10 Worst Things Captain Kirk Has Ever Done

And the violations keep on coming! In season three’s "The Cloud Minders", the gang visit the mining planet Ardana, where the underclasses are forced to dig for precious zenite. When it transpires that the material gives off a brain-muddling toxin, Kirk decides that he is more than qualified to get in the middle of a labour dispute.

The planet is divided into strata, with the snooty Plasus ruling the upper class, and a group of “troglodytes” doing the dirty work. When it becomes clear that the perceived mental inferiority is due to the aforementioned mind baffling gas, Kirk appoints himself union leader, and marches Plasus down into the mines to learn the error of his prejudicial ways. Kirk is on the side of the angels here, it goes without saying, and yet again he goes about it in a clumsy manner. Rather than, say, sparking a serious discussion about Ardana’s class system, his solution is “give the troglodytes gas masks”.

No doubt Kirk is trying to be a comrade here, but he shows himself up again to be a dilettante, sticking his beak in with little thought to the consequences. Once the Enterprise zoomed off on their next adventure, you can bet those miners got it in the neck big time.