causing it to fall and get impaled.
• Time Bomb : "Obsession", "The Immunity Syndrome", "The Doomsday Machine".
• Time Travelers Are Spies : "Tomorrow Is Yesterday", "Assignment: Earth".
• Tim Taylor Technology
• That's What I Would Do : In "Balance of Terror", this is Kirk's comment after the nameless Romulan commander dodges one of the Enterprise' s attacks: "He did exactly what I would have done. I won't underestimate him again."
• Trial by Combat : Kirk must face the Gorn captain in "Arena" in a Duel to the Death to determine which was in the wrong by straying into their space.
• Though it came years before MythBusters , a Star Trek: The Next Generation Novel involving the Gorn revealed that, over the years, many a Starfleet cadet had tried to duplicate Kirk's cannon, often to extremely mixed results. Injuries were not uncommon.
• Turns Red : The Companion, when Kirk and crew attack it with something like an EMP; it takes Cochrane to stop it from killing our gallant crew .
• Turn the Other Fist : The episode "The Trouble With Tribbles" features this kind of punch by good ol' Scotty when a Klingon is insulting the Enterprise .
• Unique Pilot Title Sequence : "Where No Man Has Gone Before" didn't have William Shatner's "Space, the final frontier" voiceover. This was 'corrected' for the HD remastered version of the episode.
• The Unpronounceable : Spock's real name supposedly can't be pronounced by humans.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom : Doctor McCoy (and Edith Keeler ) in "The City on the Edge of Forever".
• " How is this guy still a captain? ": The stuff that Kirk got away with.....
• " What the hell did he just say?": Star Trek damn near invented Techno Babble ... but the original series used very little of it .
• "There is no way that's going to work.": The show is one of the biggest users of Crazy Enough to Work plans.
• "So that's where they got the idea for flip cell-phones": Trek is recognized for having inspired many a real life invention. See also Life Imitates Art .
• Khan suffered a brief one when no one from the bridge was willing to join him, even with Kirk's life at stake.
• In " Turnabout Intruder ", Dr Janice Lester grew increasingly unhinged as the rest of the suspicious crew began to mutiny and rebel against her orders while she was in Kirk's body.
• In "The Conscience of the King", the entire episode dealt with trying to discover if actor Anton Karidian really was a murderous tyrant named Kodos the Executioner. By the end of the episode, this has happened to two villainous characters. Karidian, who is Kodos and becomes spooked when he overhears an argument between Riley and Kirk about his past during a performance of Hamlet . Kodos breaks down backstage during the intermission, believing the voices to be ghosts from his past . At the same time, his daughter Lenore reveals she has murdered seven of the nine witnesses who could still identify him, and plans to kill Kirk and Riley, even swearing she would destroy an entire planet to save him. Kodos breaks down further as he realizes his actions in the past have corrupted his own child as well . In true Shakespearian fashion, this causes a chain reaction that ends in the death of Kodos, who dies trying to stop Lenore from shooting Kirk and instead takes the lethal blast meant for Kirk. Lenore is pronounced completely insane in the epilog, as she believes her father to be alive and well .
• Evil Kirk in "Mirror, Mirror". " I. ORDER. YOU!!!! "
• The Wall Around the World : The barrier around the galaxy in "Where No Man Has Gone Before". Appears again in "Is There in Truth No Beauty?", when a jealous (and then insane) engineer gets them lost on the wrong side of it and Spock must mind-meld with Kollos to get them back, and mentioned in "By Any Other Name" as the reason for the Kelvan expedition being stranded in our galaxy.
• Wanting Is Better Than Having : Spock in "Amok Time", almost word for word:
• Well-Intentioned Extremist : The Vians in "The Empath" use a beautiful, mute empath in combination with our Power Trio to determine whether her race is worthy of survival before their sun goes nova. Their methods consist of torture and mutilation, resulting in gross physical and psychological damage. Turns out that the empath's race is worthy of preservation, and the Vians, totally logical and possessed of their own morals and ethics regarding life , needed only "good old-fashioned human emotion" to help them see that .
• Also when the Romulans decide to self-destruct rather than surrender in "Balance of Terror".
• What Measure Is a Non-Human? : The Horta (rock monster) in "The Devil in the Dark".
• Wide-Eyed Idealist / Wrong Genre Savvy : Edith Keeler in "The City on the Edge of Forever".
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity : "Where No Man Has Gone Before", "Whom Gods Destroy" although to a lesser extent.
• Worthy Opponent : As noted above, several examples, with the Romulan commander in "Balance of Terror" being a particular standout.
• Another instance was with an ex-lover of Kirk's, while in Kirk's body, hit Kirk, who was in her body. This shocked the rest of the crew, who at this point didn't know about the change and grew suspicious, as Kirk would never hit a girl like that.
• Kirk chinned Shahna, his "drill thrall" in "The Gamesters of Triskelion, into unconsciousness, but it didn't get him very far.
• However, Kirk has a weird tendency to lay his hands on female characters as part of 'normal' conversation, including grabbing them by the arms/shoulders and shaking them, even women he hasn't been sleeping with.
• Wrong Name Outburst : In the infamous backrub scene, Kirk told Spock to push a little harder , believing Spock was the one giving him the backrub.
• Xanatos Gambit : "Amok Time". Turns out Vulcans love these, since they are, as Spock comments, "Logical. Flawlessly logical." They're always looking to turn a benefit from plans and events.
• He then showed up as a Klingon in the prologue of the first movie, thus appearing as a member of all three major galactic powers of the era.
• This was so bad that the prequel , Star Trek: Enterprise , looked more high-tech than this show... just due to the production assets available to the cast and crew of Enterprise .
• And then came the " Mirror Universe " episode of Enterprise , and somehow they made the TOS -era Defiant work .
• Handwaved in the DS9 episode "Trials and Tribble-ations" with Dax admiring "the classic 23rd century styling" of the tricorders and instruments.

10 Best Sci-Fi Tropes Star Trek Popularized

Star Trek changed the face of science fiction, and opened up previously obscure genre tropes to a wider audience. Here are ten of the most memorable.

Star Trek changed the face of science fiction forever. Even before its popularity took off during the reruns and conventions of the 1970s, Star Trek: The Original Series endeavored to talk about more than just rocket ships and ray guns. It posited something extraordinary -- a viable vision of human utopia -- and slowly built it into a pop-culture bedrock.

In the process, it embraced a number of sci-fi tropes that other movies and TV shows came to emulate. Star Trek’s popularity elevated the profile of such notions, which had previously been limited to a few novels and short stories. Below is a list of ten classic sci-fi tropes that Star Trek helped make popular, presented in subjective order.

10 Controversial Star Trek: TOS Episodes That Wouldn't Fly Today

Ray guns were certainly nothing new when Star Trek came along, having served as a sci-fi staple since the days of H.G. Wells. The Original Series draws on the likes of Fantastic Planet and the Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon serials for inspiration, which invariably made copious use of the weapons. It's only natural that Star Trek would deliver its own version, with the slightly more innovative title of phasers.

What really sets the weapon apart from other ray guns, however, is the stun setting, allowing targets to be neutralized without permanent harm. The phrase “set phasers to stun” has become one of Star Trek’s signature lines . More importantly, the weapon’s nonlethal qualities speaks to the franchise’s values: envisioning a future in which violence has been tempered.

9 The Alien Non-Interference Clause

Better known as The Prime Directive, the alien non-interference clause states that no member of Starfleet can interfere with a planet’s natural development. That includes anything from providing advanced technology to revealing the existence of off-world life. It makes for a strong moral dilemma, as figures like Jean Luc-Picard must stand by while terrible things happen to innocent people.

Not surprisingly, the Prime Directive is noted more in its breach than its keeping. James T. Kirk, in particular, is quite cavalier about it, but it remains an easy fulcrum for good storytelling. The Prime Directive is also a way to talk about more down-to-earth issues like colonialism and environmental devastation.

10 Star Trek Phasers, Ranked

8 human/alien hybrids.

The existence of humanoid aliens precludes the ability to cross-breed, producing children with the genetics of both parents. With Star Trek , the notion goes all the way back to Mr. Spock: the product of a human mother and a Vulcan father. The other prominent canon examples include Star Trek: Voyager’s B’Elanna Torres, the child of a Klingon mother and a human father, and Worf’s son Alexander on Star Trek: The Next Generation , who also has human blood.

Such characters help science fiction explore the exchanges between different societies, as well as the unique challenges faced by the children of two or more cultures. That can lead to simplification or dismissal of complex issues. The trope is only as strong as the TV show using it, but it also gives creators a safe space to discuss those issues before a wider audience.

7 Fantastic Racism

Racism is a weighty issue and addressing it head-on won’t always fly on a series intended primarily as entertainment. Instead, Star Trek talks about racism in a more general way, using alien cultures as a stand-in for various kinds of prejudicial oppression. In the simplest terms, it helps point out the fundamental absurdity of racist beliefs, most notably in The Original Series Season 3, Episode 15, “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield,” which features Frank Gorshin’s black-and-white alien at war with this white-and-black cohort.

Fantastic racism isn’t a perfect trope, and can often whitewash real problems by casting them in the realm of fiction. But it also allows shows like Star Trek to address those issues while still retaining a vision of a more mature humanity who has set such petty hatefulness aside. For good or ill, it certainly allowed other science fiction projects to follow its example.

