...just the other night I saw the episode "The Lights of Zetar" and at the beginning there was a mysterious force field with flashing lights speeding toward the ship at more than twice the speed of light and Kirk stupidly let it collide. Took no action to avoid it. People almost died.
share"The Lights of Zetar" is one of my least favorite episodes.
shareBut he always got everyone out of trouble again, or someone did!
In real life he's exactly the sort of person who shouldn't be trusted with his-word-is-law command, but it did make for an entertaining TV show.
Why? Military commands must operate under the commander's word is law. I don't know of any that would not.
Contrary to popular opinion, Kirk was largely a by-the-book commander, given what we knew and were told about Star Fleet Command.
Of course when a real-life commander decides to ignore orders or the prime directive or the laws of physics, they don't actually save the universe, and they're probably about to get their subordinates and/or themselves killed.
But the show wouldn't have been any fun if Kirk had always gone by the book, you know?
I love the line in The Wrath of Khan when he says “I did nothing except get caught with my britches down”.
shareI'm willing to assume he didn't have the option to avoid it at the last moment... The... effect... was not initially seen as a threat. It was reported as a "storm" and then, as it got closer it was reported that it was traveling at warp speed--meaning it could not be natural. Then in the last moments before contact Kirk ordered deflectors up and some sort of alert...
shareThe central character getting himself and his/her associates into trouble is the premise of most episodes of series television. Otherwise a series that had maybe 150 episodes would be reduced to a half dozen. Every episode of the 1960's Batman television series depends on it. If Batman was the least bit wary and cautious the series would have been cancelled after a couple of episodes.
shareYeah Batman was always getting himself and Robin into bad situations.
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I was watching Wolf in the Fold last night (the one where Scotty was accused of killing several women on a peaceful planet). Kirk has a female yeoman beam down to the planet with a special instrument to take some recordings of Scotty's noggin, and Kirk sends the female yeoman and the guy accused of murdering women off to a private room..