Actions by the crew that go overlooked?

Do some of the main characters do things throughout the series that seem like they are just overlooked?

For instance, I was watching The Outcast a few days ago, and Riker beams down to the surface with Worf and basically beat up a bunch of the natives on the planet and try to kidnap a citizen. While Picard doesn't know about the assaults, you would think the planet would contact the ship to complain about it.

In Descent, Data more or less nearly causes the death of everyone aboard the Enterprise and is a traitor. Seemingly, nothing was done about this.

Worf kills Duras in Reunion...on no...he gets a reprimand on his permanent record. He doesn't have to stand trial for murder, he just gets a reprimand. Imagine how that must sound. Chastised severely for killing a candidate for the supreme leader of another culture.

Thoughts on these and others?

 

While he did kill Duras, it wasn't murder under the Klingon legal code. What would you of had Worf charged with?

Worf didn't jump Duras in a dark alley, he openly challenged him and the challenge was accepted in front of witnesses.

Dueling is illegal today, but it was legal in times past.. If you kill someone according to the rules of your society and in a legal fashion, it simply isn't murder.

 

Even if he couldn't be charged with a crime he should have been removed as chief of security immediately, he put klingons customs over his duties as a starfleet officer, that's bad but it's also tv.

The main characters get away with a lot because they are the main characters, to create tension and drama they have to do questionable things but there can't be serious consequences because then they'd be off the show. It's not something that just happens on TNG.

 

Isn't it strongly implied in Descent that Data was under Lore's influence (e.g. we see Crosis activate a device that clearly alters Data's behaviour)? In that case he wouldn't be held fully accountable -or at the least, at first it would have to be rigorously determined exactly how far that influence went. The same would need to be done every time some crew member is under some alien influence and causes danger or damage. We never see that happen, most of these episodes seem to simply assume the person wasn't accountable. Why would it be different in Descent?

 

So if you were from another country but eventually served in the US military and you went out and dueled someone and killed them because it was ok in the culture that you came from, they would just give you a reprimand?

Under alien influence. That could be an excuse for everything. I hate that get out of jail card free. Data was responsible for deaths...

 

Yes, it is appalling how easily Picard got off after his Locutus-episode, when he was under Borg influence. The man was responsible for thousands of deaths. Or is he excused because in his case that influence was mostly irresistible ? Even in this case, not completely irresistible; after all he still managed to say "sleep" to Data.

I'd say there are all kinds of degrees to how far that influence goes and that those should be taken into account when determining how accountable someone was during his actions. I agree that this rarely -if ever- happens in the aftermath of such "influence" episodes.

 

With Data, if he is taken over by alien influences as often as he is, he would be a huge security risk.

 

That's hilarious. Do you know how many of the other main TNG characters got taken over at one point or another by some entity or alien consciousness? Just about every single character. I get the argument in real-life terms, but as said before, it's about creating drama. Unless you really want to see these characters go to jail for the rest of the series.

 

In TNG O'Brien was taken over and scared Keiko and little Molly. In DS9 Keiko was taken over, scaring Miles. I guess they are even now.

 

Yeah, it's way too easy to come up with other crew who were taken over, influenced, or brainwashed. No need to single out Data. Ironically to gakelly's argument, Data was the only one not brainwashed by the addictive game in the episode appropriately titled "The Game," thus allowing him to save the day. In "Clues," he was the only one not affected by the Paxans' stun job, leading him to save the lives of the entire crew. He also resisted the Borg better than anybody. Need I go on? We need more Datas, not less Datas.

 

Yes we need more Data's. Just stick some tin foil in his head and you're good to go!

 

We need Unlimited Data, for our Galaxy... class starship.

 

Are you assuming that the Federation doesn't have legal dueling?

From TOS Vulcan duel for mates, from ENT Andorian have dueling as well. That's half the Founding member species of the Federation.

It's not exactly clear what Worf's reprimand was for, leaving the ship without permission perhaps? My impression is it wasn't for dueling and killing Duras.

 

Starfleet is riddled with contradictions concerning Data. They gave him a rank (implying responsibilities) and medals (implying heroism) long before they admitted that he was more than a piece of equipment that you can just dismantle when you feel like it. IMO that's beyond ridiculous. You need first to decide that someone is a person before you give them ranks and rewards.

 

It might never have come up. Certain assumptions were made at the time Data was admitted to Starfleet, but no official determination as to whether Data was a actual "person." Again, it just didn't come up.

So some considered him to be the same as a biological sapient being, others essentially a piece of equipment in a humanoid form.

 

True! Regarding the counterpoint others have made to this, I understand as well that other crew members have been taken over as well, but it would be more of a security risk in Data's case given that he seems to be able to use his intelligence and speed to even lock Picard out of his own ship at times and create encryption codes that even the Borg can't break.

 

So the argument is: penalize certain crewmembers for being smarter and faster than average? Shouldn't those be the ones you want on your ship and in positions to make a difference? Sorry, Data, you're too smart...

Little Wesley pulled that trick of taking over the ship, and got promoted.

 

^ well, it is true that Star Trek is uncomfortable with depicting people or entities with an "beyond human" advantage. I mean, sure, Data is smarter (in certain ways) and faster, but they also make sure to tell us he is unique and they don't know how to build more of them. An entire class of Data-like beings probably would have stirred some feelings of discomfort in the Trek universe.

Genetic engineering that would yield similar advantages (though probably to a somewhat lesser degree)? Forbidden.

A.I. with human-equivalent intelligence has been accomplished (Data, interactive holograms), so beyond-human-level A.I. can't be too far behind ... if they wanted it to. Yet we see this only rarely, and if, almost always in a negative light (experiments going awry, evil alien super-intelligence, etc). It's clear that crewmembers with attributes we can envision ourselves to be roughly in the same league with (i.e. human-equivalent) must remain top dog in Star Trek.

So yes, they would try to treat those that exist with those attributes fairly within Starfleet (Data, Bashir, and so on), but I'm not that sure they would encourage others to join. In fact, Bashir had no choice in being enhanced, but still believed he had to keep silent about it to get into Starfleet, and Data apparently had some issues in getting admitted to Starfleet as well.

 

The problem is that a person's sense of ethics and moral is an integral part of that person's personality. It could momentarily be impaired by alcohol (but not to the point of making them criminals) and a truly responsible person will NOT drink while on duty. In Data it's just a subroutine that can be switched on and off like a lightbulb. To me, that's enough of a difference not to make him the equivalent of a human being. For a point of comparison and what was apparently the source of inspiration for Data himself. Asimov's robots can do no wrong, the laws that prevent them from becoming evil are so deeply encoded in them that they'll self-destruct before they even begin to violate them. THAT I could rely upon.