6 Alien Empires

Humanoid aliens necessitate an essentially human political process, which Star Trek uses as one of its narrative bedrocks. Other entities such as the Klingons and the Romulans don’t necessarily embrace democracy, and have their own agendas that often conflict with the Federation’s. This leads to various schemes, conflicts and outright wars: generating easy storylines and culminating in epic clashes like Deep Space Nine’s Dominion War.

Alien empires predate science fiction movies, going back at least to H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds and the John Carter novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs. The Original Series uses them as thinly veiled stand-ins for contemporary geopolitical foes like the Soviet Union or China under Chairman Mao. Star Trek: The Next Generation and subsequent series have developed their aliens more fully, while providing new narrative material in concepts like the Klingons’ Great Houses and The Romulans’ Qowat Milat.

10 Best Television Universes, Ranked

5 alternate history.

Star Trek originally used the Stardate notion to get around the question of exactly when the story was taking place. It took 1982's Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan to pinpoint its 23rd century setting. Even before then, however, it built its own future history without the slightest inkling of the franchise it was helping to create in the process.

Star Trek's alternate history comes complete with developments like the Eugenics Wars of the 1990s (swapped around to account for the passing of real time) and Zephram Cochrane breaking the warp barrier. The timeline allows new projects to develop their own stories at different points on the timeline. Subsequent franchises like Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe have done much the same thing.

Star Trek's 10 Greatest One-off Characters

4 parallel realities.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has made the notion of a Multiverse widespread, and written works such as Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle form the foundation of the idea. But Star Trek brought parallel realities to popular attention long before more modern projects, most notably with Season 2, Episode 4, "Mirror, Mirror." That episode introduced the notion of the sinister Mirror Universe, which the franchise has used in other projects as well.

Star Trek continues to play with parallel realities, and indeed the concept has created some of its finest moments such as Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3, Episode 15, "Yesterday's Enterprise." The Kelvinverse series of movies similarly exist in a parallel reality, allowing them to tell their own stories without risking undue continuity errors.

3 Rogue AI/Robots

Rogue AIs go back to the foundation of science fiction, as Mary Shelley’s Victor Frankenstein creates a being he can’t control. Star Trek’s utopian setting makes fertile ground for stories of science to run amuck, with each new era adding its own distinctive touch. The Original Series has the berserk robot Nomad and the M-5 "ultimate computer." Star Trek: Discovery uses the AI Control as its primary antagonist during Season 2, while The Next Generation may have topped them all with the Borg Collective. Even Star Trek: Lower Decks has gotten into the act with the likes of Badgey and Peanut Hamper.

The trend certainly didn't begin with Star Trek , but it made the public increasingly familiar with the notion, while removing it from the more literal image of a Boris Karloff-style monster. As technology has advanced, it's allowed the franchise to continue using it: making pointed comments on contemporary issues behind the veneer of science fiction.

Star Trek: 10 Best Captain Pike Quotes

2 cool starships.

Before The Original Series , sci-fi spaceships tended to come in two types: rockets and flying saucers. The original USS Enterprise manages to look like both at the same time, while giving Star Trek a singular visual image that sums up its entire zeitgeist. It becomes a character in and of itself during the first crew’s adventures, to the point where its destruction in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock initially elicited cries of grief among the faithful.

Subsequent series have made distinctive ship design a priority: giving them a brand identity distinctive from the rest of the franchise while still being resolutely Star Trek . Other creators took note, as 2001: A Space Odyssey's Discovery and Star Wars's Millennium Falcon emphasize visual distinctiveness to sell their worlds. The flying saucer is well and truly dead, and The Original Series' Enterprise may have killed it.

Star Trek’s best known piece of future technology arose out of a logistical necessity. Having created an iconic spaceship in the USS Enterprise , series creator Gene Roddenberry realized he had no way of landing it on the surface of the different planets the show was supposed to visit. Teleporting down via the ship’s transporters made an elegant solution, avoiding the clumsy logistics of a shuttle and providing a nifty effects shot to boot. It also allowed for easy drama, as Scotty invariably pulled the away team up from the planet's surface in the nick of time.

While it never caught on with other science fiction projects, that kept it a singular part of the franchise itself: never duplicated lest the presented be accused of imitating Star Trek . The rest of the public need not act with such care, of course, and "beam me up" has become a short-hand term for the desire to escape any unpleasant situation.

• May 10, 2024 | Podcast: All Access Breens Out On “Erigah” With Commentary From Elias Toufexis Of ‘Star Trek: Discovery’
• May 9, 2024 | Star Trek Franchise Wins Peabody Award
• May 9, 2024 | Recap/Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Gets Cool Under Pressure In “Erigah”
• May 8, 2024 | Chris Pine Talks “Big F-ing Deal” Landing Kirk Role; Surprised ‘Star Trek 4’ Has Another New Screenwriter
• May 8, 2024 | Star Trek’s Michelle Yeoh To Star In ‘Blade Runner 2099’ Series

Recap/Review: ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ Races For The Heart In Season 3 Finale “The Stars at Night”

| October 27, 2022 | By: Anthony Pascale 74 comments so far

“The Stars at Night”

Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3, Episode 10 – Debuted Thursday, October 27, 2022 Written by Mike McMahan Directed by Jason Zurek

Season 3 wraps up in an exciting, funny, heartwarming episode as long-running character and plot arcs come together with some unexpected twists.

How can a guy with “buena” in his name not actually be good?

WARNING: Spoilers below!

“We’re doing this for the entire class!”

After the Breen banged it up bad last week, the Cerritos is back home getting patched up. And Captain Freeman finds herself not only defending Project Swing By’s ill-fated test run, but the future of the California-class itself. In a surprise move, Admiral Buenamigo gets Starfleet Command to put his fancy new automated Texas-class ships in charge of second contact duty, with the Calis being decommissioned. Uncool, Les. Word quickly works its way to three remaining ensigns (via “gossip king” Towel Guy, who knew?) who start to freak out about being reassigned, although Rutherford is oddly fascinated by the Texas-class ship’s cool code. Nerd. Missing Mariner and feeling guilty over not supporting her more before she left the ship, Boimler breaks up the trio’s mood by doing some spot-on impressions of the bridge officers… unfortunately Shaxs comes in right when Brad’s nailing him, sending the big Bajoran off angry-crying. Aww, Big Bear.

Carol challenges her old friend to a “second contact race” to determine the fate of the Cali fleet, so the Cerritos crew rallies for a multi-stop mission, with Tendi fretting about their chances, Boimler panicking over things ending badly with Shaxs, and Sam still staring at his PADD. The race starts off well, Billups running the operation like a drill sergeant, but then the Aledo shows up and just drops a big pre-fab power station. They can do that? Oh, s—t!

On the next planet, the Cerritosians quickly set up an outpost but have to stop when Tendi thinks she may have found some life on the supposedly lifeless rock. Turns out it was a trick of a tricorder, but the delay puts them behind the Aledo’s dropoff driveby. The next stop is tricky, as it’s one of those “ Brigadoon -type” planets that only phase in a couple of hours a year. The slowdown from the previous stop makes them miss their window, but not the Aledo… cue Buenamigo’s maniacal victory laughter. Tendi feels bad her life sign scanning cost them the race, but Freeman realizes it shows the Aledo skipped that pretty important step, putting them back in the fight. More ominously, Sam finally figures out the Aledo code is based on an AI that he wrote back when he was that angry racing guy—the same AI that led to Badgey! That means Buenamigo is the one who erased his memory. No Bueno.

Remember us from episode 1?

“I’m playing it very cool”

Meanwhile, Mariner is having the time of her life as a xenoarchaeologist, tomb raiding and getting chased by Ferengi grave robbers. After a close call beam out, she and Petra Aberdeen set off to deliver a golden idol and prep for more archeology adventures rescuing artifacts from black market thieves. Mariner is really loving the no-rules lifestyle, but she is wondering how her new partner Petra is funding this endeavor, but the space archaeologist remains evasive on that topic. Not willing to let it go, Mariner does some digging and discovers the secret benefactor is… Admiral Jean-Luc Picard. Apparently, he just loves mummies. Mariner was kind of hoping to find an evil plot involving Romulans or at least some Xindi.

It seems you can take the ensign out of Starfleet, but not the Starfleet out of Beckett. Mariner is finally realizing she has a need to do something for the greater good, because how many more brown pots does the galaxy need? (Rude.) Aberdeen tries to argue that Mariner is better off living the free life, especially with all the problems her old ship and friends are in. Problems—what problems? Petra was holding out; the Cerritos is once again breaking news on FNN. And the phaser in Aberdeen’s hand says her ship is not going to help. So many twists!

My precious!

“I will burn your heart in a fire”

Things go from bad to worse quickly when Freeman and Rutherford confront Buenamigo, who flies right past badmiral to evilmiral, with his only regret not erasing all of Sam. He gets no sympathy for a backstory of struggles as an admiral unable to advance who has to cut some corners blah blah blah, but he isn’t trying to convince anyone anyway and orders his roboship to kill them and say it was self-defense. Really? Ignoring Rutherford’s warning about the unstable AI, the bad guy gives the Aledo full independence, and (of course) it immediately betrays him, “I don’t take orders from you anymore, father.” Sam’s AIs have issues.

The autonomous ship destroys Buenamigo’s office and starts taking apart the Starbase, activating two more Texas-class ships to help. The station and Cerritos are outmatched by the advanced weapons, even after a big Sovereign class shows up. Freeman pulls a Kirk and bluffs, telling the Aledo she has its creator on board, Sam, and he’s ready with the delete button. He is? Right, um, yeah.

