With a serialized format and an endlessly creative writing team, Star Trek has given fans marvelous, novel aliens, worlds, and phenomenons since it debuted. One of the franchise's most successful series was Star Trek: The Next Generation, starring Patrick Stewart as Captain Picard. After The Original Series was prematurely cancelled, Gene Rodenberry was desperate to give his vision another go. Lucky for all Trekkies, he got that shot in the '80s.
Overall, fans agree early TNG could be a bit rocky. The series had cheesy plots, lackluster scientific intrigue, and Riker had way too many love interests. However, around mid-season 2, things started to pick up and the show became a cultural icon, spawning several other series, films, and books.
Though things improved, Star Trek definitely still had its flaws. Most often, they were bizarre, unsavory characters that somehow managed to get involved in whole episodes or more. The only thing that made them bearable was that the creators caught on pretty fast to what their fans didn't like. Of all the unsavory folk, Enterprise never showed of discussed them again past their initial episode.
However, devout Star Trek fans even remember the characters Star Trek tried to make them forget. After all, they can only never write about them again. The episode(s) they took part in? Writers and creators can't retroactively change those. For some fans, that's more than enough to burn a bad or illogical character into their minds.
Here are 25 Characters TNG Wants Us To Forget.
Dr. Katherine Pulaski
When Gates McFadden, actress for Dr. Crusher, had disputes with some of the creators, she was written off and replaced with Dr. Katherine Pulaski. However interesting Pulaski could be, some writing missteps and internal backlash spelled doom for the new doctor. For example, they put her at odds with fan favorite Data, questioning his humanity and autocracy a little too rudely. Furthermore, a different favorite, Patrick Stewart as dear Captain Picard, wanted McFadden back. Unfortunately, Pulaski only survived one season before creators axed her. A few fascinating episodes couldn't save her from the star power of Picard or Data.
Ronin
In what is named one of the worst Star Trek episodes ever, Dr. Beverly Crusher is slowly being possessed by her grandmother's ghost boyfriend. "Sub Rosa" irks a lot of fans, and the main source of that irking is Ronin, the main antagonist. However attractive he seems to be, his main goal is to get Beverly in his clutches to extend his own life.
Between being a creepy leach and the bizarre concept, Ronin is quickly discarded post-episode. Sure, he may have infected Beverly's mind and make her go a little ghost guy crazy and almost abandon ship, but definitely no therapy required.
Unfortunately for everyone involved, Ronin is tragically unforgettable.
Daimon Tog
Until Deep Space Nine, the Ferengi got a pretty horrible reputation as wanton schemesters with little respect for other people. Few episodes do this better that "Menage A Troi", where Deanna, her mother, and Riker get taken away by a Ferengi named Daimon Tog. Tog only wants them for Lwaxana's powerful Betazoid powers, thinking they'd make him a better businessman. Throughout the episode, Tog is creepy, rude, and generally lecherous. It's an uncomfortable watch, to say the least. Lucky for fans, the show quickly abandons him once the episode ends and no one sees the worst of the Ferengi ever again.
Leah Brahms
In desperation to fix the ship, Geordi once made a hologram representation of Enterprise's designer, Leah Brahms. As one does, he accidentally falls for her. Of course, when meeting the real her, things don't work out so well because, shockingly, she's more complex than what's in her file.
However, awkward Geordi charms himself out of the situation and Leah just leaves the ship as his friend. Though this is a big development in his character, realizing he shouldn't fall in love with ideas, the lesson's ignored almost immediately. He later falls in love with a girl just by snooping through her diary and pursues her, despite knowing she might be a dangerous shapeshifter.
Minuet
While Riker does have a problem falling for any pretty face that comes his way, there is a special place in his heart for the hologram, Minuet. During a program update from an alien race, the species takes the ship hostage. However, the more life-like program they created to keep Riker and Picard busy, Minuet, begins to become more real than expected.
Later, when "Romulans" try to trick Riker in a sort of mind prison, they use Minuet as his wife. With such an oddly deep bond to the holographic gal, it's odd those are the only two times he really mentions her.
