sisko – Trekking with Dennis

Rating Your “Unpopular” Star Trek Opinions!

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for practically the entire Star Trek franchise, including recent seasons of Discovery, Picard, Strange New Worlds, and Starfleet Academy.

Later this year, Star Trek will celebrate its sixtieth anniversary – that’s six decades of sci-fi adventures, space exploration, and a wonderful fan community that I absolutely adore! Today, I thought it could be a bit of fun to look at some of the Trekkie community’s so-called “unpopular opinions” about Star Trek. If you read my piece about fan theories a few weeks back, I’m going to do something similar this time around: I’ve compiled a bunch of “unpopular opinions” from across social media, and I’m going to dissect them!

I went to Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, TikTok, and other social media pages, scanning posts and comments sections, and I pulled out twenty-five “unpopular opinions” for this piece. And rather than just state them and share my opinion, I thought it could be interesting to try to answer two questions! Firstly, I’ll share whether I agree or disagree. And secondly, I’ll try to gauge whether the opinion in question could fairly be described as “unpopular.”

Still frame from The Enterprise Incident showing Spock and the scanner — I scanned social media to detect your most controversial opinions…

Here’s a couple of examples so we’re all on the same page!

Example #1: “Khan sucks as a villain because he’s lame and boring, and his evil scheme makes no sense.”

I would say I disagree (vehemently) with this opinion! But I would concede that it is a genuinely *unpopular* opinion within the fan community and with a wider audience. In fact, it’s such an unpopular opinion that I’ve never seen anyone genuinely express it!

Still frame from Star Trek II showing Khan — Khaaaaaan!

Example #2: “Captain Picard is the best Enterprise captain, better than Kirk or Archer or anyone else by miles.”

This one’s a toughie on the “agree/disagree” bit, because Kirk, Archer, and really every Star Trek captain across the franchise have plenty of their own strengths. But if I had to come down on one side or the other, I’d say I agree; Picard is a great captain. However, this is clearly not an “unpopular” opinion within the fandom – ask any group of Trekkies who their favourite captain is, and it won’t be long before you hear multiple people say “Picard!”

So… does that cover everything in terms of the format?

Still frame from Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 2 (Q Who) showing Q materialising next to Picard. — Who’s the best Enterprise captain?

It should go without saying, but everything we’re going to talk about today is *entirely subjective, not objective* – and it’s just one old Trekkie’s take, at the end of the day. If you hate my opinions, think I’ve got it completely wrong, or if I criticise a show or character you adore, please try to keep that in mind! There are a variety of opinions out there about this wonderful franchise, and I share mine with the Trekkie community in the spirit of light-hearted celebration in this landmark anniversary year.

Some of these “unpopular opinions” have clearly been shared in a tongue-in-cheek way (at least, I hope they have!) and I’m not planning on taking any of this too seriously. This also shouldn’t be interpreted as an “attack” or “hate” for any folks in the fandom who genuinely hold any of these opinions. This is meant to be a bit of fun, partly at Star Trek’s expense, as we move closer to the 60th anniversary.

With all of that out of the way, this is your final chance to nope out if you don’t want to get into some potentially controversial Star Trek opinions!

“Unpopular” Opinion #1:
Threshold is a great body horror episode.

Still frame from Threshold showing (mutating) Paris and Janeway

“Threshold” and “great” in the same sentence, eh? We’re starting off strong! I can see where this is coming from; Tom Paris’ gradual mutation into a salamander-like “hyper-evolved human” does have some genuinely disturbing moments, brought to life by some solid prosthetics during the sequences in sickbay. The idea of mutating in real-time, and not being able to do anything to stop it… that’s the same kind of idea behind classic body horror films like The Fly, only with a Star Trek flavour in this case.

I would say, though, that for whatever successes Threshold might have on the body horror front in the middle of the story, the ending really nullifies all of it. The CGI salamanders weren’t great to look at, nor were they frightening or disturbing in any way, and the typical episodic TV “reset” of Paris and Janeway back to their normal selves meant there were no lasting consequences for either of them. This comment is clearly a response to Threshold’s meme status, and I’m glad that Trekkies are willing to re-examine even the most disliked episodes! But for me, Threshold is still a weak story, and while there is some creative body horror-adjacent storytelling in the middle, it’s completely negated by the way the episode wraps up.

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? 🛑No!🛑

“Unpopular” Opinion #2:
Spock and Chapel’s romance is too big a part of Strange New Worlds – and it sucks.

Still frame from Charades showing Spock and Chapel kissing

100% agree on this one – no notes! Chapel’s “crush” on Spock in The Original Series was cute. But it wasn’t a huge part of the show for either of them, and it didn’t need this kind of on-again, off-again storyline in Strange New Worlds to make sense. In my opinion, Strange New Worlds has been way too focused on Spock and putting him in situations which, frankly, are toe-curlingly cringeworthy. The Chapel-Spock romance is part of that. I had hoped that, with the addition of Chapel’s fiancé, we’d have seen the back of this storyline – but alas.

I think I could’ve stomached an episode or two in which this relationship existed and ran its course. But I agree with the original poster, here: it’s become way too big a part of the show. When combined with other “Spock comedy” storylines (which seem to be the only Spock storylines the producers are interested in or know how to write), it quickly became too much. Cringeworthy, unnecessary, and arguably treading on the toes of The Original Series, too. A bad combination all around! And, based on the number of likes and comments on posts like this, I think it’s a fairly common take among Trekkies, too.

Unpopular? 🛑No!🛑
Agree? ✅Yes.✅

“Unpopular” Opinion #3:
T’Rul should’ve become a recurring character on Deep Space Nine.

Still frame from The Search Part I showing T'Rul

In The Search, which kicked off DS9′s third season, we’re introduced to the USS Defiant for the first time: the first Federation starship (officially) able to cloak. The cloaking device was loaned to Starfleet by the Romulans, and Sub-Commander T’Rul was the officer assigned to oversee it, and make sure it wasn’t being used in a way that violated Federation-Romulan treaties. However, after her first appearance, T’Rul disappeared from Deep Space Nine. Martha Hackett, who played the character, would go on to have a recurring role on Voyager as Seska.

I quite like this idea, to be honest. T’Rul would’ve added something different to DS9 during some of the episodes set aboard the Defiant, and it could’ve been fun to see a Romulan getting to know the crew and learning how to live with the Federation. There wasn’t a Romulan character like that through the entire TNG era, and it wouldn’t be until we met Elnor decades later that we’d get to spend more time with a Romulan. I can see plenty of stories where T’Rul could’ve played a role, and I especially like the idea of her trying to socialise with members of the crew, perhaps teaching us a bit about Romulan culture and customs along the way. Definitely a niche idea, though!

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? ✅Yes.✅

“Unpopular” Opinion #4:
The first few episodes of Lower Decks were too “horny,” and this turned off potential viewers.

Still frame from Second Contact showing Boimler in an alien's mouth

Assuming the original poster meant “horny” as in “overly sexualised,” I have to say I don’t agree. Not that the first episodes of Lower Decks had a lot more sexual imagery and language than TNG-era Star Trek – they absolutely did! But I disagree that the early episodes are unique in that regard! I’ve only seen up to the first part of Season 3; Lower Decks is still a show I need to catch up on and finish watching. But I didn’t feel the tone changed or softened very much across the first two-and-a-bit seasons – which is basically half of the show.

In the run-up to Lower Decks’ premiere, I was a firm advocate for the fact that Star Trek can be funny, that Star Trek has always been funny, and that being an animated comedy shouldn’t matter as long as the show is good. I think the general response from Trekkies has been that Lower Decks is a solid addition to the franchise, even recapturing that episodic, TNG style which Discovery and Picard had moved away from. But did some of its crude humour or over-the-top moments mean some Trekkies switched off? Probably. In fact, almost certainly. Not every Star Trek show is right for every viewer, so folks who want to take the franchise seriously, and who don’t want a Rick and Morty-inspired take on Star Trek were probably never going to enjoy what Lower Decks had to offer.

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? 🛑No!🛑

“Unpopular” Opinion #5:
Chekov was “useless” in The Original Series.

Still frame from The Trouble with Tribbles showing Chekov

I think I can see where this one is coming from… but I really don’t agree. Chekov was a late addition to TOS, joining in from Season 2. He only appeared in 36 episodes in total – less than half of The Original Series. But… none of that makes him “useless.” In fact, I’d argue very passionately that Chekov’s presence on the bridge alongside Sulu, Kirk, Uhura, and the others was a very powerful and symbolic statement: at the height of the Cold War, a mere five years after the world almost blew itself up over the Cuban Missile Crisis, here was a vision of the future in which Russians, Americans, and humans from all over the world were living and working together in harmony.

Like most of the cast of The Original Series outside of “the big three” of Kirk, Spock, and Dr McCoy, Chekov got fewer moments in the spotlight and fewer lines, and because he joined the show later, I guess that shows up even more. He was also absent from The Animated Series, due to the show’s tight budget. But he does get storylines and interesting moments across practically all of his episodes, and he stands in for Sulu at points in Season 2, as well. Not useless at all!

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? 🛑No!🛑

“Unpopular” Opinion #6:
Discovery is overrated.

Behind-the-scenes cast photo from Discovery S5

I had to do a double-take when I saw this. “Surely,” I thought, “the original poster must’ve meant underrated, or maybe over-*hated*?” But no, this is their unpopular opinion! To be blunt, I don’t think Discovery is rated particularly highly by a large swathe of the fan community. It has its fans, of course – myself included for the most part. But “overrated” suggests that the show is held in high esteem when it shouldn’t be, when really I’d be arguing the opposite: that too many Trekkies wrote off Discovery without giving it a fair shake, and that Season 2, and parts of Seasons 3 through 5 all had good episodes, interesting moments, and more.

For something to be “overrated,” it has to have that acclaim within the fan community, and I just don’t see Discovery having that kind of reputation for the most part. I think it’s absolutely fair to criticise Discovery, as I’ve done on many occasions here on the website. And if the original commenter dislikes some or all of the show, then that’s okay. But I couldn’t say Discovery is overrated… because I just don’t think the fan community at large rates it very highly to begin with!

Unpopular? 🛑No!🛑
Agree? 🛑No!🛑

“Unpopular” Opinion #7:
Captain Janeway did the right thing with Tuvix.

Cropped screenshot from Across the Unknown showing art of Tuvix

Tuvix’s controversial status lives on! One of the best things about Star Trek is that many episodes make you stop and think. They present complex issues with moral quandaries, and they don’t shy away from reckoning with them. And Tuvix is one such example. Do you kill a man you barely know while he’s pleading for his life in order to save two of your friends? Captain Janeway believed she had to, and even stepped in to do it herself when the Doctor refused.

