Summary
- The Star Trek universe spans centuries, mixing thrilling and tragic moments.
- Significant deaths, like Tripp Tucker and Spock, highlight emotional depth and impact in Star Trek series.
- Gul Dukat's daughter's tragic story and the disappearance of the USS Voyager add complexity to the Star Trek universe.
The current state of the Star Trek universe includes a history that encompasses several centuries, starting in the late 20th century and extending hundreds of years into the future. There have been some exciting and terrifying moments throughout these years, along with many triumphant wins and tragic losses.
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Star Trek is a show that's usually seen as a drama, and only with the more recent shows have the writers and producers tried experimenting with comedy. Space can be terrifying, exploring it can be a risky and dangerous task, and tragedy can be found on every planet in the galaxy.
6 The Colony Of Tarsus 4
Stardate: 2246
- Star Trek: The Original Series, S1E13, "The Conscience of the King."
Little was known of the alien fungus that decimated the crops on Tarsus 4 and doomed the human colonists to a long, slow, and painful death in 2246. However, the governor's plan to invoke martial law and kill half the population according to his own beliefs in eugenics in order to save the other half has its roots in Earth's history.
When Starfleet authorities arrived with extra supplies, they were too late to stop the massacre, and to deepen the tragedy, they arrived earlier than planned and could have saved the entire population. Governor Kodos' charred body was found, but it was never properly identified. James Kirk, one of the few survivors, started an investigation on a tip from a friend and found Kodos posing as actor and theater manager Anton Karidian.
The TOS episode "The Conscience of the King" is not the story of the Tarsus colony, but how the perpetrator of this massacre was found and brought to justice by James Kirk twenty years later. The event is also referenced in the Strange New Worlds episode "A Quality of Mercy" and the remastered version of TNG's "Inheritance."
5 Picard's Capture
Stardate: 2366
- Star Trek: The Next Generation, S3E26, "The Best of Both Worlds."
Up until this point, the Borg had already been a force to be reckoned with, but encounters with them had been limited to deep space. The threat presented by the Borg came into sharp relief when Starfleet unexpectedly lost one of its most talented captains to the Collective.
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Picard's assimilation also shattered any hope that any and every race could be reasoned with and have a sense of mutual respect and autonomy, which was one of the basic founding principles of 24th-century Starfleet. On a galactic and political level, this was a devastating loss, but on a personal level, the Borg had taken a brilliant mind and turned it against former allies.
Locutus of Borg was intended to act as an intermediary between the Collective and Earth, making the assimilation of the planet and its entire population as efficient as possible. The crew of the Enterprise-D undertook a bold plan to capture Locutus and use his knowledge of the Borg to defeat them, at least temporarily, and eventually used the same information to free Picard.
4 Death Of Tripp Tucker
Stardate: 2161
- Star Trek: Enterprise, S4E22, "These Are The Voyages."
Tripp Tucker sacrifices himself to save Captain Archer, only to die of his horrible burns, but considering how important he was to the storyline, his death feels like a tacked-on way to close a series that ended too soon. Strictly speaking, this isn't even the last episode of Enterprise, which makes this loss even more tragic. It's a series of holographic images generated by the holodeck of the Enterprise-D at the request of William Riker.
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The disappointment that followed the unceremonious end of a series that deserved better overlaps into Tripp Tucker's gruesome and needless death, and it's not a surprise that there are a few novels that retcon this completely and give him his happily ever after with T'Pol. In the official universe, however, all that's there is a sad scene where the Vulcan subcommander says a somber goodbye to Archer with a hint that she'll be traveling to Earth to return Tripp's personal effects to his parents.
3 Tora Ziyal's Death
Stardate: 2374
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, S6E6, "Sacrifice of Angels."
Gul Dukat is one of the most notorious villains in the Star Trek universe, and he's a perfect bad guy for the darkness and grit that makes DS9 the dark horse of the franchise. The best antagonists have a sympathetic backstory, and this one belongs to him.
This is the tragic story of Tora Ziyal. She was Dukat's daughter, and her mother was a Bajoran, Tora Naprem. Dukat had to hide his mixed family from the Cardassian command, and in the course of trying to get them to safety, Naphrem was killed in a crash, and Ziyal was captured and forced to work in a dilithium mine. She was eventually rescued by her father, but when she returned with him to Cardassia, they were both ostracized, with Dukat getting a serious demotion as punishment.
What follows are years of estrangement and reconciliation as Dukat and his daughter, who is now living on Deep Space Nine, take opposite sides in the Dominion War. Ziyal's death, considered the execution of a traitor, pushes Dukat over the edge emotionally. Any chance he has of redemption dies with her.
2 Disappearance Of Voyager
Stardate: 2371
- Star Trek: Voyager, S1E1, "Caretaker."
The flagship of the new Intrepid Class, Voyager had a new variable warp nacelle engine, a theoretical top speed of close to warp 10, 15 decks, bio-neural computer circuitry, and a crew of 141 people, so when it disappeared into the Delta Quadrant on its maiden voyage, it was a serious blow to the Federation and Starfleet.
The USS Voyager was so sparkly and new that the paint had barely dried, so to speak, when it was sent on a routine mission to find a Maquis ship, the Val Jean, which had gone rogue in a far-flung part of Federation Space. Both the Val Jean and the Voyager were sucked into the other side of the galaxy by an entity known as the Caretaker, and both were thought to be lost until Voyager returned to the Alpha Quadrant seven years later.
1 Death Of Spock
Stardate: 2285
- Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
For viewers paying attention, there are a few moments of foreshadowing earlier in the film when Spock "plays dead" for the Kobayashi Maru test, and Kirk makes a joke about his "acting ability." There may be fewer somber moments in the movies when compared to the TV shows, but the ones in the feature films are the ones that had the most profound effect on the audience.
Fans might argue over other sad moments in Star Trek, but the death of Spock is almost universally accepted to be one of the most tragic events in Federation and Starfleet history. This was before retconning character deaths and resurrection was a thing, so when Spock died, there wasn't a possibility of him coming back. It's tough to watch as Kirk gives his eulogy, and the shot of the missile carrying Spock's coffin as it lands on the Genesis planet, with "Amazing Grace" playing on the bagpipes in the background, is enough to make even the staunchest Vulcan shed a few tears.
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