10 Dumbest Things In Star Trek: Enterprise

Ah. The Decon Chambers.

In principle, this seems like a great idea. Due to the nature of the mission and the lack of transporter filters, there would need to be some form of decontamination process. How else would they be sure not to bring anything dangerous back to the ship?

But what this really turned out to be was an onscreen massage session missing an inappropriate soundtrack.

Now Star Trek has been on the edge from the start, thanks in no small part to the Theiss Titillation Theory of The Original Series, but Enterprise just nudged it over the line. While Theiss' costumes were designed in such a way that they might only just be clinging on for dear life, Enterprise's apparent necessity for decon provided something more than just a good scrub down and removal of all those nasties picked up on an alien world. 

Trek had been ramping up its sex appeal in the years before Enterprise, most obviously with the arrival of Jeri Ryan's Seven of Nine. While Seven remained fully covered (for the most part) and provided some of the appeal the show was hunting for, Enterprise's chamber sequences were absolutely there for the most obvious reason. 

For a show that prided itself on the exploration of the human condition, character interaction and hard-hitting, thought-provoking plots, nothing helped move viewers out of that frame more than Trip and T'Pol getting out the anti-dandruff shampoo for a lather down.