Jenna D'Sora
On his road to humanity, Data had more than a few awkward missteps. However, few are quite as awkward as his brief romance with Jenna D'Sora. A fellow scientist and music lover, Data and Jenna grew to be close friends during their time on the Enterprise. When Jenna and her long time boyfriend, Jeff, broke up, though, the pair chose to try a romantic relationship.
Quickly, things began to go awry. Though Jenna was frustrated with Jeff's unemotional responses, Data's actual complete lack of emotion was problematic. He did his best, but the lack of passion behind his actions drove them apart. They broke up amicably and no one saw Jenna on Enterprise ever again.
Alkar
Star Trek: The Next Generation did its best to show the complex duality of politics, its goodness and its evils. One of the cringiest portrayals was Alkar, a galaxy-renowned mediator who was using the youth of women to keep himself alive longer. With the self-important, manipulative reasoning that using their lives saved more lives on warring planets, he was a real scumbag. He almost destroyed Deanna Troi with his antics.
Though he passes away before the episode ends, no one talks about the implications of his secret life. Was he really all that good a mediator, or did his manipulative ways seep into that, too?
Selar
In "The Schizoid Man," Star Trek fans met a fascinating and beautiful young Vulcan woman named Selar. She was filling in for Dr. Pulaski as she is a different high-ranking medical officer on the ship. However, after this episode Selar never appears in person, only is mentioned in passing.
While the continual acknowledgment is good, Star Trek definitely wants fans to forget what she looked like. Why? Because the actress who plays Selar is the same actress who plays K'Ehleyr, Worf's paramour only 14 episodes later. Between a cool-headed, one-off Vulcan and the fiery half-Klingon ambassador, Star Trek would prefer you remember K'Ehleyr. She does have a kid with Worf, after all.
Brenna Odell
Sometimes Star Trek has a decidedly strange idea on the future. One of those cases is the Bringloidi, a group of human settlers that moved to a different planet and decided to become 1800's rural Ireland. Yes, you read that correctly.
Among all this madness is Brenna Odell, the daughter of their leader. Brash and unapologetic, her father may lead but she's the one who keeps a lot of it together. With pick up lines involving feet-washing, though, she certainly only makes the weird, Irish stereotype of an episode even more uncomfortable. Despite her sensual relationship with Riker, the show is happy to forget she ever was on the ship.
Paul Stubbs
When a lifetime of work is on the line, it's understandable for people to get a little testy. However, perhaps not as testy as Paul Stubbs. Dr. Stubbs joined the Enterprise team to launch a probe into a neutron star he'd spent all his life studying.
However, when Wesley Crusher's nanobots project goes awry and accidentally creates sentient life (yep, that happened) they take over his probe and plan to leave with it. Afraid of losing his probe, Stubbs plans to commit casual nanobot genocide to ensure the success of his lifelong dream.
Things worked out well for everyone, but maybe someone should be concerned about the mad scientist that almost destroyed a species.
Beata
Early on in Star Trek: The Next Generation, they visit a planet called Angel One. Here, women are dominant and men are subservient. However, some Starfleet men crash-landed on the planet and have been causing havoc.
While trying to negotiate, the away team meets Beata, leader of Angel One. She's strong, fierce, and outspoken, but also kinda creepy. It's not long before she basically abducts Riker into her bed. All the while, she plans on executing the human men once they're found.
By the end of the episode, the Starfleet men are allowed to stay in exile, but no one acknowledges the fact she doesn't seem like the kind of woman to stay merciful for long.
Soren
Under the right conditions, Star Trek can have some really profound things to say about society, culture, politics, human nature, etc. The series almost does that with "The Outcast", an episode about an androgynous species that looks down on preferring one gender over another. Riker, charming man he is, meets one J'nali named Soren who, over time, reveals she feels more female and is attracted to him.
Despite Riker's best efforts to whisk her away, Soren is caught gender-ing and then the government brainwashed her into thinking she was sick. For an interesting premise it has a pretty icky ending, so it's no surprise Star Trek never discusses it again. Soren definitely deserved better, though.
Sela
For how hard the first season of The Next Generation tried to erase Tasha Yar, later seasons try really hard to basically bring her back. First, in her sister. Next, in a two-part parallel universe version of herself. Finally, and most unsettling, in her other universe half-Romulan daughter, Sela. For a little while, Star Trek was setting up the bitter and aggressive Sela as a new big bad, but then abruptly dropped the ball. After one mission failure Enterprise never saw her again.
