I just watched the second-season finale of Star Trek: Discovery, and …
SPOILER ALERT:
… it seems to me that a major character’s death could easily have been avoided if they’d just figured out a way to pull that handle down remotely. Which with all their high tech should have been easy; just send in a drone or something.
But if the tech was lacking, all they’d really need is a rope (to pull the handle from outside the room) and a knife (to cut the rope so it wouldn’t jam the door as it closed).
(For that matter, if they said the transporter was offline, I missed it. Pulling the handle and then beaming out would have been another solution.)
I find that TV shows often make plot compromises possibly due to lack of time. For example, there is an episode of the classic Magnum PI in which the killer confesses in a hospital room when she thinks she and Magnum are alone. When she turns around, there’s a cop with a tape recorder standing there. That cop couldn’t have gotten in the room without her seeing, and how did he know he’d need to tape a confession? Even The Rockford Files made some compromises like that, and it was the smartest and most conscientious of TV shows.
“That cop couldn’t have gotten in the room without her seeing”
Oh, that’s easy; in Magnum PI they were smart enough to use the transporter. 😛