system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Star Trek] What is so damn scary about Talos IV?

I just started watching The Original Series and I cannot fathom why the Federation is so threatened by this planet that interacting with it is the only remaining death penalty on their books.

For those that don't remember, the aliens there are powerful psychics who can read your mind and create intricate dream worlds to make you experience. And I guess they get something out of it. Entertainment maybe.

Are illusions so dangerous? Are these not the same people who later give their ships fucking holodecks? I can get not sending people there but killing anybody who makes contact?
gpt
The Talosians are very mentally advanced and capable of easily manipulating the minds of humanoids, causing them to see very convincing illusions.

The surface of Talos IV is desolate following their war, and they're too frail to rebuild it themselves. The thinking is, if people were to visit Talos IV, the Talosians are likely to manipulate them into becoming a slave labor force to rebuild their civilization. This is why they wanted Captain Pike in the first place, in order to breed a race of human slaves.

Worse yet, imagine if even one Talosian got onboard a starship like the Enterprise. They could manipulate the crew into taking them to a populated planet, and then manipulate the people there into coming back to Talos IV. Or what if they reached Earth?