Nothing Human

DVD, Voyager S5 (Nothing Human)

The Doctor finds a friend. Only he turns out to be a surgeon that experimented on people to get his success. That's about the size of it and this is a classic Trek ethical conundrum to be beat out, so I suppose it shouldn't be surprising that it was from Jeri Taylor, returning for what was her final contribution to Trek, as writer of the episode. On a superficial level I remember it was simply exciting that 'Voyager' was dealing with a race so tied up with 'DS9,' the Cardassians hadn't been used much from the obvious reason there weren't any in the Delta Quadrant! You got the briefest of appearances from recurring Gul Evek in the pilot, there was 'Dreadnought' about the Cardassian-turned-Maquis weapon B'Elanna was forced to deal with in Season 2, and there would be at least one more appearance from the race thanks again to holography with Season 7's 'Flesh and Blood,' not to mention the multiple episodes featuring Seska, but this was definitely the most Cardassian-heavy story of the series, delving into another aspect of the culture and more specifically the atrocities that occurred during the Occupation of Bajor. All of which made it quite appealing for me since I love Cardassians, or at least I love the depth to them seen in the many examples of the race we'd encountered on 'DS9.' Dr. Crell Moset is very much like the real flesh and blood examples: interested in the finer things, enjoying conversation and debate, and a thoroughly charming fellow in the best tradition of both Dukat and Garak. He's also a mass murderer, and unlike Empress Georgiou from 'DSC,' where they seemed willing to accept her despite her evil deeds and lack of contrition for what she'd done, our crew here are disgusted with him.

The crux of the matter is whether it's right to use the research of those who gained it through nefarious means such as experimentation, torture, and unnecessarily inflicting suffering. The thing is it's a direct continuation of the attitude towards Cardassians as being equivalent of the Nazis, while the Bajorans were the Jews, as this exact thing happened famously in the concentration camps of World War II. The Cardassians had become a lot more complex since their early appearances, even early seasons of 'DS9,' we'd seen plenty of examples that were culturally different to Federation norms, yes, but also positive in some ways. This Moset is definitely a throwback to the time when the whole race were a Nazi monolith to an extent, and though they weren't exactly popular at this time (the Dominion War in full swing on 'DS9' with the Cardies siding with the enemy), there was still some degree of complexity to the characters. Really, all that was unimportant, however, as the set up was there regardless, and they could just as easily have used an evil Romulan or some other race we hadn't even heard of, but I'm glad they stuck with an existing, well-developed species for, as I said, purely superficial satisfaction in continuing the visibility of the Alpha Quadrant races, which it wasn't easy to incorporate into 'Voyager' regularly.

That being said they did miss a big opportunity in the Bajoran crewman - I was wondering if he was the same man as appeared in 'Learning Curve,' one of the ex-Maquis that Tuvok had to train in the ways of Starfleet, but he wasn't. The trouble with the series was that they so rarely (after the first two or three seasons), emphasised that sense of community on the ship, a static group of people that would hardly ever grow (occasionally adding new crew), or shrink (deaths, or people leaving), and so they had a prefect opportunity to delve into more of the crew, but instead preferred to focus on the main cast and the usually different 'guest crew characters' from week to week. We saw it recently with the return of the Wildmans, which was nice, and they could have brought back Gerron if they'd wanted to. Instead they decided to have another Bajoran, Ensign Tabor, whom we'd never heard of before. Okay, I understand the reasoning behind it, they needed to keep their options open so as not to narrow things too much for future stories, they didn't want to write themselves into a corner, but it is frustrating when they don't take the chance to develop a previously existing character. Perhaps the Bajoran sub-plot could have been larger, maybe all the Bajorans on the ship could have been seen to get together and protest. For that matter we don't know how many are on the ship, another example of trying to hold off on details, but in this case perhaps they should have put their foot down and shown their hand, for this was the time to play it.

