History WhatAnIdiot / StarTrek

'''You'd Expect''': For our heroes to be immediately suspicious of this generosity. [{{Greed}} The Ferengi are profit-driven]] and have been antagonistic in the past. They should demand any and all records of the ship's recovery, and do a full sweep for any potential surprises before allowing anyone -- Picard included -- to board the ship.\\

* ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise:''
** In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS01E01E02BrokenBow}} Broken Bow]]", ''Enterprise'' traces Klaang's abduction to the Suliban helix. Archer and Trip have already broken him out of his restraints, and while Trip takes him back to ''Enterprise'', Archer ends up in the temporal chamber with the invisible Silik. Now, Silik has already interrogated Klaang with truth serum and determined that he knows nothing, and he suspects the same of Archer, meaning that he's not a threat. Therefore, Silik graciously allows Archer to leave unharmed.\\

** "[[{{Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS01E06TerraNova}} Terra Nova]]" reveals one that happened decades ago (from our heroes' perspective). To wit: Earth discovers an M-class planet about nine light-years away and sends a ship over to begin colonizing it. This leads to the foundation of the Terra Nova colony, with a population of roughly 200. Since this seems to be a success, Earth lets them know that they plan to send over another wave of colonists.\\

'''You'd Then Expect''': Earth to send over a ship to see what happened. Or ask the Vulcans for help--humans may not like asking favors from the Vulcans, but with 200 lives potentially at stake, surely they can swallow their pride.\\

** The Xindi in their arc of season 3. They fear humans because they were (falsely) told that humanity will destroy them in the future, and they are building a WaveMotionGun to deliver a pre-emptive EarthShatteringKaboom. Now at this point they have five major advantages: their enemy has no clue they exist, they have four hundred years to refine their prototype, they have allies who give them technology and ''can see the future'', they live in a remote and inaccessible part of space, and they can travel nigh-instantaneously across the galaxy. Now they complete a Small-Country-Shattering-Kaboom prototype of their weapon, and... \\

'''Instead''': They test the prototype on Earth itself. Earth immediately sends ''Enterprise'' after them, which: finds them, destroys their next prototype, convinces them not to blow up Earth, and sends their future-seeing allies back to the trans-dimensional realm they came from. Good job, Xindi! You failed only because of your own stupidity.\\
'''For Added Stupidity''': They ''were'' testing prototypes at remote and secret locations! Using the prototype on Earth was not only stupid, it was also completely redundant.
** [[Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS03E17Hatchery "Hatchery"]]: The crew is investigating a wrecked Insectoid Xindi ship which turns out to contain a hatchery. While examining it to see if they can repair the hatchery's life support system and save the eggs, one of the eggs squirts an unidentified substance in Archer's face. Dr. Phlox determines that the substance is some sort of neurotoxin, but Archer appears to be suffering no ill effect.\\

'''As a Result:''' The mysterious substance turns out to be a mind-altering chemical which causes Archer to imprint on the eggs (like a baby animal imprinting on its mother, but in reverse). Archer becomes obsessed with protecting the eggs to the exclusion of all else, including their original mission. The crew is ultimately forced to mutiny to stop him from using most of their antimatter for the hatchery's life support system.
** In "These Are The Voyages", the crew has just rescued Shran's daughter from a group of his former business associates. As the crew are heading back home after the rescue, Archer and Tucker hear a message over the ship's intercom (delivered by T'Pol) stating that a group of intruders -- the same people who kidnapped Shran's daughter -- have beamed onboard.\\

