The Disease

[gakelly]

This episode is utter trash.
You need the captain and chief medical officer's blessing and permission to get laid with a different species?
How did Riker get away with it all those episodes. "Captain, Dr. Crusher, I'm beaming down to hook up with a unisex person this evening. I just wanted to get your permission."
Think about all the episodes from TNG where Riker, Troi, Crusher, and even LaForge got lucky. Did they all ask the captain and chief medical doctor permission?

Janeway comes off as a complete you know what in this episode.

 

[Prax]

Different captain's can hold their crews accountable to different standards. And the rules would obviously be different in foreign areas with unknown species.

It makes perfect sense, and who's to say Riker didn't check with the doctor before, after, or both during his encounters with strange women and prostitutes. I would imagine the official Starfleet position on this could not be anything other than "Don't go sleeping with strange unknown aliens that we have no data on." Hell, it's probably even more like "Don't go sleeping with any strange aliens... period."

That's exactly the policy of the modern day military, even if not always followed.

Besides all that, there are further circumstances in this episode that compound the issue. Kim knowingly put himself in a situation that he knew could cause a diplomatic incident, then he disobeyed orders multiple times to continue doing so. The agreement between Voyager and the aliens forbid any relations like this.

Even with all this justification Janeway actually has to punish Kim, she still admits at the end that perhaps she was too harsh, and is still a little too protective of Kim, and that if it were Paris, she probably wouldn't have reacted the same way. As a good leader, Janeway recognized her emotional reaction in her decision, but nonetheless, still had to punish him, as he deserved a reprimand.

A good leader, teacher, commander, manager, etc, doesn't rule equally, but fairly. Two different people committing the same infraction don't necessarily deserve the exact same punishment. This is how all criminal justice systems generally work, the military, and every school I've been exposed to, both as a student, and a parent. And this is how parents raise their children.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

The episode was trash but not for that reason.

In this case getting together violated the law of the alien’s culture.

 

[suarezguy]

Yeah, pretty ridiculous and too inconsistent with the rest of the franchise. The one way it can kind of work is if, as the episode suggests around its middle, the requirement exists but isn't actually followed or taken seriously anymore, but then the episode ends with declaring that taking it seriously and actually requiring it to be followed are standard, what any captain would do.

Or if you interpret that it actually just applies to with newly-encountered species, which I don't think was really suggested by the episode but is something to try to make it make sense.

 

[Kor]

Well, this particular "rule" was invoked again in VOY in "The Prophecy" in regard to Klingons, who should have been a very familiar species by that point.

EMH: As I understand it, you have two options. Kill her, or mate with her. Since the first option is clearly unacceptable.
(He hands Kim a PADD.)
KIM: What's this?
EMH: Authorisation for you to engage in intimate relations with a member of an alien species. Be sure to get the Captain's approval as well.

Maybe it was just one of Janeway's pet peeves.

Kor

 

[Tenacity]

Must of been easy for Kirk to get the captain's permission, him being captain and all.

 

[Qonundrum]

This episode is utter trash.
You need the captain and chief medical officer's blessing and permission to get laid with a different species?
How did Riker get away with it all those episodes. "Captain, Dr. Crusher, I'm beaming down to hook up with a unisex person this evening. I just wanted to get your permission."
Think about all the episodes from TNG where Riker, Troi, Crusher, and even LaForge got lucky. Did they all ask the captain and chief medical doctor permission?

Janeway comes off as a complete you know what in this episode.

I think it was because of Riker when Starfleet had had enough of all their top officers dying from mystery cooties.

I miss the days when it was Wesley trying to go out with the guest alien of the week and promptly socially awkwards himself into problems thereby getting around the entire issue for mommy Crusher to have to cure the "recreational cooties" while doing the subplot of embarrassment because Wes didn't marry first or whatever. Mostly because it's a great way to tell nerdy teens like me how to do respectable date as a coming of age trope, despite being nerdy and therefore incapable to date successfully by its very definition. Sadly, or even more sadly perhaps, that also means the rest of the crew has to work overtime, not to mention Worf almost getting torn into two by a shapeshifting guardian, to keep the treaty in place or preventing the ship from being utterly destroyed by the angry guardian or the very special episode where in-laws are shown and they actually don't hate their newly married in-law, et cetera.

