5 Worst Things Spock Ever Did On Star Trek, Ranked

Ever since "Star Trek: The Original Series" first aired, Spock (originally played by Leonard Nimoy, and lately by Ethan Peck, pictured above) has remained one of the franchise's most recognizable characters. Even among folks who have never seen the show, Spock's iconic pointy ears and meaningful Vulcan salute have become emblematic of the franchise for generations. And between his deep and abiding bromance with Captain Kirk (first played by William Shatner) and Spock's deadpan delivery of Trek's sassiest quips, he's also one of the most beloved characters in the franchise.

But, as tends to be the case with Vulcans, hidden below that sweetly sarcastic science geek persona is a well of powerful emotions — not to mention the potential for generating some of the Alpha Quadrant's messiest crashouts.

Sure, Spock did once put the needs of the many above the needs of himself, but it's not like he hasn't engaged in his share of cancellation-worthy behavior. From midseason meltdowns to Vulcan main character syndrome, here's our breakdown of the five worst things on Spock's bad behavior resume, ranked from obnoxious to downright villainous.

Throughout the long roster of Star Trek franchise movies and shows, Spock has a habit of dropping snarky little comments about human behavior. For the most part, it seems like he's just giving his buddies some good-natured ribbing; perhaps an ironic indicator that he's healthily in touch with his own human side. But every once in a while, Spock lets something slip that not-so-subtly implies there may be a more speciesist subtext to his snark — as is the case when he unironically roasts humans in the "Star Trek: The Original Series" episode "Day of the Dove."

When an alien entity incites humans and Klingons to fight each other, stirring up emotions that cause them to effectively blow out, a frustrated Spock struggles to wrangle Scotty (James Doohan), amid the engineer's full-blown meltdown. After failing to calm Scotty down, Spock remarks, "May I say that I have not thoroughly enjoyed serving with humans? I find their illogic and foolish emotions a constant irritant," suggesting that most of the time he's with his fellow crewmen, he's quietly frustrated by their human drama.

Although Kirk quickly points out Spock is actually half-human himself, leading to their mutual conclusion that there's an alien force at work, we all know that comment wasn't made in a vacuum. It's like the uncle with the repertoire of problematic jokes blaming his rude Superbowl comments on the beer — we all know you meant it, buddy.

If anything makes Spock look suspicious, it's the long-running total information blackout on either of his siblings until they literally show up and there's no denying them. But that's exactly what happens when he completely fails to mention his foster sister, Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), and his half-brother, Sybok (Laurence Luckinbill) for literally decades.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to keep your work life and personal life separate even if you live at your job. Nobody would blame Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) and William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) for keeping their Imzadi situationship under wraps — especially given their "it's complicated" status throughout most of their time on the Enterprise-D. But it's a little bit sketchy to serve with a crew that becomes your work family for years and never bring up your siblings. Heck, even the venerated Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the stoic Worf (Michael Dorn) brought up their brothers from time to time.

Even if, as many fans do, you can chalk up the Michael Burnham omission to some wibbly wobbly, timey-wimey business that deleted her from Spock's timeline, that doesn't explain Spock's failure to mention Sybok until he shows up in "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier." That is, aside from a brief comment to Christine Chapel (Jess Bush) at the very end of "The Serene Squall" in a brief comment suggesting Sybok might show up again at a later point in the series. If this doesn't become a dropped "Star Trek" storyline before "Strange New Worlds" ends, we may get to learn Spock's real reason for never speaking of Sybok. And who knows? He may just have a few more siblings creeping around the branches of his family tree. 

We're not always at our best when we're sick. But just because you're feeling under the weather doesn't mean we're all gonna forget that you once went stage three HAM all over the ship like Spock does in "Operation – - Annihilate!" after he picks up a funky parasite on Deneva.

Now, to be perfectly fair to Spock, the Denevan parasites are some pretty gnarly customers. Imagine a jellyfish had a child with a bat and a stingray, and that offspring looks like activated mucous. These unpleasant gooballs that Spock describes as "resembling, more than anything, a gigantic brain cell," attach themselves to their hosts' backs before injecting tissue into the nervous system. Once in, they take over the host by puppeting them much like the Bluegills of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," but using pain as a motivator from their hosts to act out until they die.

Spock picks up one of these guys while investigating Deneva. Despite Kirk immediately pulling off the flying chunk of slime and sending him up to Bones (DeForest Kelley), Spock is already infected —- and here is where things go wrong. When he wakes up, Spock runs onto the bridge, yelling that he must take control of the ship and manhandling anyone who gets in his way. It takes half the bridge crew to restrain him. After all that, despite openly admitting he's experiencing severe pain, Spock still convinces his boss to let him back on the job because he's got superior Vulcan mental discipline. Now that's some serious hubris.

When viewed in a vacuum, Nurse Christine Chapel's (Majel Barrett) relationship with Spock in "Star Trek: The Original Series" is at best, puzzling, and at worst, representative of a hopelessly unrequited romance. She desperately loves Spock, and he can't see her as a romantic possibility because of his icy Vulcan apathy. But view it again after watching "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," and it gets worse. Nurse Chapel isn't merely pining for a man she's always loved from a distance — she's deeply and profoundly brokenhearted over her daily proximity to a man who once loved her until she rejected him, and then she lived to regret it.

It's fair to say Spock has every right to never forgive her. He is, after all, crushed when Chapel breaks his heart via musical number in the "Strange New Worlds" episode "Subspace Rhapsody," so much so that he vows never to let it happen again. But even so, he seems to go out of his way to ice her out throughout "TOS," barely even sparing a glance in her direction. When she tells him she doesn't believe he could hurt her in "The Naked Time" before confessing her love, Spock walks away without saying anything. After her confession, he won't even make eye contact at first. When he finally does, he simply tells her "I am sorry" before leaving her alone with her feelings. Brutal.

If we've learned anything from the treatment that Troi gets in "The Next Generation," it's that accessing someone's mind without consent is one of the worst forms of violation. And in the world of empaths, few acts are as intimate and invasive as the Vulcan mind-meld — which is why it's so important to ensure consent before engaging in one. That's why many fans feel Spock's nonconsensual mind-meld with Valeris (Kim Cattrall) in "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country," a movie man fans feels is the best Trek movie, is among the worst things Spock has ever done in the Trek franchise.

Realizing that Valeris is hiding something, Spock confronts her with his hand raised to perform a mind-meld. When Valeris tries to back up and get away, he grabs her, holding her in place against her will to forcibly invade her mind as the terrified woman cries out in agony, shaking as he probes her mind. All the while, the entire bridge crew looks on in complacency while Kirk barks out demands for more information. Even if she turned out to be a conspirator, the violent and very public probe into her mind is simply inexcusable — not to mention very un-Starfleet of him.