What's your least favorite Star Trek cliche or idiosyncrasy?


I think mine would be how every character in the 24th century shows reminisces about their days at the Academy ad nauseum. Real naval officers and astronauts don't do this. That was one thing I really liked about ST:ENT.

"I'm a doctor, not a _____"

Both McCoy and Pulaski used it (though McCoy enough to be annoying, and Pulaski just being BAD imitation.

Women don't have what it takes to command. And they are all girls, no matter their age. ST:OS

Wasn't that from the last episode too? When whatsername took over Kirk's body? I thought that was stupid when I was 6.

Bashir only said it once, I think. The Doctor on VOYAGER said it all the time, didn't he? He definitely did in his FIRST CONTACT big-screen cameo.

I rolled my eyes every time the "rule of historically significant threes" came into play. Starfleet officer X would reference two people or events from actual Earth history, and throw in a third example, some made-up reference from another planet's history and/or the future.

Centauri did the same thing in THE LAST STARFIGHTER, now that I think about it:



That sort of thing.

And evolved beings are made of energy or angelic to behold.

And how many frickin' Earth parallels can one universe handle? Egocentric much?

All ships must arrive at each other face up on the same plane.

Almost all ships (and characters) have a universal translator, but that translator's database is woefully lacking in Klingon and someone has to explain to the others what "that Klingon phrase" meant.

Mysterious planet being explored by the Captain of the ship, his first officer, and any other high ranking officers around.


On the rare occasion that a flunky is exploring the planet first, he gets smoked. Only to be followed by -- you guessed it -- the Captain of the ship going down to see what mysterious thing smoked the flunky.

You're all fake fans.

I've come to be annoyed when an animal is referenced that's an Earth animal (so us dumb viewers get it), but they put an alien qualifier before it to make it sound vaguely sci-fi. i.e,

"You're acting more stubborn than a Rigelian bull."

"You snore louder than a Darominnian rooster."

"She's stealthier than a Grollorian jungle cat."

Et cetera ...

"He's dead, Jim!"

Where the hell are those toilets anyway?

That they haven't cured male pattern baldness by the 31st Century. Come on.

The number of times someone has their body taken over by an alien mind/presence. I always see it as the writers being lazy. There's seldom a good story to be told this way, and they tend to follow the same boring pattern.

Now, of course, everyone will mention really great episodes where this happened...

For whatever it's worth, Pat Sajak (remember his short-lived talk show?) addressed this point when Patrick Stewart was his guest, very early in the days of NEXT GENERATION. Stewart smiled and said something like, "By the 24th century, no one will care about baldness. People will have moved beyond such pettiness."

And then he ate a Twinkie.

Speaking of Picard.........He spoke with a British accent,drank Earl Grey Tea,and quoted Shakespeare ...........yet he was born in France.

In an infinite universe, duplicate and near-duplicate Earths are a certainty.

The ship's counselor has a seat on the bridge and is apparently part of the command crew?

Fraternization is allowed between crew members?

Sisko grew a Van Dyke but was not evil, even though it was clearly established that such facial hair was a clear sign of malevolence?

Uh oh. I believe Monk has found the most glaring fault in the Star Trek universe.

Hey they allowed Seven to wear a "special" cat suit/uniform.......with heals!