half and half on kirk. there's just no way the fans would let him retire quietly. i've known quite a good number of trekkies, and most of them still (creepily) obsessed about bringing kirk back into the shows somehow. but on the other hand, what happened in generations is like finding out that oscar the grouch was a pedo and he's been doing some REALLY unsavory deeds to the grouchketteers.

i AM, however, on board with the whole tasha yar deal. her death was pretty remarkable to my young nerdling mind, and killing her AGAIN is pretty much like kicking her when she's down. damn the nerdrage of the writers!

Great list! How about the pointless "death" of Data in Nemisis and the even more piointless B4.

What makes Lt. J.G. Van Mayter's death so much more cruel is that she was apparently juggling when it happened. I've always wondered what she could have possibly been doing to wind up with her hands in those positions.

I don't like Denise Crosby and I liked Tasha Yar even less. I must be the only Next Generation fan who didn't care that she died so abruptly.

A few weeks ago I watched the great "Galaxy Quest" again and realized what may be it's most subtle joke. Guy is the new security chief on what is essentially Galaxy Quest:TNG... HE'S TASHA YAR! He's gonna die a nasty death within a year!

Also, Ive always wondered what was below that hallway Van Mayter fell through. I'm just evil enough to hope is was the school room and that she kicked the annoying kid from "Disaster" in the head. At least it wouldn't have been a totally pointless death that way.

Lt. J.G. Van Mayter's death still shocks me when I see the episode and that picture is probably the most gruesome up there with that guy from Conspiracy.

Good list.

Interesting that you mentioned Tuvix and Trip, but not Sim. Having to live your entire life in the course of days because other people were performing an experiment? Cruel

Sweet! One of my ideas made it to a list! And to think I wasn't even an Honorable Mention. ;)

Thanks for bringing it to life, Kevin.

I never liked Lt. Ilia's death from Star Trek the Motion Picture. Not only did it seem senseless but after the probe shows up, evyone seems to forget about the oridinal dead person. It's like "This thing looks like her, good enough."

What about Lal? Maybe not cruel, but it definitely struck a chord with me. And I know it's been awhile since I watched it, but there had to be more than one death on DS9. The entire series was a war. Didn't Riker's "twin" die at some point? I hated that character, that just felt like Johnathon Frakes wanted two paychecks. Oh, Jadzia died, and it was cruel to let her go on to "Becker".

Van Mayter apparently must have decided to "go commando" at least from the waist up, judging by that picture.......giggety.....

I seem to remember a few nasty dooms on DS9, particularly some ensign dude who gets shot by a Jem-Hadar and dies a slow, painful, bleeding death.

Being dehydrated and then crushed was the first one I thought of when I saw this list. Now, being crushed when you're a hunk of what looks like ceiling acoustical tile may not be painful at that point, but ever since I saw it for the first time as a little kid I always thought that was just a so messed up way to go. Being dissolved by the Horta would have had more dignity.

Excellent choice for the number 1 spot. I was 10 when I first saw Star Trek The Motion Picture. I knew that the characters died, but I didn't really appreciate how horrible it was until I really got into Star Trek when I was 15. Even today, when I watch that scene, it's gut wrenching.

I think the first time I watched the Voyager cliffhanger Scorpion with the pile of Borg bodies I was pretty disturbed by it. Anything that can pull apart the Borg like cheap action figures and pile them up for show and tell is pretty damn nasty.

Ol' Rojan kinda got away scot free with murdering hostages, didn't he?

And Van Mayter might not actually belong on this list; technically, I think she could have SURVIVED that injur——wait a minute, sorry, that just makes it ten times more cruel and horrifying.

According to Roddenberry's novelization of Star Trek: TMP, the other crewmember that died in the transporter was Vice Admiral Lori Ciana, who was briefly married to Kirk.

there was a borg from the future in Voyager named One who was so advanced, he sacrificed himself, knowing if he was reassimilated into the collective, the borg would be crazy powerful...
Voyager didn't have a lot of wow moments, but that one stuck with me.

I never saw the episode that #10 refers to, and just reading the description makes me shudder! Being beamed into the vacuum of space?! How could that not be at the top of the list? Poor red shirts...

I was always a big supporter of Enterprise, pretty much from the start. Even during the whole Xindi fiasco, I still held out hope that things would get better again, and that hope was rewarded with an upturn in the writing and overall quality of the show.

And then Trip died.

I'm not going to say Enterprise was ruined forever for me at that moment, but damn. It was like they'd taken the entire Xindi season, pulled out what few good parts there were, distilled the rest down to a noxious liquid form of concentrated evil, and then squirted that evil right into the viewers' eyes for absolutely no reason.