I can understand her point of view. The mitigating circumstances are the unique perils of the Delta Quadrant, and Tuvok and Neelix’s skills in navigating it. But was it the “right” thing to do? The episode pulls no punches, and I’ve even heard some fans say it’s the worst thing Janeway ever did. I don’t agree on that front – wiping out an entire timeline and the lives of everyone in it has to take that prize! But yeah, it was a shitty thing to do. It was a tough situation, and Janeway made the call that she felt gave her ship and crew the best chance of making it home. And hey, if you disagree… play the new video game Across the Unknown and make a different choice!

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? 🛑No!🛑

“Unpopular” Opinion #8:
Wesley Crusher is fine/underappreciated/good.

Still frame from The Dauphin showing Wesley

Things have changed a lot for Wesley over the years, I think in large part due to actor Wil Wheaton’s incredibly positive attitude and the great way he’s advocated for and represented the Trekkie community. But there was a time when Wesley was wildly unpopular; in the early days of Star Trek fansites, back when I was first getting started with the internet in the ’90s, hating on Wesley was one of the most common things you’d see. I never felt Wesley deserved all the hate he got; some of it crossed a line, really, into something a bit unpleasant or even sinister. We’re talking about a child, after all, or a teenager, and attacking a performer because you don’t like their character is just stupid.

However… I get where the original dislike stemmed from, especially in stories where Wesley could seemingly do no wrong, or was better and more competent than the trained officers around him. Partly, this came from Gene Roddenberry – Wesley was a bit of a self-insert character for Gene, even being named for Roddenberry’s own middle name. But Wesley did have weaknesses and flaws, even in The Next Generation’s first season. His inability to get accepted to the Academy being just one example. And when Wesley did make it to the Academy, the accident he was caught up in tested his loyalties and morality to the limit. Is he the best character in Star Trek? Arguably not. Is he better than folks give him credit for? I’ve gotta say yes.

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? ✅Yes.✅

“Unpopular” Opinion #9:
The reboot/Kelvin timeline Enterprise is a beautiful ship.

Still frame from Star Trek 2009 showing the Enterprise

To this day, I know Trekkies who point-blank refuse to watch the Kelvin films. But… I think the out-and-out hate for the reboot has begun to fade, thanks to the passage of time. Practically everything about the 2009 reboot was controversial in some quarters of the fan community when the film was released, including the redesign of the USS Enterprise. The design took the original Constitution-class from TOS and changed a lot of things, with a different colour scheme, bulkier nacelles, a lit-up main deflector, and more. It’s certainly a different interpretation of the classic ship from four decades earlier.

I’m actually pleased to see opinions like this. There will always be holdouts – people who can’t get over the changes and who only want to stick to a certain design philosophy or a particular era of Star Trek. But as time passes and puts distance between us and the premiere of these designs, I think it’s nice to see more Trekkies revising their opinions, revisiting some of these elements of the reboot films, and coming away with a more positive impression. It gives me hope, quite honestly, for the future of the fan community in the years to come, and that some of today’s controversies may also be forgiven over time!

Unpopular? 🛑No!🛑
Agree? ✅Yes.✅

“Unpopular” Opinion #10:
“Faith of the Heart” was a good song for Enterprise’s title sequence.

Still frame from the Star Trek Enterprise title sequence showing the show's title

This is another example of the passage of time smoothing things out, I think! I remember hopping online, circa 2001, to try to download Faith of the Heart – and then burning it onto a CD and a MiniDisc (remember those?) so I could listen to it on the go! Sure, it was different – the whole sequence, really, is a very “2000s” way to open a show, and it feels a bit dated today. But I’ve always enjoyed the song, and I certainly never agreed with folks who said it “ruined Enterprise,” or turned them off so completely that they wouldn’t even watch the show!

“Archer’s Theme,” the music heard during Enterprise’s end credits, is the track some folks argue the show should’ve used instead. And I get wanting Star Trek to revert to type; to have the ship warping over a starry background while an orchestra plays a piece of music. But did “Faith of the Heart” really change much about the series? It’s still Star Trek. And if you hate it… well, it’s never been easier, thanks to DVDs and streaming, to skip it! That being said, I think this is still a minority position within the wider fan community, even if the song’s reputation has recovered somewhat over the years.

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? ✅Yes.✅

“Unpopular” Opinion #11:
Neelix and Kes were a good couple.

Promo photo for Star Trek: Voyager showing Neelix and Kes kissing

This one has to be trolling, right? I’d go so far as to say that, if Neelix’s relationship with Kes had been in focus in Voyager much more than it was, it could’ve been genuinely detrimental to both characters and even the entire series. As the setup for getting Neelix to help Janeway and ultimately join the crew, it tracks. But what it says about Neelix – a man in the Talaxian equivalent of middle age – falling in love with a girl who’s… one year old, and the Ocampan equivalent of, what? Seventeen or eighteen? It’s… really, truly icky.

Moreover, the relationship exaggerated some of Neelix’s worst qualities. In episodes like Parturition, we’d see him getting jealous and possessive over Kes in a way that, frankly, felt uncomfortable. A man who seems positive and happy-go-lucky on the outside seemed to have a dark, possessive, almost abusive streak, and if that had been brought up even once or twice more, it would make Neelix truly difficult to root for. Fortunately, this isn’t an opinion I’ve ever seen another Trekkie endorse, though!

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? 🛑No!🛑

“Unpopular” Opinion #12:
Sybok was a fun and deep villain in Star Trek V.

Still frame from Star Trek V showing Sybok.

The Final Frontier has its issues. But is Sybok one of them? This commenter argues he isn’t, and that a religious zealot who belatedly realises that he’s wrong and he’s been lied to or manipulated gave Sybok a lot of depth. I’d add to that that the idea of exploring a Vulcan offshoot – someone who doesn’t care to suppress his emotions – was also something different. It was certainly unique at this point in the franchise, coming before the Vulcans got more development in episodes like TNG’s Sarek, and of course, through storylines in Enterprise.

The problem I have with this, really, is not so much in concept – I think the original poster is right about that – but in execution. Sybok’s best moment is arguably his final one, when he sacrificed himself to help his brother and the Enterprise escape. Prior to that… Sybok wasn’t *outstanding*, really. There is more to The Final Frontier than some fans give it credit for. And like most Star Trek characters, really, there are elements to Sybok, to the way he’s written, and to the portrayal on screen that worked or that hold some interest. And I will say, to the original comment’s credit, it’s not an argument I’ve seen before.

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? 🛑No!🛑

“Unpopular” Opinion #13:
All of “Kurtzman Trek” sucks and should be considered a failure.

Behind-the-scenes photo from Star Trek SFA S1 showing Kurtzman directing

In the time Alex Kurtzman has been in charge of Star Trek for CBS, then Paramount, and now Skydance, there have been more than 200 episodes (and a TV movie) produced and broadcast. Are you telling me, original commenter, that there’s absolutely no merit to *any* of it? Because I find that hard to believe! Even Trekkies who’ve hated most of modern Star Trek have enjoyed some projects – Picard’s third season, or perhaps Strange New Worlds. Alex Kurtzman was in charge of the franchise for that, and was executive producer on both shows.

I don’t think you can write off an entire era of the franchise, any more than you could say “Berman Trek” was bad, or “Roddenberry Trek” sucked. But even if someone is of the opinion that *all* of modern Star Trek is atrocious and without merit… we can agree to disagree without getting into personal attacks. I hope! Has Alex Kurtzman got everything right? No – and I think he’d admit that. But has there been some fantastic Star Trek on our screens since he’s been helming the franchise? I believe there has been.

Unpopular? 🛑No!🛑
Agree? 🛑No!🛑

“Unpopular” Opinion #14:
Voyager focused too much on Janeway, the Doctor, and Seven of Nine from Season 4 onwards.

Composite of promo photos for Star Trek Voyager showing Janeway, Seven, and the Doctor

I was surprised to see this on one of the “unpopular opinion” posts – not because I disagree (I don’t), but because I’ve never seen anyone else share this opinion online before! For me, the back half of Voyager’s run felt swamped by one character: Seven of Nine. Seven would apparently “learn” some lesson in how to be human one week, only to seemingly forget it all in time for the next story. This led to several Seven/Janeway and Seven/Doctor episodes being so awfully repetitive that I sometimes mix them up. Voyager’s still a great show, don’t get me wrong, but taking some spotlight episodes away from Seven and redistributing them to neglected characters like Chakotay, Tuvok, or B’Elanna wouldn’t have gone amiss.

Picard rehabilitated Seven of Nine for me, though – I even went so far as to say that that series made Seven into an interesting character for the very first time! So this aspect of Voyager, while admittedly not great, doesn’t feel so bad in hindsight, I guess. And the issue isn’t really that most of these episodes are “bad,” but rather that they’re too narrow in their focus on one or two characters at the expense of other members of the cast. When I used to use Twitter and I shared a similar opinion about Seven of Nine being repetitive and boring, though, I got a fair bit of pushback! So I think this opinion can truly be said to be “unpopular” within the fan community.

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? ✅Yes.✅

“Unpopular” Opinion #15:
The Maquis were right to leave the Federation.

Photo of the Maquis Raider filming model

This comment went on to lay out that, in the writer’s opinion, the Maquis had every right to reject the Federation and want to leave, regardless of whether they wanted to fight the Cardassians or not. This seems to come from a place of “popular sovereignty;” the political philosophy which states that people should be free to choose how they are governed – and whether they want to remain as part of an institution like the Federation. The right to secession, by definition, exists if popular sovereignty exists within the Federation – something we’ve seen a lot more of in Discovery and Starfleet Academy, to be fair.

So should the Maquis have been allowed to leave? I would say yes… in principle. But it also isn’t quite so straightforward. The Federation had to balance the rights of its citizens along the Cardassian border with the need to avoid war with the Cardassians – something that would have impacted Maquis colonists *and* the rest of the Federation. Sometimes, as Spock would say, “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” If you’re one of the few, in that case… that kinda sucks, especially if it means you have to abandon your home. So it’s not quite as cut-and-dry as presented. But as a general rule, if Federation member worlds want to leave, even if they began life as colonies… they should surely be allowed to do so.

Unpopular? 🛑No!🛑
Agree? ✅Yes.✅

“Unpopular” Opinion #16:
The Tellarites and Andorians deserve more screen time.