'''Instead:''' Archer and Tucker rush out to confront the intruders, sans weapons. They predictably get captured immediately by the aliens. Tucker (who has been shown to be capable of talking down/stalling villains in the past) tells the aliens to knock out Archer (while security is nowhere to be found), and then leads them to a room where he blows himself and his captors up, presumably dying afterwards due to injuries sustained. There was a FixFic written later on to {{Retcon}} the silliness of this incident as a ploy by Section 31. The FixFic explained that the "villains" were actually hired by Archer, and the whole thing was an elaborate ploy to fake Trip's death so he could work for Section 31 against the Romulans.
** "[[{{Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS02E05ANightInSickbay}} A Night In Sickbay]]": Trained diplomat Archer is negotiating with a race who are so prudish they have in past stormed off the ship after discovering humans eat in public, to access a component that is crucial to the continued functioning of the warp drive. As part of this, he goes to visit a stand of sacred trees.\\

** In "[[Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS04E19Demons Demons]]", our heroes learn that an AbsoluteXenophobe movement called "Terra Prime" used genetic material from Trip and T'Pol to create a HalfHumanHybrid and are holding her at their mining colony on the moon so they can use her as a symbol of how interspecies relations will bring about the end of humanity. Despite the unnatural circumstances of her creation, Trip and T'Pol still consider her their daughter and want her rescued. Naturally, Archer agrees.\\

* In the final episode, "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS3E24TurnaboutIntruder}} Turnabout Intruder]]", insane Janice Lester switches bodies with Captain Kirk so she can stop being a woman and become a Starfleet Commander.\\

'''Instead''': She makes official log entries as the captain, where she actually ''brags about how she's duping everyone''. There is absolutely ''no'' good reason for her to do this. Only the fact that she's essentially insane can excuse her. (Although it is more a narrative device)
* From "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS1E27TheAlternativeFactor}} The Alternative Factor]]", two of the Enterprise's dilithium crystals have been stolen, and Kirk immediately suspects Lazarus, who, earlier that day, begged Kirk to give them to him so he could kill his enemy. Also, Kirk and Spock have been growing increasingly suspicious of Lazarus' true intentions.\\

'''You'd Expect''': Assuming we take the rather spurious science at face value, that Kirk would stun Lazarus, drag him back to the Enterprise and then have the Enterprise destroy Lazarus's spaceship, which would sever the link to the antimatter universe. Alternatively, just kill Lazarus, which would be a justifiable action given that two whole universes are at stake.\\
'''Instead''': Kirk and Anti-Lazarus come up with a plan whereby Kirk throws Lazarus into the dimensional link, where Anti-Lazarus will hold him. The Enterprise then destroys Lazarus's spaceship, ending the threat from him... but also consigning Anti-Lazarus to spend the rest of his life (if not the rest of ''time'') having a fistfight with his insane counterpart.

* In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS2E1AmokTime}} Amok Time]]", Kirk learns that Spock is going through what Vulcans call "''Pon farr''", which is driving him out of his Vulcan mind, and he must [[MateOrDie return home to mate or he will die]]. The problem is that the ''Enterprise'' already has an important mission at Altair VI, so Kirk contacts Starfleet to request permission to divert to Vulcan. Complicating matters, however, is the fact that Kirk has promised Spock that he won't tell a soul about the ''Pon farr''.\\

* In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS2E12TheDeadlyYears}} The Deadly Years]]", Kirk, Spock, [=McCoy=], and Scotty are stricken by radiation-induced aging that also kills a female RedShirt. Kirk's failing mental faculties lead to him being relieved of command by the visiting Commodore Stocker, thus leaving him as the highest-ranking officer on the ''Enterprise''. However, despite his rank, he has never commanded a starship.\\

'''Instead''': Stocker assumes command himself. The first thing he does, in order to reach Starbase 10 more quickly, is to take a shortcut through the Romulan Neutral Zone. When the ''Enterprise'' is attacked by Romulan birds-of-prey, Stocker freezes up, utterly unable to do anything.\\

