12 Stupidest Decisions By Star Trek Characters

There are other examples of this but Descent is the best one that exists in The Next Generation.

To this point the sequel to the original Star Trek had managed to avoid a lot of the tropes of its predecessor. The whole senior staff didn't beam down and enemies didn't tend to declare their plans to their most feared enemy.

So forget all about that because Descent has two characters perform unforgivable examples of stupidity all within 42 minutes.

For the first, Picard has the entire crew, bar a skeleton staff, beam down to search on foot across a whole planet for Data. This places the Enterprise in unnecessary danger against a ship that the audience knows is huge and extremely powerful. Of course, Jean-Luc could leave someone with good tactical knowledge and previous command experience in charge. Or he could leave the doctor in the chair.

At least the senior staff aren't all grouped together in two search parties. Yes... yes they are.

OK, the audience can appreciate that this helps tell the story utilising the main cast but from a strategic perspective it's the eggs-in-one-basket scenario that Star Trek was often berated for. It also manifests itself fairly well in Part 2 when the Enterprise has a science division ensign holding down Tactical.