threshold – Trekking with Dennis

Star Trek “Bottom Fives” – Arguing with IMDB Again!

Spoiler Warning: Spoilers are present for the following Star Trek productions: The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise.

A couple of months ago, I wrote a piece here on the website in which I looked at the “top five” episodes from each of the first five series… at least, according to the randos who rate episodes over on IMDB! There were some predictable picks… and a few surprises. Seriously, who would’ve expected that Blink of an Eye would be everyone’s favourite Voyager episode? Not me, that’s for sure!

So today, we’re going to do something similar… but with the lowest-rated episodes from those first five Star Trek shows. I think it could be a lot of fun to look at some of the stories that other fans and viewers don’t like, and consider some of the reasons why. I’m bracing myself for a few surprises here, too!

If you missed it, please check out my earlier piece for a look at the “top fives.” You can find it by clicking or tapping here.

My usual caveat applies: everything we’re going to talk about is subjective, not objective. If I dump all over one of your favourite episodes, or talk positively about a story you hate… that’s okay! There’s enough room, and enough maturity, in the Trekkie community for differences of opinion and respectful disagreements that don’t descend into toxicity and argument.

This post, like my earlier one, will cover the first five live-action Star Trek shows: The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise. No Animated Series or films are included. I’ll start with TOS and move forward chronologically; the episodes will be ranked according to their IMDB ratings, from highest to lowest – i.e. beginning with the fifth-worst and finishing on the worst-rated episode for each of the five shows. The IMDB ratings are taken as of September 2025 (and might change over time!)

I’ll discuss what I don’t like (or do like) about each episode, and then I’ll answer a simple question: does it deserve the hate? Or, to put it another way: would I personally rate the episode as being among the worst in the franchise?

Now that all of that’s out of the way, let’s jump into the episodes.

The Original Series Episode #5:
The Omega Glory, Season 2
IMDB Rating: 6.1/10

Gene Roddenberry intended to hold up a mirror to society, using Star Trek episodes as “morality plays” to comment on or critique things out here in the real world. Many of these episodes are wonderful. The Omega Glory is arguably too on-the-nose, though, with its very literal depiction of the aftermath of a Cold War turned hot. Roddenberry himself wrote The Omega Glory, so it’s a bit of a shame to see it rated so lowly by viewers and fans.

There’s a lot of competition in TOS’s second season, and compared to stronger offerings like The Doomsday Machine, Journey To Babel, The Trouble With Tribbles, and The Ultimate Computer, I can see why The Omega Glory struggles to keep up. There’s also, by modern standards, somewhat uncomfortable racial stereotyping – which Roddenberry intended to flip on its head with The Omega Glory’s big revelation – but I’m not sure it works as well as he’d hoped.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
☑️Yes.☑️

The Original Series Episode #4:
Spock’s Brain, Season 3
IMDB Rating: 5.7/10

No list of “the worst Star Trek episodes” would be complete without Spock’s Brain. And this is a trend we’re about to see a lot more of; Season 3 of The Original Series is generally considered to have a number of weaker offerings, in part due to the show’s reduced budget. But I’ll be honest: I’ve always found Spock’s Brain to be weirdly fun… in a “so bad it’s almost good” kinda way.

I also think the episode has become iconic, or at least symbolic of a particular moment in the history of Star Trek. This was the first episode of Season 3 – a season that wouldn’t have existed at all without a letter-writing campaign by fans. It’s also a story that showed how far Kirk (and Spock’s other friends) were willing to go to save him when he was in danger. Is it a ridiculously silly premise? Yes. Is it executed perfectly by all involved? No. But do I watch it anyway and smile? Yes!

Does It Deserve The Hate?
⛔No.⛔

The Original Series Episode #3:
The Alternative Factor, Season 1
IMDB Rating: 5.7/10

The Alternative Factor is the episode with Lazarus (and Anti-Lazarus, his counterpart from an alternate universe). To be honest, I’d pretty much forgotten about The Alternative Factor; nothing about it leaps out at me as being particularly memorable. “Forgettable” is not synonymous with “terrible,” but I think it’s at least noteworthy that The Alternative Factor just didn’t leave much of an impression on me. None of the special effects or locations stand out, Lazarus and Anti-Lazarus don’t have any unique makeup or prosthetics, and the whole look of the episode is just a bit bland.

In terms of story, The Alternative Factor is small and kind of silly – with Lazarus in particular being quite over-the top – while simultaneously trying to present its core conflict as a multiverse-ending threat. It’s worth noting that there were production issues with The Alternative Factor, including an extensive re-write to remove a romantic sub-plot and the original actor contracted to play Lazarus failing to show up for work when production had already commenced.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
☑️Yes.☑️

The Original Series Episode #2:
The Way To Eden, Season 3
IMDB Rating: 5.4/10

I don’t think The Way To Eden is all that bad, to be honest – especially not for a Season 3 episode which was produced with a lower budget. Maybe there are some issues with the way Chekov is written, but on the whole I really don’t dislike this episode at all. It’s very much a product of its time – the followers of Sevrin are clearly based on the American countercultural movement, which was reaching its peak in 1969 – but so are many Star Trek episodes, and I don’t think that alone should count against it.

It’s also not the only Star Trek story to involve a cult-like group who are seeking paradise (or some other prophecy fulfilment). I actually quite like some of the details in the script – one of the members of the group is the son of an ambassador whose people are negotiating with the Federation, which I feel adds a lot to the broader lore of the Star Trek galaxy. Is The Way To Eden the strongest TOS episode, or a great way to introduce new fans to the franchise? Probably not. But I don’t think it’s atrocious, either.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
⛔No.⛔

The Original Series Episode #1:
And The Children Shall Lead, Season 3
IMDB Rating: 5.2/10

As with The Alternative Factor above, this isn’t an especially memorable episode for me. The core premise of an alien entity manipulating a group of children isn’t necessarily bad, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. The way the story was resolved, too, leaned on a pretty big cliché, and some less-than-spectacular acting performances.

There were interesting ideas in And The Children Shall Lead, like several members of the crew seeing visual manifestations of their fears. Gorgan’s powers, too, could have been tense and even frightening if handled better. There’s also something distinctly eerie about a child or group of children in this kind of story; that’s why films like The Exorcist work so well. But again, the execution rather than the premise is what lets the episode down.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
☑️Yes.☑️

The Next Generation Episode #5:
Angel One, Season 1
IMDB Rating: 5.7/10

Angel One wanted to be a Roddenberry-style “morality play,” using Star Trek’s sci-fi setting to consider the real-world issues of sexism and a patriarchal society. It did that by turning the tables and depicting a civilisation where women, not men, were the dominant ones. That aim may have been worthwhile or even admirable – but the execution was clumsy, at best. The B-plot, depicting a virus spreading on the Enterprise while the away team was on the planet, wasn’t particularly strong, either – though I enjoy the visual of Data, alone, on the bridge!

Angel One might be best-remembered among Trekkies for some of its costumes! The costumes worn by the male inhabitants of Angel I, as well as by Riker later during the away mission, were typical Season 1 silliness, reminiscent of some of the costumes created twenty years earlier for TOS. And that’s Angel One in a nutshell, really – it’s one of several Season 1 episodes that plays out like an Original Series story.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
⛔No.⛔

The Next Generation Episode #4:
Man of the People, Season 6
IMDB Rating: 5.7/10

I’ve always felt that Man of the People had an interesting premise. And Star Trek stories have often posed deep moral questions to the audience; in this case, we’re considering whether “the greater good” can be served by a man who harms people around him. There’s a metaphor there, buried in the story, about bad people doing good things, and the age-old question of whether the ends can justify the means when significant harm is being caused.