The Cerritos warps out, which saves the station, but the three robo-Texans are catching up fast as the bridge crew runs options: Shaxs suggests the usual and everyone else tries various tropes like deflector dish weapon, paradoxing AIs, and even calling the Titan—all dismissed as unworkable with debate raging as the ship is being torn apart. But Brad sees no one really paid attention to Shaxs, so he musters all his Bold Boimler to cut through the noise… because yeah, this time ejecting the warp core is actually the smart move.

The Bajoran is as happy as a bride and there isn’t a dry eye on the ship as he runs to meet his destiny in engineering. The warp core ejection works. With a cinematic explosion and music, the Cerritos is thrown out of warp… but oh no, the Aledo survived and it still really, really wants to kill its dad. Carol is ready to abandon ship, but help arrives in the form of Mariner, who has convinced Petra to do the right thing. The Aledo considers her ship a “negligible” threat, but she brought help… the Oakland? One Cali just can’t turn the tide, but this is Mariner, and she called “all of them.” One by one, the sky fills with California-class ships ready to fight for their brethren. This ragtag fleet shows the Aledo how it’s done, returning the last Texas-class to stardust.

Back at the Starbase, the Calis do what they do and get to work repairing the Cerritos and the station. At the traditional bar wrap-up, Mariner returns and everything is forgiven as she is ready to Starfleet it up again, with hugs for mom and promised torment for Ransom. Not only has Shaxs forgiven Brad for his impersonation, he embraces him into the Bear Pack. Sam is happy too, and still sticking with his implant with new features to explore. Tendi is praised for standing up for science and she now has a new “study buddy,” a familiar Vulcan who is going to fit in just fine. Things wrap up with the crews coming together to celebrate with a new chant… one for “Cali-class!”

Shaxs’ whole life has led to this moment.

But wait, there’s more? A post-credit scene takes us to the battle debris field in the Kalla System, where Rutherford’s old implant remains. A mystery ship arrives to tractor it in as it activates… Badgey lives!

I feel a disturbance in the piece

Tied up with a bow

In the series’ best finale yet, Lower Decks brings the action but never forgets to bring the funny. It’s densely packed with jokes, character drama, lore, and heart, and it is now clear that writer/showrunner Mike McMahan was playing the long game with this season. The show sticks the landing on a season that has focused on character by bringing each of their arcs home in a satisfying way and even finding ways to weave them together. However, Mariner’s exit and reentry to Starfleet and easy forgiveness—she even blames herself for it—had the same kind of sitcom oversimplicity that plagued the previous episode. At least she didn’t forgive Jennifer’s cruelty; that bridge should stay burnt, opening up more possibilities for future seasons.

You can’t break up this family.

Dawnn Lewis continues to shine this season, carrying much of the load for this episode as Captain Freeman becomes more central to the show. While often a bit erratic, Freeman here shows why she is worthy of the captain’s chair, even adding “Maximum warp me” to her catchphrase and borrowing Jean-Luc’s “make it so” for that beautiful moment of giving Shaxs his greatest wish. And like Shaxs, everyone got to have their hero moments, from Billups to Boimler, as this show celebrates its own mythology, exemplified by the fleet of California class ships coming to the rescue. Sure seeing a legacy hero and ship could be fun, but it’s no match for Fly Boimler. There were also ties going all the way back to show’s first episode, including Douglas Station and the Galardonians, all part of embracing the series’ own growing lore. And speaking of going back, T’Lyn from last season’s best episode (“wej Duj”) is a very welcome addition to the crew.

Carol makes this look easy.

Jack Quaid is also worth praise—if for nothing else, his hilarious impersonations of Ransom, T’Ana, and Shaxs. And that’s just the tip of the comedy iceberg with laugh-out-loud moments throughout, from T’Ana’s riding crop tirade about spending “seven f—ing years on an Oberth” to Billups demanding Data-level isolinear chip work to Mariner trading quips with classic Ferengi… but Ransom’s “command that chair” demonstration of the Riker maneuver may be the standout. Even with all the heavy character and plot lifts going on—and unlike extended portions of the previous episode—this finale never forgot this show is a comedy and kept delivering.

Does Frakes get royalties for this?

An evil AI and badmiral, who would see that coming?

The finale leaned into Trek’s longstanding distrust of anything to do with artificial intelligence going back TOS, with the Aledo AI looking like the classic M5 . This all fit nicely with Trek’s skepticism about taking the human out of the equation. And even though this was a twist we all saw coming, the show still kept it feeling fresh and even topical, with allusions to modern-day drone programs. Pitting the California class against the Texas class is also a bit on the nose, but still good to see Lower Decks dipping its toe into the Trek tradition of political debate, even if it is a bit heavy-handed.

Buenamigo turning out to be a bad guy is another Star Trek trope Lower Decks openly embraced, and many fans also saw this coming. Tying it all to Rutherford’s arc was clever, and it’ll going to be fun looking back on the whole season to see the clues. However, the degree of his corruption and brutality for completely selfish motives was on a whole other level than the usual bad faith admirals Freeman talked about, making it a bit hard to buy someone this evil could make it so far in Starfleet. Sure, we have seen some baddies, but they usually had some kind of vision or different viewpoint justifying their actions and weren’t up for killing off whole Starfleet ships just to get another pip. And it looks like there is more evil AI in the show’s future, which risks getting tiresome but may be worth it just to get more Badgey.

Nice touch with the cigar.

Final thoughts

Season 3 was the best yet for Lower Decks and this episode was the perfect example of how the show has a whole new confidence in finding humor with its own characters and lore while still embracing classic Star Trek. The finale tied things up nicely, leaving very little hanging for the next season (which was ordered long ago and is already well into production).

Bolian-blocked by Beckett!

Laugh lines

• Hans just told me that the Phylosian in Tactical’s girlfriend’s Vedek heard that Starfleet Command is shuttering the Cali-class and replacing it with drones!
• I can’t work in an outpost. I won’t look good in a drab olive vest.
• Rutherford, stop being impressed with the thing stealing our jobs.
• Ah that’s cute, pretending to you have any concept of how money works?
• Wait until you see the uniform, it has four epaulets.
• Toss me the scanner that looks like a phase discriminator.
• Oh no, a starship can’t have daddy issues.
• I’m still wiped from all that Ferengi mocking.
• I was hoping for a Romulan or at least a Xindi cabal.
• They robbed me of my memories and it was used to cover up crimes deadly crimes, but it’s so cool!

Without Mariner, these guys just fall apart.

Random stuff

• The episode title comes from the lyrics of the folk song “ Deep in the Heart of Texas .”
• Stardate 58499.2
• Towel Guy’s first name is Hans. (His last name Federov was revealed in episode 4 of season 3.)
• The Van Citters Sovereign-class ship (NCC-72504) is named for Paramount Star Trek Group VP John Van Citters .
• The Alhambra, Oakland, Merced, Sacramento, Carlsbad, and Inglewood are all California-class ships that had been seen or mentioned before.
• The Alhambra was the ship Dr. T’Ana confused for the Cerritos with the bizarro crew that included male Freeman and Fly Boimler.
• The Inglewood is the ship with the all-Bolian crew led by former Cerritos ensign Vendome.
• Newly established California-class ships include the San Diego, San Clemente, Sherman Oaks, Vacaville, Burbank, Fresno, Santa Monica, San Jose, Culver City, Anaheim, Riverside, Valejo, West Covina, Pacific Palisades, Redding Eureka, Mount Shasta… named for  (primarily) small and medium size cities in California.
• There are a few previously seen or referenced Cali class ships that weren’t named but were presumably part of the battle, including the Bakersfield and Ventura.
• The other two Texas-class ships were the Dallas and Corpus Christi, named for cities in Texas.

Glowing red = evil

More to come

Every Friday, the TrekMovie.com All Access Star Trek Podcast  covers the latest news in the Star Trek Universe. The podcast is available on Apple Podcasts ,  Spotify ,  Pocket Casts ,  Stitcher and is part of the TrekMovie Podcast Network. On Saturday, we’ll post our weekly analysis of Easter eggs and references for this episode.

New episodes of  Star  Trek: Lower Decks premiere on Thursdays on Paramount+ in the U.S. and on  CTV Sci-Fi Channel  in Canada, where it’s also available to stream on  Crave . It is available on Amazon Prime Video internationally on Fridays. It debuted in Latin America on Paramount+ in September.

Keep up with all the news and reviews from the new Star Trek Universe on TV at TrekMovie.com .

Related Articles

Discovery , Review

Recap/Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Gets Cool Under Pressure In “Erigah”

Recap/Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Goes On A Spiritual Journey In “Whistlespeak”

DS9 , Lower Decks , Star Trek: Picard

Michael Dorn Wanted Armin Shimerman To Play The Ferengi That Worf Killed In Star Trek Picard

Recap/Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Reflects On Its Choices In “Mirrors”

Ah, what a great episode. Just plain “felt” like Star Trek should, with LDS humor. Well done.

Agreed, a good balance of trek and humor! I had a few laughs, made me think the show might finally be growing on me.

Me too. After suffering through the really bad first two seasons, this season was so refreshing. Only five bad episodes.

Funny. All 10 episodes were bad. Overall this show is now 1 for 30.

USS Riverside!!

Best finale yet? No. Good finale? Yes.

Great episode. Can’t say season 3 is the best season. Maybe a very close second to season 1. I still have season 2 mugatu nightmares. lol.

“ Season 3 was the best yet for  Lower Decks ”

Definitely not. Good, yes. But also the weakest of the three.

I respectfully disagree. This was by far the strongest of the three seasons. It’s more mature and believable now, which is very important to me.

