Star Trek Meme: Day 3

[selenak]

Day 3 - Who is your least favorite character?At first I t hought: I don't have one, in any of the series/movies. Then I reconsidered. But let's define what I mean by "least favorite" first. The criteria isn't "being a villain"; there are some villains I'm very fond of indeed for, well, reasons (Kai Winn, you manipulative scheming Renaissance

Comments

[selenak]

I don't know whether I would have had less of an issue with Sybok without the "Spock's brother" factor, but I suspect "putting everyone in touch with their feelings" and this resulting in cult like adoration by many would have rubbed me wrongly either way.

the worst part of Nemesis is that it’s got no sympathy for the Remans at all.

True. The Nosferatu look is just the outward symptom of that. And considering the Romulans were originally emigrated Vulcans, the idea that there was already a sentient species around which got subjugated is certainly workable. But they're just around to be evil minions of evil. Speaking of Spartacus, for all its guts & gore trashiness Spartacus the series actually did a good job in its characterisation of not just the gladiators but also the other slaves in terms of how people who were exploited, abused and traumatized their entire lives respond once they have not just a shot at freedom but actual power over some of their abusers, making it varied from person to person, and making it clear that however understandable the background, torture and rape are wrong no matter who does it. So if Shinzon had been a Dark!Spartacus, someone with admirable goals but who due to the way he grew up and all the suffering around him is responsible for war crimes in turn, he could have been a fascinating villain. Though I think in that case they didn't need the clone connection, on the contrary, it would have been far better if he'd been a Reman himself.

I could imagine a plot where the Federation is at first delighted with rumors of an uprising in the Romulan Empire, and sends Picard & Co. on a covert mission to support the rebels, and Picard meets Shinzon and admires him a lot, only for Shinzon's troops to fall into war crimes, with the ethical dilemma being not just how to stop it but also how to stop it without simply restoring the pre-uprising Romulans-On-Top status quo (especially since that would subject the Remans to a whole new cycle of abuse). But for that, the Remans and Shinzon would have needed to be thought through and presented as layered, and the movie's goal far more ambitious. Ah, well.