10 Episodes That Should Have Changed Star Trek Forever - But Didn't

5. "Court Martial" (TOS)

When Captain Kirk is put on trial in "Court Martial," each of the witnesses must put their hands on a lie detector while they deliver their testimony, and is the traditional way, if there is even the slightest inaccuracy in their statement, the computer detects it. A hugely useful device for any court marshall situations, or when the crew suspects any duplicitousness or shady hidden intentions in strangers. It would also be particularly helpful in weeding out any impostors on-board the Enterprise, since asking them their intentions will quickly lead to their detection (though of course that would require a wide-ranging change in policy to include regular all-crew mandatory screening tests, which would probably have been terrible for morale. To be fair, this lie detecting device does show up in a few other episodes of the original Star Trek, but by the time Star Trek: The Next Generation rolls around, it has been completely forgotten. There are certainly a few courtroom dramas in the later series that would have been cut short if someone had remembered to haul a lie detector out of storage and find out who was lying.