* In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS2E20ReturnToTomorrow}} Return To Tomorrow]]", the Enterprise receives a distress call from a lifeless planet. When they go to investigate, they find a telepathic being named Sargon who, along with two others, are the last three survivors of their race, and their minds have been stored in spheres ever since their planet was devastated by war. In exchange for the temporary use of three crew members' bodies to house their minds in order to construct android bodies in order to leave the spheres, they offer to share with the Enterprise their highly advanced knowledge (enough for humankind to leap ahead 10,000 years). When Kirk, Spock, Dr. Mulhall and [=McCoy=] accept the offer, however, the three aliens are overcome by the physical sensations their host bodies have given them. Henoch, being in Spock's body and having more acute half-Vulcan senses and greater strength than a regular human, decides Sargon's idea of living inside android bodies that can't feel anything just won't do anymore.\\

'''The Result''': Henoch does manage to tempt Thalassa, but only temporarily. The spheres that originally housed their minds are destroyed after Kirk is restored, leaving Spock's fate in doubt. Sargon and Thalassa end up having to come up with a plan to catch Henoch off guard while he is on the bridge, then Henoch ends up unable to transfer to another body when Spock is rendered unconscious. The only thing Henoch managed to accomplish was getting himself consigned to oblivion (or not, depending on whether there's any afterlife in the Trek Universe). Once Henoch is gone and Spock is restored, Sargon and Thalassa also decide to consign themselves to oblivion as well.

* In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS3E4AndTheChildrenShallLead}} And the Children Shall Lead]]", Gorgan, the MonsterOfTheWeek, has brainwashed a bunch of children to do his bidding, which includes getting the crew to divert the ship to a heavily-populated colony and causing hallucinations so that they don't alter course. This causes Kirk to unwittingly beam two {{Red Shirt}}s into space, not knowing that they've left orbit from the planet where they picked up the children, and on discovering this, he calls the bridge to angrily ask why they've altered course, and says that he and Spock are coming up there.\\

'''You'd think''': That the very blatantly obvious fact that the two are ''identical'' would make Picard suspicious, and he would ask Lore something only Data would know to find out if he was really Data or not. Even if he didn't bother with any of that, you'd think he'd ''at least'' be sure to keep a careful eye on Lore and take any advice from him with a grain of salt, just in case.\\
'''Instead''': Picard implicitly trusts Lore, believing he's Data, even when he does things that Data wouldn't do. Even worse, Wesley explicitly tries to point out the possibility to Picard, and Picard for some reason ignores him. Sure, he's a CreatorsPet, but that ''does'' mean he has a tendency to be right. The only reason everyone on the Enterprise didn't die due to Picard's appalling stupidity is that Wesley goes against orders and manages to save the day.

'''You'd Expect''': For our heroes to be immediately suspicious of this generosity. The Ferengi are profit-driven and have been antagonistic in the past. They should demand any and all records of the ship's recovery, and do a full sweep for any potential surprises before allowing anyone -- Picard included -- to board the ship.\\
'''Instead''': None of this happens. Bok's generosity is taken at face value and the ship is never searched. This allows Bok to hide a mind-manipulation device the size of a beach ball inside Picard's old chest that gets transported from Picard's old cabin on the ''Stargazer'' to his new one on ''Enterprise'', and it's not until the climax that they figure out that Bok is screwing with Picard for revenge.

* In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E9AMatterOfTime A Matter of Time]]", Rasmussen, a time traveller purporting to be a historian from the 26th century, travels to the Enterprise-D to observe them during a mission. It turns out he's actually from the 22nd century, having stolen the time machine in order to gather information and technology, travel back in time 200 years and get credited as its 'inventor'.\\

'''You'd Expect:''' Ideally, Odo to alert ops and let them sort out detaining the smuggler and her ship. Or if for some reason it's ''really'' important for Odo to confront the smuggler in person, bring along Worf and/or some Bajoran security deputies as backup.\\
'''Instead:''' Odo lets his pride get in the way, and insists on confronting the smuggler in person. He doesn't even get within ten feet of her before he suddenly collapses into a puddle of goop, allowing her to escape, and massively accelerating the deterioration of his health.

