You know, Data was taking a hell of a chance in cancelling the self destruct. If his plan to flood the engine room with coolant failed, or was prevented, he basically was handing Earth to the Borg. Balls of steel indeed.
Between that and his abilities in "Brothers", Starfleet should really look into restricting his security clearances.
TMP said that Scotty could (probably alway could) destroy the ship all by himself. Likely a few of the engineers aboard the ship had the ability.
I have to say that Star Trek III's turn was the most dramatic, and well done. The music, pacing, acting - everything worked just right. And this was done at a time when the limits hadn't really been pushed in Star Trek, as far as what they would do (Spock's death notwithstanding). I have to admit that I was totally not expecting it.
One good Star Trek point is that Kirk is SO in command that, despite the computer demanding 2 more officers to agree, the order is carried out with not a speck of hesitation. The other officers don't even consider any other course of action, as the 3-password activation procedure suggest they do. Kirk just issues his orders and keeps staring at the black/white dude (or was the white/black one? I forget). Knowing him for 2 seasons at this pont, the ship's computer could as well save the trouble of asking the confirmation.
^The failsafes would come in handy for those occasions when Kirk might find himself split in two, possessed by a crazy woman, etc. So apparently the difficulty of activating the self destruct sequence is inversely proportional to how many viewers care if the ship is destroyed....
I think you mean directly proportional, as in many people didn't want Enterprise D destroyed and if Voyager popped most people wouldn't have noticed. This was a joke, angry Voyager fans, I mean you no disrespect.
^You're right, didn't think out the phrasing enough. The more people like the show, the harder it is to blow up the ship.