Jadsia's death didn't get on here? Thanking the prophets for her new pregnancy and being blown away for just being there?

The anticipation of yet another scarring FFF story today may have driven me insane, but wasn't this list done several months ago? I clearly remember reading about Van Mayters death several months ago.

Captain Kirk should have gone out in a self sacrificial way like his dad George did in the Reboot movie.

Being Wesley Crusher is the worst death.

Liz Lemon! What'chu doin' in the floor?

Being Wesley Crusher is the worst death.

nice list. even though i would have thought Tasha's death would be higher like at least the top five and can not believe Edith Keller's death did not make the top five for it showed kirks greatest torment besides the lost of David. the lost of his one true love in order to keep his time line alive. and Van mayter death every time i see the rerun the death is still disturbing and messed up for there was no way she would have survived the injuries if she got freed. and tuvix death proves jane way was a cruel lady .

I have to agree with Dexter Remmick's death being one of the most gruesome occurrences in Star Trek history. They blasted the fuck out of him pretty graphically. Hell, that whole episode was pretty fucked up---I gagged when the people possessed by the evil parasites started munching down on live meal-worms like they were Cool Ranch Doritos.

I'm shocked that Captain Terrell isn't on this list. You know him: He's the poor sap who, along with Chekov, had a parasite burrow it's way into his ear. The guy went insane trying to resist it, and shot himself with a phaser set to kill to prevent himself from killing Kirk, and probably to end his own pain.
-
The poor sap never even had anything to do with what happened to Khan. He was just the unfortunate fellow who happened to be with Pavel in the wrong place and time. I really wish that, on Ceti Alpha V, he'd have said "Whoa... Hold on chief. I don't even KNOW these assholes!"

Tuvik shouldn't count as a "death". Think of it as a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup (Tuvix) being separated into chocolate (Tuvok) and peanut butter (Neelix). No harm, no foul. I also think Janeway made the right decision...Tuvok had a wife and kid back home, and it wouldn't be fair to them to keep him merged with Neelix, who had his own life as well.

BTW- I was originally going to use an Oreo for my analogy, but then I realized it might come off as a bad racist joke.

LOL on the Janeway-Paris lizards... I had purged that one out of my memory banks. Did that really happen????!!!

C'mon now, how about Commodore Matthew Decker flying that shuttle into the planet killer in "The Doomsday Machine" from Star Trek: TOS? Watching him squirm his ass off when he flew into the maw of that thing was just brutal.

Of course it didn't stop MST:3K
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Kq0iVWNZ50

What about
- Scotty's nephew, who died of injuries sustained when Khan's Reliant blew engineering to hell? (Wrath of Khan)

-Captian Garret of the Enterprise C who was killed when Klingon Disrupters hit the ships shields and she was caught by shrapnel when a panel blew behind her (Yesterday's Enterprise)

-Alternate Commander Riker, being killed later in the same episode when the Enterprise D was in a losing battle with 3 Klingon Bird of Preys (Yesterday's Enterprise)

I still can't believe they killed Trip. I don't know whose balls need kicking, so I'm just going in alphabetical order: Berman, Braga, Kroeker, Riker.

I save Frakes for last because I'm kicking him twice. Once for that episode and once for his run on Roswell.

What's with the comment in #5, the Romulan Senate? The planet blown up in the new Star Trek movie is Vulcan. Romulans live on the planet Romulus. Did the people writing this list not watch the movie?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the TNG episode "Conspiracy" contain a warning at the beginning of the episode warning of the graphic phasering death when it first aired?
I've heard over the years it did, because TNG being a syndicated show, it would air at different times, like in the afternoon and early evenings.

Great list. I'm impressed with your diverse selections of characters and series appearances. I also like your thoughts with the honorable mentions.

I'd vote for "Clone Tucker's" death in the Enterprise episode "Similitude"

One "death" that stood out for me was in the TNG episode "Identity Crisis." A number of colonists and a Federation away team are turned into mindless creatures, a fate that almost befalls Geordi. In the end they save Geordi, but the others were too far along to be saved.

They didn't really stop living, but the people they had been were destroyed.

I like that both honourable-mentions got reversed in the novels. Bill Shatner and the Reeves-Stevens did the Shatnerverse “Kirk is Great. Great is Kirk.” Books. Other authors said (basically) that Trip’s death was so stupid the only explanation was that it was a clumsy way to fake his death so he could go undercover to spy on Romulan warp engine research.

