Did they go back and help the aliens they stole from?

[ozzfloyd]

Archer's choice was a bad choice...it was also the ONLY choice.

 

[Oddish]

^ I think that summarizes it. Though again, I hope that when it was possible, Archer tried to send help.

 

[Tenacity]

Worst case is that Archer effectively killed an innocent ship's crew to save billions of humans.

Where do you place the priority?

 

[Oddish]

Where do you place the priority?

Obviously, Archer did what was necessary. You do what you have to do, even if it makes you sick, gives you nightmares, or leaves you hating yourself until your dying day. I expect that he arranged for help to be sent as soon as possible. But it's very possible that he was too late. Even so, a ship lost for a planet saved is a more than fair trade.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Archer's choice was a bad choice...it was also the ONLY choice

At the very least Archer should have brain washed the opposing crew so that they thought that Kingons were to blame, or used some widget to put their victims in stasis for a month, so that Archer would either be dead, or returned with a fresh engine part to replace what was taken surreptitiously as if it had never happened, like it was the perfect crime.

Although, Captain Lorian was a complete Putz for not heading this trolley problem off at the pass, and arriving 2 episodes earlier to save mom and dad.

 

[FederationHistorian]

The happy answer is that the Illyrian crew were rescued, either by Archer or as ship he had sent to look for them, or even by other Illyrians, and everyone is okay.

The unhappy answer is the crew died/went missing without a trace/mutinied against the captain. And while such an outcome would provide a lesson to cadets at the Academy, it hurts Archer’s reputation. And he is already not a top choice for favourite captain as it is. Even though the Illyrian captain is selfish in not caring that Earth might get destroyed.

I think it depends if the Illyrian crew can call home or to a friendly port for help within a couple of days (they are only 3 years out at impulse; at 1/3rd warp speed, its basically their backyard), and if they encountered any more spatial anomalies over the next few days before Enterprise shut the spheres down. And if they even know how to build a new warp coil.

Another thing, we do not know the average lifespan of an Illyrians (genetically modified or not), so that might also be a factor as to why the crew was concerned about being stranded. Although, they are still only a lightyear away from home. For comparison, Alpha Centauri is 4 lightyears away from Earth.

 

[Tenacity]

I can't recall the crew compliment aboard the Illyrian ship, but Archer could have taken them onto the Enterprise, at least until he could have dumped them on a planet where they could survive.

 

[Frankenerd]

I don't know whether they did I feel like at the least the Xindi might have at Enterprise's request. In the end, I don't want them to be dead so I just hope/assume they got rescued. I think them all dying is too much to put on Archer's character and expect the audience to be sympathetic to him. In a different show you could do that, maybe something like a Battlestar Galactica universe, but they would also go more in depth and explore it more and maybe Archer wouldn't have gotten away with it or Earth would have swept it under the rug. I don't think it needed to be followed up. It's like Sisko in "In The Pale Moonlight. They both did a bad thing and they got away with it.

I like to think of myself as a "Good Guy" who is opposed to evil in all its forms. Spent 13 years on active duty in the ASA and six more as an "Independant Contractor to the DoD, St.Dept. AND various foreign Governments" chasing bad guys, so I object to doing bad things and getting away with it!
I never saw that episode, but think it goes against everything I believed Star Trek stood for!

 

[Oddish]

I never saw that episode, but think it goes against everything I believed Star Trek stood for!

It does. The way Sisko's actions in "In the Pale Moonlight" did.