However… Man of the People doesn’t execute its ideas flawlessly, and the focus on Troi “acting out” earlier in the episode is a bit much for me. Apparently, there were issues on the production side – which led to the script being rushed and the story being bumped up the filming schedule. I daresay that’s noticeable in the finished product.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
☑️Yes.☑️

The Next Generation Episode #3:
Code of Honor, Season 1
IMDB Rating: 5.1/10

I might’ve ranked this one even lower! Code of Honor is a complete misfire; an episode featuring a civilisation of “African stereotypes in space” that’s so utterly awful it’s hard to know where to start. I’ve said before that the fact that this episode was produced for The Next Generation in the 1980s genuinely boggles my mind, and it’s an example of how, despite Star Trek’s lofty ambitions, the franchise hasn’t always gotten it right.

If I were to find any positive notes in this mess, it would be that Tasha Yar gets something to do, and that the episode is an early example of Captain Picard being willing to go out on a limb for a member of his crew. But those points, unfortunately, are completely lost in an episode swarming with awful production decisions. I can barely even re-watch Code of Honor as a result.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
☑️Yes.☑️

The Next Generation Episode #2:
Sub Rosa, Season 7
IMDB Rating: 4.8/10

I… I’m sorry, everyone. I’m almost ashamed to admit this… but I actually kinda like Sub Rosa. And, if I may defend its honour for a moment, I’d suggest that the memes that the episode spawned are at least partially to blame for its low rating. Yes, Sub Rosa’s “sex with a ghost” storyline is silly. Got it. Message received! But there’s more to the story than that, and the episode treats Ronin as an alien entity, not as a “spirit.” I also really like the sets used for the Caldos Colony – the place feels very different to almost anywhere else in Star Trek, at least up to this point in the franchise.

Star Trek hasn’t always been great at depicting aliens that feel, well… alien. And if there’s one thing to say about Ronin, it’s that the idea of a non-corporeal parasitic entity is, if nothing else, very alien. Caldos Colony is a fun setting, we got to learn more about Dr Crusher’s early life, and there was a bit of silliness in the story, too. Plus, Star Trek got some great memes out of this one! Honestly, what’s not to love?

Does It Deserve The Hate?
⛔No.⛔

The Next Generation Episode #1:
Shades of Gray, Season 2
IMDB Rating: 3.3/10

I’m astonished to see Shades of Gray receiving any support whatsoever; this is a rare 1/10 or even a 0/10 episode for me – and for most Trekkies I’ve spoken with, too. It absolutely deserves its place as the worst-rated TNG episode… and I suspect the production team knew that when they put it together. If you’ve been a Trekkie for as long as I have, you know the story by now: production on TNG Season 2 overran both its schedule and budget, and a compromise had to be made late into production. Shades of Gray – a clip show – was the result.

Because television production has changed over the years, I doubt we’ll ever get another episode like Shades of Gray in the Star Trek franchise – and that’s for the best. It’s an especially weak episode, and its only original element – the frame narrative depicting Riker’s injury and illness – does nothing to hold its random assortment of clips together. It was a poor way to say goodbye to Dr Pulaski, too, and a serious disappointment as the show’s otherwise fantastic second season came to an end.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
☑️Yes.☑️

Deep Space Nine Episode #5:
Profit and Lace, Season 6
IMDB Rating: 5.8/10

Profit and Lace is DS9′s “trans” episode… kind of. Star Trek has wrangled with questions of gender on many occasions, and even in the ’90s, when the topic of gender and being trans was usually treated just awfully on television, the franchise largely got it right. Quark’s temporary sex change, as it’s presented in this episode, though… I dunno. As an examination of attitudes toward gender, and how females are treated in a society which still sees them as second-class… there were interesting ideas. But the execution of all of it was just flawed.

There’s a tonal clash between the heavier themes, as interpreted by Alexander Siddig (who directed the episode), and the lighter way Profit and Lace was originally written. A different director might’ve taken the episode in much more of a comedic direction – which would’ve suited the way it was written, though it would’ve come at the expense of being just another late ’90s “trans comedy” story. I get what the episode was going for, and I think a more serious approach to the subject matter – both the gender division in Ferengi society and Quark’s “transition” – was the right call. But the script didn’t carry the themes, and what resulted was a bit of a mess.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
☑️Yes.☑️

Deep Space Nine Episode #4:
Resurrection, Season 6
IMDB Rating: 5.7/10

Oof, Season 6 is not doing well in these rankings so far! To be honest, though, I get it when it comes to Resurrection. If you know me, you’ll know I’m not really a fan of the Mirror Universe as a setting; it’s one-note, and has a tendency to trick even competent performers into putting out hammy, over-acted, one-dimensional performances – all of which are on display with Mirror Kira and Mirror Bariel, unfortunately. Prime Kira also seems to act out-of-character, falling so easily for Mirror Bariel so long after the original Bariel’s death.

DS9′s executive producer, Ira Steven Behr, has suggested that Resurrection’s place in the season – coming after the intense opening phase of the Dominion War, Starfleet’s recapturing of the station, and then Worf and Dax’s wedding – contributed to fan dissatisfaction, feeling that “nothing” the show had done immediately after those intense stories would’ve been satisfying. I’m not convinced on that, I’m afraid. Season 6 has some of my favourite DS9 episodes. The likes of Who Mourns for Morn, The Magnificent Ferengi, and One Little Ship are all standalone stories that, had they taken this broadcast slot, wouldn’t have been as poorly-received as this uninspired Mirror Universe story.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
☑️Yes.☑️

Deep Space Nine Episode #3:
The Muse, Season 4
IMDB Rating: 5.6/10

I feel a bit sorry for The Muse! Jake Sisko was too often overlooked in Deep Space Nine, so to rank one of the rare Jake-focused episodes so lowly wouldn’t have been my preference. However, if I may be so bold, it isn’t Jake that’s upset people (mostly). Rather, it’s The Muse’s Lwaxana Troi and Odo B-plot that, I would suggest, is the reason for such a low rating. Lwaxana wasn’t always well-received by Trekkies, despite her illustrious performer, and her relationship with Odo was, to the best of my recollection, never especially popular.

On Jake’s side of the story, I like the idea of a kind of parasitic entity latching onto his creativity. The Muse does a lot to establish Jake’s writing career, and it’s just an interesting idea to see Onaya taking advantage of his talent. There’s a great moment between Jake and Ben toward the end of the episode, something we’d see less and less of as DS9 continued its run. And while this side of the story was imperfect, it was at least a creative idea.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
⛔No.⛔

Deep Space Nine Episode #2:
Meridian, Season 3
IMDB Rating: 5.6/10

It sounds like Meridian – whose story concept was based on a novel set in Scotland – had a bit of a troubled production. An expensive location shoot for the planet Meridian seems to have led to some scenes being rewritten or cut altogether, which may have affected the finished product. The main gripe folks seem to have, though, is the behaviour of Jadzia Dax. As with Kira in Resurrection, which we discussed above, Dax falls head-over-heels for someone she’s just met – and that leads to her wanting to give up her life on DS9, leave her friends behind, and move to this random planet which can’t exist in normal space.

I would suggest that everyone involved – the entire cast, guest stars, and director Jonathan Frakes – did the best they could with that concept, but it was just a fatally flawed premise to begin with. Meridian has some neat ideas, like the disappearing planet, which feels “very Star Trekky;” i.e. something you wouldn’t see in any other sci-fi universe! But the way it handled Dax was poor, and a B-plot about Quark selling perverted holosuite programmes does nothing to help the episode, either.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
☑️Yes.☑️

Deep Space Nine Episode #1:
Let He Who Is Without Sin…, Season 5
IMDB Rating: 5.5/10

I gotta be honest: I’m surprised to see this as the “most-hated” DS9 episode. I knew Let He Who Is Without Sin wasn’t wildly popular, but I don’t think I expected it to be considered the absolute worst in the series! There are definitely some issues, though. I think it’s universally agreed nowadays that Leeta and Bashir didn’t work as a couple, so that’s part of it. But then there’s how the episode handles Worf – setting him up as the Star Trek equivalent of Mary Whitehouse, crusading against the supposed immorality of the Federation.

