Odo's actions in "Children of Time"

[Danoz]

Question of Ethics about Odo's actions. Odo let 8000 humans and a world of history and culture fade into non-existence to let Kira live.

This left a rather bitter taste in my mouth. Odo's actions were incredibly selfish, seeing as how he let her live so that he could pursue a relationship with her. He also didn't sacrifice much because he joined his past self on the ship and effectively kept that part of him alive. I was pretty bitter about this action... thoughts?

 

[ninetofive]

His actions were selfish of course. While I cannot condone them, I understand them completely. It is a terrible thing to be alone; it is a terrible thing to live with regret, wondering about what might have been.

 

[DevilEyes]

Well, that is the old question: would you rather save a thousand people, or one person you really care about? I am sure that most people will tell you that the former is the right thing to do, since "the needs of the many...". But I am also sure that, faced with the choice, most people would actually do the latter.

People may be moved when they hear on the news about thousands or millions of people who have died, but as long as none of those people is important to them, they are moved only on a superficial level. It's very different when something bad happens to a person they love.

 

[Danoz]

Well, that is the old question: would you rather save a thousand people, or one person you really care about? I am sure that most people will tell you that the former is the right thing to do, since "the needs of the many...". But I am also sure that, faced with the choice, most people would actually do the latter.

People may be moved when they hear on the news about thousands or millions of people who have died, but as long as none of those people is important to them, they are moved only on a superficial level. It's very different when something bad happens to a person they love.

Except for, these weren't people that this new Odo knew as random figures on the either end of the galaxy-- these were the relatives of his closest friends and something beautiful and unique they had built.

 

[Too Much Fun]

I just realized how similar the debate about Odo's action is to the central conflict of "Insurrection" and yet I find this episode so much more interesting and thought-provoking than that movie, perhaps because in the movie it was pretty obvious which side was right (and therefore it seemed like a rather clunky premise), whereas here one can understand both sides of the argument better. Maybe because it's about love, and a love that's been built up nicely in seasons prior to the episode. Anyone else see the parallel and feel the same way about this episode's conflict and resolution being far better conceived?

 

[Aubergine]

I think the strongest ethical argument here lies not with the moral fog surrounding all matters time travel, but rather with Odo's overriding of the sovereign will of his (former) crewmates. To force his will upon them is most easily classified as wrong, whereas the "destruction" of the colony is much more murky.

 

[DevilEyes]

Well, that is the old question: would you rather save a thousand people, or one person you really care about? I am sure that most people will tell you that the former is the right thing to do, since "the needs of the many...". But I am also sure that, faced with the choice, most people would actually do the latter.

People may be moved when they hear on the news about thousands or millions of people who have died, but as long as none of those people is important to them, they are moved only on a superficial level. It's very different when something bad happens to a person they love.

Except for, these weren't people that this new Odo knew as random figures on the either end of the galaxy-- these were the relatives of his closest friends and something beautiful and unique they had built.

So, if they had been people he did not know, it would have been OK?

 

[Miss Chicken]

I think that Odo's actions were unforgiveable. I can't imagine many other main chacters in Trek doing what he did.

 

[RyuRoots]

I rolled my eyes at how predictable some of the character's reactions were to this whole situation. I never liked this episode since it was one of those where I called every event of significance several minutes before they happened.

As far as I'm concerned, it was never supposed to happen, so it was just correcting a mistake. At least that's how I saw it.

 

[Bones2]

I just realized how similar the debate about Odo's action is to the central conflict of "Insurrection" and yet I find this episode so much more interesting and thought-provoking than that movie, perhaps because in the movie it was pretty obvious which side was right (and therefore it seemed like a rather clunky premise), whereas here one can understand both sides of the argument better.

The So'na, surely. It was as much their planet as the Ba'ku's (it not being their native world), and the benefits to the Federation and medicine could have been vast.

 

[Bluesteel]

I didn't feel much that episode. Maybe because I was watching the entire Season that day.

Those people simply ceased to exist. They weren't murdered. What would have been murder would be to let the Defiant crash and kill some of the crew. If they found a way out they would and should have taken it. The merit of that society would have been built on a lie otherwise.

 

[Danoz]

I just realized how similar the debate about Odo's action is to the central conflict of "Insurrection" and yet I find this episode so much more interesting and thought-provoking than that movie, perhaps because in the movie it was pretty obvious which side was right (and therefore it seemed like a rather clunky premise), whereas here one can understand both sides of the argument better.

The So'na, surely. It was as much their planet as the Ba'ku's (it not being their native world), and the benefits to the Federation and medicine could have been vast.

I wasn't a fan of how they demonized the Federation in Insurrection-- while I liked the movie. However, Picard was always a high-minded idealist and he never really bought into the "needs of the many" philosophy if it meant disrupting something cultural or unique (in fact, Picard's affinity for anthropology has him putting cultural preservation over human life on a number of occasions). There's a reason why Picard wasn't in the "know," and it's because he's too high-minded sometimes and incapable of making a difficult choice when it rubs against Federation dogma.

Another reason why Sisko is the best captain (up until the final episodes where he starts to put his role as emissary to the Bajoran people over his starfleet duties/career).