20 Most Cringeworthy Star Trek: The Next Generation Moments

1. The Ligonians From Code Of Honor (1987)

Wow. Just... wow. The Ligonians were apparently conceived as a culture too bound by codes of behaviour to have anything to do with other species unless those species played strictly by the Ligonians' rules. They were also conceived as being barbarians, as evidenced by the fight to the death staged between their leader's wife and Tasha Yar, which involved a lot of running around vertical metal poles. So naturally, the original director of the episode, Russ Mayberry, took one look at the script and decided to hire no-one but African-American actors, whom he then encouraged to play their parts with all the racial sensitivity and nuance of someone doing Bloody Mary in South Pacific. 'Encouraged' may be the wrong term to use there, as according to Wil Wheaton, the director treated the black actors in a consistently racist way. This, among other things, led Gene Roddenberry to fire Mayberry (a good decision) before allowing another director to complete the episode without reshooting or recasting anything (a bad decision). The end result is an episode that fans actively avoid because there is simply no way of watching it without being painfully uncomfortable. That's not just our opinion: Wil Wheaton, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn (who wasn't even in the episode), and almost everyone else involved call this the worst episode of the entire series. Jonathan Frakes went so far as to dub it a 'racist piece of sh*t', for which we bless his hairy chest again - still wishing we hadn't seen it in those sparkly pajamas, though. What are your suggestions for the cringeworthy moments from the other Star Trek series? Share your picks below in the comments thread.