I think there was the kernel of an interesting idea here, if Let He Who Is Without Sin had taken it in a different direction. There are folks who live in tourist-focused places who feel the incursion of tourists is detrimental to their communities. And there was also a way to use the New Essentialists to comment on the growing Christian purity movement in the United States, for example. But for a variety of reasons, this isn’t Deep Space Nine’s strongest episode. I don’t think I’d personally say it was the very bottom of the barrel, but I get where much of the dissatisfaction is coming from.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
☑️Yes.☑️

Voyager Episode #5:
Favorite Son, Season 3
IMDB Rating: 6.0/10

I genuinely had a hard time remembering Favorite Son at first. But it’s the episode where Harry is transformed into a Taresian – a Delta Quadrant species dominated by murderous females. An episode about a female-dominated society ending up as one of the worst-rated in its series? Huh… I’m starting to see a pattern emerging!

I actually quite like both of the core concepts here. An alien race that reproduces by forcibly converting members of other species could make for a genuinely interesting antagonist, and a kind of “praying mantis” alien that murders its mate after intercourse could also be a dangerous threat. Maybe Favorite Son didn’t execute these ideas perfectly, but I’m not sure it warrants a place on this list for that reason alone.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
⛔No.⛔

Voyager Episode #4:
Sacred Ground, Season 3
IMDB Rating: 5.8/10

Sacred Ground does something Star Trek has always done – used a sci-fi lens to examine things out here in the real world. The topic in question this time is faith: can the scientifically-minded Captain Janeway be persuaded to take a “leap of faith” in order to save someone she cares about? I really like that idea, and I think Sacred Ground does interesting things with it. Where it was arguably let down was its focus on the Spirits themselves, perhaps, as well as some of Janeway’s tribulations not being visually spectacular.

However, I think the episode works well. It’s coherent, well-directed, and while we can argue whether or not it’s in character for Janeway or whether a Star Trek story should come down on one side or the other of the “science-versus-faith” question, I didn’t feel the way it was handled in the episode was in any way poor. It’s slow-paced, esoteric, and “weird,” for want of a better word – but so is a lot of Star Trek, and that’s why we like it!

Does It Deserve The Hate?
⛔No.⛔

Voyager Episode #3:
Elogium, Season 2
IMDB Rating: 5.8/10

Elogium is a Neelix-Kes relationship story about Kes going through Ocampan “puberty” and deciding whether or not to conceive a child with Neelix. Should I go on, or have I already explained enough about why it absolutely deserves to be ranked so low?! Joking aside, I think I’m not alone in saying that Neelix’s infatuation with Kes was one of the absolute worst elements of Voyager’s first couple of seasons, and if it had been in focus in the way it is in Elogium more often, it would genuinely have ruined his character.

Elogium takes that icky foundation and somehow manages to make it even worse, by suggesting that, prior to this story, Kes wasn’t even fully-developed as an adult! I really struggle to find any redeeming features in this episode – or the wider Neelix and Kes relationship.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
☑️Yes.☑️

Voyager Episode #2:
Threshold, Season 2
IMDB Rating: 5.3/10

Threshold has basically become a meme in the Star Trek fandom at this point, so I’m not surprised to see it on this list. It’s an undeniably silly idea, even within the confines of Star Trek’s universe – accelerating past Warp 10 causes Paris and Janeway to “hyper-evolve” into a kind of salamander-like lifeform. They then proceed to… mate.

What’s worse, though, and where I’d really take issue with Threshold, is that Chakotay, Tuvok, and the rest of the crew basically infested a random Delta Quadrant planetoid with Paris and Janeway’s mutant offspring. Rather than collecting the salamander babies, they just left them there, presumably contaminating that planet’s entire ecosystem! I don’t like the idea of Warp 10 as this kind of impenetrable barrier, either, and I think Star Trek works best when these things aren’t overexposed in the way warp drive was here.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
☑️Yes.☑️

Voyager Episode #1:
The Fight, Season 5
IMBD Rating: 5.0/10

Although I’d never try to argue that The Fight is a shining example of the best of Star Trek, I will defend it to a point. It’s weird, esoteric, and probably a little too confusing, feeling like a fever dream in places. But that’s kind of the point; it’s a story that wants to show a very different kind of alien species and their attempts to communicate. As a concept, these aliens – and their “chaotic space” realm – were not inherently bad, and Star Trek has never shied away from seeking out very different forms of life.

I liked Boothby’s return here, and his connection to Chakotay, which had been explored earlier in the season. I get why this episode feels confusing, and I gotta admit, I can feel that way too when watching it! But I’m not sure it deserves to be called Voyager’s worst, either. Not when the likes of Threshold and Elogium exist!

Does It Deserve The Hate?
⛔No.⛔

Enterprise Episode #5:
Fortunate Son, Season 1
IMDB Rating: 6.5/10

I think Fortunate Son introduced some genuinely interesting lore about pre-Starfleet human spaceflight, and I found that side of the episode to be fascinating. Travis Mayweather comes from a family of spacers – spacefaring humans who transport cargo to and from Earth and human colonies in this pre-Federation era – and getting to meet some of these spacers was a ton of fun. I liked the conflict that Ryan and Mayweather had; Mayweather’s decision to leave his ship and join Starfleet being a sore spot for the spacer.

The Nausicaans made for fun antagonists, too. As a relatively unexplored alien race, I think they were much better here than, say, the Klingons might’ve been. The episode presented a moral conundrum for both Archer and Mayweather, too, and ended on what I felt was the right note. It’s the kind of story that Star Trek productions in the 23rd or 24th Centuries would have struggled with – the ECS Fortunate is explicitly shown to be outside Archer and Enterprise’s jurisdiction.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
⛔No.⛔

Enterprise Episode #4:
Precious Cargo, Season 2
IMDB Rating: 6.4/10

I’ll be honest: I’d forgotten all about Precious Cargo! In theory, the idea of an episode with a strong connection to The Next Generation is not a bad idea, and that premise could have been made to work. However, I think it’s pretty well agreed that there were issues with the story, which probably weren’t helped by last-minute re-writes.

There are worse Star Trek episodes, and worse Enterprise episodes, at least in my opinion. But I will concede that Precious Cargo isn’t a particularly strong – or memorable – instalment, as indicated by the fact that I’d forgotten all about it. There are some things I like, like seeing Archer willing to help out a random ship in distress, but overall, I can see why it’s not held in higher regard.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
☑️Yes.☑️

Enterprise Episode #3:
Daedalus, Season 4
IMDB Rating: 6.2/10

I did not expect to see Daedalus anywhere near this list, to be blunt about it. I genuinely enjoy this episode in its entirety, and I’m honestly struggling to see what it is that folks don’t like. We get to meet the inventor of the transporter, which is one of the really cool things that only a prequel like Enterprise could’ve done, and we get a genuinely interesting character piece that looks at the “burden of genius,” and how an inventor struggled with the idea that he’d peaked too young.

