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Pretty much what it says in the title. What were some of Kirk's worst decisions made? I'm trying to get enough options to present it as a poll. So feel free, folks.

Not bothering to raise shields, even though the Reliant was heading straight for them and not responding to hails.

I think that was the single worst mistake of his. Second place goes to letting Khan go the first time around.

Deepcrush wrote:Second place goes to letting Khan go the first time around.

That one can be put down to hindsight - it was a decent solution to the problem at the time.

Second would be not telling Uhura to fuck off when she crashed a shuttle into his, Spock's and McCoy's campsite.

Fort me, one of his worst had to be in 'The Galileo Seven'. He has orders to go to Makus III to drop off medical supplies that would be transferred to new Paris to combat a serious plague there. All he has to do is go there, drop them off and boom, all done. Instead, he goes to investigate the Murasaki 312 Quasar. There's a handwave that he's under orders to investigate quasar-like phenomena, but come on. Not like it's going anywhere!

So he sends out the shuttle and it crashes. At the end, he leaves at the last possible second for the transfer. This is one of the few times you feel sorry for the bureaucrat stuck with Kirk.

Haven't we had this thread before?

I'd definitely go for not raising shields in TWOK.

Actually, I was kind of shakey with his dealing with Va'al, making himself "Godfather" of the gangsters, and arming the "natives". But his worst command descision IMO was assuming position as Captain of Enterprise in TMP. He just as easily could have let Decker keep command of the ship (with greater familiarity of the ship), while as an Admiral he command the overall mission.

TWOK just seems like Kirk couldn't believe Relient was taken over completely by a hostile force for some reason.

Mark wrote:Actually, I was kind of shakey with his dealing with Va'al, making himself "Godfather" of the gangsters, and arming the "natives". But his worst command descision IMO was assuming position as Captain of Enterprise in TMP. He just as easily could have let Decker keep command of the ship (with greater familiarity of the ship), while as an Admiral he command the overall mission.

It was a poor decision, no doubt about it, but it had the advantages of reducing the number of levels of command involved.

TWOK just seems like Kirk couldn't believe Relient was taken over completely by a hostile force for some reason.

Understandable, but that doesn't excuse his failure to raise shields, even after Saavik quoted regulations at him and Spock told him that the excuse for no visual comms was bullshit.

Indeed, it was simple common sense.

RK_Striker_JK_5 wrote:Fort me, one of his worst had to be in 'The Galileo Seven'. He has orders to go to Makus III to drop off medical supplies that would be transferred to new Paris to combat a serious plague there. All he has to do is go there, drop them off and boom, all done. Instead, he goes to investigate the Murasaki 312 Quasar. There's a handwave that he's under orders to investigate quasar-like phenomena, but come on. Not like it's going anywhere!

I dunno... I don't think we can really class anything as a bad command decision when the decision is just to do what the standing orders tell you to.

I'll go along with ST II and not raising the shields. Not only was the ship acting suspiciously, but in this case Kirk specifically disobeys standing orders, because... well because he just doesn't seem to feel like following them, frankly. Major screw up, and his ship just barely survived the fallout.

He was also slow in raising the shields after Reliant raised hers. The second Spock said that Reliant was raising shields, Kirk should have yelled shields up himself.

Not only did it cost lives, it almost lost his ship and crew, most likely the crew of the Reliant who would have perished on Ceti Alpha V. Worst of all, Khan would have been let loose on the galaxy with a Starship with enormous destructive power, and most likely he would have tracked down the Genesis torpedo, and possibly captured David and Carol who have enough knowledge to recreate it.

kostmayer wrote:He was also slow in raising the shields after Reliant raised hers. The second Spock said that Reliant was raising shields, Kirk should have yelled shields up himself.

There were a bunch of times in that scene he should have raised shields:

1) When the Reliant approach with no comms

2) When Spock told him that they were lying about their comms being overloaded

3) When Reliant's shields went up

GrahamKennedy wrote:

RK_Striker_JK_5 wrote:Fort me, one of his worst had to be in 'The Galileo Seven'. He has orders to go to Makus III to drop off medical supplies that would be transferred to new Paris to combat a serious plague there. All he has to do is go there, drop them off and boom, all done. Instead, he goes to investigate the Murasaki 312 Quasar. There's a handwave that he's under orders to investigate quasar-like phenomena, but come on. Not like it's going anywhere!

I dunno... I don't think we can really class anything as a bad command decision when the decision is just to do what the standing orders tell you to.

Sorry, but I disagree. Kirk could've dropped a probe, recorded the location and come back after delivering the medical supplies vital to New Paris...

Not like he's never disobeyed orders before. And I'm gonna guess Starfleet Command would understand, especially in that day and age.

RK_Striker_JK_5 wrote:Not like he's never disobeyed orders before. And I'm gonna guess Starfleet Command would understand, especially in that day and age.

More to the point, exploring was only a standing instruction - at the time that would have been superseded by the current mission.