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I was on Quora and someone asked if Kirk should be charged with criminal negligence over Khan's attack on the Enterprise on Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan (1982) because they seem to think that he ignored Lt. Saavik and general order 12.

General order 12: "On the approach of any vessel, when communications have not been established…

And there are those who think that Kirk totally ignored it even though Kirk did order yellow alert which then Enterprise activated defence fields and charged phaser banks, but without showing any outward hostility. But many have implied that general order 12 was to raise shields and go to red alert without actually knowing the full order.

But by going to yellow alert says he was already taking a defensive posture, readying for battle. Not only that, he wasn't fooled by Khan's transmission saying the Reliant's chamber's coil is overloading their comm system which he ordered Spock to check.

Other captains might have been fooled.

When Spock said they were locking phasers, Kirk ordered shield to be raised. But Khan was just quicker on the draw, firing on the Enterprise a split second before shields could be brought up to full power.

Added that Khan had Chekov under his control, and he used Chekov's knowledge of the Enterprise to disable her. Without it, Enterprise would still take heavy damage in the first attack, but a good chance they could have raised shields before other attacks from Khan.

One could argue that Kirk should have raised shields when the Reliant did, but that's all after the fact. He could have raised shields when Saavik was interrupted, or he could have been fooled by Khan and not raise shields at all until the first attack. Let's say Willard Decker -- I'm not trash talking Captain Decker, mind you -- he might have been fooled by the transmission and not see the danger. And let's say he was able to use the Reliant's prefix codes against her and force Khan into a retreat like Kirk did. He may still have to answer for general order 12, but he might have gotten off Scot free.

By the way, running away from Reliant after Khan activated Genesis instead of destroying the Reliant, no promise that destroying the Reliant would stop the detonation since it was already building up, and destroying Reliant could easily have set off Genesis destroying both the Reliant and the Enterprise. Even beaming it off wouldn't work as David Marcus said it couldn't be stopped, and absolutely no promise that in mid transit would stop the detonation IF they could get a positive lock onto it.

There was no time to experiment as they REALLY had to get the hell out of there if it didn't work.

This makes the only real problem how the hell did they get to Regula 1 without warp drive?

Screen caps for Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan (1982) and Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home (1986) were from www.trekcore.com/

Description

I was on Quora and someone asked if Kirk should be charged with criminal negligence over Khan's attack on the Enterprise on Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan (1982) because they seem to think that he ignored Lt. Saavik and general order 12.

General order 12: "On the approach of any vessel, when communications have not been established…

And there are those who think that Kirk totally ignored it even though Kirk did order yellow alert which then Enterprise activated defence fields and charged phaser banks, but without showing any outward hostility. But many have implied that general order 12 was to raise shields and go to red alert without actually knowing the full order.

But by going to yellow alert says he was already taking a defensive posture, readying for battle. Not only that, he wasn't fooled by Khan's transmission saying the Reliant's chamber's coil is overloading their comm system which he ordered Spock to check.

Other captains might have been fooled.

When Spock said they were locking phasers, Kirk ordered shield to be raised. But Khan was just quicker on the draw, firing on the Enterprise a split second before shields could be brought up to full power.

Added that Khan had Chekov under his control, and he used Chekov's knowledge of the Enterprise to disable her. Without it, Enterprise would still take heavy damage in the first attack, but a good chance they could have raised shields before other attacks from Khan.

One could argue that Kirk should have raised shields when the Reliant did, but that's all after the fact. He could have raised shields when Saavik was interrupted, or he could have been fooled by Khan and not raise shields at all until the first attack. Let's say Willard Decker -- I'm not trash talking Captain Decker, mind you -- he might have been fooled by the transmission and not see the danger. And let's say he was able to use the Reliant's prefix codes against her and force Khan into a retreat like Kirk did. He may still have to answer for general order 12, but he might have gotten off Scot free.

By the way, running away from Reliant after Khan activated Genesis instead of destroying the Reliant, no promise that destroying the Reliant would stop the detonation since it was already building up, and destroying Reliant could easily have set off Genesis destroying both the Reliant and the Enterprise. Even beaming it off wouldn't work as David Marcus said it couldn't be stopped, and absolutely no promise that in mid transit would stop the detonation IF they could get a positive lock onto it.

There was no time to experiment as they REALLY had to get the hell out of there if it didn't work.

This makes the only real problem how the hell did they get to Regula 1 without warp drive?

Screen caps for Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan (1982) and Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home (1986) were from www.trekcore.com/