Nechayev is awesome, sorry.
Posted by Unit_79@reddit | TNG | View on Reddit | 55 comments
She’s gruff, but she’s fair, and she’s knowledgeable. She often has the unenviable task of delivering difficult news, even when she doesn’t agree with it. She’s an admiral, not a counsellor. She gets the job done, and she does it well.
As Captain Picard wouldn’t say: Three cheers, for Admiral Nechayev! Certified baddie!
badsean77@reddit
“Of all the cheap lousy ways to save a buck”
SPECTREagent700@reddit
The rare Starfleet Admiral who doesn’t turn evil. Especially remarkable given how many appearances she has.
CSWorldChamp@reddit
I always thought it was a shame that for “The Drumhead” they chose to use an admiral we had never seen before.
Not that I’m advocating for it to have Nechayev. But when Cartwright was implicated in the conspiracy in Star Trek 6, it hit extra hard because he had been around a while. The emotional impact in the drumhead was lessened by it being a “villain of the week.”
Excellent-Hyena-4558@reddit
Nechayev is probably not with the Judge Advocate General.
Acceptingoptimist@reddit
That's a good point. And they've done it before. It's why conspiracy from season 1 hit harder. Watching parasite Admiral Quinn beat the shit out of Worf was awesome.
It's possible they wanted Jean Simmons specifically for the part, and that was the only way to explain her and Picard having history.
security-six@reddit
She only turned evil in imaginary land on DS9 when striking a deal with the Dominion
MindlessNectarine374@reddit
You mean in the multi-parter where the Defiant was introduced?
Acceptingoptimist@reddit
I loved how they explained this phenomenon in Lower Decks a result of competition and boredom.
RaisedByBooksNTV@reddit
Also the reason for millionaires and billionaires.
Wizzard_2025@reddit
Make a series about her, starting when she was a lieutenant.
Unit_79@reddit (OP)
I would absolutely watch that.
SharMarali@reddit
I liked the time Picard had her favorite cookies ready and she softened for a second realizing what he was trying to do. Then she went right back to it, lol. Professional.
MoonChief@reddit
Not cookies, Bularian canape'
Unit_79@reddit (OP)
I like that scene because it showed Picard demonstrating he respects her as a colleague even if they don’t agree.
calculon68@reddit
she wants a phaser under her pillow too! /s
MechanicCautious6945@reddit
She orders the captain of the Flagship to go on a suicidal mission to destroy a false flag Cardassian weapon. She compromised federation security by falling for an obvious trap allowing the capture of a man whom the Borg deemed essential in assimilating due to his knowledge of Starfleet. To compound her mistake she leaves him to be tortured and refuses to acknowledge his POW status.
GoatApprehensive9866@reddit
Picard was sent only because of plot. But how many times could Picard get kidnapped in a convincing and noncontrived way? But the story is strong enough despite the nitpick
twoneedlez@reddit
You can have Picard get kidnapped and replaced by Jellico while he is tortured & get to the same place.
After Riker got to be first officer because he refused to let DeSoto beam down while on the Hood, he really loosened up on that rule…
Constant-Box-7898@reddit
I wouldn't call her awesome. She was a clueless as anyone in upper management. She just wasn't crooked, which, unfortunately, counts for a lot with Starfleet admirals.
Cohens4thClient@reddit
I struggle with this aspect of her rank with regards to sending Picard on a secret mission which definitely smelled like a trap (and it was).
Even if starfleet intelligence was dumb enough to believe in some secret weapon on Cardassia that ONLY Picard could handle, Nachayev should have at least fielded suggestions about a different team or a better guarded infiltration team. Yes, Worf is awesome, but cmon theres only so much one guy can do.
twoneedlez@reddit
That annoyed me too. Like Picard could brief a younger group of scientists or programmed a tricorder to detect the neutrino waves or whatever.
That aside - wouldn’t Gul Lemec be like “where’s Picard?” when he arrived for the negotiations. Having Jellico be the negotiator while Picard commanded the ship would make more sense, aside from giving us the “four shifts” conflict.
Chipstar452@reddit
Are those….Bularian canapés?
GoldfishMotorcycle@reddit
Her first appearance was Chain of Command?! (season 6, episode 10)
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Alynna_Nechayev#Appearances
That's crazy. Similar to learning that Kurn was only in 3 episodes of TNG (and two of those part of the same two-parter). Some people leave enough of an impression, you assume they'd been around more / longer.
No lies here though. Nechayev was awesome.
UESPA_Sputnik@reddit
Yeah, the wildest stat for me was when I found out that Winn Adami only appeared in 14 DS9 episodes, half of which were in the final two seasons.