There wasn't really much resolution for Tabor, either (though he'd return, belatedly, in the final season). It was good to see Chakotay getting to be First Officer and have a private meeting with him where the young man airs his grievances, and the idea of a crewman leaving the ship because of ethical differences could have been an episode in its own right (though it could be said the way Janeway operated from one extreme to the next half the ship might have left given the chance, I imagine, and we couldn't have had that!), exploring where he could have gone, what he'd have done, and the sacrifices he was willing to make to stand on his principles. The scene recalled the times when Chakotay was trying to get his former crew to integrate with Starfleet. But it's not his episode, nor is it really B'Elanna's. She has a hard scene with Janeway at the end, who overturned her medical wishes in favour of the ship's need of her, perhaps representing the reality that in their predicament the ends justifies the means? It's probably one of those decisions that show up her inconsistency towards Starfleet values, in the same way as 'killing' Tuvix to bring back Tuvok and Neelix was. But it's not Janeway's episode either. Of all of them it has to be the Doctor's because it's all based around him and he has the final decision as Chief Medical Officer, on whether to keep or delete the Moset program and all his research, which Janeway grants him authority on, but you'd think as CMO it should have been his decision as standard.

It is quite easy to question the set up quite a bit: why would the Doctor need a holographic consultant, why couldn't the information be transferred into his own program? He does say something about there not being enough room, and there was that episode where his program was breaking down from too much use and too much data - interestingly that also featured a holographic consultant, only in that case it was his creator, Dr. Lewis Zimmerman, so I suppose that could be used as precedent. Still, it is far-fetched to have to believe that with all their technological superiority they can't find a way for what is essentially just data, to be used in some way other than recreating a Cardassian butcher of the death camps! I think the point is that they were wandering into all this quite innocently without knowing the issues that existed - Tabor had firsthand knowledge while the records from the Cardassians, which must have been shared between wars and in the last few years, made no mention of the war crimes Moset was responsible for. Even so, you'd think there would be a little more cultural sensitivity, knowing the difficult recent history between Cardassians and Bajorans, and yet Harry Kim doesn't give it a moment's thought, just has Tabor come and help him reinitialise Moset's program! But again, Harry is innocently unaware of what has happened so he's not to blame, but they didn't have to go with a Cardassian face.

The truth is, if they hadn't stumbled on the personal evidence of Tabor, they wouldn't have been led to investigate further to corroborate his accusations and there would never have been an issue, other than B'Elanna's hatred of the race. Again, that was ripe ground for an entire episode in its own right. It might seem extreme to see how Torres reacts and why should she still be so angry after around five years separated from the conflict with them, but don't forget that all her friends in the Maquis had just been exterminated mere months before at the behest of the Cardassians, a favour done for them by their allies, the Dominion, so they were just as guilty of crimes as ever, and personal ones to her, too. The idea of all Cardassians getting this treatment would, again, have been a story in its own right, except I'm sure if Torres did meet with an example of them that was regretful for their people's actions (as Kira did in 'Duet'), and she had time to get to know them, we'd see the usual Trekky rapprochement. But it was a difficult issue that had been dealt with before, such as in Worf's hatred of Romulans, or O'Brien similarly hating Cardies having fought in an earlier war against them. Moset gave early impressions he regretted the Occupation, but you soon sense that this was mere whim, that he was glad of the opportunity to experiment - he likes to use physical tools because he enjoys the feel of it, that was a flagging up of his real persona, which the Doctor, who had instantly warmed to as a fellow hologram, was unsettled by, but merely seemed to chalk up to cultural differences at that point.

Any problems with why they had to recreate this man, why the Doctor couldn't handle it on his own, and why they had to use the face of Moset when they could have used anything, are all irrelevant - they were simply to get us to the ethical dilemma: is it right to use medical research that has been arrived at through evil means? In the best Trek episodes they would have explored one side, that it was necessary to save Torres' life, they'd have weighed up the other side, that it was abhorrent to benefit from research arrived at that way, but in the end they'd have found a third alternative, and I think that was one thing missing from the story. I expected the other alien ship to somehow wrench their fellow alien from Torres and the Doctor was barely able to save her, but at least he hadn't had to use the research. But in the event Janeway has no patience for ethical qualms, much like Tom, who is obviously emotionally invested more than anyone (and it was great to see him return to his old role as nurse), and simply orders the procedure to be carried out, regardless of the patient's wishes or concerns. The Doctor is given the choice to keep or delete and so the episode ends. I'm honestly not sure on the right answer to the question, because once you know something how can you un-know it? Then there's the reality of how medical knowledge was arrived it going back hundreds or even thousands of years, and we may not be comfortable with now. It's a thorny issue and clearly in this case and in the case of a real Nazi experiment it is horrific, but can a line be drawn under it so that we'll never do this again or permit it to be done, but that doesn't mean we have to wipe out the knowledge? I don't know, but like the most Trekky episodes it does make you think and, just as importantly, debate.