Same for me. Each season has far eclipsed the season prior. It’s been fascinating watching it grow into itself so thoroughly.

That is what is great about this show, every season seems to be stronger than the last (even though I personally think season 2 was still stronger but I mean in terms off a consensus). And frankly this a common thing with most Trek shows, minus TOS. For me, all the classic spin off shows got stronger every season.

Really? This was more mature? They still all act like Jr High School kids.

I find it so fascinating to see people split on whether season 3 was the best! I feel like if you’ve resented the humor aspect of the show from the beginning and have been waiting for the show to “tone it down” like the Orville did, then this is definitely its best season. If you’ve accepted the humor from the start and don’t mind it as much, I think it’s fair to say that both of the first two seasons had much more creatively rich episodes. That being said, this season was great nonetheless.

Less Simpson’s more Star Trek — that’s why this season is heads and tails above the middle school-level comedy crapfest that was season 1 and season 2 of Lower decks.

This season had five legitimate (my personal opinion only) Star Trek episodes – so 50% of the eps to me I thought were worthy of being part of Star Trek canon. I don’t think I can come with up with five episodes combined for the first two seasons to equal this.

This show it’s finally starting to hit its stride and I have much higher hopes for season 4 now as well.

Hey I might disagree that the humor of the first few seasons disqualifies it from being good, but I also liked this season a lot! Im glad that the more serious tone is bringing even more into the fold

Definitely disagree as well but as long as it’s gets more fans aboard, that’s a good thing too. I have never been bothered by the humor (and I thought I could be) but I don’t really care how funny the show actually is, I really just love the stories in general. LDS feels like classic Star Trek again in all the ways that matter and that alone is why I’m a fan. If I laugh as well, it’s a bonus!

But I do want the show to stay more optimistic and light which SNW also feels that way most of the time and probably why I really love that show too.

I’m still waiting for them to add humor to this joyless gaggle of horrible people. I mean, if it were at least funny then the unbelievably terrible characters could be overlooked. Easy to do if you are laughing.

I thought they knocked it out of the park for this finale. At the start of the show I thought the Cali Class was just a little lame. Here was are at the end of season three and I had actual tears in my eyes as all the Cali Class star ships showed up. It was completely fulfilling and funny.

Agreed. Yes, quite a stunning turnaround this season given how lame the show was the first two seasons.

Yeah we get it; you already said that.

So a ton of starships showing up was funny? That means you were laughing like crazy when that happened on Picard.

A funny and exciting finale, bested only by the season 1 finale I think. As a season overall, I think each season has been slightly weaker than the previous, but I’ve loved almost every episode in the same way I loved TNG.

This season blew away seasons 1 and 2, and it’s not even close. My opinion.

I loved this finale a lot. It was even kinda emotional at times (yes this dude cries even with hysterical animation) but I have to agree with a few other commenters: season 3 wasn’t my best season either. It kinda got too serious at times. Therefore I liked 2 better. I don’t like comparing, but hey, since you brought it up. ;)

This was Awesome!!!!. The best season yet. Just like other Trek Shows. They have fund their Legs in Season 3.

Agree 100%. It’s FINALLY hitting its stride.

Is it? If their stride is to be an unfunny snore fest with some of the worst people you could ever meet was their goal they hit that stride with the very first episode. And haven’t let up since.

I didn’t like Lower Decks up until this year, but Mariner and Boimler have become so much better — so much more like what I think of as REAL Starfleet officers — that I’m enjoying it this year. Even so, I still never expected that Lower Decks would actually  make me cry  … but it did, in this episode. When all the Cali-class ships show up to bail the  Cerritos  out of trouble, I was moved to tears.

I do wish Star Trek didn’t rely on badmirals to create conflict, but even I have to admit that it’s an old Star Trek tradition. :-)

Exactly! The show is growing up, and thank goodness that we’re seeing less of the moronic, annoying crap that we saw so much of in seasons 1 and 2.

Are you serious?

Of course. You disagree, fine. IDIC

I’m not seeing it either. It’s still the terrible unfunny people from the very beginning. It’s been annoying moronic crap from day one.

I guess whatever floats your boat but I don’t see what was so emotional about a ton of star ships showing up to save the day. It’s not like it never happened before. Hell, it happened on Picard and tons of people hated it. What made this one different? It was exactly the same.

I’m pretty sure this episode made it official: “Lower Decks” is my third-favorite Trek series, behind TOS and TNG. Hopefully it will continue to be this great as long as it runs, and hopefully it runs forever.

It’s still crazy to me out of all the NuTrek shows and movies starting with the Kelvin movies and then Discovery and Picard, Lower Decks was the first thing I been truly on board with from the beginning. It’s definitely surprising because I wasn’t sure if I would even like it at all. I thought the comedy stuff would scare me off but it did the opposite.

LDS just has heart in a way the other new shows prior to it don’t IMO. It shouldn’t be anywhere as good as it is and yet the responses for this show from most fans gets more positive every season. It’s just a joy to watch and really honors Star Trek canon which is another reason I love it so much.

I rolled my eyes at the announcements of both this and Prodigy, and love both. Can’t judge a book by its … uh, press release.

Yep so true. I was curious about both but no way did I think the animated shows, especially how they were first described, would end up being some of the best Star Trek we had in decades. Both LDS and PRO really deserve the love they are getting from fans. They tapped into everything I love about Star Trek and yet can be totally their own thing as well.

I think this thread really captures this sentiment of how fans originally felt about LDS when it was announced to how most felt once they moved away from their bias of an animated comedy and gave it a chance:

https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/yewlxy/a_love_letter_to_lower_decks/

The OP says it, but it grabs people by really bringing back the hard nostalgia of the universe fans have been watching for 50 years but does it with a laugh. It captures the prime universe in a way we haven’t seen since the 90s (and I think both the Kelvin universe and Discovery went out of their way to avoid which frankly put off a lot of fans). But it still manages to have its own unique voice within it we never seen in Star Trek before.

And that Star Trek can STILL be Star Trek as goofy fun without it feeling overly stuffy and uptight which it has been criticized for in the past. If you have a franchise that quotes Shakespeare in their stories, you’re not going to get a certain segment of the population onboard no matter what you do. ;)

But that’s the irony, Star Trek fans got the reputation that if it’s too fun and light then its not ‘real’ Star Trek to them although that’s never been the case since a lot of Star Trek IS actually fun and light. But yeah. But LDS proves Star Trek fans can actually lighten up and can embrace the silly WHEN its done right. ;)

I don’t know what show that post is talking about but the only thing that accurately describes Lower Decks is the bringing back nostalgia line. Because that is pretty much all it is. ‘Member berries. Nothing more. Nothing less.

I’m the complete opposite. I was so looking forward to a Trek comedy. I thought it was a GREAT idea. There was tons of stuff from the post classic Trek era (meaning everything that came after TOS) to poke fun at. But instead all they gave us was easter eggs, awful people, bad actors and humor only 7 year olds might find funny. It has zero heart as there is no reason any viewer should care about any of these awful cliche ridden people.

I do agree it does indeed honor the canon. Which is great but the show really wasn’t about that. It was supposed to be a light “adult” comedy. And if any show was going to tweak the canon for their own purposes it should be the comedy show. I just wish SNW honored canon as much as LDX does. Might have made it a more tolerable.

I got to admit, this season was good enough that it jumped from my 10th favorite Star Trek series to my 8th favorite Star Trek series, overtaking both Enterprise and Voyager!

Keep up the good work, Mike M!

To me, this show is rapidly giving Star Trek Discovery a run for its money as the absolute worst Star Trek ever. It’s still a few steps ahead but I’m thinking the next season of Star Trek Discovery might want to try and widen that gap. We shall see who succeeds in this race for the worst.

GREAT FINALE!!!!

LDS, per usual, just hit it out of the park. It did everything right and tied up all the plot lines well. It wasn’t perfect but LDS proves it’s every bit a Star Trek show as all the others and even a better Star Trek show than a few of them IMO. I will say season 3 isn’t my favorite but overall still a great season for me. Can’t wait for season 4 and hope we hear about a season 5 soon!

SEVEN SEASONS AND A MOVIE!!!!!!! (And let’s be honest, we may not ever see another movie until LDS hits it’s seventh season so why not just make it a LDS movie? They already showed twice now they can do spectacle in the Crisis Point series ;)).

It was a very good finale.

I can’t see why Paramount wouldn’t renew LDS for another 3 seasons immediately.

It’s becoming the foundational anchor series for this era which is pretty boggling if you think about it.

It success both in bringing in new viewers as an entry point to the franchise at the same time as its satisfying a lot of classic fans.

And yes, I absolutely agree that this is the one that could pull off a movie.

A three season renewal may be a bit much since I can’t think of any show anywhere that gets that many at once. But two is more common and I could see that happening easily.

But you’re right that LDS has become the anchor for this era in many ways. I assumed that would be Picard when it started but I think LDS does it much better (being a better show in general also helps ;)).. But this show really does a great job of representing all the classic shows and a big reason its really exciting fans. That’s one of its biggest appeals, it does represent the 24th century era in a way we haven’t seen since DS9 ended.

LDS will probably go on for years at this point since it seems to be the show that is gaining more fans, at least anecdotally. I have no idea how it’s doing in terms of actual viewership but we’re in the dark with all these shows when it comes to that unfortunately.

Remember who predicted this first…

2027 — “Star Trek: Mariner” (live action) premieres. And yes, she will be the freaking Captain.

