Finally watched the Tuxic episode of Voyager, because home sick.
It is as reprehensible immoral as everyone suggests.
Every member of the crew -- very much including the doctor -- assisted in murder. And Janeway pulled the trigger.
I'm not dumb. I know they couldn't change characters mid season, because TV. Nor could have had all three of them.
In which case, don't put your characters into a moral quandary that cannot be solved given the confines of the genre.
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Which ep is that?
ReplyDeleteS2, Ep 24.
ReplyDeleteTuvok and Neelix have a transporter accident that turns them into one person. With a single mind, and who is super cool.
After several weeks, they figure out how to undo it. He does not want to die. They force march him to sickbay. The doctor refuses to do the surgery he developed.
Janeway does it herself. No more Tuvix.
I remember it now, and you are right.
ReplyDeleteThey should have used the teleporter to duplicate him and then fixed one of them.
Still possibly murder but a bit nicer about it.
Agreed. The genre conventions ensured there was no ethical option, despite that there was a technological solution.
ReplyDeleteNah, they had an option, it just would have taken a two-part episode, after the twist at the end of episode #1. So, again, limitations of the medium (in that screen-writers can more easily pitch a one-parter than a two-parter).
ReplyDeleteTony Lower-Basch Maybe I missed it. What's the solution?
ReplyDeleteWilliam Nichols: All the same setup of "Wow, we have this awesome one person, but he exists at the cost of two lives we could otherwise save" ... Janeway says (as is her authoritarian wont) "I need to think about this."
ReplyDeleteTwo scenes simultaneously: In one, Chakotay smack-talks Janeway right out of believing that this is in any way a moral dilemma worth considering. Two people died in an accident, you do not perform sophont sacrifice in order to try to get them back. She agrees, because it's obvious.
At the same time, Tuvix is all like "Oh hey, I'm an awesome super-genius and they're talking about exterminating me ... this is not a place for me to be any more," and starts eyeing the exits.
Surprise surprise, at the end of Episode #1 when Janeway goes to magnanimously agree that Tuvix has the basic right to exist, Tuvix isn't there. He's stealing a shuttlecraft, blowing a hole in the side of Voyager, and leaving them totally vulnerable to invading metaphor-race of the week.
Episode #2 is then cleaning up that mess, Tuvix and some rebellious allied crewmembers (I'm thinking B'Elana and the Doctor) implementing some stupidly risky but ultimately successful technological patch as you describe above, and Janeway getting proper comeuppance about how even ever considering what she considered makes an unsafe environment, in which it's totally logical (heh) for somebody to say "Fuck Starfleet, you sanctimonious murderers."
Tony Lower-Basch What, given Tuvix agency? Have Janeway learn a moral lesson?
ReplyDeleteI like it.
What're some favorite episodes?
ReplyDeleteI'm skipping around a bit, and can't follow about half of the cold opens. What's this medical alignment the Captain and Chakotae have that means they have to hang out in the garden of eden together? Why are the Kaison even still a thing?
Suggestions would be great. I'm annoyed with these.
I watched through them all with the family last year. I should have taken notes on which ones were worth watching.
ReplyDeleteSeasons 5 and 6 were the best because that's when they realised tat Seven and the Doctor were their best characters.
Janeway: I miss my husband.
ReplyDeleteChakotae: Hey. I'm awesome.
Janeway. Le Sigh. I wonder if we'll ever get home.
Why're you so middle class 20th century americans? Also, you have a holodeck. I don't understand these people. You've got needs, get them met.
Janeway: I won't let my ship be boarded.
ReplyDelete--- finds a ship that has the plot device ---
Janeway: Board that ship, bring me the crew. We'll get the information out of them.