Protomatter sold separately

Malonmount

And then you kill them?

They stopped calling it a “failsafe”, what more do you want?

Scott decides to respond with a barrage of photon torpedoes

I disagree with this characterization. Scotty’s line is, “We can’t fire full phasers with our screens up, and We can’t lower our screens with their disruptors on us. Of course I could treat them to a few dozen photon torpedoes.” From the tone and delivery I took it as an expression of frustration rather than a serious idea he had, let alone one he had already decided on.

General Order 24: An order to destroy all life on an entire planet.

Which is a really weird thing for Starfleet to have a protocol for. It makes more sense if we assume that GO24 is actually some kind of quarantine/sterilization procedure intended to prevent the spread of dangerous life forms.

Kirk hails the Enterprise informing them to standby to transport the party in ten minutes or carry out General Order 24 on schedule.

If he was bluffing in the first place then he would still be bluffing here. There would be no point in tipping his hand until the situation was under control, which at that point it was not.

Probably my favorite Scotty moment.

And yes, he absolutely was bluffing. Montgomery Scott would not kill innocent civilians, even under direct orders. Recall that in this same episode Scotty refused a direct order to lower the shields and was fully willing to accept the consequences. (See also Star Trek 2009 where Scotty resigns rather than violate his professional ethics.)

I also like how Uhura reacts. She heard Kirk give General Order 24 but didn’t connect that with destroying the civilization below until Scotty utters his threat. This reinforces my headcanon that General Order 24 is actually a public health ordinance that was never intended to be used as a threat.

And TNG did break its own rules with Moriarty.

My headcanon is that Dr. Zimmerman and Lt. Barclay used the Moriarty program to discover how to make sentient holograms, and that’s why sentient holograms started showing up everywhere.

Ha. An Android phone.

Or just watch DS9.

Symbiosis: The crew must mediate between a planet of addicts and another planet of dealers.

Loud as a Whisper: The crew are ferrying a famous mediator to a warzone, but after his aides are killed the crew must step in.

The Vengeance Factor: The crew must mediate between the queen of a planet and a group of rebels who left the planet 100 years ago

The Price: The crew host negotiations for control of a wormhole

The Outrageous Okona: The crew rescue a charming rogue, but two angry fathers show up looking for him.

Too Short a Season: The crew deals with the ramifications of a badly botched diplomatic negotiation that was handled decades earlier by the guest-starring badmiral.

That’s an awful comparison. The Maquis are not a separate, independent culture being dominated or obliterated by another. They were already Federation citizens, born on Federation worlds into Federation culture and society, subject to Federation laws, educated by their own parents and family in Federation values, and the Federation enabled and supported their colonization efforts. The Maquis are a product of the Federation’s culture not a victim of it.

And they do have self-determination. They can stay in the DMZ on their planets if they want to, but there are consequences of that choice. And if they do leave the DMZ then they would not even have change their preferred lifestyle. There are any number of uninhabited planets they could relocate to, found new colonies, etc. They have so many options and opportunities open to them that their grievances, however valid they would be under real-world circumstances, seem childish and selfish particularly when the alternative is continuing a decades-long war.

The Maquis didn’t start the war with the Cardassians.

But they did know the border was in dispute, and had been in dispute for decades, before they colonized the area. They can’t feign surprise that the border might move if and when the dispute ended.

The Federation traded away their planets without even giving them a seat at the table.

They did have a seat at the table. They just didn’t get their way. That sometimes happens, and it doesn’t mean the process was unfair.

In a fully-automated luxury communist utopia, the Maquis are selfish assholes. Clinging to a planet because of the inconvenience of having to relocate. A planet which was never theirs to give or take in the first place. They talk a big talk about being “farmers who made something of the land,” and maybe that’s true. But they have replicators; farming is a hobby, not a livelihood.

Human, Vulcan, Bolian, etc. Maquis could lead happy, safe lives if only they were willing to lead happy, safe lives. They are not oppressed; they are not fighting in a righteous cause.

Bajorans, such as Ro, have different motivations. Bajor is not a party to the Federation-Cardassian Treaty, and Bajoran colonies were not sacrificed. Ro’s motivations are sympathy for the Maquis and hatred for Cardassians. Understandable and relatable motivations, but not heroic.

“Spock, ship’s stores can produce as many shirts as we need on demand.”

“I wasn’t referring to garments, captain.”

“A keyboard? How quaint.”

I like TOS Operation: Annihilate! because it presents a situation where a starship captain would be justified in issuing General Order 24. I’m disappointed that they didn’t actually mention GO24 in the episode, but my headcanon is that the crew were all reluctant to mention it by name.

I think GO24 is deeply misunderstood. It’s only ever been presented as a thing that a bad, crazy captain would order; as grounds for mutiny. So why would Starfleet even have such an order on the books? I think it’s actually designed for situations like the one in this episode: to prevent the spread of dangerous life forms.

This interpretation also enhances my enjoyment of another TOS episode, A Taste of Armageddon. In this episode, Kirk actually invokes General Order 24. Scotty understands that Kirk needs leverage to bluff with, and plays along. Bluffing the bad guys by citing a public health ordinance is classic Kirk. See also Corbomite and Fizzbin

He’s capable of functioning for extended periods in a vacuum… or in anything else.

I wonder what a Ferengi End-User License Agreement says.