Nothing Human

Like the other 5 reviews of this particular episode I also had a problem with it. When a series runs for 7 years it is impossible to have them all great, there will be peaks and valleys just like anything else in life so it is impossible not to have episodes that just don't work or fall short. I am not one to do write-ups on a lot of shows but this one episode, like the other 5 reviewers, bugged me. All the other reviews made good points, some referred to other Start Trek shows, valid points, etc. My main objection was the writers hard stance that by using the information garnered by unethical or immoral means, taints it therefore it should not be used, period. They take the victim stance to the full tilt, as they should, the whole "lest we forget" road which is fine BUT they didn't balance it with …"on the other hand…" approach. They greatly downplay the theme of using the sins of the father (or past generations if you like) to benefit the future or future generations. The only counter punch to the victims stance was the Cardassian Dr. Moset's hollow arguments that "the ends justifies the means" morality. This character was set-up to lose from the get go and only re-enforces a very unbiased point of view to support the writer(s) personal stance. There's a lot going on in this episode…prejudice, moral/ethic medical practices, war-crimes, victims' rights, even Torres being forced to have the surgery against her will…etc. Lots of great stuff for effective drama. I think the episode focused too much on the facts of covered up war crimes, unethical experimenting for medical purposes AND relied too much on the huge plot hole that the hologram "looked" like the actual Cardassian mass murderer. Other s have pointed out the obvious plot hole in the show .. "a slight rewrite in his "personality subroutines" (and perhaps changing his appearance too - - so he didn't appear Cardassian) " I am sure having a doctor/surgeon who looks like Dr. Mengele standing over a patient in an O.R. would be a red flag situation for the best HR department in any hospital. All this stuff is great for drama BUT they did not put forth the one element that would have put more balance to all the arguments presented in the episode that favoured heavily on the side of NOT using the information to help Torres… using the information gained by "evil or immoral" actions to do some good in the end DOES NOT validate the horrific experiment as some characters even stated in the show. I will use real life analogies since the writers used real life events when writing this script. Clearly this was a Dr. Josef Mengele inspired story- line. I understand, as most normal people would, that the Nazi state was build on evil principles. No denying that. No denying that many normal people were sucked into the regimes influence that might not have done so had they been born on the other side of the world and in a different time period of history. Now my main objection to this episode was this….there was the strong point being made NOT to use the "treatment" on Torres based on the unethical/immoral way it was obtained in the past. Fine. Perfect dramatic hook in writing and structure. BUT there was not the counter argument made… If Dr. Mengele had done inhuman experiments on say, myself, back in Auschwitz and I died because of it…I would be furious if some person in the future totally removed from the event and my own death experience, even if it were my own son or granddaughter, decided that the information gathered from my death should not be used at all simply to honour my death. It would make my death in vain and NOT honour it. I would WANT my death to mean something and have the information used to save others after me regardless how it was obtained. What is done is done. I am dead. Obviously no one is advocating to do it in the present moment..that was NOT the argument of the show. Even Tuvok should have put forth that logic but he was given the opposite stance by the writers. Logic would dictate to provide all points of view and come to a conclusion based on that yet he jumped aboard the" by using it we validate the horror" bandwagon. The writers take a moral stance that has the Voyager Doctor erasing the Cardassian program at the end of show. This sends the message they will NOT use the medical information so as to NOT validate the information on how it was obtained. A better ending would to have left it as an unanswered dilemma. The current ending is now just a biased soap-box moment with plot holes left in by lazy writing.

I found the episode (overall) entertaining and it kept me watching through the whole thing which is why i gave it a 7.

i can see the dilemma for the crew members who have an inherant hatred for cardassians in general and this cardassian dr specifically. the drs appearance could have been changed before anyone saw him and that would have fixed the problem. the writers wanted put forth an ethical dilemma for the viewers to consider. the problem is, the crew would have to consider that same dilemma for almost every medical decision made. reason being... from vaccines to cancer, most of all human medical research was founded by testing on living beings including other humans. historically, we dont forego medical advancement solely because we found out that the research was unethically practiced on humans (ie some cancer research and treatments). just because the cardassian drs research was still fresh in their minds, doesnt make it any less ethical than standard medical treatments used by the HMS. the writers turned voyager into a spaceship of hypocrites. they should have left this as a question of racial bias not medical ethics.

The episode sets a dilemma of whether it is ethical to make use of unethically conducted research, which is interesting. The truth is it handles it rather poorly, making it very easy to agree with the counterfeit Mengele counterfeit.

I mean, even ignoring obvious bypasses, like "make the cardassian look like someone else", everyone being angry at a hologram is fairly stupid. It is also silly how the hologram argues its cardassian points efficiently, even though it is based only on data that Starfleet has, that do not justify its lack of ethics. And it is annoying how cardassians are always bad guys. Enough already.

In the end, though, Cardassian defence of horrid practices is always an interesting plot - and somehow they always seem more convincing (possibly on account of how insufferable Bajorans are), despite being obviously wrong. Also, I like non-humanoid species, although the critter here barely gets any character depth.

Many of the 4-6 star reviews are just not getting it. Even Tuvok understood the logic behind the refusal to be treated by the Cardassian so I´ll quote :"if the Doctor uses knowledge that Moset gained through his experiments, we would be validating his methods, inviting further unethical research" - Chakotay: "we'll be setting a terrible precedent."

In the same way I'll understand if a holocaust survivor would not want to be treated by a Nazi doctor, or a Palestinian by an Israeli one.

The Doctor made the correct decision at the end.

This episode starts really promising and could have been a masterpiece about ethics in science and how to deal with insights gained by conducting inhumane experiments. Unfortunately the episodes gets lost in pure aversion against everything Cardassian, unreasonable hatred against a hologram and infantile lectures about morality. Even Tuvok's logic and argumentation falls flat this time.

The conclusion of this episode is, that it is unethical to use any information, cure or treatment that is the result of experiments on humans against their will and without any ethical legitimation. The doc rather deletes everything about the research of a Cardassian exo-biologist because he was evil.

Tuvok implies that if you use research material that has been obtained in unethical ways, you open the doors for such practices. And this logic is majorly flawed. The doc for example would not have turned into a cruel mass murderer only because he used the Cardassian scientist's research. And no one on board would have either. And it would not have encouraged any else either! Which virologist of today would infect humans with deadly viruses to test new vaccines? No one! But all virologists build their own research on the first research that has been made exactly this way. Our ethics and morality today can easily distinguish between what is ethical ok today and what might have been different in other times.

Also, it is totally ridiculous to see how B'Elanna and that Bajoran, that suddenly is a crew member but never was seen before, react to a HOLOGRAM of a Cardassian scientist! And why can't the doctor just change his appearance into Bart Simpson or whatever so people stop acting like babies!

And why do they need a second hologram anyway? The doctor's matrix is unable to store more data??? What?! They use the holodeck to create all sorts of worlds or large scale battles, but the doctor's "hard drive" is full when he adds some megabytes of data? And even if, then temporarily get rid of some useless information that is not needed now, like anatomy of Vulcans, performing a heart transplantation or treating an ingrown toe nail! Pathetic.

If we would burn all research that is not 100% ethical compliant, our usable medical and scientific knowledge would be back at medieval levels again.