With how much set-up went into Sela, her disappearance was a disappointment. No wonder Star Trek would try to get fans to forget about her.
Maura
While Maura isn't the exact name of this creature, it's the closest thing fans have to one. In the episode "Aquiel," the Enterprise comes across a small space station in disarray. On a two-man station, someone vaporizes one crew-member. When they find the missing crew-member, Aquiel, she doesn't have many answers for them.
They eventually discover what slayed her teammate was a mysterious shapeshifter creature that absorbed her dog, Maura's, DNA and masqueraded as the innocent pooch. Instead, it was a malignant alien trying to infiltrate. Though the corpse mystery is solved, no one questions if any other shapeshifters are infiltrating similar far-out posts. The crew calls it good and moves on.
Thomas Riker
Treading over his own history, Riker and the Enterprise find themselves passing by a planet where he almost was trapped down below the surface. However, they're shocked to find that technically, he is. In a transporter malfunction, one copy of him teleported back onto the ship while another stayed on the planet.
Now dubbed Thomas Riker, the pair butt heads and find themselves at constant odds. After all, Commander Riker has years of discipline under his belt while Thomas Riker is still a headstrong young hero. Eventually, Thomas gets transferred elsewhere and the Enterprise just pretends there aren't two Will Rikers flying around the galaxy.
Ro Laren
Two of the strongest additions to the galaxy were done in TNG with the Bajoran and the Cardassians. Cardassia used the Bajorans as cheap labor for years. Their hot-blooded conflict added complicated shades of gray whenever Enterprise came in contact with them, and this all became personified in the fiery Ensign Ro Laren. She was a shamed Starfleet officer that won a second chance during a Bajor/Cardassia conflict.
Despite a strong start, the show never quite knows what to do with Ro Laren. She features frequently in her first season and then just sort of fades into the background. The show tries to ignore the waste of a good character, but it's a shame nonetheless.
Vash
Along with all its victories, Star Trek: TNG also has its failures. One of them is the abandonment of Vash. An adventurous treasure hunter, she catches the eye of one Captain Picard and brings out the Indiana Jones in him during his vacation to Risa. Their chemistry is strong and they bring out new sides of one another.
After her first encounter with Q, though, he offers to make her apart of the Q Continuum. Married to adventure, Vash happily accepts. Though this slights Picard, this would mean she could pop in any time and explore their dynamic more. But nope, she is never seen again.
Armus
When the crew essentially meets the essence of evil, it should perhaps be more noteworthy. Armus is the negative aspects of a race called the Titans, peeled off of them and poured onto this planet like a nuclear waste dump. Unaware of this, Enterprise sends an away team down. Immediately the black mass ends Tasha Yar's life very unceremoniously.
The only way they escape is by Picard distracting the creature long enough for its defenses to weaken and they can beam off the planet. They leave a warning, but when have warnings stopped curiosity? It's near criminal that this "Skin of Evil" was supposed to be so daunting but never came back to haunt them.
Doctor Reyga
In one of the few non-romantic Dr. Crusher-centered episodes, she holds a science summit on the Enterprise. During their travels, she met a Ferengi scientist who found a way to create metaphysic shielding that can be used to enter the corona of stars. As the Ferengi don't care much for science, she's using her status to give Doctor Reyga a platform.
Unfortunately for Doctor Reyga, people are bitter and selfish. Jo'Bril, a fellow scientist, ended Reyga's life and faked his own disintegration to discredit Reyga. Though Reyga's technology is eventually integrated into Enterprise's own shielding, the Ferengi revolutionary is hardly given the credit he deserves.
Odan
When Star Trek fans are first introduced to the Trill, they meet them through Odan, an ambassador and lover of Dr. Crusher. In a terrible accident, something fatally injures Odan and the Enterprise realizes that his species are symbiotes attached to hosts. While the bodies have their own personalities, the knowledge and experience of their previous hosts transfer to them.
Not only does Odan transfer into a new body and disappears into the night, but Star Trek never discusses the Trill again until Deep Space Nine. By then, they have a whole new design. Though Jadzia and Ezri Dax are fan favorites, TNG actively let fans forget about Odan, the first Star Trek Trill.