Today I watched the Enterprise season one episode "Dear Doctor". For reference,
see this. I had forgotten exactly how the episode ended, and now it's bugging me. I don't think I agree with Dr Phlox withholding the cure from the Valakians. I understand his point that the Menk might end up being the dominant species on the planet, but as far as we can see that would only be because of the genetic disorder killing the Valakians. The Valakians were a pre-warp society, but they were already well aware the galaxy had other species, and that those species had better technology, so the cultural contamination and shock that we've seen in other episodes from other series such as TNG was a non-issue. They were asking for help, so to refuse would be to abandon those in need. Phlox said, "I'm saying we let nature make the choice", meaning they don't interfere in something that MIGHT affect the future of their people. But that's like looking at a cancer patient and saying, "I have a cure for your cancer, but since nature chose you to develop it, I'll withhold the cure and let nature take it's course, because curing you would interfere in your natural development." At the end Captain Archer said he realized they were not out there to "play God". But I'm a paramedic, so I guess the idea of refusing to help someone on that basis doesn't sit well with me. Isn't it "playing God" to choose who gets a cure and who doesn't?
The episode was of course playing on the idea of the Prime Directive, but should that really apply when a people are asking for help and contamination is a non-issue? Is there a precedent in canon (I can't remember every episode) for this?
Discuss...
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Now, the Valakians deserved punishment for mistreating the Menk (abuse of their self-determination)--but not simply being condemned to dying of a preventable medical condition. That in NO way has the standing of properly administered justice.
On top of that, since that was a United Earth and not Federation starship, I think Archer would have been WELL within his rights (and his moral obligation) to order Phlox to follow human medical ethics, which would've required intervening. There was no "multiculturalism" excuse to go by...Archer was in complete control there. Since Phlox agreed to serve on a United Earth starship, then he should have been required IMO to either abide entirely by human ethics or not accept the post if by some screwed-up definition he would find it "unconscionable."
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As for the disease, I do agree Archer should have ordered Phlox to give them the cure. To me curing the disorder was a separate issue from dealing with the social dynamic between the two species.
Don't let them promote you. Don't let them transfer you. Don't let them do anything that takes you off the bridge of that ship, because while you're there... you can make a difference.
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You know, if Archer had stood his ground there, I wonder what a different course Federation history and policy would've taken. A definite shame there, as what Archer did in not forcing Phlox to either give up the cure or step down from his position then laid the groundwork for all of Picard's later moral cowardice.
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You make a good point there.
Don't let them promote you. Don't let them transfer you. Don't let them do anything that takes you off the bridge of that ship, because while you're there... you can make a difference.
-Captain James T. Kirk
I seem to remember something about how Valakians would still be slowly dying even if they took it and that their race was doomed anyways. But that his research had created a way to slow their demise.
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You are right to point out the problems with "letting nature take its course." Nature is not a moral system, it is a physical one. You can't say that nature will drive a species extinct any more than you can say that it's morally right that a stone falls to the ground when you drop it. It's just the way the system works.
There's no reason to assume that the Valakians are "supposed" to die off. If you want to get the Menk out from under their thumb, there are better ways.
To me, Phlox' rationalization reads way too close for comfort to justifications of atrocities on Earth--some of which were perpetrated by people who purported to be following the scientific method. I do not want to debate those examples, solely say that when those same "theories" come into contact with rigorous science they are proven absolutely false. That's why it rubs me the wrong way to see Phlox treated as the good guy in the episode. How the writers missed that they were making Phlox look about as solid as a phrenologist is beyond me.
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When Phlox and Archer were arguing the issue in the mess hall, Archer said "Can you find a cure or not?" and I'm pretty sure Phlox said "I already have it."
Edit: Confirmed on the Memory Alpha episode page.
Don't let them promote you. Don't let them transfer you. Don't let them do anything that takes you off the bridge of that ship, because while you're there... you can make a difference.
-Captain James T. Kirk
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I agree wholeheartedly with you on this. And if a person happened to be unwittingly standing under that stone as it fell, it's not morally wrong to find a way to protect him/her if we could.
Don't let them promote you. Don't let them transfer you. Don't let them do anything that takes you off the bridge of that ship, because while you're there... you can make a difference.
-Captain James T. Kirk
What's funny about this is it somehow actually sounds like something Janeway would do.
