10 Utterly Devastating Star Trek Endings That Came Out Of Nowhere
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ต.ค. 2024
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The STTNG episode "The Offspring" actually brought tears to my eyes at the end. The way Lal thanked Data for her life and describing feelings and emotions that Data did not have, was very bitter sweet!
I didn't even hate that admiral anymore, I felt bad for him
The way the Admiral explains how Data's hands were moving faster than he could see as he tried to keep up with the cascading failures in Lal's systems showed Data's love even if he couldn't feel it himself.
One of my all time favorite episodes!
@@joe9739 well he did offer to help Data fix Lal, and you could tell he was upset that she wasn't going to survive.
@@masere yeah, he was a dad himself.
"The Offspring" was Jonathan Frakes's first turn as director. I'd say he knocked it out of the park.
A shame we never saw Lal again.
He did.
The greatest exchange in Star Trek was in that episode. The Admiral had just ordered Data to deliver his daughter, and Data was about to do it.
Then Picard says "Hold your ground". You could see on his face the understanding that this Family incident was a hill he had chosen to sacrifice his career on if necessary. The Admiral says "I beg your pardon", and Picard says “There are times, sir, when men of good conscience cannot blindly follow orders. You acknowledge their sentience but you ignore their personal liberties and freedom. Order a man to hand his child over to the state? Not while I am his Captain.”
The Captain was going up against an Admiral, based solely on his principles, and we learned that deeply truthful lesson It was like war-time or lifeboat rules. Some decisions must be made in the moment.
Later, we watched Data unable to return Lal's love before she stopped and it broke all our hearts. Then we learned that Data had downloaded her consciousness into himself.
Even now, her resurrection would be worthy of a Star Trek movie.
One must wonder: how long after he first activated his emotion chip did Data remember Lal, and what was the outcome of that. That could have been an Oscar-worthy performance from Brent had it been filmed ...
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow has a double gutbuster with her seeing Khan as well and having to make the decision to allow him to live knowing what he would grow up to do.
Dunno if it would make this list, but I always found the ending of 'The Inner Light' absolutely heartbreaking. Picard, sat in his chair, playing his flute.
One small element to "Tears of the Prophets" that was left out of this list: Sisko took his baseball with him to Earth after Jadzia's death. This was different from when Starfleet evacuated DS9 in advance of the Dominion takeover of the station: Dukat saw that he left his baseball as a message.
"His hands... were moving faster than I could see, trying to stay ahead of each breakdown. He refused to give up. He was remarkable. It just... wasn't meant to be."
Those are the lines I remember most from the episode. The actor nailed the delivery. There was palpable regret, shock, pain. So good.
4:34 Disliked Riker's look of disgust at Lal.
@kurtsnyder4752 what are you on about?
I honestly can't even think of that episode without tearing up a bit. Really powerful storytelling. Data had some great episodes! 'Measure of a Man' is another top ten STTNG Data episode.
Another suggestion for the inevitable follow up list: "The Visitor" -- Tony Todd and Avery Brooks are as amazing as that last scene with them is heartbreaking.,
This, 100%.
Omg, I agree. This episode broke me so hard. There was much snot to go with my tears
The fact that "The Sound of Her Voice" isn't number 1 but not even on this list is a crime.
Agreed. That episode is up there with ITPM.
Agreed or also the fact quality of mercy isn't either the fact that pike learns finally that if he avoids his fate then it is Spock who will take his place it really shows that Spock truly felt about pike and gives extra meaning to the menagerie and why he was willing to sacrifice his life to take pike to Talos IV
Or for that manner the episode before it "all those who wander"
And voyager course oblivion should be on the next list
Agree 👍
Voyagers family should be on this list, watching the doctor deal with the death of his holographic daughter hit harder than it should but the phenomenal acting makes it heartbreaking.
