Because Maltz is by himself and he couldn't turn his back long enough to lock up the prisoners and command the ship at the same time? Sulu could've flipped him! He has no backup, that's my theory.
Marching the bunch to a holding cell sounds simpler to me (and probably involves less back-turning) than keeping them all at gunpoint on a bridge where no matter where they stand, they have access to dangerous equipment... And if Maltz can spare the time to go to the transporter room to beam up the captives, he isn't too busy to command the ship. Timo Saloniemi
Because they all knew once Kirk beamed down, Kruge will inevitably be on the receiving end of repeated Shatner kicks to the face. What is there to be worried about?
The plot of TSFS only works if you permit everyone except the Trek regulars (by extension including Sarek) to be absolutely stupid - everyone from the captain of the freighter ("What's going on? When do I get paid?") to Kruge ("We are Klingons!").
Uh, he executed one of his own people because he displeased him. He executed David just to "show his sincerity" and he was attempting to gain a planet destroying weapon. That's all text book bad guy behavior.
Given we're all humans discussing a science fiction movie, did you have a different set of standards to offer?
Big jump from DAY OF THE DOVE where Kirk is actually honest when saying no tricks after we get up to the ship.
Well obviously. The whole 'we act for the preservation of our race' thing puts it squarely in Klingon terms, though us humans should relate to it on some base level too. It's almost too much to know about his position, because it actually encourages sympathy when this is one villain who actually benefits from being 2 dimensional with all the havoc he causes (and the less personality exhibited, the less 'Reverend Jim' comes to the fore as well ... they'd've been SO much better off with Jurgen Prochnow or Edward James Olmos, or when he was going to be a Romulan, Omar Sharif.) I usually am much more in favor of an antagonist with viewpoint that is understandable, but this movie won't really support that because it is about 'our' side in terms of emotional identity, and not the interaction of antagonist with them (as was the case with TFF.)