12 Genius Decisions By Star Trek Captains
9. Picard Decides To Destroy The Enterprise
The Enterprise crew finds themselves trapped in a strange black void of space. Nothing in this void seems right. Romulan Warbirds appear out of nowhere and are destroyed with no resistance. The Enterprise’s sister ship, the Yamamoto, appears from thin air, or space, then disappears.
Eventually, Picard and crew discover they’ve become play-things of an alien entity called Nagilum. Nagilum has power over time and space. He can keep the Enterprise trapped in his void indefinitely. The alien seems to be very interested in the concept of death. He tells Picard that he’d like to run some experiments and it will only take a little over half the crew...
Picard, not satisfied to play lab rat, decides to set the auto-destruct sequence rather than submit to Nagilum. Realizing that the Enterprise is no use to him, Nagilum relents and lets the ship go. With that single decision, Picard out-maneuvers an omnipotent alien.