Yes. Voyager has one of the best Star Trek episode and also the worse 😂 it’s incredible how the managed that
Kirk: There is, of course, no escape. How would it be? Trapped forever with a raging madman at your throat until time itself came to a stop? For eternity. How would it be?
Spock: Captain, the universe is safe.
Kirk: For you and me. But what of Lazarus? What of Lazarus?
Still gives me chills.
A really... lowkey pretty bad episode with a pretty thougth provoking ending. The sacrifice positiveLaz made was heroic as hell.
@MadSpectre47 Brilliant overall concept for an episode.
Another highlight was the scientific banter between Kirk and Spock about the "rip" in the universe.
The rest, except for the ending, everyone agrees, was poorly implemented.
But Shatner's last lines, spoken in a heartfelt way, always makes me feel the weight of what turns out to be the sacrifice to top all sacrifices, for eternity.
Saw this one as a child. That ending has stuck with me to this day!
This list may be limited to TV episodes, but can anything compare to McCoy shakily telling Kirk that he should "better get down here...better hurry", and what we all go through when he does?
McCoy speaks that line, Kirk and the audience look at Spock's empty chair, and everyone already knows... and is in denial right up until the end.
No Trek series tugged at my heartstrings more than DS9.
Their investment in the characters made everything they went through so heart-wrenching. There motto of O'Brien must suffer gave us so many great episodes of our favorite suffering chief of operations.
SNW: The one about the boy that was integrated into a machine, and in pain from that point onwards, still haunts me. He was placed into hell so that his society could retain its comfortable status quo. Does it remind you of something about our own society’s blindness…😢
What I love most about Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is it debunks the notion that death has no meaning because of the multiverse.
Maybe. There's only one way to find out.
My little internal theory about Lal and Data is that once he uploads her into his own neural net, he slowly starts to feel things. It starts with an episode later in season 3, the Most Toys, when he decides to kill Kivas Fajo because he's too big a threat, and then lies openly to Riker. Then in season 4, when we meet Ishara Yar in "Legacy", he finds that he misses her despite himself. Also, in "Data's Day" while musing he wishes he had intuition and instince, he is still nonetheless suspicious of Ambassador Setal, not to mention when he starts tapping his finger anxiously. And finally in the Season 6 episode "Birthright part 1", Data activates the dream program by chance, when the Gamma Quadrant machine shocks him... but what if Lal's memories and programming had integrated in the a way to "unlock" the dream software.
It didn't come completely out of nowhere but I always thought that the DS9 episode Children of Time had a pretty devastating ending.
Lower Decks remains one of my all time favorite episodes across the Star Trek franchise and I rank it ahead of Data's Daughter for all time gut punches and it was episodes like these that delivered in ways many people couldn't imagine STTNG would be able to when the series launched, we need more great writing like this in future shows.
Unpopular opinion: Strange New Worlds has become the Andor of the Star Trek universe. My favorite Trek series as it has a great cast with great chemistry, balances all the proper lore of old, thought provoking moral issues under the guise of scifi, but ontop of it all a truly beautiful show that is a feast to the eyes that really sells just how utopic and optimistic the future can be
I have had various feelings about the different Star Wars stuff really enjoyed The Acolyte. As far as Star Trek though I have enjoyed all of it, honestly DS9 probably being my favorite with Enterprise and Prodigy making arguments for the top spot.
@@fozzyrinker313 The Acolyte is absolute trash. Lower Decks is light-years better and that's a terrible show
@@eyedunno8462 I love Lower Decks, also a fan of Rick and Morty and Solar Opposites so that makes sense to me.
@@fozzyrinker313 Rick and Morty and Solar Opposites are also terrible shows
"Drone" had some truly underappreciated acting from Jeri Ryan.
"You will adapt." is a brutal, brutal line.
The romance between Odo and Nerys is one of the most epic and heartbreaking in the entire franchise. I so wished they could have ended up together.