LOL man,you have the weirdest obsessions over stuff. And if its good great! I would love that! I think most fans (of LDS) would.

If Secret Hideout is still in charge I can absolutely see them doing that. It’s real bottom of the barrel stuff and exactly the kind of stuff Kurtzman would love.

Please Mr. Robbins… Cancel the SH contract. Shut down all the Trek and start from scratch. Make them all reboots if you have to. But get better people there! Even ending Prodigy, which is decent, not great, would be a worth while sacrifice if we could get some quality people running things.

LOL, dude, maybe don’t post right after chugging that six pack. ;-) I don’t even think the Law and Order shows, Gunsmoke or the original Hawaii Five-Oh got that renewal treatment.

Also, LDS is for the existing Star Trek fans (as is Picard) market, and that’s where it’s successful. The shows bringing in new fans are DSC, SNW and Prodigy. And it any of these shows were to be labeled “foundational,” it would have to be SNW, which brings Trek back to it’s TOS roots, and which has been universally successfully worldwide.

That’s just your own assumption. No one knows what shows are bringing in new fans. LDS could be bringing in more new fans than Prodigy and Discovery combined. I’m not saying they are, I’m saying no one knows.

The only show we know that was specifically designed to bring new fans was Prodigy and we have no idea how well that is doing because there is zero data on it. My guess is most people watching are the same old fans like most of these shows but that’s just my assumption only. And I really hope I’m wrong.

But saying PRO, SNW or DIS is bringing in more new fans is just assuming. Or let me guess you went to a convention and you talked to a lot of new fans of Star Trek and that’s what they told you right? ;)

Okay I get that I have a lot of assumptions in my post here and I like your joke about my convention stuff.lol.

But you are taking my post out of context because I was responding to the total load of ridiculously positive BS from TG47 — essentially that they should get a three-season renewal that no TV series in the history of television has gotten to my knowledge, that LDS is bringing in tons of new fans, and also that this is some foundational show that should now be the basis for all future Star Trek. I mean give me a f****** break…lol

Alright fair enough, but as said, we’re fans, I understand why TG47 feels that way. But as I also said it’s unrealistic because yeah I can’t think of a single show that’s ever gotten 3 seasons at once. There are tons of shows out there they know is not going away anytime soon like Law and Order, Simpsons, NCIS, etc etc. Some of these shows have been around forever but they still renew season by season.

As for his point about being foundational I think he just means the show cross breeds with other shows in ways the other new shows haven’t yet because LDS really is a love letter to Star Trek as a whole.It’s inclusive to all the shows and movies even if it takes place in the 24th century (it even references the Kelvin movies, who knew that was even possible?? ;)). That’s why so many fans love it. Now that’s just MY interpretation but maybe he meant something deeper than that. I don’t want to put words in his mouth.

“Rick and Morty” was renewed for 70 additional episodes after three seasons. In all likelihood that translates into an order for another 7 seasons.

That’s the only example of a renewal over 2 seasons that I can think of.

Wow great example thanks! And since McMahan was involved in Rick and Morty too, maybe it’s a sign for LDS! ;D

As I recall, Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother both got 4 season renewals from CBS. I think It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia once got a 3 season renewal on FX (which was somewhat easy with 6 episode seasons).

Vince Gilligan’s new sci-fi show with Rhea Seehorn, I believe, was pretty fiercely negotiated over and is launching with a 2 season order and a Game of Thrones level budget.

Picard, of course, got a 2 season order after season 1.

LOST (2004-10) got decided on in Season 3 I believe when the producers specifically said they now planned to end the show in Season 6. So greenlighting 3 seasons. I’m not sure if that was ever truly locked down though. I think the show probably would have carried on or spun off if the viewer figures stayed very strong to the end, which didn’t happen so the producers just stuck to their Season 3 plan near the end.

That’s the weird part. Looking at this show and comparing it to his work on Rick & Morty I’m just floored at how his comedic flair just went right down the tubes. I can only think of a couple of likely reasons for this. 1. He was never all that responsible for writing on Rick & Morty to begin with. He was an assistant writer. It’s possible his contributions were not in the joke writing department but more in the storyline department. 2. He was such a fan of Trek… So reverential that he just couldn’t bring himself to write any kind of biting high end “adult” comedy on his Star Trek comedy. Or allow any writer to, either.

To be fair, I’ve never seen Solar Opposites. So I have no idea if that was funny or not.

Honestly there is no way of knowing for sure what is “successful” and what isn’t as P+ never announces any specific numbers. Maybe it is. Maybe not. The last they mentioned about that was last year when they claimed Star Trek Discovery was still the most watched Trek show. Of course, I still consider that a big fish in a small pond kind of thing because that show hasn’t garnered any kind of inclusion in the popular zeitgeist. At all.

I’m sure it will but I’ve found that apart from this site it’s really not getting a lot of raves.

I’ll only say I dislike the short length of the episodes for animation. I really like Star Wars The Clone Wars for example (it’s some absolutely top tier stuff IMO) but I just wish they’d at least make some of the episodes ‘a bit longer’. Disney have I think been starting to get more ambitious occasionally with the newer episodes, such as I watched the bad batch and they started with a 50 minute episodes or something which is heaven lol. Be good to see the occasional more ambitious episodes (for trek) or perhaps they can create occasional movies based off the show.

It’s such a good show. Goofy, clever, reverent and irreverent all at once, with surprisingly good character work. So much of what’s been done with the four main characters from season 1 to now has been believable, methodical and well-thought out. Mariner’s self-realization and the sweet application of Bold Boimler this week really worked.

I admit evil AI and ships coming in to save the day as the Cerritos is about to be destroyed are a little played out, but the show has always been about this ship being a lovable underdog powered by lovable underdogs.

I was so wary about what a new animated Star Trek would be like, but that was totally unfounded.

Where was the evil clone of Boimler? Did he just go to Section 31 and that’s the last we saw of him, or maybe next season?

Anyway, great episode.

I’m pretty sure the Section 31 Boimler story line will be back next season. They built it up so much in that episode, it’s obvious its going to have its own story.

Prediction: William Boimler grows a stylish goatee and utters the phrase “this ship was built to fight” while on the Section 31 Defiant class ship ;)

Post credit scene…. Captain, we’ve located an intact storage device. Great, throw a tractor beam on it and bring it aboard. (a short time later, in a cargo hold) Here it is, captain. What the hell is this? We were looking for a lost transporter buffer… (Enterprise warps out, fade to black)

When I saw Mariner stealing the idol I immediateky thought “Raiders of the Lost Quark”

No you didn’t.

So Buenamigo went from Lt. Commander to Vice Admiral in…what? I’m assuming Rutherford isn’t that old, and his accident was only a few years earlier, right?

Well, if he got promoted to Commander the next day, and got promoted to Vice Admiral the day before we first met him…that’s still three grades in about three years.

But then Janeway somehow went straight from Captain to Vice Admiral.

The flashbacks have the TNG-style combadge, so the latest the flashback could have been from is 2370, 11 years before “The Stars at Night”. Taken at face value, that likely makes Rutherford in his late twenties to early thirties if we assume the accident happened when he was around college age.

Hmm, so Rutherford is probably as many as ten years older than Boimler and Tendi. Tendi is, I think, right out of the academy, and Boimler may be a bit older than that. Mariner of course has so much under her belt that she might be in her late 20’s herself.

I imagine eleven years is more than enough to get promoted that far, especially if Buenamigo had his big project as a supposed success.

I suppose another question would be why Rutherford is still an ensign. Maybe engineers get promoted slower than command-track officers. (E.g., obviously, Harry Kim.) Or maybe Rutherford’s injury and rehab set him back a bunch.

Perhaps Rutherford is fresher out of the academy both because of the injury and because pre-implant he might have had less interest in succeeding in Starfleet, just building cool ships and partying. So he might have joined late and had middling grades that held him back.

He’s one where it would be interesting to meet some of his family one day to get some insights. The show has focused on how sweet this version of him is now, but if he had immediate family at the time of the accident, imagine what his personality transplant might have been like for them.

Finally a Starbase battle (though Douglas’ part was kinda underwhelming)..!

Predictable end to a terrible season. This was also probably the least entertaining season of the three. Season 2 at least had a single GOOD episode. Not so this one.

So let’s review the problems.

No funny gags. Rarely clever. Unlikable/awful people as main characters Really bad casting. Predictable dull writing.

One thing that wasn’t predictable… No clifhanger. So thank you for that.

Screen Rant

10 best classic star trek tropes in strange new worlds.

Your changes have been saved

Email Is sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

Stephen King Raves About Netflix's "Extraordinary" Sci-Fi Adaptation

Ncis: hawai’i’s cancellation is a massive loss for one important aspect of the franchise, reacher season 3 will fix a problem that has plagued alan ritchson's hero from the beginning.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds   was met with a bit of trepidation when it was announced. After all, did audiences really need to be put back on the Enterprise  again ? Weren't there more stories to tell in the  Star Trek   universe? Did  Trek  fans want another show like  Discovery   and  Picard , which featured season-long story arcs and (in the minds of some) played fast and loose with established canon?

Instead,  Strange New Worlds has been a breath of fresh air for Trekkies. Fans and critics alike are raving about how effective and entertaining  SNW  is. The show leans heavily into nostalgia, using classic  Star Trek tropes and themes to bring it a more familiar feel.

Captain Falls In Love With An Alien

Episode Six, titled "Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach," re-introduces Captain Pike to Alora, a Majalan woman he met years prior as a young officer. Pike and Alora rekindle their romance, but it comes to a sudden end when Pike uncovers disturbing details about Majalan society.

