star trek - What, if any, locking mechanism do the doors have on the Enterprise?

In TOS: Space Seed, Khan manages to force open a door that's been "locked from the outside" with only his bare hands.

Although he is "five times" stronger than a regular human, the door doesn't seem to put up much of a fight, so it got me wondering: What if any locking mechanism do the doors have on the Enterprise? Even a simple deadbolt would've made a loud noise when Khan broke it, and we've seen forcefields used in the brig, but it seems like this door was simply "turned off".

I'll take answers for any Enterprise, not just the TOS one, since it's entirely possible I'm overthinking this and they simply hadn't fleshed out the universe to the level of door locking mechanisms at the time this episode aired. But I would assume at least one of the Technical Manuals has something to say about doors.

Answer

I would surmise that there are no "locks" whatsoever, but only states in which the hydraulics are meant to open the door or not open the door. I believe this is what is referred to as the "locking mechanism" in episodes and in the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual; that is, just an unresponsiveness of the hydraulic/magnetic door-sliding mechanism.

Under normal circumstances for a door leading to an unrestricted part of the ship, the motion sensor would trigger the hydraulic mechanism, sliding open the door for a nearby crew member walking up to it.

For doors to restricted areas or during unusual circumstances (a part of the ship must be quarantined or access must be restricted temporarily to a critical system because of an intruder), the hydraulics would simply not respond to an individual's presence.

I posit that Khan was simply fighting against the hydraulic mechanism — and won.

Also, as you point out, we do not hear the sound of something breaking or snapping, which is further evidence that there is no physical "lock".

Comments

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