History BondVillainStupidity / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' had an act of stupidity worthy of a true Bond villain. Commander Sela has captured Spock, Data, and Picard, and is within minutes of conquering Vulcan. Then she leaves them alone in her office after describing in detail her entire evil plan. She doesn't even bother to tell the guards to stay in the room to watch them.

* ''Series/FallingSkies''. In the final episode of the fourth season, Tom Mason and Lexi face against the Espheni commander on his ship. The commander knocks down Tom and is more focused in burning Lexi -- while his back is turned, Tom stabs him with a poisoned syringe that can kill him.

* A few ''Series/TwentyFour'' fans weren't too attached to the AffablyEvil Jonas Hodges in season 7, because of this trope. At one point in the season, Jones Hodges manages to frame Jack Bauer for the death of a man he tortured by tasering, but could've just as easily killed Jack Bauer in the process. A bit of context: the incapacitated man was lying in the hospital bed recovering from the aforementioned torture when Jack Bauer sneaked back into the room (Bauer wasn't allowed to see him, but had to [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique interrogate him...again]]). When this happened, Jonas Hodges deployed knockout gas into the room to knock them out for a few brief minutes, which he then sends some men to kill the tortured man, and then leave.
* ''Series/{{Batman|1966}}'': This was the setup for almost every two-episode cliff-hanger; the villain would subject Batman and Robin to some ridiculous death trap (being turned into giant ice cream cones, or giant postage stamps, etc.) and then leave. "Tune in tomorrow, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel."
* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003''. During TheMutiny [[spoiler:Zarek tries to convince Gaeta he needs to kill Commander Adama and stop screwing around with a KangarooCourt, as alive he's a rallying point for the loyalists. Gaeta, being less ruthless, and more interested in making Adama acknowledge what he's put them through with his command decisions, doesn't listen]].

** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshade hung]] in an episode when Harmony captures Dawn in order to get Buffy to attempt to rescue and then capture Buffy. Harmony's minions point out that they could just kill Dawn because as long as Buffy believes Dawn to be alive then she'll come anyway, instead of waiting until Buffy arrives to kill Dawn. Harmony refuses because, "that's not the plan, duh!".

* ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'' would make use of this sometimes as well. The most blatant example was probably "Engaged and Confused" when, after having two of his associates killed as they tried to kill the Charmed Ones, the demon [[TimeStandsStill casually freezes time]] (an ability he did not attempt to use earlier) so that he and his operative can have a conversation (in front of the Charmed ones) without them knowing about it. He then leaves without attempting to harm the Charmed Ones.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E2TheDalekInvasionOfEarth "The Dalek Invasion of Earth"]]: The Daleks restrain two Companions and then leave them to die in an explosion.
** Davros sometimes does this, however he is clearly insane. He also sees the Doctor as an intellectual and seems to enjoy sparring with him. And in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E6RevelationOfTheDaleks "Revelation of the Daleks"]], he implies he wants to turn the Doctor into a Dalek.
** Justified in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E6TheCavesOfAndrozani "The Caves of Androzani"]]. Sharaz desires the Doctor's intellectual stimulation as well as Peri's beauty, but makes it clear that he will kill the Doctor if he can't bend him to his will.
** Defied by the Master in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E11Utopia "Utopia"]]:
--->"Anyway. Why don't we stop and have a nice little chat while I tell you all my plans and you can work out a way to stop me, I ''don't'' think!"
*** Although he makes just this mistake [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime later on]] with Rassilon, who has near-omnipotent technology at his disposal. Goodbye Master's masterplan!
*** The Master would often have the opportunity but wouldn't take it. Of course, as he says, "A cosmos without the Doctor scarcely bears thinking about." And he sometimes tries to pull a WeCanRuleTogether gambit.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E1PartnersInCrime "Partners in Crime"]]: Just before being shot, the Doctor says "Wait wait, now hold on!" and his enemies ''listen to him and hold their fire'', allowing him to use his sonic screwdriver and a sonic pen he'd gotten a hold of to create a sonic wave to disable the bad guys.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E3PlanetOfTheOod "Planet of the Ood"]]:

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E3RobotOfSherwood "Robot of Sherwood"]]: The Sheriff of Nottingham captures the Doctor, Clara, and Robin Hood, only for them to subsequently escape. Late in the episode, after they uncover his secret spaceship... he puts the Doctor back in irons and dumps him into a different dungeon. This time, he and Maid Marian foment a slave revolt and destroy most of the remaining robots, setting up the Sheriff and Robin Hood's inevitable showdown.
* ''Series/FallingSkies''. In the final S4 episode Tom Mason and Lexi face against the Espheni commander on his ship, the commander knocks down Tom and is more focused in burning Lexi, while his back is turned Tom stabs him with a poisoned syringe that can kill him.

** There's a rare heroic example in ''The Mountain and the Viper'', where Oberyn Martell gains the advantage in his fight with Gregor Clegane and has the opportunity to finish him off, but instead delays while demanding his opponent confess to the rape and murder of Oberyn's sister. Unfortunately for him, he gets a little too close to the downed Gregor and gets pulled off his feet, at which point his foe gleefully delivers the desired confession, while simultaneously crushing Oberyn's head with his bare hands.
** ''The Last of the Starks'' has both a villainous and a heroic example. Daenerys, her last surviving dragon and several subordinates come to the gates of King's Landing to meet with Cersei (standing on the wall above the gate), which ends with Cersei having Missandei executed. During this, Daenerys' group is within range of the countless scorpions (ballistae) on the walls of King's Landing. Cersei could literally just order the scorpions to shoot, thus wiping out the leadership and strongest weapon of her enemies on one go. Sure, it would be dishonorable, but since when did ''Cersei'' care about honor? And on the heroic side, Missandei is standing right next to Cersei and knows she (Missandei) is going to die, so why not grab Cersei and jump off the wall while she's at it?