When I think of WTF moments in Star Trek, I always think of the DS9 episode “The Jem'Hadar.” It starts out as a bit of a romp, then matures into something about cultural awareness (Humans and Ferengi). Then at the end very quickly leaves you going, “OMG the world just changed!” …and end of season. That one really shocked the heck out of me…
"Lower Decks" was an excellent episode, but I disagree that Seto's death came out of nowhere. We were given several clues during the episode that, though she is all set to risk her life, there's a good chance she's not coming back. The line from the Cardassian officer "I didn't know she would be so young" indicates that the senior officers know that this is probably a suicide mission, even if she doesn't know that. Poignant and gut-wrenching, yes, but not a surprise.
I saw that episode as a rebuttal against the 'red shirt' stereotype of STTOS, showing them as real characters.
I think it comes out of nowhere in the sense that the Lower Decks crew members were sort of stand-ins for the regular cast and of course no one on the regular cast would ever die (unless they were being written out). And most red shirts are men so that made it even more unlikely. Yes, there are hints, but the pull of the stereotypical plot is strong. The producers even wanted to bring her back in a later episode. I think her actual death made the episode so much more poignant and memorable and I'm glad her return never happened, even though I always cry at the ending.
I assume "Ten/Fifteen Star Trek Episodes That Made You Cry" is already a thing, right? My first thought was "Inner Light" but that wasn't so much devastating as it was extraordinarily emotionally gutwrenching.
As for devastating endings, how about SNW 106: Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach
I think "The Sound of Her Voice" and "Course Oblivion" should be there. I mean, I guess the ending of Oblivion (plus the title...) is built to through the episode, but to lose the probe and all record of who they were is just devastating and a more total depressing ending than usual.
Course Oblivion just emotionally destroyed me. :| It was both tragic and infuriating.
Was hoping someone would bring this episode up.
The Sound of Her Voice and The City on the Edge of Forever deserve to be on this list.
Lower Decks always reminded me of the death of Henry Blake on MASH with the death effectively being simply announced via loudspeaker.
Interesting point!
I was genuinely shocked that you guys did not mention David's death in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. To me, that's one of the biggest got punches in Star Trek history.
"Captain... David is dead."
They paid tribute to Merritt Butrick, who died in 1989, in Star Trek VI by showing his photo. The actor even played in a Next Gen episode.
@@Wednesdaywoe1975 "Klingon bastard, you've killed my son."
I teared up as soon as The Offspring was mentioned.
The one thing I would have changed about Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is Carol Cain(I'm blanking the character's name) would come in and console her, maybe asking about Kirk, but without L'ahn actually telling her anything.
I think this would have been a good way to make her connection with the crew a little deeper, while subtly adding to the question of why she joined the crew in the first place.
Kinda surprised Course Oblivion is not on here from ST VGR
The ending that might have surprised me the most was for "The Survivors" (Next Generation). An all-powerful being confesses to having killed an entire race (50 billion of 'em) called the Husnock in retaliation for them killing the one person he loved. The TNG crew realizes that this creature is so powerful that they cannot possibly judge or punish him any more than he can punish himself for what he has done. Nothing in the episode leading up to that revelation suggests that this "man" they have been dealing with was nearly so powerful (or going through such serious remorse).
7: "You are hurting me"
One: "You will adapt"
😢
Thanks for all the tears! I'm really surprised nothing from Prodigy made the top ten, there are a couple brutal moments in that one. Honestly could be way longer though, Star Trek has told some beautiful and painful stories over the years.
On a more...um positive note: Ro's Death gave us the "Angry Spaceship"
Seeing Laan break down highlighted just how much she was bottling things up since season 1 due to her familial history as a Singh progeny that was left on Earth.
VOY: course oblivion for me. Although we know it wasn’t going to be a happy ending, the fact they never even got to send the message capsule out was extremely sad.
I agree.. it was a very sad episode. The ship racing to meet the duplicates and what the discovery when they arrive…. 😢
I agree. It was a right kick in the nuts.
