10 Most Messed Up Deaths In Star Trek: TOS
4. Beam Me Back, Scotty - And The Children Shall Lead
Most redshirts probably brace themselves for potential calamities as soon as they’re informed they’ve been called up for one of those dreaded away missions. Even the most pessimistic of crewmen, however, would expect to stay alive for longer than the poor saps in “And The Children Shall Lead” managed to.
Believing the Enterprise to be orbiting the planet Triacus, Kirk orders a routine transport of his away team to the surface, each of them prepared for the worst. Unfortunately, the worst arrives far sooner than anyone expected; it turns out that the planet’s apparent presence is merely a visual illusion, meaning that Kirk has unwittingly beamed his loyal men into outer space.
It’s largely left to the imagination, but the very thought of being instantly teleported from safety to death via the cold vacuum of space is chilling. Who needs fancy execution machines when you have the transporter? Still, although it’s certainly a horrific death, at least they, unlike viewers, were largely spared the pain of watching this infamously awful episode unfold.