10 Star Trek Cliffhangers That Were Never Resolved
5. Did Kirk Ever Tell Starfleet About Sigma Iotia II?
In another case of Kirk simply not giving a toss about the Prime Directive, he is aware that McCoy accidentally left his communicator behind on Sigma Iotia II. The planet was effectively a colony of 1920s-style molls and gangsters, with cars and Tommy guns to boot. The communicator could revolutionize their technology, advancing their civilization decades overnight.
Well, we sure hope they don't try and co-opt it into a weapon then, don't we?
It's fairly obvious that Kirk didn't inform Starfleet of this little snafu, as he jokes at the episode's close that it would be interesting to see what the planet managed to do in one hundred years. Compare this to the Enterprise episode The Communicator, which seems to be a direct apology for Kirk's actions. Reed leaves his communicator behind on a pre-warp world, so Archer moves heaven and earth to get it back, so as not to pollute their development.
Oh, Kirk. Sigma Iotia II is never seen again in Star Trek. It's entirely possible that some technological genius found the device, reversed engineered some of the tech, and ended up with an atom bomb. Perhaps this is pessimistic, but it really is something that should be checked.