Love To Hate Em - Star Trek Characters So Hated They're Loved

Star Trek: Beyond, directed by Justin Lin, warps into theaters in summer 2016.  Starship Enterprise is a given - many even feel it’s the most important character of all - but who will the new players be? Aside from great visuals, space battles and weird alien creatures, Gene Roddenberry’s sci-fi legacy is about characters.

Trek's characters are popular, even beloved - but not all of them give us those cozy feelings of mirth.  Wesley Crusher?  Neelix? Q? Annoying enough for you? Wait, there's lots more!

Ensign Wesley Crusher - TNG

Wil Wheaton is now a respected author and official "geek" king of all things geeky on the Internet. But it wasn't always so rosy with him and many fans.  

In 1987, Gene Roddenberry's new Star Trek: The Next Generation was fresh out of the starting gates of television syndication, and boy genius Wesley Crusher was met by many fans with disdain. Wheaton had acted in big hit movies like Stephen King's Stand By Me, so his acting chops were never questioned, however the character as written was a bit too smug and superior for most. Wesley started out as a brainy kid and by the end of TNG he had matured into a Starfleet officer, then went off with a mysterious alien known as the Traveler to help shape his powerful intellect.

Lt. Reginald Barclay - TNG

Actor Dwight Schultz created a wishy washy, nerdy guy in Lt. Reginald Barclay. Though comical, many fans disliked him so much they loved to hate him. The character became something of the everyday man on board the Starship Enterprise. We can't all be heroic captains or brainy scientists. Barclay was something of a cross between a geek, a nerd and a neurotic. A "nerdotic"? Anyway, his episodes are memorable not only for Schultz's fine performances, but in the many ways Barclay found to get into trouble for himself and the Enterprise.

Q - TNG

How can a super powerful God like alien be annoying? Q (John DeLancie) must be related to the Greek gods, because he like them could really get under a mortal's skin.

Q debuted in the TNG's pilot "Encounter At Farpoint" and was a troublemaker in the finale "All Good Things." Along the way, Q tortured Picard's crew with sarcasm, gave Commander Riker superpowers to see him corrupted and even introduced us to the cybernetic baddies The Borg. Q is a crossover character who would annoy DS9 and Captain Sisko. He even found the lost Starfleet starship Voyager in the Delta Quadrant. DeLancie's character would delightedly irritate friend in real life Kate Mulgrew playing Captain Janeway.

Rom - DS9

The Ferengi are an alien race of profiteers. Humongous of ears and short of stature, to them everything in life revolves around a financial gain or personal profit. Rom, brother of barkeeper Quark on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was seen as pretty darned irritating.

Actor Max Grodenchik breathed life into the annoying Rom, who'd always be upset with Quark or frightened of him or worried or nervous - often all these at once. Rom whined a lot at everything. Over the course of the show, he became popular, in fact he married sexy Leeta, a Bajoran Dabo girl (cocktail waitress) and transformed himself into a gadget guru genius.

Nog - DS9
Son of Rom, Nog (Aron Eisenberg) started off on DS9 as deceptive, greedy and a chronic liar - and those were his good points.

He'd buddy around with Captain Benjamin Sisko's son Jake and the two would get into loads of trouble, usually at Nog's urging. Like his Dad, Nog would start to mature and think about more in life than just profit. He joined Starfleet and became such a dedicated cadet, he'd earn the respect of everyone, even disapproving uncle Quark.

Neelix - VOY

Star Trek: Voyager saw a Starship lost in space in the mysterious Delta Quadrant. To alleviate the tension, Neelix was a kind of chef and comedian. Unfortunately, he wasn't the best at either vocation.

Actor Ethan Phillips would prove himself something more than irritating as he brought a gentle dizziness to Neelix - a kind of bizarre galactic nerdy porcupine. With his weird spotty coloring and hairdo he looked like Patti Labelle's long lost alien love child. As the show progressed, Neelix goodie two shoes showed more spunk and then settled down with a colony of his people before Voyager returned to Earth.

Kai Winn - DS9

Oscar winner for One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, as the evil Nurse Ratched, Louise Fletcher created another memorable psycho in Kai Winn.

As spiritual leader of the Bajoran people, Kai Winn delighted in manipulating anyone she could get her hands on. Her lilting voice alone, could somehow grate as it soothed. She especially tried to influence who was stationed aboard DS9, but Kira always knew who she was dealing with and kept her ground. By the show's end, Winn had made a deal with the Cardassian equivalent of the devil - but was unaware. Her character's final scene is among the most weirdly powerful in all Trek history.

Seska - VOY

Played in a delightfully wicked manner by actress Martha Hackett, Seska would become one of the most truly love to hate em Trek characters.

Introduced in the first season as a Bajoran, Seska was found to be a Cardassian, genetically altered to appear so. Seska's schemes would peg her as one of the more scheming members of Captain Janeway's crew until she's ultimately revealed to be a traitor. Seska appeared in 13 episodes, including popping up in an alternate timeline "Shattered" and as a hologram in a battle simulation created by security chief Tuvok "Worst Case Scenario."