10 Dumbest Things in Star Trek The Original Series
5. Stealing the Enterprise
Kirk loses control of the Enterprise to interlopers numerous times in the course of three seasons. He also lost it to renegade Spock in “The Menagerie Part 1,” to “drunk” Kevin Riley, and to the nutjob M-5 computer (talk about malware). One such incident would cost him his command. Nine times (one in every nine episodes) and he’d be lucky to be mopping up Plomeek Soup in the Vulcan dorms of Starfleet Academy.
What’s stupid about this is how easily it’s accomplished
The worst instance is Kirk just being foolish. He effectively hands the keys to Khan in “Space Seed” by giving the sketchy, unforthcoming eugenics throwback unfettered access to the ship’s technical data, and posting a single guard to keep him in his room.
The others? The Kelvans of “By Any Other Name” just turn the crew into paperweights and take over. Android Norman of “I Mudd” overrides systems. The zippy Scaolians of “Wink of an Eye” just move too fast to be seen or countered. The space hippies of “The Way to Eden” are just smarter than they look. The brats of “And the Children Shall Lead” have a space Gorgon in a shower curtain giving them mind control powers. And both the pinwheel alien of “Day of the Dove” and racist Bele of “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” can take control by thought alone.
What’s especially dumb is that something as complicated as a starship should have dozens of ways to thwart a takeover, many fully automatic. Antagonists who can overcome such security measures raise the stakes; those you hold the door open for … not so much.