I love this more than anything.

The bizarre half Lt. J.G. Van Mayter really did scare the shit out of me as a kid. And now.

The death of Lt. J.G. Van Mayter Haunted me as a child for year.
Nightmares, and light stepping through hall ways for years.

Spock

Reactor Exposure Wrath of Khan

"The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few"

Crying Kirk, Crying Crew, Crying Audience, Long Funeral Scene, Scotty Playing Amazing Grace on Bagpipes, Almost two Years before the next movie

I agree that Ilia had a senseless death...that nobody cared about...well...besides Decker.

One of the best ideas for the transporter on star trek was when they used it to send a time bomb onto the enemy ship that had placed it on the enterprise

this is WHY you should never join starfleet no matter how convincing they are! there is no dignity in dieing a horrible death!

I still miss the Klingon sisters.

How did they get the woman-stuck-in the-floor from getting tripped over?

Yeah, Trip's death was so unpopular that when they revived Enterprise as a continuing novel series, they actually wrote out his death. He actually lives to be really ancient McCoy style and meets a young Kirk.

ok, why is Dax's death on here???? it was so tragic and annoying as she got replaced by the ever annoying Ezri

You forgot Jadiza Dax at the hands of Gul Dukat on DS9.

I have a few to add
1. How about killing off ( ok sort of) Capt. Benjamin Sisko ( Avery Brooks ) from STDS9 when the wormhole aliens took him into their relm. What was that about? Was it even a death?
2. Jadzia Dax ( Terry Farrel) in STDS9 when she was killed off by Gl Dukat ( Marc Alamino ??) in the Bajoran temple on the station. That sucked and was cruel.

The death of the crew of the Constellation in "The Doomsday Machine" would probably count. Their ship is blasted apart by the Planet Killer, they get beamed down to a planet for safety, then the PK goes to work on that planet. Decker saying how they were begging him for help he couldn't give is pretty heart-wrenching.

Actually the term red shirts is in reference to football practice squads.

In all of the deaths in Star Trek, "Nemesis" gets two slots? That's just awesome. lol :)

Maybe you should do a whole article on the deaths in that movie alone:
Data: dead or not?
Romulan senators: death by turning into stone and crumbling.
Random crewmen: sucked into space.
Shinzon: death by ripping off Mordred's death from the movie "Excalibur".
Wesley Crusher: not exactly dead, but his appearance in the wedding scene was left on the cutting room floor.

And the biggest death of all: the entire TNG cast since "Nemesis" did actually turn out to be their final movie. At least the original cast got to ride off into the sunset- "Nemesis" leaves too many plot strands to be a good final movie.
I really think the producers meant for "Nemesis" to be a part one, but after the movie brought in less money than "Star Trek V" (the one directed by Shatner), they decided to end the Star Trek franchise.

The one that gets me is the death of Carmen Davila in the TNG episode "Silicon Avatar". The Crystalline Entity is attacking and she dies trying to save the life of another colonist.

Yeah, I probably should have included Dax. Considering the actress was leaving, at least she got a more emotional death and got to say goodbye to Worf. It was more than Tasha got (rightfully so).

I've seen #1. I still shudder thinking about it.

I mean, I'm not a Star Trek fan (However, my dad is, which explains why I've seen the movie.), but that's just AWFUL!

re: #15

Correction... blown right through.

An episode of Voyager had the crew find a really old ship from earth that had a dried up astronaut in it. He died out alone in the delta quadrant after some alien brought him out there in a 21st century craft.
Marooned in space, waiting to run out of oxygen, thousands of lightyears from home.
CRUEL.

Now that I think about it, the astronaut from "The Royale" episode of TNG had it pretty rough. Stranded in space, then trapped in a terrible pulp novel.

I may be hated for this, and so be it, but Kirk's 'death' does not deserve to be on this list.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6bqtbNl00E

There ya go. Watch this, nerd rage.
You're welcome.

How about the pig that was transported inside out in Galaxy Quest - honorable mention

TRIP TUCKER'S death was the biggest error!!! for me..TRIP IS ALIVE!!

This list has also disturbing and saddest deaths as much as being cruelest. I feel so sorry for the captains, lts., and other 'innocents' who died horrible and horrific deaths. Especially Kirk and Trip. :(

What about the starfleet officer that Picard kills in First Contact. He had been assimilated, so Picard phasers him to put him out of his misery. He doesn't even attempt to help him even though Picard was successfully de-assimilated himself.

The worst was the tragic deaths of all those cute tribbles! Starving in a cargo hold full of quadrotriticale!