Related: 10 Unpopular Opinions About Strange New Worlds, According To Reddit

Pike's successor, Captain Kirk was notorious for drawing the attention of ladies, whether they be 23rd-century aliens or human women from centuries past. Captain Picard was less of a lothario, but even he couldn't escape the affections of the roguish Vash. Sisko, Archer, and Janeway all dabbled to some degree with galactic romance, proving once again that it's good to be the captain.

Obsession With Spock's Love Life

One of the recurring guest roles on  SNW is T'Pring, Spock's fiance. The show goes to great lengths to explore the couple's relationship, using several episodes to fill in details about one of Spock's best romances.  The subject of Spock's love life is one  Trek just can't seem to get away from.

Original Series episodes like "Amok Time," "All Our Yesterdays," and more dealt with Spock's love life to some degree. A deleted scene from  Star Trek: The Voyage Home would have established that Saavik was pregnant with Spock's child. The character who is supposed to feel the fewest emotions is constantly being thrust into situations fraught with emotion, a dichotomy  Trek writers are apparently still fascinated with.

Body Swapping

In one of the show's latest attempts to explore Spock's romantic side,  SNW decided to fall back on another classic  Star Trek gag: the swapping of bodies between characters. In this case, Spock switches bodies with T'Pring, which brings both of them a greater understanding of each other's professional roles.

Thankfully in this episode, the body-switching is a light-hearted mistake. In many episodes of  TOS  and  Voyager , it took on a more sinister tone, with aliens attempting to use the bodies of Starfleet crewmembers for their own dark purposes. The most famous instance comes from  Star Trek   III, which famously used body-swapping to bring Spock back from the dead.

Conflicts With The Prime Directive

This one is such a classic that it ends up in the first episode of  SNW.  The episode follows the Enterprise crew as they debate whether or not to intervene in a conflict that could tear apart a developing civilization.

One of the most well-known rules in the  Trek  universe is that Starfleet officers are forbidden from interfering with the internal developments of non-warp-capable species, a rule known as General Order 1 (later the Prime Directive). The reason it's so well-known is that it's almost exclusively brought up when it's about to be broken, and it happens repeatedly in every  Trek  series. Mostly it works out, but  some violations of the Prime Directive end pretty messily.

Landing Parties With Multiple Bridge Officers

One of the best small details about  SNW is that Starfleet vernacular is a bit different than on shows set later in the timeline. "Away teams" are referred to as "landing parties" to pay homage to  TOS , but no matter the name they share one characteristic across every era: they're always full of extremely important bridge officers.

Obviously, from a production point of view, this is necessary to ensure that the audience cares about the characters being beamed into a dangerous or thrilling situation. Still, from an in-universe perspective, it's rather impractical to risk the lives of so many high-ranking officers ( and some of  SNW' s most likable characters)  by sending them into an unknown environment. It is, nevertheless, perfectly in keeping with some of the oldest  Trek traditions.

Aliens With A New Form Of Communication

Ever since she was confirmed to appear on  SNW , it was fair to assume Uhura and her talent for communication would play a big role in the show. Episode 2, "The Children of the Comet," thrusts the cadet into the spotlight, forcing her to use her skills to communicate with a living comet that's on course to collide with an inhabited planet.

Alien species that use music, mathematics, or flamboyant gestures have all been used on  Trek in the past, and usually to impart a similar lesson. Such interactions serve to teach the characters (and the audience) that it doesn't take much to open their mind to possibilities they'd never considered, and doing so can build rewarding bridges.

Situations That Require Outlandish Costumes

In "The Elysian Kingdom," the crew of the Enterprise is unwittingly forced to play out a children's story by a powerful alien living inside a nebula they came to study. All of them inhabit characters from the book, and each gets a full medieval costume to complete the transformation.

Since  SNW  is set in a time without holodecks, the writers had to get a bit more creative, but previous  Trek shows loved putting their cast into wacky situations that required elaborate costumes. Such hijinks have their roots in the original  Trek , and the willingness to fall back on  TOS is one of the things Trek fans love most about  Strange New Worlds.

Mystery Illness Incapacitates The Crew

In "The Ghosts of Illyria," the crew investigates an alien colony that has seemingly been annihilated, only to contract whatever illness afflicted the colonists. They must race against time to discover a cure before they too are wiped out.

Related: 10 Reasons Why Even Non-Star Trek Fans Will Love Strange New Worlds

That description could be used to summarize about a dozen  Trek  episodes from years past, and it's a trope the writers return to for good reason. It underlines that space exploration is dangerous and that the crew hasn't seen all the dangers the galaxy has to offer. Because the characters on the show are highly skilled, they have to be confronted with challenges they've never seen to keep the show believable and entertaining.

Social/Political References To Its Time

The conflict with the Prime Directive that drives the plot of episode 1 culminates in Captain Pike showing the aliens of a non-warp-capable species scenes from Earth's violent past in order to convince them to change. The footage includes real scenes from recent political turmoil in the United States and other places around the globe.

Though it was an unpopular move with some fans, the inclusion of commentary on real-life political and social issues is one of  Star Trek's  oldest traditions. Several  TOS  episodes dealt with themes of race and fascism,  TNG explored LGBT issues, and  DS9 's  two-part episode "Past Tense" was a stark commentary on issues of poverty and class.

Planet Of The Week

One of the most striking features of  SNW  is its return to a less serialized storytelling format. The Enterprise finds itself on a new adventure every week, which allows more room for the creative storytelling that  Trek is well-known for.

One of the biggest criticisms of  Discovery  and  Picard was a departure from what every  Trek show up until then had featured: storytelling that included some longer story/character arcs but was largely episodic. Instead of becoming bogged down in one large plot,  SNW can introduce fans to more characters and new aliens, as well as bring back familiar ones. In short, this format is the ideal one for showing audiences more and more strange, new worlds.

Next: The 10 Best Star Trek References And Easter Eggs In Strange New Worlds

• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022)

• Episode Reviews
• Film Reviews
• Book Reviews
• Model Reviews
• SNW Episodes
• SNW Production Info
• Picard News
• Picard Episode Guide
• Picard Production Info
• Prodigy News
• Prodigy Episodes Guide
• Prodigy Production Info

Content Creators

Latest sponsored content, the measure of an episode – lower decks s3e2- “the least dangerous game”, orange river – where did the gorn come from, the measure of an episode – lower decks s3e1- “grounded”, past creators.

• Become Guest Author With Treksphere

Star Trek Races

Orange River – Top 5 Biggest Retcons In Star Trek

Orange River – Picard’s Ancient Synths Are Eerily Familiar…

Star Trek: Enterprise – Cogenitor Or A Lesson In Respect.

Orange River Media – Interspecies Reproduction in Star Trek

Orange River Media – Did The Klingons STEAL Warp Drive?

Orange River Media – Noncorporeal Beings in Star Trek

Orange River Media – Do Andorians Really Have Four Sexes?

Orange Media Media – How Many Alien Races Are in Star Trek?

Orange River Media – Where Did the Q Come From?

Orange River Media – Everything We Know About the Tholians

Truth OR Myth? Beta Canon – The Tellarite Star System

Star Trek  and all related marks, logos and characters are solely owned by CBS Studios Inc. Treksphere & Trekfanproductions are not endorsed by, sponsored by, nor affiliated with ViacomCBS, CBS Studios Inc, Paramount Pictures, or any other  Star Trek  franchise. Treksphere.com is a fan website. No commercial exhibition or distribution of its content is permitted. No alleged independent rights will be asserted against ViacomCBS, CBS Studios Inc or Paramount Pictures.”

Treksphere.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Treksphere.com is not supported, sponsored, or endorsed by Amazon Services LLC

© 2016 – 2023 TREKSPHERE & TREKFANPRODUCTIONS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, ANY REDISTRIBUTION OR REPRODUCTION OF PART OR ALL OF THE CONTENTS IN ANY FORM IS PROHIBITED. YOU MAY NOT, EXCEPT WITH OUR EXPRESS WRITTEN PERMISSION, DISTRIBUTE OR COMMERCIALLY EXPLOIT THE CONTENT.

Privacy Overview

Star Trek: 10 Most Overused Plot Tropes

Let's take a look at some recurring plots that've come to define Star Trek!

Star Trek has been around for so long that it's forgivable for it to slightly reuse plots from time to time, such as the Voyager episode Author, Author that plays out very similar to the Next Generation episode The Measure Of A Man, both episodes featuring an artificial lifeform (Data and The Doctor) fighting for their freedom as sentient beings, not the property of Starfleet. In Star Trek: Picard we see the continuation of this story with other synthetic lifeforms.

However, there are certain plot ideas that have been reused so much that they have become tropes. Moments that define Star Trek, and can be found across nearly all shows of the franchise.

From things that prevent their technology from easily saving the day, to rehashed ideas for conflicts, to repeated filler moments, this list will be counting down ten of the most egregious examples of Star Trek plot tropes throughout the franchise's history.

10. Characters Meeting Alternate Versions Of Themselves

Most fans are familiar with the mirror universe. This alternate reality where humanity rules the galaxy with an iron fist and subjugates all alien life has appeared on Star Trek: Enterprise, The Original Series, Deep Space Nine, and Discovery, and shows audiences a darker, more sinister reality devoid of Starfleet's morals.

