The 14 Dumbest Things In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

12. Preposterous Pew Pews

Star Trek Kirk
Paramount
CHEKOV: Why not simply vaporize* them?
VALERIS: Like this?
Valeris fires her phaser. A KLAXON WAILS
VALERIS: At ease. As you know, Commander Chekov, no one can fire an unauthorized phaser aboard a starship.

* — Pronounced “waporize”

Valeris fires a phaser in a room full of people to make a point...to Chekov, of all people (once security chief, in The Motion Picture). I’m sure Lt. Saavik (the original, not Star Trek III’s lame simulacra) would have a regulation or three to quote about this. Discharging a firearm, on a setting which would “waporize” anything and anyone who gets in the way, has to be a no-no in a busy galley.

And what the heck is a rack of deadly weapons doing in a kitchen? Is the food so bad the chefs need defend themselves from dissatisfied customers? Dumb much?

Speaking of that “waporize” setting, why do Gorkon’s assassins set their phasers to “slice” when they could have made absolutely certain he can’t survive by doing to him what Valeris does to the pot and what the Rura Pente Commandant does to Martia?

Also, just what is the flash point for mashed potatoes? It’s pretty preposterous that a metal pot gets “waporize”d but the spuds don't.

 
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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.