Reasonable_Pay4096@reddit
Hell, Michael Eddington was only in 9 episodes of DS9, across just 2 and a half seasons
EmergencyEntrance28@reddit
I wonder if that's why she's actually a good Admiral? Maybe they had become aware of the badmiral trend by then and so at least pitched this character as qualified and competent to try and bust that meta.
ThrustersToFull@reddit
I like her but the attack she mounts on Picard about the Hugh situation was completely out of order. Either he is a Starfleet captain trusted to make decisions, or he isn't.
Business-Decision719@reddit
He is a Starfleet captain trusted to make decisions. He's also not immune from criticism, and part of her job as an admiral is to give that when she thinks it's warranted. The Hugh was exactly the kind of hard decision captains often have to make on their own because situations happen and they don't have orders for every random occurrence. In this case she openly disagrees with decision Picard made and said "if X happens again your orders are to do Y." We don't see her push for any sort of punishment or anything. She just sets an expectation for what she considers a priority moving forward, and he takes it gracefully.
Also she's saying this in the context of a Borg crisis that turns out to be related to the Hugh situation, so getting this feedback now is understandable.
I can see how it can look out of order but to me personally it just looks stern and decisive. She's not exactly a happy camper but if she didn't trust him to make decisions about the Borg anymore then the situation then it wouldn't have been two part episode; she would have just put someone else in charge of this.
Sea_Violinist3328@reddit
She’s a baddie. Would smash.
MozeDad@reddit
She's pretty young for the rank of Admiral. She's advanced faster than Picard?
Unit_79@reddit (OP)
I believe she was meant to be in her late 50s.
GoatApprehensive9866@reddit
She and Jellico were excellent and complex characters
Unit_79@reddit (OP)
Agreed.
Fuzzy_Builder_2153@reddit
Adm Bitchayev.
GoatApprehensive9866@reddit
Plinkett approved
Specific_Mountain_89@reddit
She was even more awesome in New Frontier novels, frightening even.
fishyofpain@reddit
Great character. I loved how “we love our new Founder overlords” they made her in the Changeling Matrix - I want to believe Necheyev would not actually be that clueless but as the viewer you could definitely see Sisko believing she’d be that clueless given his prior interactions with her during “The May-quees” two parter.
Lontarious@reddit
I got to meet her last year, very nice lady,
imascarylion2018@reddit
I’ve actually been thinking about this recently and have come to the conclusion that she might be one of my favorite Star Trek characters.
She’s a great subversion of the usual badmiral where she always shows up to give shitty orders or bad news, but also recognizes that that they’re shitty orders or bad news and is genuinely sympathetic towards the crew.
She feels like disgruntled upper management telling her employees the dumb shit that the owners are making them do and these just something so relatable and human about her.
Champ_5@reddit
Nothing to be sorry for. She is awesome.
BitcoinMD@reddit
I loved the scene when she chewed out Picard, he stood up like he was about to give her a Picard rage speech, but instead just said “yes, sir.” Made me respect both her and Picard. Of course she was telling him to totally do a genocide if he could, but that’s fine
bluePostItNote@reddit
Every time we see the top brass in Star Fleet you start to think—“are we the baddies?”
AquafreshBandit@reddit
She’s a role model.
regeya@reddit
She is. I feel like liking Nechayev now is a sign of personal growth for me. I hated her when I was a teen. Now I realize I was in the wrong, she's fine, she just shows up when things are about to hit the fan.
Unit_79@reddit (OP)
Agreed.
m-r-g@reddit
Would
Happy1327@reddit
You should be
Business-Decision719@reddit
Star Trek sometimes likes to bring out admirals, Starfleet observers, and such for the trope of "anyone who can call out our heroes must be an episode villain, some arrogant critic who gets cut down to size, or both." With Admiral Nechayev, the writers just her be ... an authority figure. Not some rogue criminal with a fancy title, and not someone who's threatening Picard for the evulz. Just their boss who they might have to take orders from or explain themselves to. It felt mundane in a very refreshing way. Like cold water on a hot, busy day.
TheRealestBiz@reddit
Rocking the bleach blond Boy George.
OhNoIBoffedIt@reddit
I've always been a huge fan of Nechayev. She was one of the few admirals in TNG era who wasn't some corrupt psychopath. She was tough, hard as nails, but she believed in Starfleet and what it stood for.
Also, there's just something about an ice queen...
IvanNemoy@reddit
100%, she's what an actual flag officer in a real organization would behave like.
ChemicalNectarine776@reddit
But what did she know about the bug people??
lyidaValkris@reddit
There needed to be hardass bosses to contrast with the cowboy captains. It makes sense too, as presumably these admirals were once captains themselves and knew they had to be kept on a leash.
AlbertaAcreageBoy@reddit
N7_Warden@reddit
I liked her, Ross and jellico