* ''Series/{{MacGyver|1985}}'' uses this constantly, usually in the form of the BigBad securing the title hero (and usually a pretty lady) in some form of death trap that always has plenty of "useless" items lying around for [=MacGyver=] to use for escape. Lampshaded in the episode "The Ten Percent Solution", where a Nazi-lady tries to use a gas chamber on the heroes while a henchman ponders, "Why not just shoot them?"

* Morgana in the BBC series ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}'' is guilty of so many examples of this that the only way the series manages to work is to provide the good guys with an equal amount of [[ForgotAboutHisPowers Plot-Induced Stupidity]] to balance her out.

* ''Series/PrettyLittleLiars'' is full of this. A, despite clearly having it in for the all-girl team and having ''more'' than enough fodder to ruin their lives with, [[spoiler: she]] takes [[spoiler: her]] sweet, sadistic time. This gives the girls the leeway they need to try and find out who A really is. Most of the time this winds up getting them to fall into A's traps, giving A even '''more''' fodder, but it does work to their advantage sometimes.
* Happened ''all the time'' on ''Series/RobinHood''. The worst examples were Guy using a half-dead lion to try and kill Robin instead of ordering the fully-armed elite soldiers to just shoot him dead; and later trapping Robin in a dungeon that was slowly filling with water and then...wandering away mid-execution. Robin survives both attempts on his life.
* In the ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' episode "Arrival", two evil Kryptonians confront Clark Kent. They open a portal to the PhantomZone and shove Clark into it. At the last second, Clark grabs a piece of rebar and tries desperately to hold on as the portal sucks him in. Instead of doing something like cutting the bar with their heat vision, the villains just smirk and start walking away, only for Clark to FlashStep up to them, and [[HoistByHisOwnPetard shove them into the portal]].

* In the ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' episode "cold station 12": "Five minutes after we leave, every stasis field in this station will shut down, releasing hundreds of pathogens. I wonder which one will kill you first".
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' had an act of stupidity worthy of a true Bond villain. Commander Sela had captured Spock, Data, and Picard, and was within minutes of conquering Vulcan. Then, she left them alone in her office after describing in detail her entire evil plan. She didn't even bother to tell the guards to stay in the room to watch them.
* ''Series/TheWalkingDead'': Negan has many opportunities to kill Rick and deliberately throws them away. Justified at first, in that he wants to break Rick so he has an example for the rest of the communities to stay in line. But later when he decides he's had enough of Rick's disobedience, he still wastes time crowing and strutting before killing him. Almost immediately a 600-pound tiger punishes Negan for his arrogance.

* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003''. During TheMutiny [[spoiler:Zarek tries to convince Gaeta he needs to kill Commander Adama and stop screwing around with a KangarooCourt, as alive he's a rallying point for the loyalists. Gaeta, being less ruthless, and more interested in making Adam acknowledge what he's put them through with his command decisions, doesn't listen]].

* In ''Series/ObiWanKenobi'', Inquisitor Reva is revealed to be a former Jedi youngling who survived Anakin's destruction of TheOrder by FakingTheDead, and had been plotting revenge ever since. When she finally makes her move, Vader [[JustToyingWithThem effortlessly defeats her]] in a CurbStompBattle and runs his saber through her shoulder, leaving her for dead [[OnlyAFleshWound with a relatively minor, cauterized wound]], especially since she'd already survived it once.

* In ''Series/ObiWanKenobi'', Inquisitor [[CreatorsPet Reva]] is revealed to be a former Jedi youngling who survived Anakin's destruction of TheOrder by FakingTheDead, and had been plotting revenge ever since. When she finally makes her move, Vader [[JustToyingWithThem effortlessly defeats her]] in a CurbStompBattle and runs his saber through her shoulder, leaving her for dead [[OnlyAFleshWound with a relatively minor, cauterized wound]].

* ''Series/GameOfThrones''

** Villains aren't renowned for their intelligence, but were most guilty of Bond Villain stupidity during ''Series/PowerRangersJungleFury'', where a constant stream of new villainous overlords continued to defeat the Power Rangers then walk away, only to complain later about not being able to defeat the Rangers. By about the 20th time this happened in a 32 episode show, it was very hard to keep caring.
** Of course, many fans point out that the Rangers could be accused of "Bond Hero Stupidity" at time. (for instance, during ''Series/PowerRangersZeo'', they could have prevented a ''lot'' of trouble had they opened fire on Klang and Orbus, a duo who were instrumental in [[MakeMyMonsterGrow a key part of Mondo's plans]]. The two were pretty easy targets who were always there, seemed to have very few fighting skills, and as such, a weak link in the overall chain that the heroes never considered trying to break.)

* ''Series/TheWalkingDeadTVSeries'': Negan has many opportunities to kill Rick and deliberately throws them away. Justified at first, in that he wants to break Rick so he has an example for the rest of the communities to stay in line. But later when he decides he's had enough of Rick's disobedience, he still wastes time crowing and strutting before killing him. Almost immediately a 600-pound tiger punishes Negan for his arrogance.