 

[Prax]

When young Mr. Crusher catches an std, he goes to one of the other sickbays.

 

[trekshark]

and even LaForge got lucky

What? When?

 

[DonIago]

It was in "All Good Things". Sadly, just one of Picard's alternate timeline experiences.

If it helps, it was a surprise to him too.

 

[Tenacity]

When young Mr. Crusher catches an std ...

I thought we were going to stop calling Discovery that.

 

[gakelly]

What? When?

Aquiel
Transfigurations possibly

 

[Finn]

This episode is utter trash.
You need the captain and chief medical officer's blessing and permission to get laid with a different species?
How did Riker get away with it all those episodes. "Captain, Dr. Crusher, I'm beaming down to hook up with a unisex person this evening. I just wanted to get your permission."
Think about all the episodes from TNG where Riker, Troi, Crusher, and even LaForge got lucky. Did they all ask the captain and chief medical doctor permission?

Janeway comes off as a complete you know what in this episode.

How many exploits did the TNG crew have with unknown species, without them acting like it was no big deal?

Well, this particular "rule" was invoked again in VOY in "The Prophecy" in regard to Klingons, who should have been a very familiar species by that point.


Maybe it was just one of Janeway's pet peeves.

Kor

These Klingons have been isolated from the UFP/Klingon's part of the galaxy for a very long time. They may be carriers of unknown pathogens.

 

[Prax]

I thought we were going to stop calling Discovery that.

How about ISVD. You can catch an ISVD during an ISMR

 

[Tenacity]

Might need a MRI.

 

[Prax]

Nothing a little inaprovaline can't cure.

 

[Ghislaine H. B. BRAEME]

The problem with Harry Kim's attitude in The Disease is triple. Indeed, in pursuing a love affair with a female alien, our young Enseign :
1. violated a strict rule enacted by Starfleet*, endangering his friends and colleagues
(* being an officer just released from the Academy, he could not not know this policy, which was not taken to annoy officers but on the contrary protect them from chemical hazards and making bad encounters which could be detrimental in terms of health).
2. he put Captain Janeway in a bad posture to the point of creating some dissensions between her people (The Federation/Starfleet and her own crew) and aliens coming from the other alien vessels.
3. he knowingly disobeyed the direct orders of a senior officer, especially after Janeway reminded him the protocole about forbidden sexual enconters with aliens.

And all that for what? For sex and nothing more. The question is: the game was worth it (in french, we have an expression :"Le jeu en valait la chandelle?" The answer is simple : NO. Because let's be honest, Harry Kim always fell in love too easily ...with too often the wrong people. In general, his attempts to find a soulmate are funny but here, our Harry showed a certain immaturity, IMHO. He was lucky to face Janeway instead of Sisko or Picard because he could have been demoted or worst stopped in his carrier for his irresponsable attitude.

 

[suarezguy]

The problem with Harry Kim's attitude in The Disease is triple. Indeed, in pursuing a love affair with a female alien, our young Enseign :
1. violated a strict rule enacted by Starfleet

But which was never shown in the franchise before and even the episode suggests around its middle that how strict it is varies a lot by captain.

2. he put Captain Janeway in a bad posture to the point of creating some dissensions between her people (The Federation/Starfleet and her own crew) and aliens coming from the other alien vessels.

There was already so much tension within the other vessel that something else, the scheme if nothing else, would have caused some conflict or at least a lot more awareness of the extent of their differences eventually.

 

[at Quark's]

Perhaps the policy really exists, but generally isn't too heavily enforced in the AQ anymore, as most species encountered there are generally known (yes, I know, despite all those "new" species they still manage to meet). However, the DQ is an entirely new place where they encounter species neither they nor any AQ species they know have ever met, so perhaps Kathryn decided to dust off and re-implement the old directive

That, or she secretly gets her kicks from interfering with her officers' sex lives (which wouldn't surprise me that much......).

 

[JirinPanthosa]

How many exploits did the TNG crew have with unknown species, without them acting like it was no big deal?.

With known species there is likely an official approved list and any official gathering of permission is assumed to happen off screen.