You may have seen me refer to some Star Trek episodes as “the transporter done goofed,” which has become a stock narrative concept in the franchise. But Daedalus takes that idea and really runs with it, digging into the history of the transporter, how it works, how it was originally tested, and how badly wrong it went. The episode has great guest stars, an unnerving “entity” in the form of the corrupted transporter signal, and a fun story for Archer, too. I don’t really get why it’s so disliked.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
⛔No.⛔

Enterprise Episode #2:
Extinction, Season 3
IMDB Rating: 6.0/10

Extinction feels like a cross between TNG’s Genesis and Voyager’s Favorite Son – the latter of which is also on this list! I suspect its biggest problem is its place in the series – coming just three episodes into the season-long “stop the Xindi” storyline. It’s a bit of a diversion, stepping away from that story just as it had begun, really. In that sense, I can understand some of the disappointment fans might’ve had at the time.

Perhaps that sense of repetition from those other Star Trek stories doesn’t help, but I’d argue that Extinction doesn’t really do as well with the core idea as either of those other episodes. There are some creative designs and prosthetics in the story, and it’s fun to see Mayweather taking the captain’s chair. But all in all, it’s just not a very strong or engaging episode.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
☑️Yes.☑️

Enterprise Episode #1:
These Are The Voyages…, Season 4
IMDB Rating: 5.3/10

I doubt any of us are surprised to see that These Are The Voyages is considered Enterprise’s worst episode. Originally conceived as a “love letter” to Star Trek fans, the episode just doesn’t work as a series finale, unfortunately. Relegating the entire main cast to the status of holograms aboard the Enterprise-D was such a weak way for fans to part ways with these wonderful characters. Even though the intentions were good… the end result wasn’t.

This episode also caused a lot of controversy for killing off Trip Tucker. There were some interesting elements in the mix: seeing Archer at the founding ceremony of the Federation was creative, and not inherently a bad idea. I like crossovers, and I think a story like These Are The Voyages – putting Enterprise’s crew on the holodeck with this kind of frame narrative – could have worked. Just not as a way to end the entire show – and, for a time, the entire Star Trek franchise.

Does It Deserve The Hate?
☑️Yes.☑️

So that’s it!

We’ve looked at the top five lowest-rated episodes (or the bottom five, if you prefer) for the first five Star Trek shows. There were a few surprises along the way, but by and large, I think I expected to see most of these episodes rated quite lowly – even if I don’t necessarily agree with all of the criticisms Trekkies have of them!

This piece complements my earlier “top fives” piece, which you can find by clicking or tapping here. I hope you’ll take a look at that one if you missed it earlier in the year; it’s basically the same format, just with the five highest-rated episodes from the first five Star Trek shows.

A render of the NX-01 as seen in *Strange New Worlds*.

I don’t think any of the modern Star Trek shows have enough episodes to really justify doing the same thing, but in the months ahead I might do something like a top and bottom three episodes from some of the recent productions as a kind of follow-up to this. So if that’s the kind of thing you’re interested in… stay tuned, I guess!

I hope this has been a bit of fun, at any rate. I’d genuinely forgotten all about a couple of these episodes, so it was fun to step back into these shows and watch them for what must be the first time in years. And even when Star Trek’s at its worst… I think we can agree that there are still things to enjoy or view in a positive light. That’s my takeaway from this thought experiment, at any rate!

There’s more Star Trek content on the way here on the website, so I hope you’ll join me again sometime soon. Until then… Live Long and Prosper!

All five Star Trek series discussed above can be streamed on Paramount+ in countries and territories where the platform is available. The Star Trek shows are available to purchase on DVD; The Original Series, The Next Generation, and Enterprise are also on Blu-ray. The Star Trek franchise – including all shows, films, and other properties mentioned above – is the copyright of Paramount Global. Credit to IMDB for the episode ratings, which were accurate at time of publication in September 2025. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Ten Star Trek Storylines That Should Be Non-Canon

Wed 12.03.25Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for the Star Trek franchise.

We’ve recently talked about some of my Star Trek “head canon” – i.e. theories and ideas I have about Star Trek that aren’t confirmed on screen, but make sense to me! Click or tap here to check out that piece, by the way… I talk about things like cloaking devices, the Borg, and more. If that article was about things in Star Trek that aren’t canon but should be, then today we’re gonna do the exact opposite! These are ten Star Trek storylines that I fully believe should be non-canon.

Before we go any further, a couple of important caveats. First of all, this is a controversial subject! As Trekkies, we all have different opinions about what makes a fun and successful Star Trek story… and that’s okay. There should be enough room within the Star Trek fan community for differences of opinion and disagreement without spiralling into arguments. Everything we’re going to talk about is the entirely subjective opinion of one Star Trek fan, and I’m well aware that my opinion will be the minority one in some cases. As I’ve said before: no theory or opinion is worth getting angry or worked up over!

Early concept art of the Enterprise-D.
*Image Credit: Forgotten Trek/Frogland Archive*

It should go without saying, but none of these stories or episodes will ever actually be “removed” from Star Trek’s canon. The title is really a tongue-in-cheek way of me saying that I either dislike a particular storyline or feel that its presence in the broader Star Trek universe is a stumbling block for other narratives that I prefer. This isn’t like that awful clickbait article that did the rounds a few months ago claiming that “Discovery is non-canon now!!1!” This is just for fun; a thought experiment for people like us who like to spend a bit more time with the Star Trek franchise after the credits have rolled.

With all that being said, if you aren’t in the right headspace to get into some potentially controversial Star Trek topics, this is your last chance to nope out!

Let’s jump into the list.

Storyline #1:
The destruction of Romulus.
Star Trek ’09, Picard, Discovery, et al.

In Star Trek ’09, the destruction of Romulus was kind of haphazardly thrown in as a way to justify Spock’s involvement in the story and tee up Nero as a villain. And at the time that film was being written, I guess it’s not unfair to say that a full-scale revival of the Star Trek franchise on the small screen seemed beyond unlikely! But after Star Trek was brought back and returned not only to the prime timeline but to the late 24th Century (and beyond), the destruction of Romulus has proven to be a difficult storyline for subsequent productions to navigate.

Picard was the first to pick up this story thread in its first season, showing a few flashbacks to Admiral Picard and his Romulan rescue plan. Romulan refugees also cropped up in Season 1… but the show didn’t really know what to do with them or how to handle the Romulans as a whole after the loss of their homeworld. The character of Elnor could’ve been a great point-of-view character for exploring this post-destruction Romulan Empire… but Picard’s writers had other ideas, and the character was abandoned.

Elnor was unceremoniously dumped before we could spend much time with him.

Discovery brought back the idea of Romulan-Vulcan reunification in the far future, and managed at least one creditable effort with that premise. But again, this story was a one-off and didn’t really go much further, even when Vulcan leader T’Rina became a recurring character. The fact that Romulus had been destroyed – centuries in the past from this vantage point – didn’t really come up in a big way, either, and I reckon Discovery’s Ni’Var storyline could’ve worked just as well without it.

The Romulans are one of Star Trek’s most iconic villains – perhaps in third place behind only the Klingons and Borg. To destroy their homeworld – the core of their empire – for what was essentially a throwaway scene and the backstory of an over-the-top villain… I dunno. It feels extreme, which Star Trek ’09 was in some ways. But any stories set after the late 24th Century are now constrained by this massive narrative beat, and will arguably miss out on one of the franchise’s best villains. The Romulans are certainly one of Star Trek’s most shadowy, clandestine factions, and damaging them so severely that it would take them decades if not centuries to recover, while also impoverishing at least some of their survivors… it places real constraints on future stories.

Storyline #2:
Suspiciously human-like aliens on many different planets.
The Original Series

These are meant to be aliens. From outer space.

