Star Trek: 15 Most Hilariously Unthreatening Alien Races

By John K Kirk /

5. The Pakleds €“ "Samaritan Snare" €“ TNG

The Pakleds are distinguished by their stupidity. And that's basically it. They steal technology and resist developing their own by kidnapping or exploiting other races to make it for them. That's what happened to Geordi La Forge when the Enterprise answered a fake distress call from a Pakled ship. They stunned him, imprisoned him and then refused to give him back to the Enterprise, forcing a pursuit and stand-off. Of course, he eventually was returned but by a carefully conceived stratagem of simply being smarter. The dialogue from these guys was about as painful as listening to the callers on a daytime AM radio talk show sharing their cultured opinions with the radio host. Seriously, why did we have to watch a bunch of tubby simpletons repeat lines like "You make ship go now", or "you smart €“ you be smart for us" or "we not give man back €“ man smart" for an entire hour? Seriously, lob a couple of wide-spread, low-yield photon torpedoes to reduce their shields, beam an away team over there and have Worf pound the hell out of these Tele-Trek-Tubbies. Let him go "tinky-winky" on their backsides and see how much of a threat they are.