Phlox and Archer explains what's wrong with Dear Doctor

In the episode Dear Doctor in Star Trek Enterprise, Phlox and Archer didn't give the cure due to the "Prime Directive". Later on in Season 4 with "Observer Effect", members of the crew were infected with a virus and outside aliens didn't help due to their "Prime Directive". Watch them get a taste of their own medication and become hypocrites.

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Tags:

• phlox
• nazi
• enterprise
• archer
• observer
• effect
• dear
• doctor
• prime
• directive
• star
• trek
• hypocrisy
• parody

[phantomdasilva]

@ringmaster316ms The whole point of Science Fiction is to bring up moral and social issues and elicit discussions about it.

I generally don't care about the scientific inaccuracy of Star Trek. However what I do care is about the issues it raises and the message it is spreading because that is the essence of science fiction.

Now in this case, scientific theory (evolution) is absolutely essential to the message the episode is spreading and hence is fair game for criticism.

[maltheopia]

phantomdasilva, this episode is the worst thing that has ever come out of the franchise. I would rather watch ten episodes of Kirk holding Spock's brain in a jar who is shooting homophobic slurs at Quark after being forced to get a sex change after being impregnated by a box of rocks before Janeway forces Michael to drop a bridge on them to end the holographic simulation early so they can rewire the engines to go to infinity so Kes can have a kid.

Brannon Braga, Richard Berman: Fuck. You.

[StargateMunky]

@AnteyPL it's not a prime directive issue. they had already made first contact

[AnteyPL]

There was NO PRIME DIRECTIVE in ENT era. No Federation.

[mst3k4evur]

@jimbopumbapigsticks

I can't see their involvement having that bad an effect. The more advanced species is not enslaving or oppressing them. They're just wealthier, something that could be explained by their being more advanced. By not helping save them from the plague they are saying that it's better to let hundreds of millions die than let them go on, living in peaceful coexistence.

There is not forseeable downside to helping them that could make letting so many die acceptable.

[jimbopumbapigsticks]

@mst3k4evur Diseases are natural phenomena, the same as natural disasters. I guess this is tricky because it's such a borderline case between humanitarian intervention and social engineering - the former being acceptable, the latter not. The point is that engaging in another life system's natural processes would mean being responsible for the enormous social implications for both races, possibly slavery, war, etc. versus participating in a process with which you're already involved by birth.

[mst3k4evur]

@jimbopumbapigsticks

You're question makes no sense, killing the weak makes the species stronger. Random disasters don't select anything. If they really feel they have no right to interfere with evolution, then they must let the sick die.

And how is it better to help your own people than help another species? Especially when they are BEGGING you to do so?

[jimbopumbapigsticks]

@mst3k4evur Then you might as well say that earthquakes, floods, etc are part of evolution. Does that mean we shouldn't help victims of natural disasters as we would be "defying evolution"? That's like saying the first apes who invented stone tools to hunt were somehow cheating. The point here is that there's a difference between participating in your own species' evolution and intervening in another's. Anyway, since evolution is an ongoing process, how could you "defy" it? Turn into an ape?

[mst3k4evur]

@jimbopumbapigsticks

Evolution also propelled them to use said tools to heal the sick.

[mst3k4evur]

@jimbopumbapigsticks

They said that evolution had decided they should die out. Watch the review. My point was that since they defy evolution why shouldn't these sick, dieing people be allowed to do the same?

And if they didn't have the right to heal the sick then why should Phlox heal a cancer patient? Sickness is a part of the evolutionary process, killing the weak so only the strong will breed. That's why their decision makes no sense.

[jimbopumbapigsticks]

@mst3k4evur Not really. Why would evolution mean you couldn't travel through space? They're not defying a natural process since humanity's evolution has been propelled by the use of tools which have grown more and more sophisticated over time. Space travel is just the next step. And evolution isn't making a value-claim that they *should* die out - simply that they will. Archer believed that he didn't have the right to play God and decide which species would prosper.

[mst3k4evur]

@jimbopumbapigsticks

I know, my point is that that is what Phlox and Archer believe and that even if that were true they are violating it.