Still frame from Lower Decks Mining the Mind's Mines showing Jennifer

The four original founding members of the United Federation of Planets were humans, Vulcans, Tellarites, and Andorians – yet only Vulcans have really been explored across Star Trek’s nearly six decades of history. Enterprise told more stories with the Andorians, sure, and we’ve seen Tellarites (and half-Tellarites) in Prodigy and Starfleet Academy. But these two races still feel underrepresented across the franchise as a whole. Partly, it must be said, that’s because of their almost complete absence from all three shows of The Next Generation era.

Since the turn of the millennium, Star Trek has made moves to address this. But it would still be neat to get a major Andorian or Tellarite character in the next live-action film or series. These two races are important to the Federation within Star Trek’s fictional history, so it is kind of odd, when you think about it, that they haven’t been seen more often. I would suggest, perhaps, that the more complex prosthetic makeup – when compared to the likes of the Vulcans, Bajorans, and so on – may have made it a bit more difficult or expensive in years gone by. Less of an issue today, though! It’s not an argument I’ve seen very often, and I think that, especially prior to Enterprise, a lot of Trekkies had more or less forgotten about both of these races, and didn’t seem to care much about them.

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? ✅Yes.✅

“Unpopular” Opinion #17:
Jack Crusher was an especially bad character in Picard Season 3 because of what his existence says about Beverly.

Still frame from No Win Scenario showing Jack

This post argued that Jack Crusher’s “secret birth” storyline actively harms his mother’s characterisation. By essentially hiding Picard’s son from him, concealing the birth, and disappearing for decades, Dr Crusher – in this person’s opinion – committed an unforgivable sin, and it was also something that she wouldn’t have done based on the way she was in TNG.

For my two cents, I didn’t think Jack was the best part of Season 3. The storyline he was wrapped up in, while not his fault on his own, wasn’t all that great, and I found it hard to buy into the idea that the character was only twenty-one years old (since the actor who played him was in his mid-thirties). Further, giving this version of Picard a storyline about discovering he had a long-lost son didn’t feel right, either – it felt like a story better-suited to someone younger, which seemed to go against other themes in the season. However, on the specific criticism of Jack “harming” Dr Crusher’s character… I don’t think I agree. It was explained in the show why she did it – to keep Jack safe from the shenanigans that constantly swirl around Picard – and I actually felt that this version of Dr Crusher had a bit more personality than she did in most of TNG. It wasn’t a random thing; Dr Crusher didn’t decide to leave for no reason. And her reasoning made sense in the context of the show.

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? 🛑No!🛑

“Unpopular” Opinion #18:
Strange New Worlds’ Gorn arc is good, and the Gorn make for entertaining villains.

Still frame from Hegemony Part 2 showing a Gorn

I didn’t really realise that this one was quite so controversial until I saw some of the comments under posts expressing this opinion! Personally, I’ve really enjoyed Strange New Worlds’ take on the Gorn – transforming them into almost Xenomorph-inspired “monsters” has definitely shaken things up. At the same time, though, leaning too heavily on the monstrous angle does raise questions about the Gorn’s sentience and ability to be a spacefaring race, so there probably are moments where it went a little too far in one direction.

Strange New Worlds had a bit of a challenge, I suppose, when it came to villains. Most Star Trek villainous factions are off the table: Discovery had recently done the Klingon war, DS9 has already done a big Cardassian war, there can’t be the Romulans in a big way due to the timeline, and returning to the likes of the Xindi from Enterprise wouldn’t have worked very well, either. So to pick a race like the Gorn – who have run-ins with Starfleet in this era – wasn’t a bad idea. And giving them a new, more frightening presentation has – in my view – worked pretty well.

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? ✅Yes.✅

“Unpopular” Opinion #19:
It’s hard to get used to the way Avery Brooks delivers his lines.

Still frame from In The Pale Moonlight showing Sisko

This one’s a toughie for me, because I first watched Deep Space Nine in the mid-1990s when I was a wee bairn. I can’t remember ever thinking that the way Sisko speaks is weird or offputting, as this commenter suggests. In fact, all of my DS9 memories are positive from that period, and Sisko quickly became one of my favourite parts of the entire Star Trek franchise. His vocal delivery, cadence, and manner of speaking weren’t things I’d considered at all until I read this post.

I suppose, to be fair to the commenter, Avery Brooks might come across as a bit of a thespian; the way he speaks and emotes is at least partially inspired by acting in the theatre for a live audience. But the same is definitely true of Sir Patrick Stewart, in that case – and other Star Trek regulars, too. Many actors get their start in stage productions, and that’s not a negative thing at all. Obviously, the way any of us feel about an actor and a performance is going to vary, and I would never say that everyone “must” like Captain Sisko or the way Avery Brooks portrayed the character. But for me… this just isn’t something I ever remember feeling when DS9 was new, and I haven’t heard this argument before.

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? 🛑No!🛑

“Unpopular” Opinion #20:
Bending the rules of “canon” is okay.

Every time a new Star Trek story touches on a character, alien, faction, or even an aesthetic or design we’ve seen before, some folks crawl out of the woodwork to moan about “violating the integrity of canon!” I’ve actually written about this subject before, and I tried to lay out that my position is a bit more nuanced than the black-or-white, “respect all canon” versus “I don’t care” debate that flares up, from time to time, within the Trekkie community! In short, I’d argue that the foundational building blocks of a fictional world and its key characters should be kept the same, but the minutiae can be changed.

As an example: warp drive works using dilithium, so future Star Trek stories need to keep that in mind. But if one episode says warp seven takes a week to reach Romulus and another episode says it takes three days… that kind of thing doesn’t matter. Nor does the fact that uniform designs look different from one show to another. So, yes, canon matters because basic internal consistency within Star Trek’s fictional setting is important if I’m to maintain my suspension of disbelief. But it isn’t the only thing that matters, and we needn’t sacrifice interesting narrative ideas at the altar of “canon purity” if there’s a fun story to be told.

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? ✅Yes.✅

“Unpopular” Opinion #21:
A crossover between Star Trek and Star Wars is a great idea.

Still frame from Return of the Jedi showing Vader and Luke on Endor

As a kid playing with action figures, I already achieved this goal thirty-five years ago! Jokes aside, fans of both Star Trek *and* Star Wars have speculated about what a crossover might look like for decades. And who knows… with Paramount buying up everything in Hollywood, maybe it’s no longer the impossible dream that it once appeared to be!

There are some pretty big hurdles, though, just from a practical point of view. Both franchises are owned by competing companies, and both have decades’ worth of complicated lore and history. Then there’s the question of time and place – Star Wars famously takes place “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,” whereas Star Trek takes place in a vision of our future. Which characters would be involved? And how would Star Trek’s technology co-exist with hyperdrives, lightsabres, and the Force? As tempting as it might sound on some level, I don’t think I’d go for it if I were in charge!

Unpopular? 🛑No!🛑
Agree? 🛑No!🛑

“Unpopular” Opinion #22:
The Prime Directive is unethical.

Still frame from Star Trek Insurrection showing the duck blind

Several commenters argued that the Federation’s Prime Directive is a fundamentally unethical policy, because it condemns whole civilisations to extinction just because they haven’t developed one specific technology. And, on the surface, that seems to track – stories like Pen Pals, Dear Doctor, and the beginning of Into Darkness quite clearly show Starfleet has the ability to intervene, but chooses not to, even when there’s an existential risk to an entire race of sentient beings.

The Prime Directive, fundamentally, is about not interfering with or altering the trajectory of societies that haven’t yet discovered alien life. And it makes sense, right? Think of the chaos it would cause to our own society if aliens descended from the skies – even if they had the best of intentions. We aren’t ready for that, and maybe we won’t be for a long time. The rigidity of the Prime Directive throws up some strange situations, though – but we often see our heroes finding ways around it, and the fact that they never seem to get in trouble suggests that Starfleet is okay with rule-bending, sometimes!

Unpopular? 🛑No!🛑
Agree? 🛑No!🛑

“Unpopular” Opinion #23:
Too many people are related to Spock, best friends with Spock, falling in love with Spock, or revere Spock.

Still from YesterYear (Star Trek TAS) showing Spock

Spock has become a larger and larger part of Star Trek, over the years, even as we’ve moved further away from The Original Series. He and his father appeared in The Next Generation, Spock crossed over to the Kelvin timeline where he met his younger self, and Spock has had two long-lost siblings that he never mentioned: Sybok and Michael Burnham. Chapel falls in love with Spock, La’an falls in love with Spock, and all the while, Spock is betrothed to T’Pring. Characters like Boimler talk about Spock with reverence, too. Yeah… it’s kind of a lot, huh?

It can feel, sometimes, like Spock is too present and too big a part of the storylines he’s included in. I’d be totally fine with stepping back from Spock, for a while, and giving other characters a chance to be in the spotlight. The Burnham connection has been established at this point, and there won’t be any retconning or removal of that. But going forward… if we’re lucky enough to see more Star Trek entering production, setting Spock aside would probably be for the best – at least for a while.

Unpopular? 🛑No!🛑
Agree? ✅Yes.✅

“Unpopular” Opinion #24:
René Auberjonois should’ve played Odo with an exaggerated French accent.

Still frame from What We Left Behind showing Odo

This one… I think it was entirely tongue-in-cheek! But I thought it was funny, and it’s my list so I’m including it. René Auberjonois played the French chef in The Little Mermaid, and his French accent is pretty iconic! It would’ve certainly shaken things up, with Odo becoming much more of a comic relief character, especially if Auberjonois really hammed it up. Would it have made DS9 *better*? Uh, probably not. Would some of his conflicts with Quark have been a lot funnier, though? Yes.

Look, this was just a bit of silly fun. I’m pretty sure no one’s out there seriously suggesting that giving *any* Star Trek character a comedy accent would’ve improved the show. But it’s fun, as fans, to think about these things sometimes. How different would episodes like The Die Is Cast have been if Odo were hamming it up, sounding like the French chef from The Little Mermaid? And, to the credit of the original commenter, it’s not an opinion I have *ever* heard expressed before!

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? 🛑No!🛑

“Unpopular” Opinion #25:
Star Trek *should* change over time, and not simply re-make TOS or TNG for every new series.

Still frame from Vox in Excelso showing the cadets

As early as the ’70s, when The Animated Series entered production, Star Trek was changing. When Phase II was reimagined as The Motion Picture, and Star Trek went to the cinema for the first time, the franchise changed. Star Trek, like any long-running franchise, moves with the times. That means the way shows look and feel changes, it means the way characters are cast and handled changes, and it means the nature of storytelling changes, too. The entertainment industry is not a static, stagnant thing, and if the higher-ups at Star Trek tried to recreate The Original Series every time… well, the franchise probably would have died out a long time ago.

