14 Dumbest Things In Star Trek The Motion Picture

9. Too Soon? Levity After Ilia Gets Nuked

Enterprise wormhole Star Trek—The Motion Picture
CBS/Paramount

Admittedly, Star Trek always had a problem with this, especially at the end of episodes where the crew would have a hearty laugh after fellow crewmates were killed or civilizations were destroyed. The Motion Picture suffers the same problem.

DECKER: Precisely the point, captain. We don’t know what it’ll do. Moving into that Cloud, at this time, is an unwarranted gamble.

Or so Decker cautions. But Kirk orders the ship in anyway and right after everyone is slack jawed after hours of special effects on the viewscreen, an energy probe shows up and zaps away with Ilia, killing her. Decker, who had a “relationship” with her and clearly has unresolved feelings understandable snaps at Kirk:

DECKER: This is how I define unwarranted!

The ship is then grabbed by a tractor beam and pulled inside the Intruder vessel. Then...

KIRK: Full sensor scan, Mr. Spock. They can’t expect us not to look them over now.
DECKER: Now that we’re looking down their throat.
KIRK: Right, now that we’ve got them exactly where they want us.

And. Decker. Smirks.

Kirk’s just gotten his love killed, and now Decker smiles at his lame joke.

Unbelievable. And dumb.

Contributor
Contributor

Maurice is one of the founders of FACT TREK (www.facttrek.com), a project dedicated to untangling 50+ years of mythology about the original Star Trek and its place in TV history. He's also a screenwriter, writer, and videogame industry vet with scars to show for it. In that latter capacity he game designer/writer on the Sega Genesis/SNES "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — Crossroads of Time" game, as well as Dreamcast "Ecco the Dolphin, Defender of the Future" where Tom Baker performed words he wrote.