The 5 Most Hated Characters On Star Trek: The Original Series

“Star Trek” is first and foremost a workplace drama, set aboard the well-organized USS Enterprise, a spaceship carefully divided into the necessary departments, offices, and workstations. The protagonists are necessarily very professional and tend to keep a stiff upper lip, even in the face of unusual space phenomena and aggressive alien visitors. Very occasionally, one of the protagonists loses his cool and makes a foolish decision or has an unexpected panic, but calm prevails most of the time. The main cast of “Star Trek” is loved by many because of their ability to perform under pressure. It’s hard to hate someone when you know they’re so good at their job.

But Star Trek also featured plenty of characters who were never entirely insane. Sure, there were wayward agents of chaos, whining incompetents, corrupt captains and other characters that ran counter to the show’s egalitarian ethos, to the point that it sometimes felt like a betrayal. Sure, Star Trek often presented itself as a progressive show portraying a pacifist future, but it also had dictator-worshipping cranks and women who hated their gender. Star Trek wasn’t always progressive, even by 1960s values.

Below are some of the worst characters to have ever appeared in “Star Trek.” They contribute nothing to the fabric of the world, nor do they enrich the viewer with their unique perspective. The characters below are, in most cases, just plain embarrassing. Read on to discover the five (yes, six) worst characters from the original “Star Trek,” ranked from worst to worst.

“The Alternative Factor” (March 30, 1967) was recently named one of the five worst episodes of the original “Star Trek” by /Film, and it’s easy to see why. It’s nonsensical, incompetent, and poorly shot, so audiences often have no idea what’s even going on. The story revolves around Lazarus (Robert Brown), a mysterious interdimensional traveler who seems to be slipping in and out of our dimension. Just watching Lazarus elicits laughs, as his ridiculous spirit-gum beard looks fake for a high school play.

Eventually it’s explained that Lazarus is passing through an inter-dimensional tube-like rift. But as he passes through it, he encounters his crazed doppelganger, and the two begin a slow-motion, over-photographed fistfight. Then another Lazarus appears in our dimension and explains it all again. The two Lazaruses are supposed to be polar opposites, one crazy, one rational, but they never appear as separate entities. Also, their little inter-dimensional fistfight seems to blow a hole in the space-time continuum.

Both characters seem irrational, the reasons for their constant fighting remain unclear, and with everything in reality at stake, it makes sense that at least one of them would want to stop fighting the other. Instead, we get two screaming, mindless villains who end up sealed away in a pocket dimension to lash out at each other for all eternity. That’s good. They deserve it.

Star Trek is often touted as open-minded and progressive, but these two characters show just how regressive the series really is.

In “Space Seeds” (February 16, 1967), the Enterprise discovers the cryogenically preserved body of former tyrant Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban), a charismatic dictator who survived the darkest days of the 21st century war. Khan has missed almost 200 years of history, so historian Lt. Marla McGivers (Madeline Lu) is assigned to guide him to the present day. But McGivers isn’t just interested in history; she has a dangerous fetish for it. She comes to respect Khan, even rebelling when Captain Kirk (William Shatner) pressures, disapproves, and mistreats her. She is a withering flower, and hardly a good example of Starfleet professionalism. Marla eventually leaves the Enterprise with Khan.

The final episode of the series, “Turnabout Intruder” (June 3, 1969), drops all sorts of sexist assumptions into Star Trek lore. Most Trekkies tend to ignore “Turnabout Intruder” because the dialogue states that women are not allowed to be captains of starships because they are “too hysterical.” In the episode, Dr. Janice Lester (Sandra Smith) uses a high-tech device to swap bodies with Kirk and use his identity to hijack the Enterprise. In Kirk’s body, she constantly screams and acts recklessly at every turn, proving the episode’s sexist points. Dr. Lester is a character used to prove that women are incompetent and men are strict and competent. This is a pretty obnoxious character in what is likely the worst episode of the show.