That being said, some experiments and changes work better than others. I’m firmly of the opinion, having seen multiple seasons of modern Star Trek, that the franchise *needs* the freedom episodic television brings, and that serialised stories need to be a much smaller part of Star Trek in the future… assuming there will be a future. It seems that Skydance, Star Trek’s new corporate overlords, are more interested in films than streaming TV, so that could be another change coming down the pipeline. But the original poster is correct – Star Trek can’t afford to be left behind as the entertainment industry shifts around it. Figuring out what to change, how far to take those changes, and what fundamentals need to be left in place, though… that’s a tougher set of questions, and modern Star Trek hasn’t always stuck the landing, unfortunately.

Unpopular? ✅Yes.✅
Agree? ✅Yes.✅

So that’s it… for now!

Concept art of the USS Enterprise in Spacedock for The Search for Spock — Concept art of the USS Enterprise in Spacedock.

Stay tuned, because I have *at least* another twenty-five of these “unpopular” opinions that I’d love to write up one day.

I hope this has been a bit of fun. If I tore a hole in an opinion you agree with… please try not to take it personally! This is meant to be a bit of light-hearted fun, joining in with the Star Trek fan community in my own way, and not something to get too upset about or offended by. I tried to pick a mix of different opinions from across social media, touching on different parts of the franchise, including things I agreed with and didn’t agree with.

If you missed it, I have a two-part review of Starfleet Academy’s first season, which is now live on the website. You can find part one by clicking or tapping here, and the follow-up by clicking or tapping here. And there’s more Star Trek content to come as the 60th anniversary nears! I’ve got plans for re-watches, theories, and more, so I hope you’ll check back from time to time. Thanks for joining me to dissect these “unpopular opinions,” and Live Long and Prosper!

Most Star Trek films and TV shows discussed above can be streamed now on Paramount+ in countries and territories where the service is available. The Star Trek franchise – including all films, TV programmes, and other properties discussed above – is the copyright of Skydance/Paramount. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Thoughts on Sisko and Starfleet Academy

Tue 17.02.26Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are major spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Season 1. Spoilers are also present for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and the comic series Star Trek: Godshock.

We’re going to get into serious spoiler territory for one of the recent episodes in Starfleet Academy’s first season, so if my little spoiler warning graphic didn’t put you off… just beware. I don’t want to ruin the show for anybody!

This isn’t going to be a “review” of the episode Series Acclimation Mil. I’m not doing individual episode reviews for Starfleet Academy this year, and in this piece, we’re really only going to get into one of the episode’s storylines. There will be a review of Season 1 as a whole in March, and I’m sure I’ll touch on the episode (and this storyline) again at that point. So check back for that if you want to get my thoughts on the entire season more broadly. And I have a review of the two-part premiere, which you can find by clicking or tapping here.

Still frame from Star Trek SFA S1 showing Sam and a Sisko poster. — Sam “confronts the unexplainable” in *Starfleet Academy.*

Series Acclimation Mil returned to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in a pretty big way, and I wanted to talk about that element in a longer format, in a way that I don’t think I could do justice to in my season review piece. DS9 is a hugely important series for me, and this episode was clearly well-intentioned, with writer Tawny Newsome wanting to draft a “love letter” to the series and to Captain Sisko in particular.

But… is that how it came across?

Captain Sisko is, on balance, almost certainly my favourite Star Trek captain. And if you put my back against the wall and pushed a phaser to my head, forcing me to choose, I’d also name Deep Space Nine as my favourite Star Trek show. Out of all the Star Trek shows, DS9 got what is arguably the most definitive and complete series finale, but Captain Sisko’s story was deliberately left ambiguous. In Starfleet Academy, the episode Series Acclimation Mil picked up this narrative thread and aimed to tell a story about the intersection of religion and science, as well as one that really celebrated the legacy of Star Trek’s first African American captain and series lead. I admire the intention, and I don’t doubt that everyone involved, from the writers and producers to the performers, came into this story for the right reasons and genuinely intended for it to be a celebration of Sisko and DS9.

Behind-the-scenes photo from Star Trek SFA showing Newsome and Brooks. — Tawny Newsome (left) wrote and had a role in *Series Acclimation Mil*, along with series regular Kerrice Brooks (right).

Fundamentally, I think Starfleet Academy was the wrong choice of series for an episode like this for one simple reason: its place in the timeline. If this were a Picard-era series (as I argued it should be once upon a time), we might be having a different conversation. But because Starfleet Academy takes place in the 32nd Century, more than 800 years after the events of DS9′s finale… the story it was able to tell, far from celebrating Sisko and his legacy, arguably detracts from it.

When work on What You Leave Behind was ongoing, Sisko actor Avery Brooks insisted on a change to the script. The original version of DS9′s finale saw Sisko “ascending” to become a Prophet, permanently leaving the world behind as he moved to live in the Celestial Temple. But Brooks felt that the idea of a black man (Star Trek’s first African American captain, too) effectively “abandoning” his pregnant wife and son wasn’t the right message for Sisko’s story to end on. And so that ambiguity was written into What You Leave Behind, allowing Sisko to one day “return,” as he said to Kassidy in his final vision.

Still frame from Star Trek DS9 showing Sisko and Kassidy's vision. — Sisko’s final appearance to Kassidy.

For years, that was the end of it. DS9 was over, but fans could speculate about how and when Sisko would return. There was even a comic series – Star Trek: Godshock – in which Sisko returns from the Wormhole about three years after the events of DS9′s finale. I’m not a comic book fan myself, but this was an officially-licensed publication, and while comics aren’t strictly part of Star Trek’s canon, they can be a good format for telling stories involving legacy characters who can no longer be involved in Star Trek on the screen.

Avery Brooks, who played Sisko in all seven seasons of DS9, has effectively retired. His last on-screen credits came shortly after Deep Space Nine ended, and his final involvement with the Star Trek franchise came in the 2006 video game Star Trek: Legacy (not to be confused with the proposed Picard spin-off of the same name), in which he reprised his role in voiceover form. Following DS9, Brooks worked as a professor at Rutgers University, and was also involved with the Smithsonian Institution. As far as I know, an on-screen return to Star Trek or the role of Sisko was never officially proposed, but it seems, from what I can gather, that Brooks would have turned down such an approach. He may have done so if the writers of Starfleet Academy had asked.

Crop from the comic Star Trek: Godshock showing Jake and Ben Sisko embracing. — Jake and Ben Sisko’s reunion in *Godshock*.

Recasting such an iconic and important character wouldn’t sit right with me – nor with a lot of other Trekkies, I suspect. So with Brooks effectively out of the picture, not wanting to return as Sisko… the idea of a Godshock type of story, in which Sisko very definitely kept his word and came back from the Celestial Temple, is off the table. Starfleet Academy was left without the most important element of any Sisko story – the man who portrayed the character – but tried to go there anyway.

I will concede that, given the restrictions and limitations placed on the story by Avery Brooks’ absence, the kind of story told in Series Acclimation Mil was probably about as good as it could get. But that’s not really the point. My argument is that, without Avery Brooks being involved, and without Sisko able to keep his word and return from the Wormhole during the lifetime of his wife, son, and other friends… this story shouldn’t have been attempted. If they asked Brooks to return and he said no, or if it was communicated to them clearly that Brooks was unavailable, this story should simply have been set aside, and something else written for the character of Sam.

Still frame from Star Trek SFA 1x05 showing Sam. — Sam in *Series Acclimation Mil*.

There are other ways to celebrate DS9, and other characters from that series who could’ve been included. Series Acclimation Mil introduced us to a brand-new host for the Dax symbiont, for example – something I argued Discovery should’ve done during its various Trill episodes – but we spent very little time with her and learned practically nothing about her. Or Starfleet Academy could’ve picked up on Lower Decks’ idea that O’Brien was widely celebrated in the far future, doing something with that character’s legacy. The Klingon story could’ve revisited Worf and his ties to Starfleet, with Starfleet Academy having already visited Bajor there was scope to do something with Kira, or we could finally learn more about Cardassia, perhaps touching on the legacy of someone like Garak.

But really, DS9 wasn’t the point. This was an episode intended to celebrate the legacy of Star Trek’s first African American captain. So… what else could Starfleet Academy have done to acknowledge Star Trek’s African American connections? A great choice would be Uhura – the first African main character in Star Trek. I’d have loved to see a crossover, perhaps involving Cadet Sam meeting Strange New Worlds’ Uhura on the holodeck. Or the show could’ve called back to the legacy of Geordi La Forge, or Travis Mayweather – two characters brought to life by African American performers. Avery Brooks may have been the first to be a series lead, but there are other African American performers Starfleet Academy could’ve called on for this kind of celebratory story.

Still frame from Star Trek SNW showing Scotty and Uhura. — Uhura in *Strange New Worlds* Season 3.

And I am firmly in the camp that says “celebrate DS9″ and “celebrate Star Trek’s African American performers and heritage!” I think those are fantastic ideas, especially in this landmark 60th anniversary year. The Original Series was groundbreaking for African American representation on television, thanks to Nichelle Nichols’ main role, with even the venerable Martin Luther King saying so. There is a lot to celebrate on that front, and I don’t begrudge the writers of Starfleet Academy wanting to do so.

Unfortnately, though, the very celebratory episode that they set out to create has, I would argue, done a bit of damage to Sisko’s character – turning him into the very “delinquent dad” that Avery Brooks argued against almost three decades ago. By choosing Sisko over other characters, and because of the limitations placed on the story by both Starfleet Academy’s place in the timeline and Brooks’ retirement from acting, Series Acclimation Mil answered one of Star Trek’s “unanswerable” questions in pretty much the worst way possible.

Crop from the comic Star Trek: Godshock showing Sisko's return. — Sisko’s first words after returning in the comic *Godshock*.

Regardless of where you stand on the episode’s crucial question of “did Sisko die or enter the Celestial Temple,” Series Acclimation Mil confirmed that, in Star Trek’s canonical prime timeline, Sisko never returned. He stayed away from the galaxy for more than eight centuries, breaking his promise to his wife, never seeing his son grow up, and never contacting Dax or any of his other friends.

And I would further argue that the episode’s central question, which Sam sets herself the task of answering, *was already answered a quarter of a century ago*!