When we reach the final frontier and explore strange new worlds… we’re going to meet aliens and totally new forms of life. We aren’t going to encounter an exact duplicate of Earth, a planet where everyone dresses like it’s Germany in the 1930s, or a planet where whose inhabitants – who don’t look even remotely alien – think they’re living in Ancient Rome. In a word… these old episodes of The Original Series (and some from The Next Generation, too) aren’t sci-fi enough!

There’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for this, of course: it was the ’60s, and The Original Series had a limited budget to work with. The show would use stages and props that had been built for other projects, or Paramount’s backlot, meaning explanations had to be found and aliens created to fit with those existing sets. There were also limitations to the prosthetics, puppets, and practical effects that could be designed and built, and with twenty-five episodes per season to write… some liberties had to be taken with the way aliens looked and behaved.

Kirk leads an away team to Miri’s planet: a clone or twin of Earth.

But for me… let’s just say I’ve always been less keen on these too-human alien societies. I think there’s an interesting head canon explanation (that I go into in more detail in a standalone piece that you can find by clicking or tapping here) that basically says that these are lost or forgotten human colonies from the early days of pre-Federation spaceflight. But that only works if you buy into my theory! As presented on screen, we’re meant to take these societies to be Earth-like aliens… and I just don’t think that works if we’re taking Star Trek seriously as a sci-fi universe.

Space is big and space is weird – so there are bound to be incomprehensible things out there for our heroes to encounter. But too often, especially in The Original Series, we’d get these “aliens” that were not only physically indistinguishable from humans, but whose societies and even planetary geography was identical to some part of human history, too. Don’t get me wrong, many of these episodes are a ton of fun and they’re part of what made Star Trek what it is today. But I just don’t think they have a place in the franchise any more… and they haven’t for decades.

Storyline #3:
Most of the mission to 2024.
Picard Season 2

Los Angeles as seen in *Picard* Season 2.

I’ve had a piece in my writing pile for a couple of years tentatively titled “Star Trek: Picard – The Movie,” in which I’m going to argue that Picard’s second season (which I generally didn’t like) would work so much better as a cut-down two-hour-ish movie rather than a ten-episode season. I’d keep the attack on the Stargazer and the arrival of the Borg, I’d keep the Confederation timeline and the Borg Queen’s corpse, and I’d keep Agnes’ assimilation. But after that I’d cut out almost all of the 21st Century stuff, including all the revelations about Picard’s past and Q being on his deathbed, streamline the story by saying Q’s real objective was to prevent the mysterious anomaly from destroying the Federation, and launch Picard and his friends back to the bridge of the Stargazer.

For me, Picard’s second season spent way, way too long wallowing in a boring 21st Century environment that robbed the story of basically everything that feels like Star Trek, and I didn’t enjoy it. There was the kernel of an interesting idea, with Picard having to confront childhood trauma. But that storyline completely fell apart, it didn’t expand our understanding of Jean-Luc Picard as a character in any meaningful way, and parts of it felt almost like “torture porn;” throwing Picard (and other characters like Raffi and Rios) into a series of traumatic events that served no real narrative function. Picard’s story just didn’t give us much of anything, Raffi’s was undone with seconds to spare at the end of the season, and Rios’ story was written in a weirdly contradictory way to facilitate his exit from the series.

So I’d cut out all of that, and I’d streamline Picard’s second season into a much more reasonable two-hour movie. There’d still be time for what I said in my review was one of the best and most frightening presentations of the Borg that we’d seen in decades, there’d still be a way for Q to play a part, and we could hop over to the Confederation timeline for a little while to get a Mirror Universe-inspired alternate reality look at Picard and Earth. But the mission to the 21st Century could be seriously cut back to only a few minutes, with perhaps one objective for Picard and the gang: to ensure the Europa Mission launches on cue.

I really ought to finish writing up my longer piece on this idea, because I can’t fully do justice to it in just a few paragraphs! Stay tuned here on the website, because I daresay I’ll get around to it one of these days! For now, suffice to say that Picard’s random wandering through 21st Century Los Angeles (and a suspiciously California-like France) should be dumped.

Storyline #4:
Captain Archer versus the Borg.
Enterprise Season 2: Regeneration

I genuinely enjoy Regeneration as a one-off episode, and I think it was a fun idea to bring the Borg into Enterprise… even if it was pretty obvious that the reason for doing so was to boost the show’s flagging ratings. But stepping back and thinking about what it means for the history of Borg-Federation contact, Regeneration really screws with a timeline that has already been meddled with!

There are three angles to approach this from, and all of them are bad. Firstly, we have what this storyline says about Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-E. First Contact made clear that Picard had ordered his ship hidden so as not to accidentally interfere with humanity’s first warp flight and the Vulcans’ arrival on Earth. But apparently they totally ignored, forgot about, or didn’t think to scan for Borg debris from the ship they’d destroyed. It presents Picard and co. as incompetent at best when it comes to cultural contamination, and given how meticulous we know he is… it just doesn’t track that there’d be all this debris left behind, including fully intact and functional Borg drones.

An assimilated shuttle versus the Enterprise.

Next, the Borg sent a message to the Collective in the Delta Quadrant, basically making the whole First Contact–Regeneration story a time-loop paradox. It also seriously muddles the question of how and when the Borg first encountered humanity. Was it when they received this message? Was it when they assimilated the Hansen family in the 2340s? Voyager had already messed with the Borg quite a lot thanks to Seven of Nine and the Borg Queen, so this additional complication was not helpful! Turning the story of humanity’s first contact with the Borg into this kind of paradox is not what I wanted to see.

Finally, there’s what this story says about Starfleet. Captain Archer encountered a race of cybernetic beings who sent a message to the Delta Quadrant. Years later, the Federation took in El-Aurian refugees whose planet had been attacked by the Borg. Yet for some reason, by the 24th Century, all knowledge of both of these events was suppressed, deleted, or just not taught at the Academy. Given how hard Archer and his crew had to work to stop a handful of drones, you’d think they’d have recorded the details of what they did and what they were up against so that future Starfleet explorers wouldn’t be starting from scratch. This is a typical “prequel problem” of the kind Enterprise created on more than one occasion. For all of these reasons combined, though, Regeneration’s 22nd Century Borg storyline joins this list.

Storyline #5:
Warp 10 as a hard limit on travel.
The Next Generation, Voyager Season 2: Threshold, et al.

Star Trek has been pretty inconsistent with how warp speeds and travel times are depicted. I have a head canon explanation that basically says Starfleet re-designates warp factors as newer and faster engines are created… but that only goes part of the way to plugging some of the apparent plot holes that almost six decades’ worth of stories have accumulated! Long story short, most Star Trek productions from The Next Generation onward present warp one as the speed of light and warp ten as an unachievable goal; a speed that would allow instantaneous travel anywhere in the galaxy. But that doesn’t fit with what we see on screen.

What is “transwarp?” Is it speeds faster than warp 10? The Borg seem to be able to travel beyond warp 10 through their transwarp network, potentially cutting the time needed to reach Earth from the fringes of the Delta Quadrant from decades to hours. Then there’s the notorious Voyager episode Threshold, which saw Tom Paris and Captain Janeway travel faster than warp 10 (though still not fast enough to reach Earth), before mutating into salamanders.

I think it would be so much better if Star Trek dropped this idea that warp 10 is a kind of hard limit. Speeds beyond what we understand as warp 9.9999 are clearly possible, as we see the Borg, the Kelvan Empire, Arturis’ species, and many others are able to travel far faster than Starfleet. So why not drop this idea in favour of new warp factors – perhaps a show or film set in the Picard era could introduce the first warp 12 engine, for example, and Star Trek could grow from there.

Threshold as an episode can pretty much be written off, too! I don’t think anyone will miss it. Recent developments, like the Kelvin timeline’s transwarp beaming and Discovery’s spore drive, can also be used to travel great distances in a short period of time. There’s potential for future stories to pick up these threads, too.

