12 Stupidest Decisions By Star Trek Characters

Filled with the great and the good, Star Trek still has a few that can make a right hash of it.

Star Trek Picard
CBS

The brightest, the best and at the other end of the scale, some of the most evil and diabolical.

Yet somehow in all of that with all of the schemes and the plans, the space battles and the undeniable genius, there are still some decisions that defy logic and common sense.

Within the Star Trek universe there are moments that, perhaps not on first viewing, don't make total sense. Even worse, they make the characters themselves look just plain silly and lead to events that could have been avoided.

Ok, so these do tend to add to their progress of the story and heighten the tension yet they fall tragically on the wrong side of expectation. You might even say it does show that the characters in Star Trek are even more human and fallible than viewers had come to expect in this optimistic future world.

Surprisingly some of the worst offenders are those higher up the chain and then there some outside Starfleet who need to seriously review their Super Villain status. So for now let’s dive in and discover our first offender!

12. Decker Vs The Doomsday Machine

Star Trek Picard
CBS

Let's clarify this episode right away to take account of precisely how off-kilter the choices made by Commodore Decker are.

The Doomsday Machine obliterates the USS Constellation off-screen. Decker thinks its wise to beam his entire crew down to a nearby planet which is then devoured by the aforementioned space-faring windsock. The commodore is left powerless to retrieve them aboard the stricken starship and has to wait for the Enterprise to arrive to offer any form of salvation.

Now, there is a need to be reasonable because Matt Decker is clearly now suffering from PTSD following such a harrowing ordeal. The story evolves from there with one final, rather pointless act from Decker of launching himself into the Machine's maw aboard a shuttlecraft. If a planet and a starship have already failed to slow it, Decker's sacrifice certainly won't, although it does help lead to an ultimate solution.

Just to reiterate; he's not working at full impulse by this time which leads to the other stupid decision - that Kirk leaves Decker virtually unguarded and free to roam, even to the point where he more than adequately steals a shuttle. Kirk's record for poor decisions keeps on rolling and this isn't the first time someone key to events is left without proper supervision or sedation.

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A Star Trek fan from birth, I love to dive into every aspect of the franchise in front and behind the screen. There's something here that's kept me interested for the best part of four decades! Now I'm getting back into writing and using Star Trek as my first line of literary attack. If I'm not here on WhatCulture then you're more than welcome to come and take a look at my blog, Some Kind of Star Trek at http://SKoST.co.uk or maybe follow me on Twitter as @TheWarpCore. Sometimes I force myself not to talk about Star Trek.