What are episodes from any series where you have problems with what the show presents as the correct side in an ethical dilemma.
This is a different question than purely having problems with ethical choices made by the characters themselves, as this question rests on what the writing frames as “correct” in the end.
I have two to start. The first is TOS ‘Let That Be Your Last Battlefield’. It’s the episode with the black and white characters locked in a constant struggle. The message is that holding eternal grudges and especially in the dimension of racism is wrong and self destructive. That’s fine as it goes. The problem for me is that Kirk, and the writing frames each of the two fighting aliens as being equally at fault.
One alien is from the previously oppressive class, and is hunting down the other alien.
The second alien is from the previously enslaved class, and is being hunted.
These are not equal positions. Clearly one side is more correct than the other. Also that more correct side is being hunted, and there is no indication he is intending to continue the conflict except for when the alien hunting him catches up with him and forces another fight.
Good initial message, terrible execution.
The next episode that has never sat right with me is Voyager’s ‘Critical Care’. In this episode the doctor is taken to work on hospital of an alien planet where medical care is allocated by a bureaucracy that largely follows an algorithm for assigning resources. Those who are deemed more essential receive higher quality care, and those on the bottom rung get scraps.
The message about unequal treatment, and the heartlessness of bureaucracy, especially medical bureaucracy is on full display. Eventually the doctor forces medication to be distributed for all.
Seems fine as messages go, but this episode sticks in my head. The thesis of the “correct” side of the dilemma seems to assume there actually are enough resources for everyone, and I’m not sure if I buy it. Sure, showing a sliver of high ranking people getting double doses of preventative medication while the lower rung masses get nothing is awful, I wonder about the math. If 10 high ranking people are getting double doses, and you have 100 people down below who need them, then I suppose you can cut the double doses and treat 10 of the lower rung people, but you still have to exclude 90 of them. In that case, a logical algorithm to decide which of those 100 people is the best return on investment seems cold but needed. A hard choice, but the alternative is chaos. In the end, the Doctor didn’t provide a roadmap for a better system, he just left the ship in the hands of a doctor who might game it for more resources, but those would logically be pulled from a central pool and leave less savvy off-screen hospitals with less. Assuming of course there weren’t infinite medical resources being hoarded in the beginning. I don’t know, it was just a little too murky for me.
The second episode you missed the point where the medicine given to the upper class was used as an anti aging cream and the lower class needed it to not die.
No, I completely understand that the episode pushed that extreme in order to sell its position to the audience. That is the bureaucracy off the rails, however I’m not convinced that just making the one change of stopping that practice actually makes things better for a majority of the people. Like I said, if 10 upper class people were getting double treatments while 100 lower class people suffered, then stopping the double treatments really only makes a tiny difference.
The episode provides only a very small and flawed solution that doesn’t seem like it solves the underlying issue that caused this uneven system to develop in the first place.
But, in regards to those ten upper class people. What are their contributions to society? Is it just their net worth, or do they actually do something for society? Are they in blue collar jobs, or just exploiting the lower class like they do on earth right now?
And those 100 lower class people, what do they do? They probably keep the machines running, tending the farms, and provide essential amenities.
So who is more valuable to society?
Changing one bit, like the Doctor achieved on the Medical Station, is not enough for the revolution we need, though.
The episode actually goes out of its way to present the system as merit based, with some of the people receiving treatment being experts in [scifi thingies]. One of the first things the Doctor tries is forging academic certificates for lower level patients to raise their treatment scores. While the episode has the atmosphere of the rich and connected being treated at the expense of the working class, its written details don’t follow.
Aside from the obvious ENT episode where Phlox advocates for genocide and Archer is like “hm, well if you’re sure. You are the doctor after all, I guess…”
And that episode of VOY where Janeway drags a person away to be murdered while they plea for mercy (hey, at least the ship’s doctor is humane in that one). I know a lot of people celebrate that killing online, but I believe if they didn’t make Tuvix look kinda ugly, people would be way more against it.
There’s also a couple of others that spring to mind… Janeway torturing Paris in the episode “Thirty Days”, where she puts him in solitary confinement for 30 days, instructs nobody to talk to him, gives him nothing to keep him engaged, and gives him purposely bland food. This was considered torture (and made illegal in pretty much all of the developed world) even in the 20th century, never mind the enlightened 24th century.
Not that it’s relevant, because nothing justifies that punishment, but Paris’ crime was saving an entire species from destruction, albeit after he was stubbornly told not to by that species.
I think they tried so hard to make Janeway seem tough and uncompromising in order to avoid any stupid “women aren’t cut to be captains” opinions from 90s fans, that they ended up making her actually seem like a remorseless psychopath. They pretty much went “what are some stereotypes of women? Let’s make her the opposite!”
Sisko using WMDs to render a planet (with civilians on it!) uninhabitable for 50+ years, completely without warning. It’s highly likely that this killed a bunch of people, but the show never says.
Tuvix was an accident that if left alone would have ended two lives.
Tuvok has a wife and children that he wants to get home to but staying as is would have ended all he had. Neelix would have never joined the other Talaxians, saved them and found love and family.
I think Janeway made the right choice. Maybe it wasn’t directed with enough care but I always thought it was the correct choice.
I don’t think it’s the correct choice at all to kill someone to bring two back from the dead.
If a doctor could murder me and use my organs to save even 10 people’s lives, I’d still want to live and that murder would still be disgusting.
Personally I don’t see how someone could possibly think Janeway made the right choice, it was absolutely evil. But I don’t want to get into another Tuvix debate, star trek communities have 500 of those a month, and it’s always the same stuff said over and over, so I’m leaving it here
It’s all good. Your opinion is totally valid and I also don’t wish to rehash the same debates that have been done over and over already.
Live long, prosper and may the Great Material Continuum carry you.
Tuvix is an episode where I think the framing didn’t support Janeway. That final scene was shot like a horror movie, and as you said the Doctor was speaking up the whole time. I think the writers’ intent was to leave the audience feeling bad and confused. The only weird thing is because of the mostly episodic nature of the show, follow up episodes reset everyone’s relationships and nobody on the ship ever brings up Tuvix again.
As for Sisko bombing Maquis refugees you forget one simple thing: They didn’t put on the uniform!
The Host. The first episode with a Trill (before they changed the makeup and the idea that it was just the body that was different but the person was the same).
Beverly being so disturbed by Odan in a female body? I guess maybe there are people like that in the 24th century. But internalized homophobia should not be a thing at that point. It shouldn’t have been this devastating thing where they couldn’t have possibly loved each other because they were both women.
If she’s no longer sexually attracted to Odan now that Odan is female, fine. But her reaction was just icky.
Dear Doctor (ENT)
It’s hard to take either side (Phlox and Archer) in that episode. Is it right to withhold a cure to the Valakians just because there is a probable chance for the Menk to become the next dominant species and their illness was genetic and would see their extinction in the 24th century.
I almost put a note on the post saying “No Dear Doctor because it’s too easy.” That episode, at least when it was first released, had lots of criticism.
In addition to the wonky positions, I also always found that T’Pol and Flox felt like they should have had flipped positions.
Awww, okay :(
I didn’t put the note because yes it is a great choice for bad ethics. I believe at the end Archer is wishing there was “Some kind of…prime…directive” to take the choice out of his hands regarding involvement.
The “God committee” from the history of hemodialysis comes to mind as relevant.