Deep Space Nine’s finale didn’t end with Sisko falling into the Fire Caves. There was one final scene involving Sisko: his vision to Kassidy Yates. This was presented in the story as a vision from the Prophets, and the character was not a random Prophet impersonating Sisko, but Sisko himself. What You Leave Behind definitely and clearly stated that Sisko didn’t die and was taken by the Prophets to their Celestial Temple. And his final words to his wife? “But I *will* be back.”

Still frame from Star Trek DS9 showing Kassidy. — Sisko promised Kassidy that he would return.

I never read that scene in What You Leave Behind as leaving any room for doubt or ambiguity. Sisko didn’t die – he was taken to the Wormhole by the Prophets. And he intended to stay with them only for as long as necessary to learn whatever they needed to teach him, but he absolutely, categorically planned to return.

So what does Series Acclimation Mil have to say about that? What does this episode now mean for Sisko, the Prophets, and DS9?

There are a couple of ways we can interpret things, I guess, if we go back to DS9′s finale. Firstly, we could say that Kassidy either didn’t receive a vision from the Prophets at all, and hallucinated a reunion with Sisko out of grief, or that she received a vision from a different Prophet who pretended to be Sisko to give her a bit of hope to tide her over. That kinda sucks.

HD still frame from What We Left Behind showing Sisko. — Captain Sisko.

Alternatively, we could say that Sisko wanted to leave the Wormhole… but was unable to do so in time. Maybe his lessons with the Prophets went on longer than he thought. Maybe he “lost track of time” in a dimension that exists… outside the normal flow of time? Maybe the Prophets kept him prisoner and prevented him from leaving, even though he really wanted to. Or maybe only Sisko’s “soul” still exists, and with his physical body having been destroyed, he had no way to come back.

Again, none of those ideas hold *any* appeal whatsoever, at least not for me.

So we’re back to some fundamental questions: was this the right moment for an episode like this? Was Starfleet Academy the right series – or the right *kind* of series? Without Sisko himself, and without recasting the character, was it wise to attempt this kind of story? Could other ways have been found to celebrate Star Trek’s African American performers, Deep Space Nine as a series, or both?

Photo from the Star Trek SFA premiere of Kerrice Brooks. — Kerrice Brooks, who plays Sam in *Starfleet Academy*.

I wouldn’t have given the green light to this episode, if I had the opportunity over at Paramount. Not because I don’t want to pick up the dangling thread of Sisko’s story, and not because I don’t want Star Trek to do more with DS9, but because of what this story does to Sisko’s character. Despite what Newsome, Cirroc Lofton, and others have said on behalf of Avery Brooks – that he gave the episode “his blessing,” and that that was important to them – Series Acclimation Mil, in my view, harms Sisko’s characterisation, it harms Star Trek as a whole, and it gives a fundamentally unsatisfying answer to a question that didn’t really need to be asked.

We already knew that Sisko was alive in the Celestial Temple; Starfleet Academy didn’t even need to ask that question. And we already knew that he planned to return. What We Left Behind – Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine even saw the show’s original creators and writers putting together their own idea of what Sisko’s return might’ve looked like. Combine that with the comic book, fan theories, and more… and I think us Trekkies have had more than enough ways to envision Sisko’s return, even if none of that could ever be “officially canon.”

Still frame from What We Left Behind (DS9 documentary) showing Sisko's return. — Sisko’s return as imagined in *What We Left Behind*.

By sidelining all of that, Starfleet Academy’s writers set out to answer the question of what happened to Sisko using their own ideas – but also being severely hampered by the unavailability of Avery Brooks, and the show’s place in Star Trek’s timeline. The result was an episode that betrayed Brooks’ final intervention on Sisko’s behalf at the end of DS9′s run, turning the character into the “absent black father” trope that has been so harmful on TV and in movies. Whatever in-universe reasons we might try to concoct to excuse Sisko, or whatever successes Series Acclimation Mil may have had elsewhere – and there absolutely were highlights and successes – that point is so basic, so existential, and so fundamentally awful that it would warrant scrapping the entire thing and writing it off.

In defence of the episode, I will say that Cirroc Lofton’s appearance hit all of the right emotional notes for me, and especially towards the end, I felt myself tearing up. Jake Sisko’s return to Star Trek – in holographic and visionary forms – made the best of a bad situation, and I don’t want to take away from Lofton’s masterful performance in Series Acclimation Mil. Nor from the work of Kerrice Brooks, who stepped up to take on a spotlight episode for the first time and really nailed it. Both performances were exceptional, and I can tell that Lofton, in particular, really wanted to celebrate the legacy of his on-screen dad and the series he’d been a part of.

It’s just such a shame that, to tell a story about Sisko at this moment and in this series… it had to be *this* story.

Star Trek SFA concept art: Jake Sisko. — Concept art of Jake Sisko, created for *Starfleet Academy*.

Series Acclimation Mil conflicts with, or changes how we have to interpret, other Star Trek episodes, too. What was the message of The Visitor? Widely considered to be one of DS9′s finest episodes, The Visitor depicted an older Jake Sisko trying to figure out a way to rescue his father from a temporal anomaly. The older Jake argues passionately that his younger self needed his father, and it also seems as if Sisko’s absence from the timeline ultimately proved harmful to the Federation – DS9 had fallen into disrepair, and Starfleet needed to get permission from the Klingons to even enter the Bajoran system.

That timeline’s Jake Sisko gave his life to send his father back to the Defiant, so that his younger self would have the dad he needed. Now we know that Jake’s sacrifice bought Ben… what? A couple of extra years? And that Kassidy had to raise their child alone, while Jake’s writing career seems to have unfolded similarly to how it did in The Visitor, with only a couple of books being published. I just… I just don’t like what it says about Sisko, his promise to return, and how he ultimately ended up abandoning the family he seemed willing to do anything for.

Still frame from Star Trek SFA S1 showing Jake's book Anslem. — Anslem, Jake Sisko’s finished book.

I respect the good intentions behind Series Acclimation Mil, both as an episode that aimed to celebrate Deep Space Nine and Star Trek’s first African American captain. And Jake Sisko’s appearance, in particular, did a lot to elevate the story, connect it back to DS9, and lean into the legacy of Benjamin Sisko. This wasn’t an episode concocted thoughtlessly, nor purely as a business decision to play the nostalgia card and make money. There was genuine artistry behind it, and it was a well-intentioned effort.

Which makes it all the more disappointing, in a way, that the final cut of the story does so much harm to Sisko’s character. If Series Acclimation Mil had been just a cheap overplaying of the nostalgia card by a corporation running out of ideas… maybe I’d feel less bad or less guilty at tearing into it so much. Because this isn’t an easy essay to write, to be blunt about it. I don’t take any pleasure in writing these words, nor in crapping all over the hard work and good intentions that went into the story’s creation. But I have to be honest with you at how the episode made me feel, and how I feel it harms the last words of the man who is still my favourite Star Trek captain.

Publicity photo of Avery Brooks as Captain Sisko. — Captain Sisko.

When Picard went off the air, and Lower Decks came to the end of its run… that was realistically the last chance to do a Sisko story that could’ve worked, and that might’ve felt right. I would have thoroughly enjoyed a story about cadets learning about Captain Sisko and his legacy in that era, too, had Starfleet Academy been a different show. But because of its place in the timeline, and because of the kind of episode it had to be in the absence of Avery Brooks… I’m firmly of the opinion that no episode at all would have been better than this.

I’ve said this before, and I’ll probably have to say it again before too long: stories end. Every story eventually reaches a natural end point. While, as fans, we might like to imagine what came next for our favourite characters… when the credits roll, the curtain falls, or we reach the last page, that should be it. Too often in the modern entertainment industry, characters or stories are unnaturally resurrected for unnecessary epilogues, telling us more than we needed or wanted to know about what came next. And for me… Series Acclimation Mil falls into that category, even if there were genuine reasons for its creation beyond a mere corporate nostalgia play.

Behind-the-scenes photo from Star Trek SFA S1 of Cirroc Lofton, Kerrice Brooks, and Tawny Newsome. — *DS9′*s Cirroc Lofton (left) with Kerrice Brooks (centre) and Tawny Newsome.

It’s no exaggeration to say that I’d rather have seen no continuation of Sisko’s story than this one. And even with Avery Brooks’ “blessing,” and his willingness to allow the Starfleet Academy team to use one of his spoken-word recordings to close out the episode… I’d rather Sisko had remained in What You Leave Behind, his fate confirmed, his return scheduled… and for Star Trek to never acknowledge it again. That would have been better, and more respectful, than the story this episode told.

So that’s my take on how Sisko was handled in Series Acclimation Mil.

This is a delicate subject, as it touches on themes of race, and modern Star Trek’s handling of the franchise’s first African American captain. As you may know, I’m British, not American, so I don’t have the same connection to Sisko as perhaps some folks out there might. But he’s a character I love and I’ve always respected, and I really do mean it when I say that a better end to Sisko’s story would have been his ambiguous promise to return at the end of What You Leave Behind. I can’t *hate* the episode Series Acclimation Mil, because seeing Jake again was a treat, it’s nice to know Dax is still around, and the cadets got into some interesting scrapes while Sam was chasing down Sisko’s legacy. But, damn… what a horrible fate for Sisko in canon, just to disappear and never be heard from again.

Still frame from Star Trek SFA showing Sam and San Francisco. — The final shot of the episode.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading. I tried to approach the subject as sensitively as possible, and despite my feelings about Series Acclimation Mil, this piece shouldn’t be interpreted as an “attack” on the writers, producers, performers, or behind-the-scenes folks. I genuinely respect and appreciate the intentions behind the story, even if the end result isn’t something I enjoyed or wanted to see.

Next month, when Starfleet Academy’s first season wraps up, I’ll write up a full review, which may touch on other elements of Series Acclimation Mil that I didn’t discuss this time. I wanted this piece to be laser-focused on Sisko and what the episode said about him, rather than a broader review of the episode. So I hope you’ll join me for that.

Thanks again for reading… and Live Long and Prosper.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Season 1 is streaming now on Paramount+ in countries and territories where the service is available. The Star Trek franchise – including Starfleet Academy, Deep Space Nine, and other properties discussed above – is the copyright of the Paramount-Skydance Corporation. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Star Trek 2023: what could it be?

Sun 11.04.21Sun 13.11.22Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for the entire Star Trek franchise, including the most recent seasons of Discovery and Picard, as well as recently-revealed teasers for upcoming seasons and projects.

