Critical Care: The Doctor violates the Prime Directive?

[Renvar]

Did the Doctor violate the Prime Directive in the episode Critical Care? I speak of when he imposed his views on medical care on the Dinaali. The way they based the level of treatment on their statistical value to society seems cruel and unfair to us or to the Voyager crew, but it still seems like it's not the Doctor's place to interfere with their methods. The Doctor was considered a Starfleet officer, which would make him bound to the Federation's non-interference policies.

So what do you think? Did the Doctor violate the Prime Directive?

 

[DonIago]

I wonder whether the Doctor was even programmed to respect the PD given that he was supposed to be confined to Sickbay.

I also wonder whether respecting the PD is more or less important for him than the Hippocratic Oath if he doesn't have a commanding officer to fall back on.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Completely.

He should have been punished.

Janeway claims she bends the prime Directive.

If, and he definitely should have, had the PD hardwired into his Programming, not that it couldn't be altered in seconds to make him as evil as need be...

Wy did he refuse to kill Tuvix?

I mean, other than that it was wrong?

 

[The Grim Ghost]

Every Trek show either presents the PD as an unbreakable law or as something that needs to be bent occasionally. It depends on the episode. There is no real consistency with it.

Usually it works out as something like "we must preserve the Prime Directive unless we REALLY REALLY are disturbed by something"

For the episode in question though, I feel that since the Doctor was being held against his will and forced to do things that go against his programming (not treating sick people) he had some right to do what he did.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I just used the firefox search function to investigate the script to critical care...

the closest anyone comes to mentioning the Prime Directive is when the Doctor calls the locals primitive, and the closest anyone comes to mentioning General order number one was when the Doctor declaims their general level of competence, and the closest anyone came to saying noninterference directive was when Seven answered "none" to the Doctor asking if there were any problems with his ethical subroutines.

The writing was arrogant and imperial.

Though it's still not so bad as Kim smashing a religion to a prewarp civilization during The Next Emanation.

 

[The Grim Ghost]

Yeah, I tend to think it makes more sense to go with the 'we don't mess with pre-warp civilizations' version of the PD. Unfortunately TNG took the PD a lot further than really makes sense.

Even so, to me if a civilization goes out of it's way to attack you then all bets are off and you have a right to defend yourself, even if it does change things.

The thing with Kim and religion though, yeah that was completely f'd up.

 

[Guy Gardener]

My encyclopedia makes an interesting claim which pushes voyager ahead of TNG in regards to the level of noninterference Starfleet Officers are expected to exhibit on the job... Apparently, not that it's mentioned in the script, but VOY: Prototype was Prime Directive relevant adventure despite the fact that the aliens in question were clearly and significantly more technologically advanced than Janeway and the federation.

B'Elanna was fiddling with how the Robots make Robot babies. Pregnancy defines most species, about what they are willing to do and what they are going to do and in the case of this lot how likely is extinction that they can do anything? How isn't that significantly altering the balance of power in the Quadrant making doomed evil robots into immortal evil robots?

What narrow parameters there must be that there Starfleet Types can muck it up with the locals in the Delta Quadrant, not that janeway didn't admit in Flesh and Blood, that she'd been selling replicators from side of the galaxy to the other like she was a crazy 20th century used car sales women TV advert to potentially warlike races...

Critical Care was like the shit preachy episodes of M*A*S*H* at the end when Alan Aldar was directing very third episode...

 

[The Grim Ghost]

She also radically changed Hirogen culture by giving them access to holotechnology. Their entire nomadic/hunting culture was going to be changed through this from the ground up.

It was probably a change for the good, but that shouldn't matter.

 

[Guy Gardener]

well apart from the millions and millions of "self ware" holograms they created to murder themselves with. Janeway gave them a suicide machine plain and simple because they were not responsible enough to be sensible with what should have been a simple sex-aide.

But it comes down to bonking again.

The Hirogen Alpha made some comment about how the Higogen had no reason to live in clumps so their society was dying out, so really the hunting holodecks were just a honey trap for an after hour hookup speed dating festival once the brave hunters finished kicking the shit out of light bulbs, that they deserved to chill for the a while inthe company of a good woman... Did we ever see a Hirogen female? Hells? maybe all Hirogen look like boys to us, but at least half the Hirogen we ever saw were women?

They were doomed.

But think of the interbreeding that would never happen?

All the Hirogrn out there spread so thin that they had no choice but to feed their genetic diversity into other civilizations when they didn't have no one of thei own kind to express themselves in, what a magnificent benefit that might have been which Janeway chose to withdraw form the universe's menu options?

Damned if you do, damn'd if you don't.

Starfleet Commando Holograms? broadcast to ships in distress? The Romulans considered this a possibility when trying to figure out what the doctor was? If lightbulb Doctors are not ingrained with the Prime Directive, then what chance is there that lightbulb Counterinsurgent (Holo-Jack-Baur) Killing machines might have the mildest inclination to follow the Prime Directive when they're saving the day?

Or the Doctor in red as the ECH?

How many crew could the ECH keep in order if he's not obeying the Prime Directive and they were? That's a huge schism in philosophy and operating limitations.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

I think that Critical Care is an exception to the whole possibility of the Prime Directive - the Doctor was stolen from the ship and handed over to these people. He does technically qualify as technology - stolen technology isn't exactly something that can be controlled, hence the word 'stolen.' Now, Tuvok could probably lose his job for lax security, but we're not discussing his errors.

Also, for the record, I think that the Prime Directive should be limited to pre-warp cultures, but that careful judgment should be taken before interfering in the internal affairs of another warp capable species.

