Star Trek Storylines That Became Unwatchable With Age

Gene Roddenberry's optimistic space opera "Star Trek" debuted in September 1966, and it wasn't a hit. "Star Trek," while visually striking enough to warrant stories in TV guide, struggled through its first few years, rarely bringing in the types of blockbuster numbers that NBC would have liked. Indeed, many Trekkies can tell you that "Star Trek" only lasted into its third season thanks to a concerted letter-writing campaign from fans, begging that it be kept on the air. "Star Trek" wouldn't become popular until it was in syndication in the 1970s. Reruns allowed a new audience of obsessives to discover it, and eventually, "Star Trek" conventions began to form. "Star Trek" has been a pop phenomenon ever since. 

But like any long-running pop phenomenon, sometimes the creators run low on ideas. Indeed, longtime watchers of "Star Trek" can likely point to entire seasons where the screenwriters were wrestling with stories, trying to get something, anything on screen before the week was up. A lot of "Star Trek" plots don't make sense upon their 50th viewings, and Trekkies have made an entire cottage industry over nitpicking. 

And, because the franchise is 58 years old (as of 2024), not all the stories are going to have aged well. Indeed, multiple episodes are regularly lambasted by Trekkies as the worst the franchise has to offer, sometimes because they no longer reflect the values of the modern day, and sometimes because they had bad values that only become worse in retrospect. Here are five examples of "Star Trek" stories that aged poorly. 

"Turnabout Intruder" (June 3, 1969) was the final episode of the original "Star Trek" series, and it's long been held as one of the show's very worst. In it, a bitter ex-lover of Captain Kirk (William Shatner), a doctor named Janice Lester (Sandra Smith), has discovered a technology that allows her to trade consciousnesses with another person. Dr. Lester lures Kirk to the brain-switching machine and usurps his body, hoping to take over the U.S.S. Enterprise. 

Her motivation for stealing the Enterprise comes from the Starfleet policy that women are not allowed to serve as starship captains, a sexist conceit that doesn't fit in with the ordinarily accepting philosophy of the Federation. This detail is openly and resoundingly ignored by Trekkies and is generally not considered canon, despite being mentioned in dialogue. The episode continues with its sexism, however, by presenting the Kirk-occupying Dr. Lester as "too emotional" to lead, and too prone to feminine trickery. The episode ultimately argues that women who seek positions of power are crazy. 

/Film recently declared "Turnabout Intruder" to be the worst episode of "Star Trek," citing the above reasons. The story is well-told, and both Sandra Smith and William Shatner give great performances playing two characters each, but the sexist ideas behind it are too offensive to be ignored. It's so strange that "Star Trek," a series that argued against bigotry and in favor of multiculturalism, would be so regressive.

And speaking of sexism, one needn't look too far past "Angel One" (January 25, 1988) to find misogyny in the era of "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Also declared one of the worst episodes of its series by /Film, "Angel One" sees the U.S.S. Enterprise-D visiting the titular colony that has been set up as a matriarchy. The women are tall and physically strong, while the men are small and effeminate. Already, "Angel One" seems to be arguing that size and physical strength are required for women to be considered rulers. 

The leader of the Angel colony, Beata (Karen Montgomery) becomes enamored of Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and tries to seduce him. She is also wrestling with a separatist movement that wishes to claim gender equality. Beata sees them as a threat and aims to have the men in the movement executed. It takes a talking-to from Riker to explain that her society will no longer be matriarchal or patriarchal, but equal. 

The episode, like "Turnabout Intruder," argues that women wishing to be in positions of power are stubborn and mean. One can see that "Star Trek" was trying to depict a gender-flipped version of misogyny, but given how much sexism still exists in the world, it's hard not to see "Angel One" as just being sexist unto itself. 