Don't let them promote you. Don't let them transfer you. Don't let them do anything that takes you off the bridge of that ship, because while you're there... you can make a difference.
-Captain James T. Kirk
Or Sisko. He had a few pretty egregious acts under his belt too. I would actually rank such an act by Archer under Sisko's WMD incident and the assassination of Vreenak since no lives would be taken.
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I thought of that too. Although I kinda sympathized with Sisko on that one. True it was dirty, but it was about doing whatever it took to survive. Although that too I guess he couldn't prove...
Don't let them promote you. Don't let them transfer you. Don't let them do anything that takes you off the bridge of that ship, because while you're there... you can make a difference.
-Captain James T. Kirk
More like the first, had Archer extorted reforms out of the Valakians I would've at least been able to understand why he did it, as compared to the incomprehensible (and reprehensible!) decision he made.
As it was, I wonder if he didn't give in because of his own insecurities (surely the "more mature species" must know better?). Of course he eventually overcame said insecurities, such as when he flipped out on Shran and Gral and demanded they shape up and try "acting like humans for once." A very politically incorrect way of putting it, but he had a legitimate point and was confident enough to recognize it and stand by it. Watching some of the late episodes I never saw when the show was on, it seems Archer may have shown some character growth...and part of it actually seems to have been to ditch PC and call BS when he saw it instead of always letting everyone convince him they knew better to whatever disastrous consequence.
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Some episodes are bad; news at 11.
Rewriting the technobabble to sound more like real science and not fake science would probably help. The basic concepts were relatively simple. The Valakians had a systemic genetic fault that was causing their DNA to mutate uncontrollably, thus giving each generation more genetic defects that the previous one. The Menk did not have this. Some members of the Menk population had genetic mutation that made them much more intelligent than what was average for a Menk.
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It would have been particularly clever for the Enterprise writers to have tied in the potential solution to the Eugenics Wars. The Valakians could maybe be cured, in the better version of the episode, by large-scale gene sequencing and a thorough eugenics program - i.e., an utterly barbaric and horrific option to a 22nd-century Terran.
I'm not down on the whole series; otherwise I wouldn't have noted that Archer appears to have shown character growth and later ditched the "PC-type" stuff and stood his ground in later episodes.
(Oh, and "Move Along Home" gets more flack than necessary, despite Siddig's awful acting in that episode. I could point to worse in DS9's catalogue. "Move Along Home" is a fluff piece, but not a stinker.)
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Actually I personally love it; Star Trek is a silly franchise to me, or at least it should be. It's just my understanding that DS9 fans tend to dislike it.
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Really, the "right" timeline is whichever one leads to your own existence. Nobody really wants to allow a timeline where they themselves are erased. It's not about morality, it's about survival. If Kal Dano had not saved the Lukari, for example, then he could not have been born.
The Valakians are in the interesting border zone between "warp-capable" and "pre-warp" civilization. They attempted interstellar flight, but at sublight speed. Really, the criterion is of whether a civilization has achieved interstellar travel, not how fast their spacecraft move. Nobody is really going to say "well, your starship reached us under its own power, but your engines aren't fast enough to qualify for contact".
Well, you say that, but the Federation has memory-erasing technology which it happily uses to preserve the Prime Directive. A sublight ship somehow encounters a Federation outpost or ship would probably have its crew's memory wiped and the ship placed on a new course.
The line in the sand is the warp drive because, well, the line has to be somewhere. Mind, I guarantee that debates over the the line being there happen all the time in the Federation; it came up at least once in the Star Trek: Titan books, anyway, as well as the ongoing Enterprise; Rise of the Federation novels.
(In Trek, humans have had sublight interstellar flight since the 1990s at least - when the Botany Bay was launched, and the 1990s thru the 2050s or so saw the launch of sleeper ships from Earth to various locations, notably Alpha Centauri. Still the Vulcans didn't contact Earth until it had invented a warp drive)
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Which makes sense in that theoretically if you have invented subspace radio, even if you haven't been able to get a working warp drive, you did so with the express intention of intercepting signals from aliens and eventually initiating first contact. Such a society has probably had some time to adjust to the reality of the intercepted signals before contact actually happens.
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Phlox is an alien, with alien values, standards and morals. That they do not sit well with you does not make them wrong...
The same approach would just as likely be taken by a Cardassian or a Romulan...