 

[Guy Gardener]

In Scorpion, Janeway told the Doctor to kill himself to preserve the information in his Database about the 8472 killing nanoprobes during the first movements of her alliance with the Borg.

Self termination was an option in Critical Care.

It was the only option considering what a decent villian would have done if they got hold of the doctors 29th century tech other than just put it to work in a hospital.

Remeber One?

That and then some.

Hells, the Doctor is lucky he wasn't massproduced, that even though one of him escaped to/on Voyager, there wasn't hundreds of thousands more of him still trapped on that world suffering in unending toil.

Imagine what that would do to the labour market?

Resession and depression.

 

[The Grim Ghost]

^ Why is it that posters on these boards often put more thought into these things and come up with better ideas than the actual paid writers of the shows???

 

[neogothboy74]

This was one of the Voyager episodes that I didn't see until DVD, and it's also one of the few later season episodes that I loved (I grade on a curve for Voyager). Did he break the PD? I'm not familiar enough with it to know for sure. I don't know. I don't think I care. lol. I know that's lame. But by the time this episode aired, I was grateful to find any episodes I liked at all so I don't want to think about it. lol. I'll revisit it eventually and I'll see how I feel about it then. And I'm realizing now this post is probably not very helpful at all.

 

[nx1701g]

I think, since he was a prisoner, that the directives wouldn't apply in order to survive. We do know, however, that the Doctor is bound by the prime directive. I remember an episode where the Doctor was ordered to operate on someone but told (I think it was Janeway) that he couldn't because it would be a violation of the prime directive.

 

[kimc]

^ Why is it that posters on these boards often put more thought into these things and come up with better ideas than the actual paid writers of the shows???

No time crunch?

Seriously, we've had years to come up with alternate storylines and the fanfiction is out there to showcase it. Sure, there are some calls that were made ("Endgame", "Threshold", etc) that are true wtf calls but for the most part I've enjoyed the stories.

 

[The Grim Ghost]

^ Me too. Sometimes it can be a little frustrating though. But yeah, we have the benefit of hindsight here.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I think, since he was a prisoner, that the directives wouldn't apply in order to survive. We do know, however, that the Doctor is bound by the prime directive. I remember an episode where the Doctor was ordered to operate on someone but told (I think it was Janeway) that he couldn't because it would be a violation of the prime directive.

You'd think that under pressure is the best time to have principles? because if you only apply principles sometimes then they're more of a hobby than a definition of who you are.

The doctor wouldn't murder Tuvix, he got into a right barney with janeway because she wouldn't take a day off, at the conclusion of which screaming match she threatened to erase his program during Year of Hell, and he completely spazzed out in latent Image because he didn't have enough humanity to triage between two completely equal and terminal cases.. However, that's a lie since Kim is neither equal nor superior to anyone in anyway.

Although?

You might be thinking of another corner of the franchise?

If you explain to him that he won't survive without your help...
maybe he'd set the past aside for a few hours.
I seriously doubt it. He insisted I leave the room.
I don't think you realize how much "bad blood" there is.
You could always sedate him and perform the treatment.
I have to respect his wishes.
Even if he wishes to die?
The will of the patient is the cornerstone of Denobulan medical ethics.
Don't you believe if you can help someone your ethically bound to do so?
Hippocrates wasn't Denobulan.
This is an Earth ship, Doctor.
I won't let that man die in my sickbay if it can be prevented.
Without his consent, there is nothing I can do.
I'm giving you an order.
I'm sorry, Captain, but I'm afraid I can't follow it.

Or Braga could just be seriously recycling scripts.

 

[Renvar]

While it is true that many Prime Directive issues are seen when dealing with pre-warp cultures, that by no means makes it any less important when dealing with cultures that have achieved warp travel. The consequences for intentionally interfering with a society's natural order are just as potentially disasterous.

What if, after the doctor left the hospital ship, the Dinaali were forced to begin treating all patients with equal level of care? In a society that was already plagued with too much illness for its economy to support, a sudden shift in their treatment policies could cause their entire medical institution to collapse. This outcome is by no means a certainty, but it does demonstrate the unintentional results of interference.

As for the argument that the doctor is not bound by the Prime Directive because he's a piece of technology, I submit that would still make him the responsibility of Starfleet. It could be that Starfleet never imagined that a hologram confined to a sickbay could have the opportunity to influence a culture. If so, the fault lies with those officers that originally commisioned the EMH Mark 1.

My personal belief is that the doctor, much like Moriarty, had achieved a level of awareness that went beyond his original programming. That gives him rights, but it also burdens him with the responsibilities of other sentient beings. The doctor was considered to be in Starfleet; he had the authority to relieve the captain of duty if she was not medically fit in his opinion. He was given autonomy over his program, to expand his knowledge and his personality. In every respect, he was a person, a doctor, and a Starfleet officer. That makes him responsible for his actions, and bound by the Prime Directive.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The doctor was considered to be in Starfleet; he had the authority to relieve the captain of duty if she was not medically fit in his opinion.

Any starship's CMO can do that, even if they're not a Starfleet officer. Phlox could have done the same thing, and he's obviously not in Starfleet. Their position as ship's doctor is what gives them the authority.

 

[Guy Gardener]

From that Dear Doctor episode of Enterprise, Phlox was already using a variation of the prime Directuive in so that he considered it to be infatalizing to trick or lie to Archer so that he wouldn't infantalize the two species being darwined.

If the Doctor was a person, then the rest of his model would become people too since, working on those garbage scowls, they'd be oprating under their own complete autonomy unlike the Doctor who had oversite leaking into every holopour... Yeah, there would have been blood on the dancefloor.