The original idea for "Code of Honor" (October 12, 1987) was supposed to feature a species of reptilian aliens that had adopted a code of honor inspired by the Bushido code used by medieval samurai. As the script was developed, however, the reptilians gave way to more humanoid aliens. Sadly, it was the episode's original director, Russ Mayberry, who decided to cast all Black actors as the aliens, the Ligonians. The casting, as well as their costumes, made the Ligonians read as racial stereotypes, seemingly culled from dated, racist 1940s "Darkest Africa" style media. The Ligonians were a regressive society that believed in kidnapping their brides and in trials by combat, making the stereotyping even worse. 

The story goes that Mayberry was fired halfway through the episode, forcing Les Landau to complete the episode. Mayberry was, it seems, fired over the casting, so even the makers of "Next Generation" knew they were doing something tasteless. Because "Next Generation" was so young at this point in its run, and because it was produced at such a breakneck pace, there was no way to merely scrap the episode and start again. So "Code of Honor" went to air, stereotypes intact, pleasing no one. This one has continued to age badly, and it too is often listed as one of the worst "Star Trek" episodes of all time. 

In terms of its story, the "Star Trek: Voyager" episode  "Tattoo" (November 6, 1995) is just fine. Chakotay (Robert Beltran) finds symbols on a distant alien planet that coincidentally resembles the tattoo on his temple. He investigates the symbol while storms rage overhead, putting the U.S.S. Voyager in peril. He eventually finds a tribe of alien natives, all with matching tattoos, who explain that they visited Earth many thousands of years before, and gifted the First Nation people with an alien widget. The aliens assumed that the First Nation people were all killed off, and they have been defensive ever since. Chakotay explains that humans have evolved and don't commit genocide anymore. "Tattoo" isn't terribly creative, but it's in the spirit of "Star Trek." 

The reason "Tattoo" has aged poorly is because of what we now know about the Chakotay character. The makers of "Voyager" hired a man named Jamake Highwater as a consultant on American Indian culture, hoping Highwater could make Chakotay's culture accurate. Highwater, it would eventually be revealed, was not Cherokee as he claimed, and his knowledge of First Nation people was wholly invented. Highwater was exposed as early as 1984, but producers kept hiring him. Highwater passed away in 2001. 

As such, it's hard to take the First Nation spirituality on display in "Voyager" terribly seriously. What once felt like positive representation turned out to be another form of stereotyping. Chakotay's tribe was listed in "Tattoo," and it's entirely imaginary. "Star Trek: Prodigy" would eventually re-declare Chakotay to be Nicarao.

The third season of "Star Trek: Enterprise" kicked off with a grim bang in an episode called "The Xindi" (September 10, 2003). A mysterious unmanned weapon appeared in orbit around Earth and proceeded to obliterate the state of Florida. A species called the Xindi took credit, which was strange, and no one on Earth had ever heard of the Xindi. The U.S.S. Enterprise was called back to Earth, took on a complement of military roughnecks, and took to the stars to investigate who the Xindi were and, more importantly, brought them to violent justice. 

The third season of "Enterprise" was clearly meant to be a metaphor for 9/11, and sought to reflect the violence and chaos that the world was living in 2003. The problem with "The Xindi," and the reason the episode hasn't aged well, is that "Enterprise" seemingly had no point of view about its own vengeful rage. A lot of the world was feeling angry and vengeful after 9/11, and the United States started several wars as a result. "Star Trek," a notoriously pacifistic series, tried to recapture that warlike wrath but didn't quite succeed. Many viewers may have seen themselves in the angry Captain Archer (Scott Bakula), but "Enterprise" never could decide if Archer's anger was helpful and efficient, or a major failing of his character. 

With most social issues, the "Star Trek" point of view is usually a progressive one. War is bad. People deserve rights. Slavery is evil. "The Xindi," in trying to be topical and immediate, didn't have the luxury of perspective. We were still living in a post-9/11 world, and the writers of "Enterprise" couldn't develop a moral stance on anything. 

The plots and characters are all fine, but the attitudes are very much of their time.