Storyline #6:
The Prophets are responsible for Sisko’s birth.
Deep Space Nine Season 7: Image in the Sand + Shadows and Symbols

A photo of Sisko’s Prophet-posessed mother.

Star Trek has never believed in things like fate or destiny, and for me, this storyline about the Prophets deliberately conceiving Benjamin Sisko so he could one day become their emissary is dangerously close to that idea. It also turns Sisko’s entire arc across Deep Space Nine into a giant predestination paradox; he became the emissary because the Prophets created him. It challenges and undermines really his entire personality all for the sake of having a twist in a couple of episodes.

Part of what was interesting about Deep Space Nine was the intersection of religion and science. The Bajorans worshipped the “gods” of the wormhole, but Sisko and the rest of the Starfleet crew saw them as just another alien race to make first contact with. And Star Trek has always leaned more on the science angle than the religious whenever questions like this have come up; as the audience, we’ve always been on Starfleet’s side, too, seeing entities and aliens like these as another race in the galaxy – not deities who are responsible for guiding the lives of our heroes. Deep Space Nine ventured into spirituality in a big way, and until Seasons 6 and 7 mostly stayed on the right side of that line.

A high-definition render of the Bajoran Wormhole from the documentary *What We Left Behind*.

These episodes kicked off a longer story arc across Season 7 which also involved Kai Winn and Dukat. The conflict between the Pah-Wraiths and Prophets took on this Christian apocalyptic tone, with Sisko akin to an almost Christ-like figure, predetermined from before his conception to play a pivotal role in this struggle. While this story was interesting in its own right, it’s also inherently un-Star Trek in a significant way.

Because the Prophets exist outside of linear time, that gave Deep Space Nine’s writers a lot of wiggle-room. But for me, this paradox was a bridge too far. Star Trek can and should tackle religious themes, but in my view it works best when stories take a more detached and scientific approach to these topics.

Storyline #7:
The Klingon-Augment virus.
Trials and Tribble-ations, Enterprise Season 4, et al.

A Klingon affected by the Augment virus.

I don’t believe that every single aspect of Star Trek demands an on-screen explanation. The Klingons that Kirk met in The Original Series look different from those that we’d later see in The Motion Picture and from The Search for Spock onward – and that’s okay. Fans could make head canon explanations if they wanted, but there was just no need for an in-universe explanation of this change in prosthetic makeup… especially not one so convoluted.

The origins of this can be traced back to the otherwise excellent Trials and Tribble-ations – the Deep Space Nine episode made for the Star Trek franchise’s 30th anniversary. That story saw the crew of DS9 interacting with Kirk’s crew, using newly-developed editing techniques to integrate new characters with old footage. It was an incredibly creative episode and a fun story… but it came with a problem! At one point, a couple of characters make reference to the way Klingons look, asking Worf about it. This was the first on-screen acknowledgement that something had changed.

Worf’s line in *Trials and Tribble-ations* was the first on-screen acknowledgement of the aesthetic changes the Klingons underwent.

Enterprise, several years later, took this idea and ran with it, crafting an intricate (and pretty dumb) multi-epiosde arc that introduced the Klingon-Augment virus: a genetically-engineered creation that infected Klingons with human DNA, physically changing their appearances. In the writers’ minds, this “closed a plot hole,” but I would argue very strongly that it was one that never needed to be closed. Even if it did, and even if we desperately want to find a way to acknowledge the change in makeup used for the Klingons with an in-universe explanation… I just found this particular story to be convoluted and weak.

More recent Star Trek projects have, thankfully, quietly dropped this idea. The Kelvin films and Discovery admittedly had their own issues with re-interpreting the aesthetics of the Klingons, but Strange New Worlds – which is set in the 23rd Century and has featured the Klingons on more than one occasion – has basically reset the way they look. There’s no reason to bring up this idea again – and I sincerely hope Star Trek can continue to walk away from it!

Storyline #8:
The Burn (as part of the prime timeline).
Discovery Seasons 3-5

Discovery’s second season probably had some of its best individual performances, thanks to the inclusions of Captain Pike and Spock. But for me, most of Discovery’s best episodes actually came after the series shot forward into the far future, leaving behind much of what we’re familiar with in the Star Trek galaxy. Unfortunately, though, Discovery’s writers and creatives wanted the show to focus more on Burnham’s increasingly soap opera-like personal relationships and attempts at depicting characters overcoming traumatic events (that mostly didn’t work as intended). As a result, we didn’t spend as much time as I’d have liked with either the Federation or other factions in this potentially-interesting setting.

Another piece I’ll have to write up in full one day is whether Discovery’s “post-apocalyptic Star Trek” idea worked or even came close to working. But for now, I think we can at least make the case that the Burn is a pretty depressing future for the prime timeline, and that pushing Discovery’s far future into some kind of pocket universe or alternate reality wouldn’t be a terrible idea for the franchise as a whole.

*Discovery* never really did anything with its “rebuild the Federation” idea.

I’m hopeful that there will be more Star Trek on our screens in the years ahead – and that at least some of it will return to the 24th and early 25th Centuries. But any show or film using that setting (or really any pre-Burn setting) becomes, by default, a prequel to Discovery’s third season. That means, in the backs of our minds, we know that no matter what our new heroes might do, however they might find creative ways to save the day… the Federation and much of the galaxy is going to end up devastated in a few hundred years anyway. It puts a brake on future Star Trek stories in a way that we haven’t really seen before.

If Discovery had done more with the idea of rebuilding the Federation and restoring Starfleet values to the galaxy, that feeling would persist but it would be somewhat lessened, I feel. But because that didn’t happen, the Burn and its aftermath really are little more than fluff; background details for other, less-interesting stories to play out in front of. Given the sheer scale of the Burn and the devastation it wrought… that’s not good enough for me. I don’t want to remove Discovery’s latter seasons entirely, as there’s some good storytelling in there and some fun episodes. But finding some way to push it out of the prime timeline and into some kind of alternate reality… let’s just say it would be a net positive. Maybe in Starfleet Academy?

Storyline #9:
Neelix’s romance with Kes.
Voyager Seasons 1 & 2

This is an uncomfortable one… but Neelix’s love for Kes in some early episodes of Voyager didn’t have the cutsey or romantic vibes that the writers may have been hoping for. The age gap between Neelix and Kes made the whole thing feel a bit… icky. Thankfully it wasn’t in focus for too long, because if it had been I genuinely think it could’ve ruined Neelix as a character.

Ocampans are a very short-lived species, and Kes was either one or two years old in Voyager’s premiere. The implications of that when considering Neelix’s feelings are just unpleasant, but even if you push that to the back of your mind, there’s no getting away from the fact that Kes is basically a teenager or young adult while Neelix is in the Talaxian equivalent of middle age.

We’d also see Neelix getting possessive of Kes, with episodes like Parturition and Twisted being prime examples of this. The contrast between Neelix’s usual jovial, friendly persona and the jealousy and anger he could feel has genuinely uncomfortable undertones. For anyone who’s ever been in a toxic relationship with a narcissistic or possessive partner, there are parallels in this presentation of the two sides of Neelix that could be triggering.

I wish we’d got to spend more time with Kes; in my view, she was unfairly dumped from Voyager. In recent years there’s been speculation as to exactly what happened behind-the-scenes, informed, at least in part, by actress Jennifer Lien’s struggles and issues. I don’t really want to get into all of that, but suffice to say that I would have happily kept Kes as part of Voyager’s roster if I’d had the option. But I’m glad that this Neelix romance angle didn’t stick around beyond the first couple of seasons – and that it was only present in a big way in a handful of stories.