The announcement a couple of days ago that a brand-new Star Trek film is in the works was incredibly exciting! There hasn’t been a feature film in the franchise since 2016’s Star Trek Beyond, the third film in the Kelvin (or JJverse) series. Since The Motion Picture made its debut in 1979, the Star Trek franchise has been reasonably consistent in its cinematic output, with the longest gap between films to date coming between Nemesis’ release in 2002 and JJ Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek reboot. Aside from that seven-year gap, we’ve seen Star Trek films every three or four years on average, and there have been thirteen films released since 1979.

I’ve always considered Star Trek to primarily be a television franchise, and its return to the small screen in 2017 felt like a proper homecoming. As interesting as the Kelvin timeline films were, I was far happier to see Star Trek back on television. That’s not because the Kelvin films – or any other Star Trek films – were bad, it’s just that the television format seems to work particularly well and lend itself to the kinds of stories Star Trek does best.

As I said when I wrote up a short piece about the film’s announcement, no information was provided by Paramount Pictures or ViacomCBS about the film other than its June 2023 release date. So it would be foolish to speculate, wouldn’t it?

Foolish, perhaps, but also a lot of fun! So this time we’re going to take a look at a handful of possible settings, scenarios, and ideas for Star Trek 2023 and what it might be all about. My usual caveat applies: I don’t have any “insider information,” nor am I suggesting any of these film ideas will turn out to be correct. This is pure guesswork and speculation on my part. That’s all.

With that out of the way, let’s jump into the list!

Number 1: A direct sequel to Star Trek Beyond.

The redesigned USS Enterprise in 2009’s *Star Trek*.

Attempts have been underway since before the release of Star Trek Beyond to get a fourth Kelvin timeline film off the ground. At one point, rumours swirled of a script that would have brought back Kirk’s father George – who had been played by Thor actor Chris Hemsworth in the opening scenes of 2009’s Star Trek. Pre-production on that project appeared to make headway, but – again, according to widely-reported rumours – the salaries of some of the principal cast members, including Kirk actor Chris Pine, were said to have derailed the project.

Beyond ended with a strong tease at a potential sequel. Kirk and his crew gazed out over the new USS Enterprise-A as construction on the vessel was completed, and there was a sense that the film was setting up a new story. After more than five years it hasn’t happened, and as I said when I considered the pros and cons of a return to the Kelvin timeline, Star Trek’s return to the Prime Universe and the expansion of the franchise to new shows and projects means that, at least in my opinion, the Kelvin timeline doesn’t really feel like a good fit right now.

In many ways, it would make more sense for any new feature film to at least have some connection or tie to the shows currently being produced, even if it isn’t a direct spin-off from any of them. The Kelvin timeline was a way to reboot Star Trek in 2009 after three decades of near-continuous production had burnt it out in the minds of many viewers. That doesn’t feel necessary right now. And going back to the Kelvin timeline after years in the Prime Universe risks overcomplicating things for a more casual audience.

So there are mixed feelings on this one! On the one hand, the story of the Kelvin timeline abruptly ends after Beyond, despite teases of a sequel. And the Kelvin timeline films were incredibly successful, bringing in huge audiences and plenty of money! But on the other hand, the reinvigorated Star Trek franchise has gone in a different direction since 2017, and I don’t see where a Beyond sequel fits any more.

Number 2: Captain Worf.

Michael Dorn, who played Worf in The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and four Star Trek films, has often talked about his desire to reprise the role. Since at least the early 2010s, Dorn has talked at every opportunity about his pitch to Paramount and ViacomCBS for a “Captain Worf” series, miniseries, or film. Perhaps, after years of pestering them, he finally got his wish?

At this stage we can’t rule it out! Knowing so little about the upcoming project means, in theory, that practically any Star Trek pitch that we know about could be in contention. Maybe the “Captain Worf” concept was one that the company liked, and a feature film was considered the best possible option for it. One advantage to it, at least in theory, would be that Michael Dorn is well-versed in both Star Trek and the project’s central character, meaning it would be less challenging to get started with when compared to a wholly new concept. Given that the film has just over two years to go from announcement to release, that could be a significant help!

Worf in Season 1 of *The Next Generation*.

However, I’ve never been sold on the “Captain Worf” idea, personally speaking. Worf is a fun character, but I see two distinct disadvantages if he were to be the central focus of a new story. Firstly, Worf is the character we’ve spent the most time with in all of Star Trek to date – he appeared in 270 episodes and four films across fifteen years. We’ve seen most aspects of his life unfold on screen already, including his role as a father, husband, friend, and Starfleet officer. Do we really need more Worf?

And secondly, Worf is a great secondary character, but the “Captain Worf” concept would put him centre-stage. That’s great for Michael Dorn, of course, but I’m not sure Worf is the most nuanced or interesting character to spend so much time with. Both Worf and Voyager’s B’Elanna Torres have explored the “Starfleet-versus-Klingon” concept on many occasions, which is perhaps Worf’s biggest point of internal conflict and the best reason to do a project like this. It could be interesting, and a chance to return to the 24th or early 25th Century would be great. But I’m not sold on this being the right way to do it.

Number 3: Ceti Alpha V.

A few weeks ago I looked at a pitch by The Wrath of Khan and The Undiscovered Country director Nicholas Meyer for a miniseries tentatively titled Star Trek: Ceti Alpha V. That project was planned as a three-part miniseries, but it could have been adapted into a feature film, I suppose!

This concept would focus on iconic villain Khan in the years between his exile by Kirk in Space Seed and his return in The Wrath of Khan. He and his followers were marooned on the titular planet Ceti Alpha V, and had to endure disaster following the explosion of nearby Ceti Alpha VI.

As I wrote then, I’m not convinced that we need to see that part of the story! It wouldn’t really explain anything from The Wrath of Khan, as seeing Khan’s descent into madness for ourselves across several hours of television – or an entire film – isn’t necessary in any way to explain his actions or characterisation. Everything we needed to know about Khan is present in Space Seed and The Wrath of Khan.

As a feature film, though, a project like this has merit. It would pull on those nostalgic strings, connect to the franchise’s most well-regarded piece of cinema, and feature an iconic Star Trek character. From Paramount’s point of view, those advantages may make it worthwhile!

Number 4: Borg Invasion.

A Borg Cube over Earth in *The Best of Both Worlds, Part 2*.

If you’re a regular around here you might remember a Borg Invasion concept being one of my “unsolicited Star Trek pitches” last month! This is a concept that I’ve long felt would be fascinating, and while I envisioned it as a television series, it could perhaps be made to work as a film trilogy instead – potentially making Star Trek 2023 the first part of a short series of films.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves! The Borg are one of the franchise’s most iconic villains, participating in one of Star Trek’s most highly-regarded episodes – The Best of Both Worlds – and best films – First Contact. The faction itself also hasn’t been seen on screen in any major way since 2003’s Enterprise Season 2 episode Regeneration, perhaps making them due for a comeback!

Borg drones in the *Enterprise* episode *Regeneration* – the last time we saw any “active” Borg on screen!

Discovery’s second season told a story which had the potential to be a Borg origin story, and Picard Season 1 also touched on the Borg, in particular Picard’s lingering trauma following his assimilation. But neither series brought back the Borg in a big way, despite the potential existing for either to do so. Could that be because ViacomCBS knew that Paramount Pictures (its subsidiary) was in the early stages of working on a new Borg film? Maybe!

The Borg are terrifying, and such a film would be action-packed and tense in equal measure. It’s been 25 years since Star Trek: First Contact took the Borg to the big screen for their only visit to the cinema so far, so I can’t help but wonder if they’re about to make a reappearance! Whether a Borg story would look to bring back any familiar characters or not is not clear – it wouldn’t have to, but as always in Star Trek, I’d be thrilled to see practically anyone connected to the franchise make a return.

Number 5: The Kelvin timeline version of The Next Generation.

The Season 1 cast of *The Next Generation*. Is a reboot on the cards?

2009’s Star Trek reboot presented an opportunity to go back to the drawing board and take another look at Kirk, Spock, Dr McCoy, and the rest of the crew of The Original Series. Ever since, (some) fans have been wondering what would happen to The Next Generation in the alternate reality – would the same crew have been assembled, or would its members even exist given the dramatic changes to the timeline?

Perhaps this is something we should explore in more detail another day, but I think that the existence of Chekov in the alternate reality, and the fact that he joined Starfleet, could be taken as evidence of the alternate reality not straying too far from the Prime Universe. Chekov was born after the incursion of Nero’s ship and the destruction of the USS Kelvin, so in theory we could argue that most people we met in past iterations of the franchise should have an alternate reality counterpart – just as they have a Mirror Universe counterpart too.

Did this moment in *Discovery* Season 3 hint at something to come?

Discovery Season 3 made a small reference to the Kelvin timeline – or at least, an ambiguous reference that felt like a Kelvin connection! In the episode Terra Firma, Part 1, the mysterious Kovich told Dr Culber of a “time soldier” who crossed over from the alternate reality to the Prime Universe. This soldier was wearing a uniform style seen in the first couple of seasons of The Next Generation, so it seems as though there was a comparable era of Starfleet in the alternate reality.

Could Discovery have been dropping a hint at this film? Possibly! Even if that’s just coincidence, it reinforced the existence of the Kelvin timeline – a fact that was known to Starfleet by the 32nd Century. Perhaps it was a subtle reminder to Trekkies that the alternate reality still exists, getting us ready for a new project? The Next Generation is very popular with fans, and rebooting it may seem like a solid idea for Paramount Pictures. Though I know some fans who detest the Kelvin films – or who refused to watch on principle – there’s no denying the reboot was a success, and rebooting The Next Generation could be as well.

Number 6: A Discovery film – if the show ends with Season 4 or Season 5.

Speaking as we were of Discovery, its fourth season is due for release later this year. While there is no word yet on Season 5 – at least officially – it seems likely that the show will be renewed for a fifth season, which would presumably be broadcast in 2022. But what will happen next?

Both The Original Series and The Next Generation were followed up by films starring the casts of the shows, and perhaps something similar could be on the cards for Discovery, with Captain Burnham leading her crew onto the big screen. By 2023 we’ll have had at least one – probably two – more seasons of Discovery, so the crew will be almost as familiar to audiences as Kirk and his officers were when The Motion Picture was in production!

If there is to be a fifth season of the show, that would mean production on Season 5 would likely be ongoing at the same time as this film, so maybe this is an indication that there won’t be a Season 5. With a number of other Star Trek television projects in various stages of development – including the untitled Section 31 series which is itself a spin-off from Discovery – perhaps the plan is to end the series after Season 4 and turn it into a feature film franchise instead, with television attention refocused onto other projects.