There are also many other alternate versions of characters that pop up throughout the franchise. In the Next Generation episode, Second Chances, we learn that Riker was inadvertently duplicated through a transporter glitch. His duplicate was left alone on the planet as the ship warped away carrying the other Riker and was forced to survive on his own for eight years. Another example is the clone of Picard, Shinzon, created by the Romulans, who assassinated the Romulan senate and made a plan to annihilate Starfleet.

Other notable copies include Admiral Janeway from the alternate future in the last episode of Voyager, all of the characters from the reboot movie timeline, and many more. This trope appears constantly in Trek and gives us insight into how the characters we know and love would've been different if they'd had different lives.

Marcia Fry is a writer for WhatCulture and an amateur filmmaker.

• Show Spoilers
• Night Vision
• Sticky Header
• Highlight Links

Follow TV Tropes

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WesternAnimation/StarWarsTalesOfTheEmpire

Western Animation / Star Wars: Tales of the Empire

Edit locked.

Star Wars: Tales of the Empire is a Disney+ animated anthology series set in the Star Wars universe and a sequel to the 2022 Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi .

Whereas Tales of the Jedi focused on the stories of Jedi Ahsoka Tano and Count Dooku, Tales of the Empire tells two stories: the tale of how one of the last survivors of the Separatist massacre of Dathomir, Morgan Elsbeth, joined the Empire to avenge her people; and the tale of how fallen Jedi Barriss Offee became a trainee of the Empire's Inquisitorious program.

Tropes in this series:

