10 Times Star Trek Broke Its Own Rules
7. No Unauthorized Phasers
This one is a little up in the air, while at the same time really obvious. In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Valeris fires a phaser to remind Chekov that no one can fire an unauthorised phaser on a starship.
In the same film, two crewmen are killed by phaser fire, with the phasers set to stun at close range.
If we take then the rule that stun is fine, but the maximum setting isn't - why was this rule abandoned going into The Next Generation, where there are multiple instances of phasers being fired without any alarms going off - for example when Lore shoots Dr. Crusher in Datalore - or on Voyager, when the ship is repeatedly invaded?
For the latter, perhaps intruder alerts circumvent these alarms (seems a pretty poor design flaw really!).
As it stands, it looks like this hard and fast rule, given such an excellent depiction in Star Trek VI, stands out from the established canon in the franchise - though for the safety of the crews out there, it is perhaps a rule they should bring back and enforce!