Storyline #10:
The Borg Collective has a leader.
(And she’s weirdly obsessed with a couple of random humans for some reason).
First Contact, Dark Frontier, et al.

This could be one of my most controversial Star Trek “hot takes,” but… the Borg Queen kind of ruins the Borg. What made the Collective so scary in its first appearances was that it was akin to a force of nature; incomprehensible, unstoppable, and unable to be reasoned with. The Borg operated as one hive mind, with no individuals or individuality, united in common purpose: the pursuit of technology and an unknowable idea of “perfection.”

The Borg Queen was created because the producers/writers of First Contact believed that the film needed a villain for Picard and Data to wrangle with – a unique individual Borg who could have more personality than any drone. But this completely misunderstands what the Borg represented and what made them so frightening. In doing so, it robbed the faction of one of its most important and unique features. The Borg Queen’s apparent obsession with Picard, Seven of Nine, and humanity as a whole developed from this… and really takes a lot away from the original concept of the Borg as this incomprehensible, uncaring, unknowable adversary.

A different depiction of the Borg Queen.

A big part of many Star Trek episodes (so much so that it’s become a cliché) is “they were only trying to communicate!” Many of the franchise’s stories present our heroes with apparently hostile aliens or scenarios, only to learn later that what they wanted was to talk or be understood. Other stories introduce a villain who can ultimately be reasoned with, even if they initially seemed hell-bent on destruction. The Borg’s original presentation, prior to the introduction of the Borg Queen, precluded even the pretense of negotiation, compromise, or really any kind of meaningful communication. The Borg had one objective, and there was no way to dissuade them from it. They viewed humanity and the Federation as a resource, and nothing more.

By introducing a Borg leader, someone who has a unique personality (even though she claims to be a manifestation of the Collective; I’m not buying that based on how she comes across on screen) the most unique trait the Borg had has been erased. And what replaces it is little more than a generic “I’m evil for no reason and I love it” scenery-chewing bad guy. The Borg, prior to the Queen’s appearance in First Contact, were so much better, so much more frightening, and completely unique.

So that’s it… for now!

We’ve talked about ten Star Trek storylines that should be non-canon… at least in my completely subjective opinion!

I hope this has been interesting. It’s certainly been a bit of fun for me to revisit some of these episodes and stories. Some, like Enterprise’s Borg episode, are totally fine in isolation… but start to create problems when you think about them in the wider context of the Star Trek franchise. Others, like Neelix and Kes as a couple, didn’t work from day one and I’d be happy to just pretend the whole thing never happened! None of these storylines will ever actually be “removed” from Star Trek’s canon, though, so if one of your favourites is on the list, don’t panic!

We’ve talked about questions of canon quite a lot in the past few weeks, and I’ve had a lot of fun writing about some of these subjects. My “Borg teasing” theory is something that I’ve been kicking around for literally decades, and I also had fun adding to my list of minor things in Star Trek that bug me! I don’t know what’s next – perhaps a longer write-up of one or two of the points on this list could make for a fun article or essay. Stay tuned, though, because there’s plenty more Star Trek to come here on the website in the weeks and months ahead!

Most of the TV shows and films referenced above are available to stream on Paramount+ in countries and territories where the platform is available. The Star Trek franchise is also available on DVD and Blu-ray. The Star Trek franchise – including all episodes, films, and other properties discussed above – is the copyright of Paramount Global. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Five planets that Star Trek probably won’t revisit any time soon!

Sun 13.02.22Sun 13.02.22Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for the following Star Trek productions: The Original Series Season 2, The Animated Series, The Next Generation Season 1, Voyager Season 2, Star Trek 2009, Picard Season 1, Discovery Season 3, and Lower Decks Season 2.

I wouldn’t even like to guess how many different planets (and other planetary bodies) have been visited across all 800+ episodes and films in the Star Trek franchise! It must be a lot… maybe someone has been keeping a tally, but I certainly haven’t! There are some worlds that we’ve visited more than others – Bajor, Qo’noS, and of course Earth all spring to mind. But there are some planets that, for one reason or another, are best left behind in the franchise’s past.

As Star Trek moves on to bigger and better things, some planets – and their inhabitants – seem outdated, or perhaps the concept behind the planet was never a good one to begin with. Today I thought it could be interesting to consider five examples of planets that Star Trek will almost certainly never revisit!

Planet #1:
Ekos

The USS Enterprise in orbit of Ekos (as it originally appeared).

Ekos was created for The Orignal Series Season 2 episode Patterns of Force, but you might know it better as “that Nazi planet.” There’s definitely scope for the Star Trek franchise to tackle authoritarianism, fascism, and even Nazism – and as recently as 2004, Enterprise put its own spin on the “Star Trek-versus-Nazis” concept. But there are a few deeply unsettling things about Ekos, and how its Nazi-inspired government came to power.

First of all we need a brief history lesson! In the 1960s, when Patterns of Force was created, some historians, economists, and other political scientists regarded Nazi Germany as an “efficient” state. Resting all power in a single individual, they argued, made for a powerful government that could be run very efficiently. In Patterns of Force, Federation anthropologist/historian John Gill cites this theory as the reason for introducing Nazism to the Ekosians.

Ekos is also known as “Planet of the Nazis.”

That theory was flat-out wrong, and even by the 1970s and 1980s, the flawed thinking that led to the myth of “Nazi efficiency” had been exposed and thoroughly debunked. In short, Nazi Germany was a very poorly-run government, with a handful of cronies of the führer wielding disproportionate levels of power, and micromanagement in certain departments and industries majorly hampering the state’s industrial output. How this myth ever came to be as widely believed as it was is, in some respects, a bit of a mystery. But suffice to say that the central conceit behind Patterns of Force has been exposed as a falsehood.

John Gill, the academic at the heart of the story, also represents a very distinct kind of betrayal of Federation values, taking things to perhaps the most unpleasant extreme possible. Star Trek has never shied away from showing us flawed human beings and Federation officials, but Gill is a step too far, and Patterns of Force can be an uncomfortable watch for many Trekkies.

John Gill, the Federation historian who became the Führer of Ekos.

Though it might be interesting, in some respects, to revisit Ekos in the 24th, 25th, or 32nd Centuries to see how things had progressed, in many ways it’s a planet – and a story concept – that should probably remain on the sidelines. Modern Star Trek can tell far more subtle stories about authoritarianism, racism, and the like without needing to resort to overt depictions of Federation-sponsored Nazism.

Patterns of Force is based on an outdated concept, and while it was brought to screen quite well by the standards of The Original Series, with some clever visual effects for the time and some surprisingly accurate costumes, it feels like an anachronism overall. This is one best left behind in the 1960s!

Planet #2:
Megas-Tu

The Animated Series had some very wacky sci-fi concepts. Taking Star Trek away from live-action meant that the franchise was no longer confined by the limitations of practical special effects, and thus it was possible to depict things like a 40-foot tall clone of Spock, an entirely underwater civilisation, or, in The Magicks of Megas-Tu, an alternate universe where magic is real and science is not.

I’ve always had a soft spot for The Magicks of Megas-Tu, and I think it’s an episode that every Trekkie should watch at least once. It’s an example of mid-century sci-fi at its wackiest, but it manages to retain a Star Trek tone throughout the very unusual adventure that Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise find themselves on.

A group of Megans departing their homeworld.

With the possible exception of Lower Decks, which has been more willing to explore some of the stranger elements of classic Star Trek, I can’t imagine Megas-Tu ever making another Star Trek appearance. How would it fit in Discovery, for example, or Picard? The tone of modern Star Trek is just too different – and even by the time of The Next Generation, Star Trek had moved away from concepts like this. Megas-Tu feels homeless, in a sense, in a franchise that has moved on.