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager:''
** In "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E5FalseProfits False Profits]]", ''Voyager'' finds the wormhole from the aforementioned TNG episode "The Price" during the third season. They also find the Ferengi that were stranded in the Delta Quadrant, who have set themselves up as gods among a bronze-age people.\\

** In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS7E23Endgame}} Endgame]]", an older version of Janeway plans to negate her own timeline by helping Voyager get back much earlier than intended. She'll have to break a lot of rules to accomplish her plan, though.\\

** In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS5E6Timeless}} Timeless]]", Harry Kim and Tom Paris manage to build a slipstream drive like the one on the alien ship from "Hope and Fear". Problem is, it destabilizes after a few minutes, so they have to make constant course corrections. Harry tries but can't keep up, killing the entire crew except himself and Chakotay. A future version of Harry Kim rewrites the past so that the ship drops out of transwarp after two or three minutes in its trial run, so that it doesn't crash and kill the crew.\\

'''Instead:''' Janeway decides the technology is too dangerous and orders it dismantled, while being disappointed that their experiment didn't work. ''But it did work! You just cut ten years off your journey, and were seconds away from making it back home!!!''

** In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS5E21SomeoneToWatchOverMe}} Someone to Watch Over Me]]", the Doctor and Paris have a bet going to see if he can teach Seven how to go on a date without being her usual overbearing self. After an early attempt is messed up by Seven tearing the guy's ligament during a dance, the Doctor takes her himself for the "final exam", so to speak, which is a dinner being held for an alien ambassador. The Doctor's teachings work, and Seven does splendidly.\\

** In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS5E1Night}} Night]]", a Malon captain is poisoning a sentient species by dumping his toxic cargo in their otherwise empty region of space. To try and solve this, the crew offers to show the captain how to build a means to recycle their toxic waste. The Malon captain admits this would solve a lot of problems on his world, and as other Malon episodes show managing the toxins is a constant and very dangerous problem for the Malon people.\\

** In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS2E26S3E1Basics}} Basics]]", the crew is stranded on a hostile alien planet without technology and realize they are going to have to rough it if they want to survive. [[CreatorsPet Neelix]], the survival expert ([[InformedAttribute despite having shown absolutely no survival skills whatsoever in previous episodes]]), is given command of a team where they decide to gather as much bones as possible to use for tools from right near the mouth of a cave.\\

** In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS7E4Repression}} Repression]]", someone is attacking the former Maquis on ''Voyager'' and putting them in comas. For safety reasons, Chakotay tells the Maquis to pair off and not go anywhere alone. Some time later, he and his partner (a female Vulcan RedShirt) come across Chell by himself and learn that his partner was B'Elanna, but she ditched him because she thought she could take care of herself (either that, or she just got tired of his constant paranoia).\\

'''Instead''': He uses his viceroy's psychic powers to ''MindRape'' Troi while she's making love to Commander Riker. The only reason this doesn't end up alerting the ''Enterprise'' crew as to his true nature is because they'd already worked it out for themselves when Geordi detected the planet-killing Thalaron radiation weapon aboard the ''Scimitar''.

'''Instead''': He uses his viceroy's psychic powers to ''MindRape'' Troi while she's making love to Commander Riker, thereby confirming to the ''Enterprise'' crew (as if they didn't already have enough reason to suspect it) that he's evil.

'''Instead''': Rasmussen pickpockets everything he wants from under the nose of the senior staff, who quickly realise the equipment has gone missing and immediately suspect him. When the equipment is discovered on his time-ship by Data, rather than spin a tale of how he felt that his requests would be rejected if he simply asked, Rasmussen actually ''gloats'' about how he got away with his theft, and how he'll also be credited as the inventor of Data himself when his time ship (which is on autopilot, just compounding Rasmussen's stupidity) returns to the 22nd century. Naturally, Rasmussen is blissfully unaware of the fact that the Enterprise's sensors detected and deactivated all of the equipment the second he opened the door of his time ship, rendering him defenseless before Data, who confiscates all of his stolen equipment and arrests him. As the final insult, [[KickTheSonOfABitch Rasmussen is forced to watch as the time ship returns to the 22nd century without him, stranding him 200 years out of time]].