• Adaptational Modesty : The Nightsisters are now depicted wearing pants, after originally being bare-legged in Clone Wars .
• Advertised Extra : Darth Vader is given particular emphasis at the end of the trailer and a spot on the promotional poster, but he only appears in a single episode, has no lines, and his screentime is only slightly more than was shown in the trailer.
• Both the Grand Inquisitor and Thrawn, who made their debuts in Star Wars Rebels , have notably less stylized designs here in the style of late- Clone Wars onward animation.
• Grievous received an updated model only briefly glimpsed in the opening moments of Season 7. It’s finally put to good use here, and it looks even more enhanced than ever.
• Darth Vader gets a far more refined look compared to both Rebels and Clone Wars finale — which is more in line with his live-action appearances.
• Ascended Extra : The Fourth Sister had a minor role in her debut in Obi-Wan Kenobi , basically just being the other Inquisitor in the room with only a few lines. Here she has a much larger, critical role in Barriss's storyline, inviting her to join the Inquisitorious and helping oversee her training, and also shows her with her lightsaber in action whereas she never drew her lightsaber in Obi-Wan Kenobi .
• Ax-Crazy : The Fourth Sister is totally unhinged , killing at the slightest provocation and generally being a savage Blood Knight even when she'd be better served through restraint. She clearly took the Grand Inquisitor's advice about not holding back in fights a little too seriously.
• The Mountain Clan of Dathomir keep to themselves, as a way of not drawing the attention of the Separatists. As the clan mother demonstrates to Morgan when she obliterates a droid cell singlehandedly, there's a difference between not wanting to fight and not being able to.
• Barriss has developed into one by the time of the last episode, avoiding the Fourth Sister's strikes and disarming her with the Force while calmly dissecting her motives for coming here and encouraging her to let go of her fear and rejoin the Light.
• The first and last episodes of Morgan's arc both end with her standing in front of a raging fire that she is responsible for. The first time is an accident, having inadvertently lured a Droid Gunship to a weapons cache, but the second is entirely deliberate as she orders her Scout Guards to burn a forest on Corvus as a show of force to her subjects, having completed her journey from victim to victimizer .
• The first and last episode's of Barriss' arc show someone wielding a lightsaber against an unarmed opponent but being unable to hit them . In the first, it's Barriss failing to hit the Grand Inquisitor, who claims that her holding back makes her predictable. In the last, it's the Fourth Sister failing to hit Barriss, who says that anger makes her predictable.
• Briar Patching : Barriss warns the Fourth Sister not to follow the child into the caverns, or she'll be trapped. The Fourth Sister assumes she's just trying to head her off and heads in, and is trapped in the maze.
• Barriss Offee makes her return for the first time since "The Wrong Jedi", which premiered eleven years prior to this series's release.
• The final shot of Barriss' first episode shows Darth Vader himself onimously marching into the room.
• During Barriss' training as Inquisitor, there are several references to her actions in Fugitive arc of Star Wars: The Clone Wars . Barriss is forced to kill Dante with Force Choke, a move she used to kill Letta to prevent her from spilling the beans to Ahsoka. After passing the test, Barriss is given a helmet that bears resemblance to Ventress' helmet she used to disguise herself and attack Ahsoka. Based on Barriss' reactions, it isn't lost on her what they remind her of .
• Grievous stabbing Selena with one of his spare sabers while she was in a blade lock with his regular two is a call back to how he killed Nahdar Vebb in " Lair of Grievous ", though Grievous used a blaster instead of a lightsaber on Nahdar.
• Barriss in a cell wearing a prison uniform uncannily similar to her former master Luminara.
• Barriss is subjected to a harsh training regiment by the Grand Inquisitor, which Iskat Akaris/Thirteenth Sister would also endure .
• Dante, one of the prospective Inquisitors, is a Caphex, a species that Seossra Thwisp is a part of .
• Elsbeth and Wing are on the forest moon of Corvus, where the former will later be shown ruling as a tyrant until Ahsoka overthrows her in " The Jedi ".
• Connected All Along : "The Path of Anger" reveals that Thrawn's TIE Defender project was originally Morgan's brainchild, and while a panel of Imperial officials dismissed it as Awesome, but Impractical , Moff Isdain being the most vocal critic of the project's potential, Thrawn took interest in it and tried to get it off the ground prior to certain events killing the project in its crib.
• General Grievous' massacre of the Nightsisters of Dathomir depicted in " Massacre " is shown once again, this time from Morgan's P.O.V..
• Barriss was turned over to the Inquisitorius following Order 66, after she had been in Republic custody following her arrest in " The Wrong Jedi ".
• When Barriss asks what's happening at the Jedi Temple, she's told by a Clone Shock Trooper of the Coruscant Guard that she's lucky she's not a Jedi anymore and by tomorrow, the Jedi as a whole won't exist. In " Victory and Death ", Rex tried to buy time and convince Jesse that Ahsoka may not actually qualify for termination under Order 66 since she left the Jedi Order; however, Jesse refused since Rex stated himself that Ahsoka had been specifically marked for termination. Evidently, Barriss was not added to the list by Palpatine given she's still a prisoner after Order 66 and the clones don't shoot her on sight.
• Among the Inquisitors shown bowing to Vader are Marrok, and the unidentified Inquisitor who went after Ahsoka in Tales of the Jedi .
• Crazy-Prepared : The Separatists left a small contingent of droids behind on Dathomir to keep watch in case any of the Nightsisters survived the purge and resurfaced, just so they could finish the job.
• Cruel Mercy : Barriss is told by a Clone Shock Trooper of the Coruscant Guard she's lucky she's not considered a Jedi anymore, otherwise she'd be shot on sight per Order 66. Instead, she is taken to the Inquisitorius by the Fourth Sister where she'll receive Training from Hell to become a cruel, merciless Inquisitor hunting down Jedi for an evil Empire.
• Deadly Graduation : The final test to become an Inquisitor has Barriss and Dante in a room with a rapidly advancing forcefield... and only one lightsaber.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul" : Lyn repeatedly insists Barriss not call her that... but is never shown giving any alternative.
• Dramatic Irony : Morgan Elsbeth admits to Thrawn that she seeks the Empire's favor because she wants revenge for the extermination of her people. Of course, the leaders of the Empire are actually the ones ultimately responsible for that, as Grievous was acting under Sidious/Palpatine's orders, but she doesn't know that.
• Epiphanic Prison : In her final episode, Barriss lures Lyn into a cave system that's almost impossible to get out of, intending it as a mirror for the prison Lyn has made for herself becoming an Inquisitor. All she has to do is let go of her fears .
• Barely. The Fourth Sister slaughters a group of villagers who harbored a Jedi, but spares the children ... not that this counts for much, since she kills all their caretakers, a fact that Barriss clearly notices. It might also be because the boy told her the truth.
• Though Barriss herself committed some terrible crimes out of spite against the Jedi for losing their way, and tried to frame Ahsoka for a bombing on the hangar she performed in the process, she's utterly horrified by the brutality of the Inquisitorius, and elects to abandon them after a single mission with Lyn .
• Evil Mentor : The Fourth Sister as well as the Grand Inquisitor train Barriss for potential induction into the Inquisitorius.
• Fantastic Racism : While the people of Corvus have good reason to hate Morgan for her broken promises to them and for taking control, they also disparage her as a "witch" which just fuels her resentment of them.
• He Who Fights Monsters : Barriss, who had once ranted about how the Jedi and the Republic have become corrupted by the Dark Side during the Clone Wars, is trained as a member of the Inquisitors, a group of fallen Jedi who serves the evil Empire, the official successor to the Republic.
• Barriss' previous Face–Heel Turn ends up directly saving her life from Order 66 , as she is no longer considered a Jedi and is already in prison for her crimes.
• After Barriss Offee's Face–Heel Turn , the Grand Inquisitor (at the time, a Temple Guard of the Jedi Order) was the one who arrested and imprisoned her after she was brought to justice. Now he's overseeing her training to become an Inquisitor, meaning Barriss is following the teachings of a person whom she inspired to turn to the Dark Side in the first place. In addition, her terrorist attack and calling out the Jedi as warmongering villains inspired Lyn to turn to the Dark Side as well, meaning Barriss is recruited by a person whom she also inspired to turn to the Dark Side.
• Lyn, the new Fourth Sister, tells Barriss she can come with her... and the Clone Shock Troopers behind her cock their guns, making it pretty clear what'll happen if she declines.
• For the final initiation into the Inquistors, Barriss and Dante are led into a room and told only one of them can be inducted. If they refuse to fight, they will both be killed.
• Grievous, unsurprisingly. After killing a young Morgan's mother, Selena right in front of her, the Supreme Martial Commander of the Separatist Droid Armies cruelly taunts her with her mother's final words to run, laughing as he sends his droids after her and the remaining Nightsisters.
• The Fourth Sister slaughters several impoverished villagers for harboring Jedi. She also believes their impoverishment is a punishment for not being loyal to the Empire.
• Kneel Before Zod : Barriss' first episode ends with the Inquisitors and Barriss kneeling as Darth Vader arrives in the room.
• Marked Change : Inverted. Morgan's Nightsister markings fade away after they're massacred, with the Clan Mother explaining that it's due to their spells fading.
• Martial Pacifist : The Mountain Clan that saved Morgan. The Matron puts it the best, after using a light-oriented magic shield to wipe out a droid platoon and Droid Gunship . Matron: You must not assume that just because someone does not want to fight, they are incapable.
• Minion with an F in Evil : Barriss is a pretty terrible Inquisitor, lacking the brutality, cruelty or plain delusions of righteousness of her comrades. She lasts about one mission before deciding she'd rather see herself as a Jedi again.
• Elsbeth is shown in the trailer quoting the Sith code verbatim.
• The trailer quotes Yoda's famous line from The Phantom Menace ("fear", "anger", "hate", "suffering"), and the titles of Morgan's episodes also reference it.
• After killing Morgan Elspeth's mother, Grievous commands his battle droids to " Wipe them out . All of them ."
• While training Barriss, the Grand Inquisitor gets halfway through saying "perhaps you're not as strong as [I thought]" before Barriss uses the Force to slam him into a wall.
• Protagonist Journey to Villain : The press summary establishes that the focus is on two protagonists, Morgan Elsbeth and Barriss Offee, and how they went from somewhat noble individuals to ruthless, hate-driven agents for the Empire in their respective journeys. However, it's subverted with Barriss's story, as her time in the Inquisitors made her realize how far she has fallen to Dark Side , and she took the fateful choice to abandon the Inquisitorius to pursue a quiet life as a healer. Not only does she return to the Light Side, but she also manages to convince Lyn (aka the Fourth Sister) to abandon the Inquisitors and the Dark Side as well .
• My God, What Have I Done? : Morgan has shades of this in the first episode, having discovered that her desire to seek revenge for her slain mother and sisters, has led to the death of her new friend Nali, who was the Mountain Clan Matron's daughter, and she can do nothing and say nothing in her defense.
• Punny Name : The pompous Moff who disdainfully dismisses Morgan's TIE Defender project is named....Moff Isdain.
• Rage Against the Reflection : When the Fourth Sister gets lost in the caves and keeps coming up on her own repeated reflections rather than the way out, she starts slashing them with her lightsaber in frustration.
• Morgan's final episode ends with her still in charge of Corvus, having solidified her hold and decided to oppress the locals even harder, with it unclear the New Republic even received Nadura's call for help (but judging by The Mandalorian , pretty clear they wouldn't help even if they had), but a few notes of Ahsoka's Leitmotif play, showing someone will come to help them... eventually.
• Just before Elsbeth smashes the comm link sending the distress call, Bo-Katan Kryze's voice can be heard answering the call.
• Secret Test of Character : Thrawn sends Pallaeon to question Morgan, who unknowingly flunks by giving a pat answer about serving the Empire. He then sends Rukh to attack her to see whether she can hold her own in a fight, before questioning her personally. This time, he likes the answers he gets.
• Small Role, Big Impact : Grievous appears for no more than a few minutes in the first episode of Morgan's story arc, but his destruction of the Nightsisters is the primary catalyst to Morgan siding with the Empire and then Thrawn and the Imperial Remnant in the later stages of her life, including her subjugation of Corvus and ensuring the Grand Admiral's return from exile to menace the New Republic long after Grievous himself is dead and gone.
• Start of Darkness : Morgan Elsbeth was originally one among many Nightsisters of Dathomir who survived the destruction of her people at the hands of General Grievous thanks to the hospitality of the Dathomiri Mountain Clan. Her desire for revenge unintentionally causes the death of the Mountain Clan matron's daughter, and the matron can only bitterly mourn the path Morgan has chosen for herself.
• Lampshaded by Thrawn, who complains to Morgan about how many high-ranking Imperials are too greedy to govern sensibly as they care more about their profit and short-term gain than doing their jobs, such that they're more concerned about the fact the TIE Defenders would cost a lot of money than the fact that they would be a massive game-changer in the war with the Rebels and save the lives of countless Imperial soldiers.
• Also called out by Barriss, who points out that the Inquisitors are supposed to be bringing order, not butchering Imperial citizens at the slightest provocation as the Fourth Sister does. The fact that the Fourth Sister's only response is more hollow prattle about "showing strength" and "making examples" is one of the things that pushes her into leaving the Empire.
• Sympathy for the Devil : Despite her causing the deaths of three Mountain clan girls, including her own daughter the Mountain clan matron shows Morgan pity for the path she's set herself on.
• Time-Shifted Actor : In "The Path of Fear", the young Morgan Elsbeth is voiced by Cathy Ang instead of Diana Lee Inosanto (who instead voices her mother Selena).
• Teach Him Anger : Part of Inquisitor training is getting the trainee angry enough to go to the Dark Side.
• Then Let Me Be Evil : Although she was already pretty into the evil anyway, constant rejection from the people of Corvus, with Nadura calmly ordering her to surrender peacefully and stand trial before the New Republic being the last straw, drives Morgan to treat them even worse , becoming the person Ahsoka and Din met during The Mandalorian .
• There Is No Try : The Grand Inquisitor gives Barriss a Sith version of this kind of lesson, teaching her that the Jedi's strong emphasis on defensive fighting and restraint can hinder her in combat if she lets it and that embracing her emotions - particularly anger - and no longer holding back can give her a much-needed advantage against opponents with similar training to herself.
• Several between the episodes, especially in Morgan's arc: in "The Path of Fear", Morgan is a young adult during the Clone Wars, while "The Path of Anger" skips ahead to sometime in the Imperial era (where Thrawn is not yet a Grand Admiral and the Rebellion is still a growing problem), and "The Path of Hate" is set after the Empire's fall, shortly before Morgan's first appearance .
• The sixth episode is set several years after the fifth, with Barriss having aged visibly since she left the Inquisitors.
• Trading Bars for Stripes : The Fourth Sister offers the incarcerated Barriss a chance to join the Inquisitorius program.
• Turn the Other Cheek : Even when stabbed by the Fourth Sister, Barriss still forgives her and urges her to let go of her fears. She does, letting her escape the cave and go for help with Barriss in her arms.
• In "Realization", the Fourth Sister slashes the Jedi in the back with her lightsaber, but they're still alive and Barriss promises that she won't let them die. In the following episode, Barriss has noticeably aged and the Jedi is absent, their fate left unknown.
• In "The Way Out", the Fourth Sister stabs Barriss and she appears to die, but Lyn promises to "get you out of here" and emerges from the caves towards Barriss' hut .
• Ungrateful Bastard : This is how Morgan sees the people of Corvus, as they turned on her even though she built them fortifications and offered soldiers to give them control of the local systems. Subverted when Wing fires back that they worked hard for her and made her the leader in exchange for promises she hasn't kept, like good work and wealth. Soon enough, the Empire arrives and any semblance of well-meaning on Morgan's part is washed away.
• Villain Protagonist : Two three-episode arcs follow Morgan Elsbeth, who served as one of the main antagonists of Ahsoka , and Barriss Offee, Jedi turned terrorist and murderer. By the end of their arcs, Morgan is solidly the villain she will be when she appears in The Mandalorian , while Barriss, despite her uncertain fate , has pulled a Heel–Face Turn .
• What Could Possibly Go Wrong? : Morgan brings the Mountain Clan girls to a hidden Nightsister weapon cache, rationalizing to them that there's no harm in just looking. Except as it turns out, there was a contingent of droids waiting for a Nightsister to return, and Morgan's eagerness to get revenge leads her into battle against them despite the girls not being trained for combat. The Clan mother arrives in time to save Morgan, but no one else.
• Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi
• Franchise/Star Wars
• Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures

Important Links

• Action Adventure
• Commercials
• Crime & Punishment
• Professional Wrestling
• Speculative Fiction
• Sports Story
• Animation (Western)
• Music And Sound Effects
• Print Media
• Sequential Art
• Tabletop Games
• Applied Phlebotinum
• Characterization
• Characters As Device
• Narrative Devices
• British Telly
• The Contributors
• Creator Speak
• Derivative Works
• Laws And Formulas
• Show Business
• Split Personality
• Truth And Lies
• Truth In Television
• Fate And Prophecy
• Edit Reasons
• Isolated Pages
• Images List
• Recent Videos
• Crowner Activity
• Un-typed Pages
• Recent Page Type Changes
• Trope Entry
• Character Sheet
• Playing With
• Creating New Redirects
• Cross Wicking
• Tips for Editing
• Text Formatting Rules
• Handling Spoilers
• Administrivia
• Trope Repair Shop
• Image Pickin'

Advertisement: