Star Trek: 10 Times Spock Abandoned Logic

In the thirteenth episode of the Original Series, aptly named The Galileo Seven, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, and four other crewmen are in the shuttle Galileo investigating quasars while the Enterprise is preparing to head to a pandemic on New Paris. Something in the phenomenon knocks the shuttlecraft off course and they are forced to make an emergency landing in the middle of an electromagnetic phenomenon called Murasaki 312. Vicious giant creatures attack the crew on the planet Taurus II.

Due to loss of fuel, it was determined that it would be necessary to lose three hundred pounds from the shuttle for it to take off, or the equivalent of two adult males. Spock’s cold, calm, analytical demeanor unnerved his crewmates. After briefly using the phasers to scare the giants away, Spock decided that Scotty should use them as a means of propulsion to get the broken ship off the ground.

Realizing that they have exceeded the timetable that the Enterprise could wait for them and that the crew disobeying him to save him from a giant attack delayed their takeoff, Spock used all their fuel in one big burst of fire in the hopes that the Enterprise will notice them. It works but it wasn’t the logical course of action. It was an emotional “shot in the dark” that could have doomed his fellow crew and himself if it had not worked.