An episode of Star Trek: Voyager

Cafe Society
#1

So, I’ve been watching Star Trek: Voyager. I watched it way back when it aired (20 years ago) and have been re-watching it.

I just watched an episode and wanted to get Dopers’ thoughts on it.

Summary:

The premise of the show is that the starship Voyager got flung into the delta quadrant 70,000 light years from earth so it will take them 70+ years to get home. They are pretty much out there by themselves and don’t have any access to Starfleet. They can’t communicate with them or anything.

In this episode, Voyager encounters an alien ship transmitting a communication of some sort that they can’t translate but they interpret it as a distress call. They beam the sole occupant of the ship to sick bay before the ship explodes. This alien looks like a big slug. The chief engineer comes into sick bay and this alien launches itself at her and “attaches” itself to her. The alien is basically using the chief engineer as a “life support system”. While it is doing this, it is killing her and the doctor doesn’t know how to treat this issue because because he is unfamiliar with this type of life form.

So, they decide to “call up” another expert on this type of life form. Using the information in their database they create a holographic representation of this expert. He is a Cardassian. In case you don’t know, Cardassian’s are kind of regarded as “bad guys” and this doctor is reputed to have performed experiments on innocents and generally has done “bad things”.

The chief engineer, having had experience with Cardassians says she doesn’t want this guy treating her. And she doesn’t want any treatment devised by this guy. And another crew member (of the same species as the innocents that were experimented on and claims to have family members directly affected by this Cardassian) says that this hologram should be deleted and all information about this guy as well as any research he did should be deleted from their database).

I’m going to stop here for now and ask you what your thoughts are on this. Do you think all information about this guy and his research should be deleted from the database and never used again?

I’ll fill you in on the conclusion of the episode later.

#2

Basically, it’s a version of “Should research that originally stems from Nazi experimentation be allowed to continue?”. That depends on whether you believe that facts/figures/calculations themselves can be thought of as “evil”, I guess. To take it to an extreme, if a truck’s brakes fail on a hill and Hitler jumps in and is about to turn the wheel so that you don’t get hit, would you rather he didn’t?

#3

What if information obtained amorally provides the only cure for a disease that could save millions of innocent children?

#4

As to how the episode ends, if the person effected is a regular cast member, they live. If it’s a person that never appeared before, they die.

#5

I saw that episode. At the time I compared it in my head to Nazi experiments on innocents. If I were Jewish I wouldn’t be able accept treatment by Nazi doctor. It’s simple teally, you can either stick to your principles or cave. Suffering and being in pain may change your mind, though. Martyrdom is hard.

#6

Yep, her shirt wasn’t red.

#7

Yes, but the question was: “Would you accept a treatment that was discovered by Nazis 70 years ago?”

#8

Why is being Jewish relevant?

#9

…and would you demand that the research be tossed and not be used on anybody else?

#10

This is why I would suck as a manager. The answer is __________. But dealing with people means dealing with personalities and their irrational hopes, fears, desires and shit like that should be meaningless in solving a problem. I remember the episode (Mrs Cad and I just finished all of the series [even TAS] and movies) and Janeway had to play politics to come up with the solution.

#11

How dare you suggest that the story plotting of Voyager consisted or stacking random tropes and transparent allegories together in a semi-coherent fashion until the writers painted themselves into a corner and had to come up with a “particle of the week” solution or some other form of deux ex machina to extract the ship from destruction or regular cast member from certain death! I mean, it is absolutely true, but still, how dare you!

Stranger

#12

Well, the Holocaust. I would think that would be an issue.
It Startrek, Belania (msp) is of one race, Klingon. And the Doctor/holograph was Cardassian. Different races. Like Jewish people were a different race, and were mis-treated by the Nazis.

#13

Is the data less accurate or less valid if it’s obtained immorally? We’d know less than we do about hypothermia in humans if we discarded Nazi camp data, for example. What else do we know that we wish we knew from other ways?

If B’Elanna’s issue was with the hologram showing the Cardassian Mengele, it would be easy enough to reprogram it to look like the Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man. No sympathy on that point.

#14

I am a weak, pitiful girl. Like I said martyrdom is hard. Besides how would I know? I doubt there are any doctors going around telling patients “By the way this treatment was discovered by the Nazis, 70 years ago”. Nope, don’t see it happening.
ETA, seriously, are there any advanced treatments used today, that Nazis came up with?

#15

Yeah. If it were *my *life at stake, I’d probably be able to ask “Why should those victims’ suffering and deaths be in vain? They can save me, just like they’ve doubtlessly saved others before me.”

#16

I’m familiar with the Holocaust. I don’t understand why it would matter less to a Christian or whatever if they benefited from something discovered by Nazis, though. But it sure makes martyrdom easier, if you only ask it of others.

Also, some may be uncomfortable with your claim that Jewish denotes a race.

#17

Ok. I am done here. The OP questioned about 2 differing races.
Any person of Any race should not be subjected to the useless Nazi experiments and dangerous procedures.
This thread is about a fictional character in a fictional TV show. I just stated when I watched it I immediately thought of the Nazis and how they treated the Jewish people.

#18

B’ellana’s race has nothing to do with it. Her objection was due to her being a former Maquis rebel, who hated Cardassians because they had been at war with them since the events of Journey’s End in TNG.

#19

Of course. But in both the real world and in the fictional one, that already happened and can’t be changed. The question is what to do with it to save lives that can still be saved.

#20

Unfortunately in RL the fact that scientists were Nazis was totally ignored by the U.S. because of how valuable their research was.
If I lived in the Star Trek universe I would probably accept the treatment.
In RL I don’t like doctors so I would probably never see one no matter how sick I was.