10 Unintentionally Funny Moments In Star Trek

Here’s the thing—a lot of the moments listed here were intended to be relatively unserious standalone episodes, and as such their silliness isn’t too damaging to the series as a whole. TNG’s Justice and the original series’ Plato’s Stepchildren may be hard to take seriously, but they’re only small instalments in a long running series which is bound to have its duds.

But the death of David Marcuss, Kirk’s estranged son, in the franchise’s third theatrical outing 1984’s The Search for Spock, was clearly intended to be a pivotal emotional moment in the film, and should have been a devastating scene.

Unfortunately, no one told Robin Curtis, who plays half Romulan, half Vulcan, and all wooden Lt. Saavik, and her legendary utterance of “David is dead” is a terribly timed bit of “emotionless” acting which sounds more robotic than Vulcan.

Shatner manages to salvage the scene with a genuinely superb breakdown in reaction, but there’s no denying that the chirpy “David is dead” almost derails the entire film with its unexpected hilarity.