I say it every time...No matter how many times I see ST:TNG "Lower Decks", I tear up when Picard announces Sito's death.
I would add ENT: Cogenitor to this list. Trip was genuinely trying to help but because of the ignorance of humanity at the time, caused a senseless death. The final scene with Archer and Trip in the ready room was gut-wrenching.
Honorable mention to "Real Life" about the EMH's fictional family. The tragedy is in the eye of the beholder, but the ending *really* came out of nowhere.
Oh yes! That was also a surprise ending.
I feel Honourable mention is the highest it can get because it truly comes out of nowhere. Torres said she was making it 'more realistic' but replaced saccharine with over the top conflict and melodrama.
Kinda really wish that episode went into an examination of the lives we want, the lives we have, and what every person thinks 'normal and real' are meant to be.
I can't remember the name of the next Gen episode, but it's the one where Picard's mind gets sucked into a probe that makes him live an entire lifetime on a dying planet. Him playing the flute at the end seemed like a funeral dirge for the family he'd created but had never really existed. Watching it hit him that his decisions IRL would never allow him to have a family like that brought home to me just how lonely Picard was and that he suddenly had regrets.
The lack of “Children of Time” is criminal. Also the inner light!
I would've genuinely thought trip's unnecessary death on enterprise would've been on this list 😮
That's what I thought. And the scene in Terra Prime was shown but it didn't even rate an honorable mention. 🤨
I thought everyone agreed that didn't actually happen....😏
They really should have included the DS9 episodes "Duet" and "Sacrifice of Angels".
For a part 2: “All Those Who Wander” Hemmer’s death….
The Innter Light was certainly one that should be on the list, though we knew it was all in Picard's mind, the fact he lived a separate life, seeing what happened to the people of the planet that the probe came from, it's very much a tearjerker, far too late to do anything to help them, but as long as someone remembered them, they were still "alive" if only in memory...
Not devastating but unexpected was the ending of ST:TNG "the Most Toys" with Data firing the Veron-T Disrupter.
Project Daedalus gave us a Tyler Hynes cameo - I'd never dream of this happening - what a treasure 🖖🏾❤️
Shout out to Latent Image, where we weren't sure how long it would take the Doctor to recover after the Ensign Jetal incident. Whole thing was just... excellent in how sad it was.
Sean, I've been meaning to say this for a while, now. I have TH-cam Premium because I dislike having to put up with commercials and ads, and for the most part, when an in-line ad comes on within a video, I skip past it. But you make the various ads you create and read so entertaining, I not only watch them, I look forward to them. Congratulations for doing it RIGHT! -Doug Rillak (no relation)
No relation to...President Rillak??
I'd add The Outcast, Riker with Worf in tow risking his career to save Soren from a brutal conversion therapy only to get there too late and it's already been done.
Also Family from Voyager, that all came to a head completely out of left field.
I watch Lower Decks every year. The tears flow every time.
Mariner talking about it years later broke me.
I really wished DS9 would have somehow found and rescued Sito. It wouldnt have taken away from the sad ending of that TNG episode in my opinion but given that character alot more depth and possibilty. Either way, great episode.
I actually think Data did feel Lal's death - he just lacked the ability to recognise that what he felt was love and then grief.
Losing Lal was definitely sad. Such a beautiful ending that he got to integrate her emotions into his mind. And Frakes' first directorial debut.
So glad to see "Project Daedelus" on this list - that one was a gut punch for me.
And regarding "Tears of the Prophets" - although this episode came from a time when the Internet as we know it was in its infancy, we still had things called "magazines" that we could "read" to find out about our favourite shows. Magazines like SFX told us that Terry Farrell was going to be leaving the show at the end of season 6, so some of us knew that Jadzia Dax was about to be history. EZRI Dax, however, was a big surprise.