The other side of the episode is the alien itself. I loved the idea that it could send out this distress call with a wave (must have very powerful ships), but the Universal Translator can't cope with it, and I liked the design of the creature, too. They wisely avoided actually venturing onto its vessel as how would you portray a race that may exist horizontally most of the time and the technology they operate - it might have been interesting to see them try, as they did when they went aboard the exceedingly alien 8472 ship, but it would have been tough on the production team, who, by the way, deserve great credit for recreating Cardassian architecture for a holographic recreation of Moset's laboratory when they probably could have just redressed Bashir's Infirmary if they'd really been strapped for cash! There was a real danger that the creature could have been laughable - it's one of those tropes of sci-fi that you have to have an episode where a crew-member gets attached to some alien creature and they're dying, and you have to be careful how you handle it or it can look very silly. Indeed, when I first saw it lying in Sickbay it was like an anorexic version of the ugly alien salamanders that Janeway and Paris turned into in 'Threshold.' All question of comedy was thrown out by the terrifying moment it suddenly rears up and leaps right through the forcefield at B'Elanna, truly horrific. But it's also in the way you see it breathing when it's on her, like it's safely cocooned and it suddenly becomes something understandable: the desperate will to survive, its sympathetic position more clear again when Moset slices open a holographic replica which reacts in pain.

It was also lovely when the creature is returned to its people and they send a message back which Janeway interprets as a thank you (a fun fact is that Frank Welker did the voice and he'd previously been responsible for the Spock screams in 'Star Trek III'!). Though they didn't understand each other there was still some level of understanding. I'm appreciating how much the cast are being used at this stage, too, with Seven not stealing the show, even though (yet another potential plot), the slight sense of rebellion which was on the right side of insubordination from Tabor as he has to work under her in Engineering when she fills in for Torres, was ripe for exploration. So many threads in this episode that could have come from something before if there were regularly recurring characters, or could have been taken up again in successive stories, and yet they're unfortunately just thrown in for this one time. The idea of Seven taking Torres' place in particular had great potential when you think of all those under the Chief Engineer who might well have been annoyed that this brilliant ex-Borg is more trusted than them. We hear that everyone has a personal database as Tom threatens to send a picture of B'Elanna to them, so that tied down a little bit of how people operate at this time in the future, which makes sense since they make Personal Logs and would need somewhere to store them. And it was interesting the Doctor chose to show his images in two dimensions in the Holodeck when you might think he could've had three-dimensional renders. He could also have made the Holodeck more special instead of just creating ordinary chairs and a bare room, but he probably didn't want any attention away from his slide show.

This is most certainly a good story, though not on the same level as recent episodes. It is thoughtful, but maybe the series wasn't quite as accomplished at that kind of style than either 'TNG' or 'DS9' were. The ethical debate is a real quandary, and while some would even be upset that many of the parts of the lifestyle they have today wouldn't exist if not for the experimentation with animals, sentient beings is far, far worse and is a very difficult issue to get to the bottom of, especially in these days of morality being stretched to breaking point. Crell even says at one point ethics are meaningless, or subjective, or whatever it was he said. Clearly the suggestion here is that he's wrong, but I wonder what the makers of Trek based it on, because he's right in a way: unless you have belief in a Supreme Being that knows best how we are to live then it's all made up by human minds, there's no ultimate truth of Good and Evil and it's merely the whims of whatever generation is in power at the moment, often reacting to what went before. What Trek considered morally correct thirty years ago isn't necessarily what it does now, and some would argue that that's because we've 'progressed,' but what if we're just going back to ways we'd previously thrown off? This is the kind of episode that has you thinking along those lines, and rather than concentrating on effects and action, armageddon and emotionalism, Trek needs more of this today, except I'm not sure they know right from wrong any more, if they even knew it then...

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