“Omega’s Glory” (March 1, 1968) is another pretty silly episode. In it, Kirk and company are beamed to the planet Omega IV, where they find a civil war raging between tribes called the Yangs and the Koms. The war is being perpetuated by a crazed captain named Ronald Tracy (Morgan Woodward), who has lost most of his crew to a debilitating disease. He believes that the Yangs and Koms, who live for thousands of years, have a cure. Tracy is typical of the evil Starfleet captain in that he knowingly continues the civil war for his own ends. It’s easy to imagine Tracy as a stand-in for the United States during the Vietnam War.

But further plot twists destroy the trope: Apparently Omega IV had developed in parallel with Earth many years earlier, and even had its own American Pledge of Allegiance, American flag, and U.S. Constitution – purely coincidental, of course. Kirk and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) realize that their names “Yang” and “Com” are an abbreviation of “Yankee” and “Communist.” This is the most ridiculous Cold War allegory imaginable.

In a twist, it is revealed that Captain Tracy is just a battle-crazed fool. He wants to perpetuate the civil war and find a cure for the disease, but he is portrayed as thoughtless, crazy, and sweaty. His presence doesn’t help the story, and his character is immature and weak-willed. What a great, memorable, dynamic character.

Lt. Bailey (Anthony Cole) was the first truly awful officer audiences saw on Star Trek. In “Operation Corbomite” (November 10, 1966), the Enterprise is confronted by a giant, spherical ship called the Phasarius. The unseen captain of the Phasarius brags about his power and tries to destroy the Enterprise for invading his territory. Kirk cleverly negotiates a ceasefire and bluffs his way to survival for his crew. He claims that Federation ships are equipped with a substance called corbomite that deflects all attacks back at the attackers. The Enterprise will be destroyed, but so will the Phasarius. It’s a tense situation, but Kirk’s cleverness keeps it from erupting into violence.

Perhaps contrasting Kirk’s calmness is the inclusion of the nasty, whiny Lt. Bailey, who questions every order Kirk gives and panics that something might go wrong. While it may have been dramatic for Kirk to have someone to talk to, Bailey is not one to contest wits. All Bailey does is complain, and it could even put the Enterprise at risk. Early in the episode, the viewer is left hoping that Spock will knock Bailey out by pinching the Vulcan’s throat and that the adults will handle the situation.

At least Bailey eventually calms down and tours the Fesarius when it’s revealed that its captain, Baroque (Clint Howard), is actually peaceful and friendly. No one asked me, but apparently Bailey isn’t the best diplomat to begin negotiations with Baroque.

As mentioned above, the main characters of Star Trek have always tended to be calm and professional. Therefore, if you want to create a comedic counterpoint, the logical choice is to create an irreverent and irresponsible character like Harcourt Fenton “Harry” Mudd (Roger C. Carmel). Mudd is lecherous, greedy, sly, and always looking to make a quick buck. In two of his episodes, “Mudd’s Women” (October 13, 1966) and “I, Mudd” (November 3, 1967), Mudd seems especially keen on sex trafficking. In the former episode, Mudd wants to sell several mail-order brides to distant miners, and he gives them anti-aging potions to keep them young. He justifies this by saying that younger women fetch a higher price. That’s awful.

Then, in a later episode, Mudd is put in charge of an underground planet of androids, and it’s implied he’s having sex with the robots. More importantly, he’s built a robot clone of his wife that he can turn off if she starts nagging. It’s embarrassing that Star Trek has been reduced to the “nagging wife” joke.

Harry was meant to be a comedic character, a totally inept procurer opposite a solid character like Kirk. Carmel tries his best, but Harry Mudd isn’t funny. He’s too busy being sexist and nasty to get laughs. Mudd returns to Star Trek: The Animated Series and plays a major role in the first season of Star Trek: Discovery. One episode would probably have been enough. Or maybe less.