Another episode that could've been on the list was Tuvix from S.T. Voyager. Capt. Janeway could've figured a way to save him, Tuvok and Neelix. Capt. Janeway was determined to do what she did as he was to die.
Voyager, "Drone", is a very sad and emotional episode for me.
And the most saddest part is, Seven is going to lose another son some years later.
I know its not "real" Star Trek''but Charly's sacrifice and the subsequent memorial on The Orville was the most Star Trek moment that show produced. Charly's sacrfice comes out of nowhere, she saves a race that she had personal reason to hate, and in doing so, changes the course of history. Her funeral was a very deliberate homage to the service for Spock at the end of Wrath of Khan--so much so, that I expected bag pipes or Dickens. It was a devastatingly beautiful end to the character and a series long story arc.
Star Trek is at its best when it makes me cry. All the best episodes have me in tears at one point or another.
A good follow up to this one would be a video about ten times we thought we'd get a downer ending, only for it to turn out really heartwarming... like the end of Voyager's Pathfinder.
Voyager's "Real Life" where the Doctor has to deal with the death of his (albeit fictional) daughter.
She may have been fictional, in both that she was a Star Trek character and that she was a character within a holideck program, but the way Robert Picardo portrayed the grief of her death, she may as well have been real
"No body, no death." Ro lives on.😊
Actually, the top 3 should be:
1. The Sound of Her Voice
2. Oblivion
3. Latent Image
all tragic, as the characters' efforts prove to be utterly futile.
It's a good day. There's a new @TrekCulture video!
Course oblivion was so horrific just the ending was unbearable
I think the episode where Joe Carey was killed should have been there, especially that he was so close to get home.
He was not as well known and well liked a character and it wasn't the ending.
The Offspring episode was hard for me as I lost 3 brothers and it was hard to watch.
Ahh finally some love for Crossfire! People don't talk about that episode enough. It broke my heart in the best sort of way.
What happened to "City on the Edge..."?
Interesting list considering all the non-trek shows you included.
I liked you list but my top 1 will forever be course: oblivion. It breaks my heart everytime
I would have replaced 'Crossfire' with 'The sound of her voice'.
Honorable mention goes to Children of Time. While the ending may not have necessarily been a complete blindside, throughout the majority of the episode, they are adamant that they have to return to the station. Even once they discover what that planet's Dax was planning, they categorically refused to go through with it, but finally, one by one, the crewmembers agreed that they couldn't live with themselves if they allowed these people who were there descendants to perish. Ultimately they unanimously agreed to go through with throwing themselves back in time. It wasn't until the very last minute that duplicate Odo was revealed to have input a course correction which would prevent this from happening. The devastation especially from Kira about 8000 people being blinked out of existence to save her life was truly devastating even if you see it coming.
offspring makes me cry everytime I watch it
Tomorrow and … showed me that one of the most vicious Conquerors ever is from my home town of Toronto. The shame 😪
I agree with all the entries. However, the order would be a source of contention on my part. My top 3 would be tough for me to rank, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow", "Lower Decks", and "Drone". I know this would be a minefield for die hard Trekkies. I like to live dangerously.
This video was like wathcing all the episodes at once. 😭
Imposters and Tomorrow got me in the feels
You omitted “Course: Oblivion” from Voyager. Unforgivable.
The ending to that was not unexpected or a blindside of any kind. It was a great episode, but the entire episode covered the fact that the ship and crew were deteriorating and they were trying really hard first to get to any Y class planet, then to return to the original one. However, throughout the entire journey, ship systems and crewmembers were being lost. While it's definitely a good episode and it's sad one, it was working toward that ending the entire time
One of my favorite DS9 episodes with a gut punch ending was Once More Unto the Breach. It's a poignant ending for Kor whom we had seen in the original series.
I'm a little surprised that "The Visitor" didn't make the cut, even though everything is technically all right in the end. Captain Sisko still had the gut punch of seeing his son grow up, give up his entire promising writing career, and ultimately sacrifice himself to save his father.