That isn’t to say that it was a bad concept when it was first developed, but like several ideas from The Original Series and The Animated Series, magic and fantasy just seem to be a step too far for a franchise that has retained its esoteric side and sense of fun, but refocused them into more science-based stories rather than stories that use literal magic and fantasy as core elements.

It’s hard to see how a story about Megas-Tu could fit in with modern Star Trek. Audience expectations have shifted when it comes to science-fiction, and with the Star Trek franchise moving away from stories like The Magicks of Megas-Tu, it seems very unlikely that we’ll see anything like it in the franchise anytime soon.

There’s also the in-universe problem of travelling to the Megans’ universe, and while technobabble can always be created to explain away these things, it seems like a bit of a stretch. It’s possible we’ll get more references to The Animated Series – Picard Season 1 made reference to the Kzinti, for example. But a full revisit to Megas-Tu is probably off the table!

Planet #3:
Ligon II

The planet that inspired me to put together this list, Ligon II was visited in Code of Honor, the notorious Season 1 episode of The Next Generation that has been widely criticised for its use of racial stereotypes. The Ligonians encapsulated stereotypes of Africans and African-Americans, and Code of Honor has to be one of the worst episodes of The Next Generation as a result.

Some stories from past iterations of the franchise are open to redemption; to being revisited to right the wrongs of the past. We’ve seen this, to an extent, with certain characters in modern Star Trek who saw much-needed development or expansions of incomplete arcs. We’ve also seen Lower Decks revisit planets like Beta III to comment on Starfleet’s somewhat chaotic approach to first contact.

*Code of Honor* has been widely criticised for stereotyping.

But Code of Honor and the episode’s depiction of the Ligonians feels so utterly wrong that it’s irredeemable. There are some parts of Star Trek’s past that the franchise brushes under the carpet, choosing to ignore and even overwrite things rather than try to fix the unfixable. Captain Pike’s “woman on the bridge” line in The Cage is such an example – overt sexism from a character that we’re now very excited to see return. Ligon II and Code of Honor are definitely in the “let’s all just pretend that never happened” category… for the good of the franchise!

It’s amazing, when you think about it, that Code of Honor was produced as late as 1987. It would still feel outdated had it been part of The Original Series in the 1960s, but to know that it was produced for The Next Generation – within my own lifetime – is one of those things that boggles the mind.

A ritual combat arena on the surface of Ligon II.

Code of Honor is an episode that I think Trekkies need to watch. It’s worth remembering that, despite its lofty ambitions and attempts to depict a better future, the people who create Star Trek can still make mistakes. This was an episode that Gene Roddenberry had some creative input in and signed off on – he was The Next Generation’s executive producer at the time.

The episode is noteworthy for its complete lack of awareness. The people who created this story, cast it, and put it to screen were so blind to the offensive stereotypes that it depicted that they allowed it to progress and even get broadcast. Star Trek may have made strides, even in its early years, in its attempts to confront and tackle things like segregation and race hate – but it was blind, at times, to subtler, more covert forms of racism and racial stereotyping.

Planet #4:
Uninhabited Delta Quadrant world

A hyper-evolved human on the surface of this unnamed planet.

This planet doesn’t have a name… but I vote we call it “Tom Paris and Captain Janeway’s sex planet.” That’s right, it’s the planet from Threshold! After crossing the Warp 10 barrier and experiencing hyper-evolution, Tom Paris kidnapped Captain Janeway and took her to this remote, uninhabited world somewhere in the Delta Quadrant. By the time Chakotay and the crew of the USS Voyager tracked them down, both Paris and Janeway had mutated into amphibious salamander-like creatures… and mated.

Although the crew of Voyager successfully recovered Paris and Janeway and the Doctor was able to revert them back to their human forms, for some reason they left their offspring behind. That means somewhere in the Delta Quadrant, little human-salamander offspring are polluting a perfectly innocent planet that was just minding its own business. I’m pretty sure that violates the Prime Directive… in the most disgusting way possible.

This planet now belongs to the human-salamander babies.

As much as some fans (myself included) like to joke about Threshold – which is absolutely one of Voyager’s worst stories – I can’t see Star Trek ever doing anything more with this episode, this concept, or the planet visited in the final few minutes. For completely different reasons to those laid out above, this is another part of Star Trek’s past to simply ignore!

Again, the one exception could be Lower Decks, which has an irreverent take on these things. We saw mating mugatoes in the Season 2 episode Mugato, Gumato, so I wouldn’t put it past the Lower Decks team to dream up a reason to bring back the human-salamanders one day! After all, Tom Paris made an appearance in the show!

To Threshold’s credit, it won an award for its prosthetic makeup, and while the story was undeniably ridiculous to the point of abject failure, it was at least an attempt to go into a little more detail about Warp Drive and the limits to warp speed. It never sat right with me that Warp 9.9999 was as fast as anyone could ever go… but Warp 10 was supposedly fast enough to travel anywhere in an instant.

However, as with many technobabble things in Star Trek, maybe the complexities of Warp Drive work better when they’re left ambiguous! Ambiguity and vaguery allow for the creative teams to take stories in wildly different directions, allowing for maximum storytelling potential without different writers and different shows being constrained or tripping over one another.

Planet #5:
Romulus

What? Too soon?

Romulus was destroyed during the events of 2009’s Star Trek, and we got to learn a little more about this event and its aftermath in Star Trek: Picard Season 1. Though the Romulans survived – well, some of them did, anyway – their homeworld, as well as its sister planet of Remus, is gone. The surviving Romulans are living on a number of other worlds in and around the territory of their former Empire.

The destruction of Romulus was shown in 2009’s *Star Trek*.

Both Star Trek and Picard Season 1 were somewhat ambiguous on this latter point, though. We don’t know how many Romulans survived, where they went next, or even what became of their Empire. We do know that a faction called the Romulan Free State existed as of 2399, but that the Tal Shiar and Zhat Vash still existed in some form too, and were able to launch military operations on Earth, at the heart of the Federation.

Presumably Romulus’ destruction didn’t kill off either organisation, and the fact that they retained the capability to launch such powerful operations suggests that the Romulan government and its espionage operation still exist in some capacity, presumably having relocated to a different world. To what extent the Romulan Empire remains united is unclear, as is the fate of races like the Remans, who had second-class citizen status.

The Romulan capital city as it appeared in *Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges*.

With Star Trek: Picard Season 2 going in a different direction, I presume we won’t be in a position to learn much more about the Romulans for a while. But if there are future 24th and 25th Century stories in the years ahead, it would be nice to get some kind of closure; to fully learn what happened to the Romulans in the years and decades after the loss of their homeworld.

By the time of Discovery’s 32nd Century, at least some Romulans had relocated to Vulcan as part of a reunification project. The planet was renamed Ni’Var, and while tensions still existed between the Romulans, Vulcans, and Romulo-Vulcans, it seems that the Romulans got a happy ending of sorts – even if it took centuries to get there!

So that’s it.

There have been plenty of fun and interesting worlds that the Star Trek franchise has visited, with many making just one single appearance. Modern Star Trek has contained a number of references in dialogue or on-screen displays to some of these worlds, giving us tantalising teases about what became of them after we last saw them. Those references are always appreciated!

With over fifty-five years of history and more than 800 episodes at time of writing, it’s inevitable that not all of these planets (and the peoples who populated them) worked well or would be worth going back to. Fortunately it’s relatively uncommon for Star Trek to have made truly egregious missteps, but there are certainly some episodes – and the planets and factions they included – that are best left behind. I hope it was a bit of fun (or at least mildly interesting) to consider a few examples today!

The Star Trek franchise – including all films, series, episodes, and other 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.