Thursday, August 25, 2016

Love is in The Air... Sort of - Star Trek's Favorite/Least Favorite Relationships

When preparing my Latinum/Vole Awards posts, I came across one category: Romance in Star Trek. I mulled over it and really couldn’t make up my mind on what to say. So, guess what becomes its own separate post? Yes, Valentine’s Day is far from us, but love knows no season. Just imagine me saying that in a sultry, deep voice that brings the house down. While I’ll be listing five of my favorite romances from the franchise, I’ll also put five of my least favorite romances too.  I might as well balance it out with this one. Trek didn’t always do romance that great even when the couples were cool, so I‘ll mention that as well. They’re also not in any sort of order.

Five Favorite Relationships

1. Commander Riker and Counselor Troi (TNG and later movies)
While Riker and Troi aren’t my favorite characters from TNG, they did look good together. They also worked together pretty well. You knew from the beginning that they had a past and that didn’t exactly work out for whatever reason. When they were on the show, they had a good friendship and some nice chemistry. It would have been nice if they got together on the show, but instead we got Deanna and Worf which I kind of liked.  I was glad that the two eventually got married in Star Trek Nemesis. I guess Riker realized he could multitask in being a husband and a captain when we got to that point.


2. Commander T’Pol and Commander Tucker (Enterprise)
This one was a bit of a surprise when I was going through Enterprise again. I remember it looked like the writers were trying to pair T’Pol and Archer together, but that luckily didn’t pan out. This paring actually does work out especially with what happened with these two during the Third Season. They had some interesting chemistry and it was interesting since Vulcans tend not to feel anything. I liked what they had to go through in Season 4 as well. The dreaded series finale kind of ruined it though. That finale ruined a lot of stuff in general.


3. Lt. Commander Worf and Jadzia Daz (DS9)

These two souls hooked up and got married during the later half of DS9. Since Jadzia’s former host had great knowledge on Klingon culture, these two seemed to be a nice match on that alone. Pairing Jadzia’s relaxed personality with Worf’s rigidness was pretty cool too. Someone needed to loosen up Worf anyway. The episode where they got married was pretty funny. Unfortunately, it also has a sting of sadness to it.  I’m not talking about “Let He Who Is Without Sin” either since that was not a good episode. I won’t say what happens for those who don’t know, but you might shed a tear or two towards the end of Season 6.


4. B’Elanna Torres and Tom Paris (Voyager)
I thought B’Elanna and Tom worked well as a couple on Voyager. It was cool to see them actually get together in probably one of the more romantic moments for the show. It also felt like they (as well as a few others) actually got to grow as characters a bit. It wasn’t all perfect though. B’Elanna’s “I’m mad” moments could be a little annoying and Tom had his annoying moments too. It can’t all be perfect, can it?


5. James T. Kirk and Edith Keeler (TOS)
Of course, we all know that James Kirk was a ladies’ man. The man broke many hearts but he rarely got his heart broken. When it comes to one of the best romances involving Kirk, this is it. During “City on The Edge of Forever”, Kirk and Spock went back to the 1930’s to stop McCoy from saving Edith Keeler and changing the timeline. There, he met Edith, a woman whose ideas on life were close to Kirk’s. He fell for her even though she’s supposed to die. It isn’t so much the romance that makes it memorable, it’s what happens at the end of the episode when… well, I’ll keep that sad fact to myself.

Five Least Favorite Relationships

1. Comm. Montgomery Scott and Lt. Uhura (Star Trek V)
Yes, this happened in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. This was something that came out of nowhere and really went nowhere. I bet the team behind the sixth movie didn’t even remember. Personally, I can’t blame them if they did. It just seemed awkward especially since we never got an idea on the two being interested in each other in the series or other movies.

2. Seven of Nine and Chakotay (Voyager)
Here’s another random hook-up that felt unwanted. Towards the end of Star Trek: Voyager, Seven of Nine started to run experiments on the holodeck on how she could finally become human and let go of her Borg-ness. Since Chakotay seemed like a suitable mate, she basically tested herself with that version. Yeah, it’s weird but I did think that whole thing with Seven was interesting. At the end of the series, she and the real Chakotay start to feel each other up and get together.

As I said, it felt random and weird. Chakotay was another character on the show that was pretty dull especially at this time. Maybe Ms. Hansen has a thing for dullards or something. If the creators had set this up much earlier in the series, maybe I could have bought it. Unfortunately, they throw it in at the last episode and you really don’t care. It definitely felt weird during my re-watch of the last episode.


3. Spock and Uhura (The Reboot Series)
I’m a little torn with these two in the new movies. I’m guessing the new team for 2009 movie wanted to really change it up and put those two together. Plus, it gave Uhura something else to do which is a weird reason. I do remember seeing a little something between Spock and Uhura in those early episodes of TOS, so the writers decided to go to the next level with them. Spock and Uhura do work in the 2009 movie. It’s hinted that they’ve known each other for a while. Plus, it does add something new about this universe. The two even work well together in the first and third movies.

I think my problem with it is actually the second movie. That movie had some problems and it was kind of one of them. You have them getting into an argument on the mission to Kronos and that felt wrong. It definitely felt unprofessional for Uhura to get into that there. I thought that when I was watching the movie then and now. Even Kirk says something about their bickering. It wasn’t a bad scene since Spock does say something pretty interesting about death, but it felt out of place. Overall, it’s not a bad relationship. I just wish parts of it was handled better.


4. Any romance where a main character falls in love with a hologram (not counting The Doctor)
Episodes where a main character falls for a hologram on the Holodeck tend to be a little mixed. The romances themselves are a little mixed. Geordi’s “fling” with the Leah Brahms hologram was interesting mostly because we got to meet the real Leah later.  Riker and Minuet was okay at best. Probably the worst or one I rarely remember is Captain Janeway and some Irish hologram named Michael Sullivan. Those “Fair Haven” episodes were… something. I guess one thing that doesn’t appeal all that much is that you know nothing may come from it. At least that’s how I feel about them. Oh yeah, ‘ole Harry Kim ran into that situation. That was weird.


5. Neelix and Kes (Voyager)
How did Neelix get someone? I guess it had to be someone who hasn’t been around in the universe long since Kes was like 2. The Occampa were weird anyway with that whole 9-year life span thing. The thing that did make this relationship unlikable was Neelix himself. This was probably the era where where he was the most annoying. He had a mean jealous streak and we actually spent an episode on that. It didn’t definitely help Neelix become a likeable character. I can definitely say that!


Well, that’s all I’ll list for now. This was just one category that I wanted to expand on just a little bit. If you any other romances that rocked or sucked, let me know. I know I left some other good ones and not-so-good ones off. Now if you excuse me, I’ll go off and concentrate on the romance in my life which is looking nil at the moment. Peace, God Bless, and see if someone thought Scotty/Uhura was a good idea. Man, The Final Frontier wasn’t good!

NEXT TIME: VILLAINS!

No comments:

Post a Comment