It would be a big change, but I can see at least one big advantage to a Discovery film: it would firmly establish the 32nd Century in the minds of audiences. I’ve felt for a while that Star Trek needs to try to condense its disparate timelines and time periods as much as possible, and the 32nd Century is by its very nature totally open-ended when it comes to storytelling potential. A Discovery film could be a “soft reboot,” relaunching Star Trek in the 32nd Century and setting the stage for new projects.

Number 7: A Deep Space Nine film – the return of Sisko.

Captain Sisko in *Take Me Out To The Holosuite*.

I was perhaps overly-critical of a “Captain Worf” idea in the entry above, but one character who I’ve been hoping to see return for over twenty years now is Captain Sisko. The ending of What You Leave Behind – the last episode of Deep Space Nine – more so than any other Star Trek finale left things open. Sisko entered the realm of the Bajoran Prophets, but promised to return in due course.

That return could happen at literally any point in the timeline; the Prophets don’t see time as linear. Sisko could thus appear in the Strange New Worlds, Picard, or Discovery eras – despite the fact that those shows take place centuries apart! But given the importance of his return to Star Trek, perhaps a Sisko feature film is on the cards.

Sisko would be such a great point-of-view character. His absence from galactic affairs for decades or even centuries would allow the writers of the film to dump a lot of exposition onto the audience without it feeling like it came from nowhere. His return could both set up the plot of a new Star Trek story and provide the audience with a way in; introducing us to new characters, factions, technologies, and the state of the galaxy itself in whatever time period he finds himself.

Such a story could also return to Bajor, looking at whether the Bajorans ever joined the Federation, as well as the aftermath of the Dominion War. The Dominion War arc is one of my favourites in all of Star Trek, and a follow-up of some kind would be absolutely amazing to see. If Sisko returned during the Picard era, he could reunite with people like Major Kira or Dr Bashir, and a mini-reunion of some of the Deep Space Nine crew would be wonderful.

Number 8: A Nemesis sequel.

The Enterprise-E undergoing repairs at the end of *Nemesis*.

A direct sequel to Nemesis seems unlikely, especially with Picard Season 2 underway and planned for next year. But the official announcement of Star Trek 2023 mentioned a film set after Nemesis as one possibility. That seems incredibly interesting! Would it be set in the Picard era, perhaps with the crew of La Sirena in major roles?

The surviving crew of the Enterprise-D and Enterprise-E have largely gone their separate ways, at least as of Picard Season 1. Riker and Troi live in semi-retirement on the planet Nepenthe. Picard is off with the crew of La Sirena. Worf and Geordi were mentioned by name, but there’s no indication that either are still even in Starfleet at this point! Season 2 of Picard may answer these questions, as well as establish what became of Dr Crusher, and if so that could set the stage for a reunion on the big screen.

Acting Captain Riker in the *Picard* Season 1 finale.

As above with Discovery, Picard Season 2 is currently filming, meaning that production on Star Trek 2023 would have to wait if it wanted to include Picard himself. But there is another possibility: that a Nemesis sequel would focus on other characters. Perhaps it would look at Riker and Troi in more detail, especially if they returned to Starfleet following the events of Picard Season 1.

Star Trek 2023 may follow Riker’s time in command of the USS Zheng He, and perhaps he reunites with Worf, Dr Crusher, Geordi, or even Wesley! Or we could see the return of characters from Deep Space Nine and/or Voyager, such as Ezri Dax or Tuvok. With Captain Janeway coming back in Prodigy, anything’s possible right now!

Number 9: A Kelvin timeline crossover with either Strange New Worlds or Discovery.

One of the really enticing possibilities that came up when Strange New Worlds was announced was the possibility of some kind of Pike and Spock crossover story. I would be surprised in some ways to see Strange New Worlds – a highly-requested but completely untested – series hit the big screen, but a Kelvin timeline crossover could be a great way to do it.

Pike and Spock could team up with their alternate reality counterparts, perhaps looking to return to their own universe following some kind of crossover event. The two “young Spocks” would have to logically stand off – Kelvin Spock has already met Prime Spock but he can’t let young Prime Spock know that! It might be confusing, with two different versions of the characters, but it could be a lot of fun too.

Alternatively the Kelvin cast could cross over with Discovery’s 32nd Century. Not only have we had the aforementioned reference to the Kelvin timeline during Discovery’s third season, but we know that crossing between the two universes also seems to mean crossing into a different time period. Perhaps someone in the Kelvin timeline accidentally opens a black hole, sending them to Discovery’s 32nd Century.

The reverse would be interesting too, and could draw on themes present in episodes of Voyager like The ’37s. If Captain Burnham and the crew of Discovery found themselves in an alternate 23rd Century, how many of them would struggle with the idea of remaining there, trying to rebuild their lives in a different universe, but perhaps a setting more familiar to them than the 32nd Century? That could be fascinating to explore – as would any crossover between two sets of crews!

Number 10: The Earth-Romulan War.

The NX-01 Enterprise encounters two Romulan ships in the Season 2 episode *Minefield.*

Picard Season 1 brought back the Romulans in a big way, and they also appeared in Discovery Season 3. The faction is clearly a big part of Star Trek right now, but one aspect of their history has never been explored – despite plans to do so in 2004-05. The unproduced fifth season of Enterprise would – allegedly – have included the Earth-Romulan war, one of humanity’s first major interstellar conflicts.

Fans have long wondered what this would have looked like – even as far back as the Earth-Romulan War’s first mention in The Original Series Season 1 episode Balance of Terror. We saw the first hints of Romulan aggression in Enterprise, as they attempted to disrupt the Earth-Vulcan alliance and start a Vulcan-Andorian War. Captain Archer managed to prevent that from happening, but as we know from Star Trek’s history, conflict with the Romulans broke out regardless.

A Romulan Bird-of-Prey as seen in *Lower Decks*.

This would be a great opportunity to bring back Captain Archer, T’Pol, or other major characters from Enterprise. It wouldn’t necessarily be an “Enterprise film,” but it could be a film that included at least some of the same characters. A single film might not be able to tell the story of the entire conflict, but it could certainly look at its most decisive battle – and with so little information having been shared on screen, it’s an almost-blank slate for any new writer or producer to play with.

The drawback, really, is that it would be hard to connect such a film to the ongoing Star Trek franchise, which has series set in the 23rd, 25th, and 32nd Centuries. Going back to a time shortly after Enterprise would isolate Star Trek 2023, and while it could be the springboard for more 22nd Century adventures to come, it could also end up feeling disconnected.

So that’s it. Ten possibilities for Star Trek 2023.

It’s quite likely that all of these suggestions are completely wrong; Paramount Pictures and ViacomCBS are just as likely, in my opinion, to want to take the cinematic franchise in a new direction with a new crew than they are to revisit something from Star Trek’s past. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a lot of fun putting this list together and considering the possibilities!

*Star Trek 2023* probably won’t bring back these uniforms!

Star Trek 2023 is a truly exciting prospect. I desperately hope that it will come to streaming instead of the cinema – as you may know if you’re a regular reader, my poor health means I can’t get to the cinema in person any more. Probably it will be given a theatrical release, though, which will mean months of trying to avoid as many spoilers as possible for me! Time will tell.

For now, though, suffice to say I’m intrigued by the prospect of the first new Star Trek film since Beyond, and potentially the first film to feature a different cast of characters since 2009. Whether or not this is the previously-announced project written by Discovery and Short Treks producer Kalinda Vazquez is also not clear. We know basically nothing about this film right now except its planned release date! Hopefully we’ll learn more soon, so stay tuned. I’ll be sure to take a look at any casting information, behind-the-scenes details, or any other news that comes our way.

The currently-untitled Star Trek film is scheduled for release on the 9th of June 2023. This film is the copyright of Paramount Pictures and ViacomCBS, as is the entire Star Trek franchise. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Five main characters from Star Trek’s past that I’d bring back

Sat 20.03.21Sun 13.11.22Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Picard Season 1, Star Trek: Discovery Season 3, and for other iterations of the franchise.

This is going to be the first part of a short two-part series in which I look at a few significant characters from past iterations of Star Trek that I would love to see return. Rather than tying these characters to a specific series, film, or ongoing project, this list is more general. I’m not advocating, for example, for any of these characters to necessarily appear in Picard or Strange New Worlds, but rather to return to the franchise at some point, when a suitable story could be written.

*The Original Series* Season 2 cast (without George Takei).

It goes without saying that practically every major character (at least those who weren’t killed off) could be brought back in some capacity, and with the franchise continuing to expand I think it’s increasingly likely that we’ll get some significant moments where characters reappear. For the sake of this list I’m not counting characters who are starring in shows that are currently in production, so I’ll be limited to characters from The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, and the films.

*The Next Generation* cast in Season 4 – plus Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan.

By my count there are 42 characters across those five series that we could call “major” – i.e. they regularly had their names listed in the main credits, and weren’t considered guest stars or just recurring secondary characters. This time I’m picking on just five, and my usual caveat applies: I don’t have any “insider information!” This is just a short list of characters that I think could be fun to bring back in some capacity, nothing more.

Of the 42 characters that occupied major starring roles in at least one season of the five aforementioned shows, I’m excluding five: James T Kirk from The Original Series, Data and Tasha Yar from The Next Generation, Jadzia Dax from Deep Space Nine, and Trip Tucker from Enterprise. All the exclusions are for the same reason: those characters have died in-universe. While there could be convoluted ways to bring back alternate versions (such as we saw with Sela, for instance) the original character can’t return after death.

Though it may be controversial, I don’t believe that the death of an actor necessarily excludes a character from returning. The Kelvin films recast the entire main cast of The Original Series, and Star Trek: Picard recently recast a couple of legacy characters as well. So characters whose primary actors have passed away are still in contention.

Now that we’ve laid down the ground rules, let’s take a look at my choices.

Number 1: Chakotay

This one is inspired by the return of Seven of Nine in Season 1 of Picard. I’ve written about this before, but Seven’s return to Star Trek was cathartic for me, because the passage of time allowed her to be a very different, more emotional, and much more human character than she ever was in Voyager. Seven was sometimes annoying and difficult to root for, especially toward the end of Voyager’s run, and basically the reason was that she’d always seem to “reset” after learning what should have been a big and important lesson in how to be human. It made her character bland and repetitive. But we’re not here to talk about Seven of Nine!

Chakotay didn’t have a lot to do in Voyager, despite being the first officer. There were a handful of episodes in which he was given a storyline, but a lot of the time he was just a presence, someone there for other characters to bounce ideas off or to tell Captain Janeway he didn’t recommend she do something we all knew she’d end up doing anyway. In short, bringing back Chakotay is something I would see as a chance for his character to get a Seven of Nine-like “redemption,” with some genuine development and a significant storyline.