Worf initially refused to provide a transfusion to a Romulan, even though it would mean the Romulan's death (and which the Romulan himself rejected) It was clear that they could not order Worf to comply, and his values and opinions were respected for what they were, even though they did not align with that of his Human comrades...
To the topic itself: Assistance was requested, and Archer had an obligation to see it provided. A distress call from a ship would have been answered, so should this have been...
Personally, I don't think it does. While I don't claim to necessarily know with certainty what is right and wrong, I do believe that an act can be right or wrong regardless of how a given culture perceives it.
Gulberat's point stands that if you're going to serve on a United Earth ship, you will be held to United Earth moral standards. If Phlox violated those standards, he is unfit to serve on that crew regardless of whether he believes his actions are justified.
I'm pretty sure that's still a case of human standards. Having not seen the episode, I can't say for certain, but I'm inclined to speculate that they can't order him to undergo a transfusion because they can't order him to undergo a transfusion, rather than because of anything to do with his moral standpoint. Human moral standards require consent for medical procedures. If I can perform a lifesaving treatment on a dying man, but he refuses it and is clearly competent to make that decision, I'm forbidden from saving his life, even if the man's death means his dependent children go without care. The law doesn't care if the man's decision is right, only that he made it.
Not exactly. Cause then effect. If the future has already been witnessed then the past will have to happen a certain way for the future to come into being. This is essential if a traveller comes back from said future. Their future has to exist or else they would be able to come back into the past, so the 'right' way here is the way that allows everything to unfold as it did before.
Yes he did, a fact that made him a much more moral person than Picard. The WMD thing ended a war with zero casualties (remember the evacuation ships mentioned) and the deaths of four people (Vreenak, his two aids, and the fish guy) saved billions, Picard would have let nature take its course and the war play out as it should. Hell, he'd probably have taken the Jack Pack's suggestion of surrender, one that apparently didn't factor Sisko and fighting dirty into the equation.
I despise the usage of Picards line in Insurrection (How many people before it's wrong Admiral) applied to the Vreenak situation. The answer is obvious, you're killing four to save billions, that's thousands of millions (or millions of millions, I don't know if the Federation uses the long or short billion). I'd have even gone along with S31 and seen the Founders wiped out as they only count as one person.
If it turned out that the destruction of an entire planet of, say Vorta, was needed then it would get a bit murkeyer, Five thousand million lives to save everyone else? That's harder, but when it's a choice of 4 or 1 vs. even just 1000,000,000 it's morally wrong by any reckoning not to kill the 4 or 1.
To suggest Sisko's acts were egregious (I assume here in the modern sense) is completely wrong by any standard that doesn't involve just rolling over in front of the Dominion. Not all lives are equal and even if Vreenak, and the other three, were the purest of the pure, it still would be utterly repulsive to chose them over the billions who would die in their stead (likely including at least three of the four in the first place).
Edit: I realise this has nothing to do with the Valakians. When it comes to the lives of the two species any opinion by Phlox that leads to deaths is automatically wrong. He broke the fundamental of Human doctors (as he was serving on a Earth ship) 'Do no harm'. I'd rather Earth had asked the Vulcans or Andorians to fly over and try to sort the situation out for them.
Norway and Yeager dammit... I still want my Typhoon and Jupiter though.
JJ Trek The Kelvin Timeline is just Trek and it's fully canon... get over it. But I still prefer TAR.
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'Starfleet is not a military organisation. Its purpose is exploration.' Picard: Peak Performance
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'...The Federation. Starfleet. We're not a military agency.' Scotty: Beyond
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As I pointed out, Cardassians and Romulans would be equally capable/likely of taking the same (or similar) course(s) of action... If one is going to deal with a multicultural universe, one must deal with it on its terms, not one's own...
Regardless of the ifs and whys, the outcome was that they could not order Worf to comply with the transfusion (it's been a while since I saw it myself so I can't recall if he changed his mind due to guilting from them, or a genuine change of heart on his part)
Phlox was not the only scientist aboard Enterprise, Archer could just as easily have ordered someone else to undertake the research, and Plot would have allowed that (had the writers wanted it to go that way) Fact is they were trying to shoehorn in a Prime Directive allegory, and it blew up in their faces. Bad writing... (like most of the series, IMHO)
The point remains though, that when dealing with aliens, one cannot, and should not, expect them to always behave as a Human might, and then hold then in contempt when they do not, but do in fact, behave in an alien manner...