The most confused morals in Star Trek (and other scifi)

[CharlesPhipps]

Star Trek likes to preach.

Which is great as social awareness has a long medium tradition.

But sometimes...the writers don't seem to know what they're talking about.

"Dear Doctor" of course is a deliberate endorsement of eugenics.

But there's also ones where I don't know if there's even a point.

One of mine is "Fortunate Son" because for the life of me, I'm not sure what Archer is trying to accomplish here because arming freighter captains to fight pirates is not the ideal solution but they're being attacked and murdered otherwise. Indeed, Starfleet is in no position to protect them. So, what was the point there?

Peace good? Except, there IS no peace.

[Durandal_1707]

"Dragon's Teeth," hands down. It's even worse than "Dear Doctor", in that it's a deliberate endorsement of not just eugenics through inaction but direct, active genocide. These people were warlike some centuries ago, so they deserve to be wiped out, nuked from orbit, every last man, woman, and child. Voyager even sends the coordinates of the capsules containing the children so the attackers can blow them up.

What. The. Fuck.

[Admiral X]

That episode of VOY that featured a malfunctioning war memorial that mind raped the entire crew and forced them all to live through memories that weren't their own, and their response to that was to fix it up so as to ensure other random passers-by could experience the same thing.

And on a similar note is that episode of ENT where the crew finds a virus that mutates anyone unfortunate enough to be infected by it into a different species and completely alters their personalities, and their response to that is to ensure the survival of that virus.

[CharlesPhipps]

That episode of VOY that featured a malfunctioning war memorial that mind raped the entire crew and forced them all to live through memories that weren't their own, and their response to that was to fix it up so as to ensure other random passers-by could experience the same thing.

And on a similar note is that episode of ENT where the crew finds a virus that mutates anyone unfortunate enough to be infected by it into a different species and completely alters their personalities, and their response to that is to ensure the survival of that virus.

That reminds me of the Voyager race that reanimates the dead to replace their numbers but alters their DNA in the process. The Voyager crew are so weirded out by it, they banish their former friend and crew member to live with them because cultural differences can't be overcome you know!

[Admiral X]

Actually that reminds me of ENT's last episode, where it was implied that Trip and T'Pol just couldn't work it out.

[Worffan101]

Chuck's hit most of them so far, I think.

There was, though, a season 1 TNG episode (surprise, surprise) where Picard let a species of space 1%ers use a species of space blue-collar guys as their drug-addicted source of cheap labor because PD, that one was pretty bad.

[CharlesPhipps]

Chuck's hit most of them so far, I think.

There was, though, a season 1 TNG episode (surprise, surprise) where Picard let a species of space 1%ers use a species of space blue-collar guys as their drug-addicted source of cheap labor because PD, that one was pretty bad.

That also had the point of letting the entire system collapse into withdrawal by not helping. Which, yes, is probably a good thing but was a huge decision by itself to do for "someone else's good."

Inaction is a decision too.

[Beastro]

Season 1 TNG was rough and left a bad taste in my mouth having the insufferable nicely spread out that it was always there. I always loathed seeing it come on as a kid, especially when I was too sick to go to school and only allowed to watch midday TV until after 4PM.

Looking back now Season 1 Enterprise is worse, especially early on being hit by Unexpected, The Andorian Incident and Fortunate Son within a month long period.

I was disgusted by the first, rolled my eyes at the second, but the third drove me off. I have issues with Pacifists though I can see arguments where they have things going for them, but the show was so self-absorbed and smug in that bad old S1 TNG way over outright appeasement I couldn't take it anymore.

Amusing since if I'd stuck with it two months longer I'd have been driven off by Dear Doctor like many eventually did.

[Darth Wedgius]

"The Drumhead" didn't have a bad moral, but I think it was badly delivered. Picard at the end asks if they've grown so fearful that having Romulan ancestry disqualifies someone from Starfleet, which ignores that the man lied on his application.

This after Picard has personally cleared the man of all wrong-doing on the grounds that he had tea with him. If Picard had next tested if the guy weighed more than a duck it wouldn't have surprised me in the least.

[Eishtmo]

That reminds me of the Voyager race that reanimates the dead to replace their numbers but alters their DNA in the process. The Voyager crew are so weirded out by it, they banish their former friend and crew member to live with them because cultural differences can't be overcome you know!

Mentioning the Kobali (that's the species name) in any of the Star Trek Online community will result in a ton of people cursing them as evil as hell. It's so weird how strongly people feel about them sometime.