I don't feel it would be an overstatement to say that in the history of television, there is no show that has been has pored over and analyzed as much as Star Trek: The Original Series. Though not a ratings winner when it was originally airing, through syndication, Star Trek found a large audience. As a result, the original 79 episodes of the series have been played repeatedly all over the world since. Obviously, this snowballed into what we now know as the most culturally-influential television shows in history, and arguably the most successful science-fiction franchise in history. Being a show that has been seen repeatedly and beloved the world over, opens it up, of course, to critique. However, the critique to which I refer, is not of the stories themselves, but of the mistakes. The bloopers, plot-holes, and flat out screw ups. For this article, I will focus on the first season of The Original Series. If there is interest in subsequent articles, I will move on to the second and third. For now, let's dig into 10 arbitrarily numbered mistakes in our beloved Star Trek:
10. The Enemy Within (Episode 4)
The Plot: A transporter malfunction splits Captain Kirk into two people: one good, one EVIL! (dun dun dun!). With the transporter on the fritz, several Enterprise crewmembers are stranded on the planet below, whose temperature is rapidly freezing!
The (ENORMOUS) Screw Up: The Enterprise has shuttlecrafts. In fact, they have an entire hangar full of them. They could have easily sent one down to the planet and brought everyone back onboard. (The reason this solution didn't come about is because this episode was written and produced before the shuttles and hangarbays were established.)
Cool Trivia: This was the first episode to show the
Vulcan nerve pinch, as well as the first time McCoy says "
He's dead, Jim."