Star Trek: 10 Most Overused Plot Tropes
1. Characters Being Stranded On A Planet And Forced To Work Together
What better way to get two characters to know each other than by having them both stranded on a planet, forced to work together to survive. This was the plan of the Tamarians from the iconic Next Generation episode, Darmok, who forced their Captain and Picard to go through an adventure together alone on a planet in order to teach Picard their language.
Shared struggles build strong bonds and we see this happen many more times. In the Next Generation episode, The Enemy, Geordi must cooperate with a Romulan while trapped on a planet ravaged by violent storms, and in the Enterprise episode, Dawn, Trip Tucker learns about the Arconian people while stranded with an Arconian, awaiting rescue on a desolate moon.
In all of these cases, the characters are forced to help each other in order to survive. This is a really cool way of having these characters learn and grow.