* In "Too Short A Season", Admiral Mark Jameson uses his connections to get doses of a rejunvination drug for him and his wife. The people he gets the drug from expressly warn him to use it gradually over the course of two years to reduce the probability of nasty side effects.\\

** The evil Duras Sisters have planted a bug in Geordi's VISOR that lets them see anything he can see; they use this to obtain the ''Enterprise'' shield frequency, rendering it ineffective, and start blasting the hell out of the ship. For argument's sake, we'll assume that either they didn't know the exact method the Klingons were using, or they were re-tuning the shields only for the Klingons to find out the new frequencies through the VISOR.\\

'''Instead''': She inadvertently mentions Sigmund Freud, who Data visits a hologram of on the Holodeck. Holo-Sigmund has an absolute field day with Data's dreams and convinces him he's secretly a perverted psychopath. Que Data attacking Troi in a Turbolift, and Commander Riker and Worf having to come to her rescue.

'''Instead''': He turns into an AscendedFanboy of ridiculous proportions and blabs just about every detail of Cochrane's future to the man, not seeing the problem in what he's doing until Barclay shows up and starts doing the same thing turned UpToEleven. By this time Geordi has already nearly fatally screwed up the mission, as Cochrane sneaks off into the woods and tries to flee, having been scared out of wanting to attempt the flight; Riker ends up having to stun him and literally drag him to the launch bay.

'''Instead''': She makes official log entries as the captain, where she actually ''brags about how she's duping everyone''. There is absolutely ''no'' good reason for her to do this. Only the fact that she's essentially insane can excuse her.

'''You'd Also Expect:''' That the Ferengi would realize that the average bronze-age civilization would have absolutely nothing of value to them. They are shown using their status as religious figures to scam the locals out of their money - money which has been well established in Star Trek canon to be essentially worthless thanks to replicator technology. The Ferengi are even shown using a replicator they brought with them, which ought to remind the audience of that. If their world had resources actually useful to the Ferengi (dilithium, latinum, etc.) then their scheme might make some sense, but nothing of that nature is ever mentioned.\\

''Franchise/StarTrek'' is proof that humanity's "evolved sensibilities" (to quote [[Film/StarTrekFirstContact Captain Picard]]) don't necessarily include evolved intelligence.

Proof that humanity's "evolved sensibilities" (to quote [[Film/StarTrekFirstContact Captain Picard]]) don't necessarily include evolved intelligence.

'''Instead:''' He explains, ''to said female first officer'', that the reason the yeoman startled him was that the captain wasn't used to having a woman on the bridge, earning him a funny look and forcing him to backtrack ("You're different, of course").

* In "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E21ThePerfectMate}} The Perfect Mate]]", the ''Enterprise'' is transporting an ambassador to a peace conference. Said ambassador has brought along a gift for the other side's chancellor as a peace offering, which he describes as "quite fragile and quite irreplaceable."\\

'''Instead''': In a display of BondVillainStupidity [[RecycledInSpace In Space]], she leaves our heroes (each of whom qualifies as TheSmartGuy in his milieu) unguarded in her office. [[LockingMacGyverInTheStoreCupboard With her computer.]] And said holographic projectors. By the time she returns, they've put their own plan into motion to stop hers.

** ''Voyager'' finds the wormhole from the aforementioned TNG episode "The Price" during the third season. They also find the Ferengi that were stranded in the Delta Quadrant, who have set themselves up as gods among a bronze-age people.\\

'''You'd Think:''' That if the Changeling wanted to reduce Damar's effectiveness, she'd [[IHaveYourWife hold his family hostage]] and threaten to execute them if he launches another attack or refuses to surrender. At most, she might kill one of the kids on the spot, just to show that she's serious.\\