10 Most Frustrating Star Trek Moments Ever
3. Admiral Nechayev Underestimates The Maquis
This one stings because of the character of Nechayev
overall. While she was presented initially as a thorn in Picard’s side, not to
mention to Riker’s, she slowly was shown to be a bit more than simply a
Starfleet badass, ready to slap our favourite characters down to size.
This is best evidenced in Journey’s End, where she reacts positively to Picard’s attempts to make her feel comfortable by providing her favourite food. Though barely an ice-breaker, it offers the slightest warming of the character, thus allowing the audience to see her as more than one note.
This is then undone in Deep Space Nine.
While The Maquis is one of the strongest stories of the show’s early years, it unfortunately just deposits an intransigent Nechayev back to us. She arrives at the station to address the Maquis threat, then effectively barks at Sisko that he just needs to try harder. She clearly is only there because she has to be, badly underestimates the Maquis, and then leaves.
It is so frustrating as Journey’s End should have been a
lesson to her character about just how far the Maquis were willing to go to
protect their homes. Whatever growth had been shown in that episode was washed
away in one short scene. While it sets up a fabulous exchange between Sisko and
Kira, it comes at the expense of a character who had, for better or worse,
started to melt away the icy exterior – only to have that suddenly freeze up
again.