One thing Voyager touched on briefly but never really explored was the way Chakotay felt about the deaths of the Maquis. The episode Extreme Risk focused on B’Elanna as she struggled to come to terms with what happened to their former colleagues, but Chakotay never really got a similar moment. As part of a larger story looking at the aftermath of the Dominion War, learning what happened to the Maquis’ colonies in the aftermath of that conflict could include Chakotay, as one of those worlds was his home.

We could also learn that Chakotay was allowed to remain in Starfleet following Voyager’s return to the Alpha Quadrant, and may even have been given his own command. Given that Voyager quite quickly dropped the Maquis angle, I’m not sure this is the route I’d go down because it doesn’t seem like it offers a lot of development or growth potential for his character, but it’s a possibility.

The final few episodes of Voyager’s seventh season saw a burgeoning relationship building between Chakotay and Seven of Nine. With Seven now a recurring character in Picard, and with the possibility of her entering into a relationship with main character Raffi, we could potentially explore what happened between Seven and Chakotay. Voyager’s finale certainly suggested that he had strong feelings for her, even after her death in that timeline.

Unfortunately, for reasons that aren’t especially clear, the producers of Voyager lost interest in – or didn’t know what to do with – the “one ship, two crews” concept that had been part of the show’s inception. Chakotay and the rest of the Maquis were absorbed into the crew by midway through Season 1, and while lip service was paid to Chakotay’s Maquis past at numerous points, I think that’s one aspect of his background that would be ripe for exploration. In any 24th or early 25th Century story that looked at Bajor, Cardassia, and the aftermath of the Dominion War, I’d spend at least an episode or two considering the legacy of the Maquis, and Chakotay could play a major role in such a story.

Number 2: T’Pol

I’ve mentioned T’Pol before in relation to Strange New Worlds, and that series is certainly one where we could see her crop up. Because of Enterprise’s place in the timeline, unless Star Trek plans on returning to the 22nd Century for some other story, there aren’t many characters who could realistically still be active and able to play a major role. The 23rd and 24th Centuries (as well as Discovery’s 32nd Century) are where current Star Trek projects are focused – and I have to say I think that’s the right call. Enterprise was an interesting experiment, but I see no pressing need to return to the 22nd Century at this stage.

The story I’d include T’Pol in would go something like this: she’s a senior Federation ambassador by the mid-23rd Century, and accompanies Captain Pike on a diplomatic mission. The mission would make first contact with a race we met in The Next Generation era, such as the Cardassians. We’d thus tie together all three of Star Trek’s eras in one story! I think an episode like that would be incredibly rewarding for longstanding fans of the franchise; a “love letter” to the fans.

But there are many other roles T’Pol could occupy. Having spent so long with humans during those early days of humanity striking out into space, she could prove an invaluable guide or advisor to a young Spock. Whether Spock is “the first Vulcan in Starfleet” is a point of contention without an obvious answer, but even if he wasn’t it’s clear that the Vulcans continued to operate an independent fleet into the 23rd Century, and thus Vulcans serving in Starfleet seem to have been rare. T’Pol is well-placed to be a kind of mentor to Spock for this reason.

However, both of those story concepts take T’Pol out of her usual scientific role, and perhaps a story could be devised which would be better-suited to her career as a scientist. I’m still thinking of a 23rd Century story, but one which perhaps requires high-ranking Federation scientists to work on a mystery or puzzle.

Number 3: Dr Pulaski

I’ve never met a fan of The Next Generation who likes Dr Pulaski as much as I do. I understand why she wasn’t popular with fans, replacing Dr Crusher after one season and especially because of her early run-ins with Data that amounted to anti-android bigotry. But where Dr Crusher could be fairly bland, Dr Pulaski had a really strong personality that shone through.

On another occasion we’ll talk about Dr Pulaski and how her introduction in Season 2 of The Next Generation was an attempt to shake up the new series and bring in a Dr McCoy-type character. But for now I want to consider how she could return, and what sort of role she could have.

Picard Season 1 missed an opportunity to bring back Dr Pulaski – or another medical officer from The Next Generation like Alyssa Ogawa – in the second episode. Picard receives bad news from a doctor he knew while serving aboard the USS Stargazer, Dr Benayoun. This was a new character created for Picard, and if I’d been writing it I might have chosen to bring back Dr Pulaski at this moment instead. I don’t know if that was ever suggested, because it’s well-known that actress Diana Muldaur didn’t have a great time working on The Next Generation. But it would have been neat to see!

One series that has been doing great with references to less well-known parts of canon is Lower Decks, and perhaps that means Dr Pulaski would be a good fit to return there. I don’t know if Diana Muldaur is still working, nor whether she’d be well enough or willing to reprise the role. But it was at least a little sad that Dr Pulaski was dropped in The Next Generation Season 3 with no explanation. There’s scope, I feel, to learn what came next for her – even if the character has to be recast.

Almost any medical story or story involving characters from The Next Generation Season 2 could see Dr Pulaski return, and of course Star Trek: Picard has to be the prime candidate of the shows currently in production. She could, for example, be one of the chief medical officers assigned to help the surviving ex-Borg now that they’re (presumably) under Federation protection. Or how about this: in a storyline that clearly shows how much she’s changed her attitude to synthetic life, she could be the head of a Federation medical team sent to Coppelius to help the synths. This would cement her “redemption” from her earlier interactions with Data, and would perhaps provide a suitable epilogue to her role in The Next Generation Season 2.

Number 4: Benjamin Sisko

Captain Sisko is probably the character whose return I’ve touted the most! Because of the unique nature of his disappearance in the Deep Space Nine finale – vanishing into the realm of the Bajoran Prophets – he could return literally anywhere, in any time period. The Prophets don’t experience time in the same linear manner as humans, so they could send him to a point in his future, his past, or anywhere along the Star Trek timeline.

This is why I’ve proposed Sisko as a character who could appear in Picard, Strange New Worlds, and Discovery – because he could be sent back by the Prophets at any moment in time. I would argue he would have more to do in a story set in the late 24th or early 25th Centuries than he might in the 23rd or 32nd, but in any story that brought back Bajor, Sisko could play a major role.

He could also be part of a story looking at the aftermath of the Dominion War, at Cardassian relations with the Federation, and of course at Deep Space Nine itself. I think Sisko has the potential to be a useful character too. If he joined the story right at the moment of his return to normal spacetime, he could potentially be a point-of-view character, and an excuse for a film or episode to dump a lot of exposition that could otherwise feel clunky and out-of-place. This would be done under the guise of other characters bringing Sisko up to speed on what he’s missed – and we could catch up on galactic affairs right along with him!

Of all the characters on this list, Sisko is the one whose story feels the most unfinished. There was almost a cliffhanger ending to his role in Deep Space Nine, with a tease that one day he’ll be coming back. Whether we’ll ever see that on screen is another matter, of course, and Avery Brooks has seemed less willing to reprise the role than some other Star Trek actors. But you never know!

Number 5: Montgomery Scott

It would be relatively easy for Scotty to crop up in Strange New Worlds as a junior engineer – or in any other 23rd Century series, for that matter. But that’s not really what I’m proposing this time. That idea has merit, and I think I included Scotty in one of my character ideas lists for Strange New Worlds. However, this time what I’m suggesting is Scotty in the 24th Century.

Relics, the Season 6 episode of The Next Generation, established that Scotty had been kept alive in a form of transporter stasis of his own devising for over eighty years, finally rematerializing when the crew of the Enterprise-D encountered his crashed ship. After working briefly with Geordi La Forge, Captain Picard, and others, Scotty was given a shuttle and set out to explore the new century on his own. We would later learn in 2009’s Star Trek that Scotty had gone back to work, developing a method of “transwarp beaming” that became important to the plot of that film.

After that, however, what became of Scotty is a mystery. He had initially intended to retire, so did his stint with Starfleet continue? Or did he resume his planned retirement in the 24th Century, catching up on the eight decades of galactic history that he’d missed? He reunited with Spock, apparently, and it’s at least possible he would have been able to visit the elderly Dr McCoy as well.

Scotty offers a “coming out of retirement” story, perhaps prompted by some horrible event or disaster that requires an engineering solution. We could learn, for example, that he’d worked alongside Geordi La Forge in preparing the Romulan rescue fleet, or even that he was helping to rebuild the Mars shipyards after the attack by the Zhat Vash. Those are two ideas based on events from Picard Season 1, but of course there are many, many other ways Scotty could have contributed to Starfleet and the Federation in the late 24th Century.

So that’s it… at least for now. The second part of this short series will look at five secondary or recurring characters who I also think could be fun to bring back!

With so many ongoing and upcoming Star Trek projects occupying different places in the timeline, there really is scope to bring back almost any major character, and I hope the creative team don’t feel constrained! As a Trekkie I think I’d be happy with literally any of them making an appearance, though of course it would have to make sense in-universe as well as not be offputting for casual viewers.

The cast of *Enterprise* during Season 1.

We mentioned the episode Relics, and I think that story manages to walk that line exceptionally well. For fans of The Original Series, Scotty’s return was an amazing treat. But for folks who weren’t familiar with the older series, his inclusion in the episode still managed to make sense. The story was well-written, and while knowing more about who Scotty was and where he’d come from certainly added to it for Trekkies, it didn’t put off casual viewers by demanding a lot of knowledge of Star Trek canon. That’s the kind of model any future episode, film, or story that brings back a character should try to emulate.

We can also point to If Memory Serves, from the second season of Discovery. That episode began with a short recap of the events of The Cage, establishing what happened to Captain Pike on Talos IV, who the Talosians were, who Vina was, and so on. By beginning an episode which features a returning character with a clip or compilation of their past Star Trek exploits, almost any character could be integrated into an ongoing production.

The *Discovery* Season 1 cast (without Wilson Cruz).

The Star Trek franchise has been running for over five decades, and has a huge roster of wonderful characters. The fact that there are too many to put on the list – or the fact that the list could literally include every single one – is testament to the quality of the franchise and the creative teams who’ve contributed to it over the years.

Stay tuned for the next part in this series, where I’ll look at five secondary or recurring characters who I’d also love to see come back!

The Star Trek franchise – including all series mentioned above – is available to stream now on Paramount+ in the United States and other territories where the service exists, and on Netflix in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. The Star Trek franchise – including all properties mentioned above – is the copyright of ViacomCBS. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.