Star Trek: 10 Hated Characters You Grew To Love

Bet you never thought you'd love these Star Trek oddballs, did you?

Listen to The TrekCulture Podcast - Tuesdays on;

#StarTrek #StarTrekPicard #StarTrekVoyager

[StephenJEscobedo]

Nog would have been NOTHING without the acting depth of Aron Eisenberg. He was phenomenal. 😞

Okay, the writers were excellent, too.

[savaged]

What they should have done with neelix and kess was make him her adopted father. Considering how fast okapans grow he could have found her as little girl. Then all his protectiveness over her transfers well. He isn't jealous someone is flirting with his girl, he is now an overprotective father who can't see his little girl has grown into an adult

[x]

I'm surprised Dumar didn't make the list. He started out as Dukat's lackey, killing Ziyal, working with Weyoun, to finally leading a rebellion and dying for a free Cardassia.

[loupetron]

Shaw was the best part of Picard season 3 for me. The depth of acting that Stashwick brought to the character was incredible. Playing a right mean character but showing the complexity of a broken man. And that speech on the holodeck, I had tears in my eyes and goosebumps. He made Wolf 359 so much more raw and real than any depiction on screen.

[bobbywinstead]

I actually liked Pulaski. But Data gave her a burn she never recovered from. 🤣🤣🤣
Data: "DAYTA - you called me Dah-ta".
Pulaski: (laughs at him) "What's the difference?"
Data: "One is my name - the other is NOT."

[meacadwell]

I never disliked Wesley...even when TNG was first on the air as a new show. It wasn't until much later that I found out people hated him.

[peabody]

Someone not on the list who absolutely belongs: Lwaxana Troi. As I started watching TNG in its first season when I was 11, I absolutely remember people hating her character, and her first three (of six mostly-yearly) outings had her as a bruising, overbearing smother who was also a pain to the Enterprise-D crew, it was her turns in "Half A Life" and "Dark Page" that finally changed minds, and her interactions with Odo on DS9 that truly gave her wings. (Bajoran Gratitude Festival notwithstanding. "Fascination") My guess is that they learned from the "writing badly for women characters" in seasons 1 and 2 that made "Menage a Troi" actually work, and her appearances going forward.

Many LGBTQ+ Trekkies now see her as the "Fun Space Auntie", even in her first three appearances -- now. But especially "Haven" and "Manhunt" were not favourite Troi outings when I was a kid.

[daniellewis]

I really liked when we saw Shaw's log, where he laments how boring being by-the-book is, but he doesn't know any other way to be, and he's excited to see how Seven will break the rules with her in the big chair.

[illykitten]

Wesley was my idol growing up - a kid that can run circles around the adults, and who gets to be on the bridge every day? Are you kidding? Wesley was always great, and he was my lens into the Star Trek world as I was mostly re-watching Star Trek IV prior XD

[charlesbailey]

Stanley Adams was asked back to play Cyrano Jones in the animated series in "More Tribbles, More Troubles" so....3 actors asked to return

[deathstrike]

Aaron Eisenberg was so beloved by the 31st Century, he has a class of ship named after him. The Eisenberg Class USS Nog. To achieve have a ship named after you? He must have become a legend of a captain along the lines of Pike, Kirk, Janeway, and Seven of Nine.

[robertwestfall_M.A.R.S.O.]

“More Crusher, sir?” “Indeed! Please. “

[nancyomalley]

#5. LOVED JULIAN FROM THE BEGINNING! ❤️❤️❤️

[kimera]

Sybok, Pulaski and Nelix I never grew to like. Just did not enjoy them at all. Also didn't hate Nog when he was introduced but was indifferent to him, however over the seasons he became a stellar character - Absolutely gutted when I learned about Aron Eisenberg passing too, but I will always remember him as Nog.
Bashir? Annoying at first but what a finish, and that friendship with Garak; chef's kiss.
And Liam Shaw will always be a badass to me. From his attitude, history with the Borg and Picard made him feel real and down to Earth. And final words to Seven were just... heartbreaking and beautiful.

[SwedishDeathLlama]

Pulaski disrespected Data and she will not be forgiven. Harumph.

[MsAlexisPiazza]

Honorable mentions: Q, Nechaeyev, and Jellico

[scottk]

I hated Shaw with a passion in the beginning but by the end I was so sad for our beloved “dipshit from Chicago” 😢

[popvrwg]

mine is peanut hamper!!! i hated her when it was just the first two episodes featuring her, but then the third hit and idk she just grew on me. enough to name my robot vacuum after her.

also as an autistic person, julian bashir's character progression is complicated for me. yes, he got less "annoying" compared to early seasons (and much less of a creep around women, which—thank god—very valid criticism of the writing there), but i see that as getting better at masking around people, which just displaces the discomfort/stress onto your internal life, which isn't a good thing in my view. in fact, i think it's hard for autistic people to exist in our present-day world without becoming at least a little traumatized, if not incurring some C-PTSD.

but julian, poor guy, never had the option not to endure trauma. his nonconsensual genetic augmentation to "correct" his higher support-level neurodivergence already reads, to me, as a clear ABA metaphor. his childhood until he moved out must have been awful—his dad both always making him feel like he wasn't enough, and also projecting his feelings of inferiority onto his son whenever he felt threatened by julian's abilities... and his mom seems like she mostly went with it, didn't really stand up for him too much or give him the strong impression she thought he had been "enough, " pre-enhancement.


and then on top of it, he had to endure the stress of hiding his secret for decades, around people who made lots of snide comments about how boringly verbose, slutty, or "too much" he is/was (even saying they preferred a fake version of him to the real thing). (shoutout to garak for only ever politely and affectionately saying, "forgive me, but you're such a talkative man, it's odd for you to keep secrets" rather than stuff like ~dang that guy never shuts up~ while said guy is still in enhanced earshot.)

so with all this in mind, plus the dominion war giving everyone normal PTSD too, julian's more sedate, "mature" personality in later seasons just breaks my heart a little. i am now one year older than his character was in the last season of DS9, i've got C-PTSD myself and am truly not sure i will survive the next 4 years thanks to the folks taking power in my country. i've also proudly fought to (autistically) mask less, to keep the lighter, goofier, less serious aspects of my personality, etc. i still find myself "pulling a julian" at times—infodumping without realizing that's what i'm doing, or otherwise being oblivious.

so while it's good to see him meshing with the rest of the cast more as the seasons go on, i know it's coming at a personal cost that the show wasn't able to get into. (also, you can tell he vibed with the group of augments from the two later-season episodes, but i would've loved to at least see him mask less around them... that's more realistic for folks like us.)

...um, essay over, sorry, lol.

[MichaelSeminara]

What about Cyrano Jones? Stanley Adams was ALSO both the actor in TOS Trouble with Tribbles and the one who voiced him in STAS More Troubles More Tribbles...

[usuckthereturn]

You know which character was awesome and became more so….MORN!

He is my most coveted action figure!!