I know you were limited to 10 but:
Voyager Course to Oblivion
TOS City on the Edge of Forever.
Maybe good for part 2?
"The Sound of Her Voice" and "Course: Oblivion" were two that I expected to see on this list. Also, on a sidenote, I still hope that Sito Jaxa is brought back (maybe as a Section 31 agent?) and that her death was either false or faked.
Surprised no voyager : Course Oblivion
I think the reason that one didn't make this list is because the ending was not unexpected or a blindside. The entire episode was headed that way. The ship and crew were deteriorating the entire time, and they were trying really hard first just to get back to Y class planet Then to get back to the original Y class planet, but systems and crewmembers were being lost the whole time.
I don't care what they have to do to the canon, Jim Kirk and La'an NEED to ene up together.
The Inner Light.
a very good nb 1. thank you
I had no idea how much I wanted to see Ro and Picard overcome their past until we got it in Picard S3
Another honorable mention, TNG, The Child. This would've hit home a lot harder if we had gotten to know the alien better, and the fact that the alien himself or itself did not necessarily die but the human form of the child became dead, but the revelation at the end that Ian was the cause of the radiation That was creating the issues with the cargo containers and that he had to die in order to save the shit still sucked. Again much more devastating if the audience had gotten to know him better but still fairly powerful especially considering it's the first episode of the second season
Most of these endings didn't come as a shock to me at all, because shows like Star Trek follow a pattern: Nothing is going to be allowed to disrupt the existing cast balance and storylines TOO radically at once. Lal, it was obvious, was always going to disappear, since having her on board would completely change Data's life in ways that interfered with other stories about him. Same with Tuvix; it was clear he was going to die since we knew they weren't just going to replace two main characters suddenly like that. And often times when a character falls in love with a person who isn't a part of the main crew you know they're going to die or disappear somehow, such as Kira and alternate Bareil. In this case since it was an alternate Kirk, it was obvious he was going to be killed off or cease to exist when the timeline was repaired; either way, he wasn't going to end up with her. This kind of thing happens EVERY time a cast member falls in love with a brand new character who is a guest star; either they die, or they end up having a horrible secret of some kind. Same with random new characters joining the crew; they never survive the end of the episode, or they leave and are never seen again. It's easy to figure it out after a while.
That's why they call it the suspension of disbelief. Most of us know better, whether it is a movie, a TV show, or a novel. But a well-crafted story lets us go with the flow and we end up willing for a different ending even as the knowledge of plot constraints is buried deep within us. It is that dissonance that creates shock and sorrow.
Am I the only one who expected Voyager’s “Oblivion” to earn a place?
No.
How could you not have "Course Oblivion" on this list...
The ending of Dust was a gut punch. Made mote poignant by Kira's anguished reaction.
Killing off Hugh in Picard was terrible.
Project Daedalus is what broke me from Disco. They played it up like it was the heartrending loss of a beloved character, when in reality we barely knew her name and only learned basic details of her backstory in _that_ episode. I realized I just didn’t care anymore and stopped watching.
Lower decks was brutal. I kept waiting for get to come back saying she wasn't killed but caught and held prisoner. It didn't happen
Seeing Kirk die AGAIN hurt so much
Seeing La'an break down after what she had lost broke me....and seeing that clip here...broke me again.
@@jgvillan01 Definitely one of the best episodes of this current era of live-action, and I'd argue one of the top episodes of the franchise.
9 the voyager episode, i honestly do not remember that episode, i have watched the series a few times (saw it all as a kid) but cannot rmemeber that one episode O....O
WHERE. IS. “THE VISITOR”?!
That is a good point. It should definitely be on this list. Jake is telling the story about how he got to where he was throughout the whole episode, but nobody would have known that he was going to commit suicide so that his father could return to the past.