Does "Observer Effect" refute "Dear Doctor?"

[Shatnertage]

I had the pleasure of rewatching "Observer Effect" the other night, and I've been mulling the episode over for a few days now. I've been considering something that I wanted to get some perspective from other fans on.

The whole point of OE is that compassion and empathy are what makes humans human. Even Phlox, a Denobulan, tells the Organians they are reprehensible for merely observing while "lesser" species suffer, in one of my favorite moments in the episode.

But three years earlier, he made a very conscious decision to refuse to help the Valakians in "Dear Doctor," and even convinced Archer not to do so. (Let's set aside for a minute the dodgy ideas about "evolution" that the episode is based on) One could argue that he was motivated by a greater empathy for the Menk, but at the end of the day he still refused to give aid to millions of people and condemned a race to its doom (following story logic that only the E's doc can cure the people, in a 45-minute window, and the problem can't be deferred to any other authority).

One real-world way to look at it is inconsistent writing, which may be the case. But I was trying to think of an in-universe explanation for Phlox's reversal.

Is it possible that the events of the Xindi Arc convinced Phlox that the more interventionist approach of Archer was right, that morality should trump neutrality?

It's just a question I've been mulling, and I'd love to hear what others think.

 

[Mach5]

Common sense refutes "Dear Doctor" at any time of day...

 

[Shatnertage]

Well, that goes without saying. But taking that ep at face value, I'm interested in how Phlox's about-face can be seen as character development.

 

[AMQ]

Of course it does. I think that Phlox had no other reason to argue with Organians except for the fact that he cared for crew and grew fond of them. Otherwise he had no right - Organians not informing others about the disease on the planet but instead watching the reactions is the same as they did with Valakians - they had the cure but decided not to give to them because they weren't ready/evolution etc.
I thought what they did in Dear Doctor was stupid. "Playing God" as they refered to it - was to not give the cure, not the other way around.

 

[Admiral Shran]

Both of these episodes really show how absurd the Prime Directive can be at times. In Dear Doctor, they condemn an entire race to death because they think they shouldn't intervene. How is that moral? In Observer Effect, the Organians are the ones following the Prime Directive. They're willing to allow people to die because they don't think they should intervene. How is that moral?

The same thing happened in TNG: Homeward. The Enterprise crew lets an entire race be eliminated while they just sit back and watch. Again, how is that moral. I think Paul Sorvino's character says it best in this episode - "I find no honor in this whatsoever."

The Prime Directive is a good idea. It keeps people from getting involved in other people's business and it keeps people from interfering in developing worlds' affairs. However, when a world is about to be destroyed and the heros can save the day without the less-advanced culture even knowing, they should do it IMO.

Which is what I think Observer Effect is saying - Humans should be compassionate.

 

[pookha]

really i am glad they did dear doctor because as pointed out above by the time of homeward the prime directive was nutso.
but there are some parts of dear doctor that gets lost in the noise.
while not out right giving them the cure pholx does give them medication that will increase their life span plus the amount of time before they become ill.
in a lot of ways they have a fighting chance.
and perhaps time to find a solution of better coexisting.

and to me that the organians could have planted a warning and didnt so they could use the area as a private observation lab is far worse then dear doctor.
it increases their obligation to do something.
and in dear doctor there was the issue of helping one specie while condemning the other.

 

[DonIago]

Apples and Oranges. It's ridiculous to compare saving a couple of crewmembers on a starship to determining the fate of an entire species.

The reality is that there's no way to predict the ultimate outcome of interfering with another society, so the Feds really had no choice -except- to create a blanket policy which would cover their asses. If the Prime Directive -was- flexible the Feds would always be open to accusations of helping some societies while refusing to help others.

 

[JiNX-01]

I never understood Phlox's thinking in Dear Doctor. The Valakians seemed to be a reasonable people and I believe if Phlox had told them of the Menks' ascending intelligence the Valakians would have stopped taking care of them left the Menks to develop normally.

I think the end of the episode was really stupid and illogical. I don't see any reason why two sentient species that had gotten along together for so long couldn't have co-existed as one emerged.

As to the question, I don't see how Archer's appeal to the Organians contradicts what happened in Dear Doctor. The circumstances are entirely different.

 

[Shatnertage]

I see "Dear Doctor" as being a pretty forceful moral statement about the Prime Directive, and "Observer Effect" as being about how you don't just sit back and watch suffering, you end it if you can. Granted that, as DonIago says, the actual decisions in each episode are "apples and oranges." It's the underlying idea of whether it's ethical to "interfere" that I'm after.

For that matter, what does "Observer Effect" say about "Errand of Mercy?" Kirk argued passionately that the Organians had no right to intervene in the Klingon-Federation war, though to do so would have saved lives. Archer and Phlox, at least in this episode, with their own friends being the ones in danger, disagreed.

 

[DonIago]

Well, that's what annoys me about situations where people argue against the PD...people are so busy looking at the harm that following it will cause that they don't consider the potential harm that may be caused by violating it.

It's easy to argue that non-interference is a stupid policy when you've never been part of a culture that was damaged by interference from others, particularly well-intentioned others.

 

[Admiral Shran]

^ What could be more damaging than extinction, in Homeward?

 

[DonIago]

Allowing a species to survive that later destroys your own because you interfered.

Jurassic Park has some commentary on the subject of preserving species that were destined for extinction.

Yes, that's right, the Prime Directive sometimes means doing absolutely reprehensible things by doing nothing at all. But as we saw even in Homeward, sometimes attempting to save a species can be just as harmful to it as whatever was going to kill it anyway. Make no mistake, Our Heroes got lucky. And it remains to be seen what might happen to that culture when they realize they were transplanted (and realistically I can't imagine that they wouldn't figure it out).

The problem with episodes portraying the PD is that it is infinitely easier (and more useful from a storytelling perspective) to show situations where following the PD is a problem than to show episodes where following the PD is the correct course of action. Though Cogenitor certainly made some good arguments.

 

[Admiral Shran]

^ It's been a while since I've seen the movie, so please correct if I'm wrong. But, isn't Jurassic Park's "message" on extinction that if nature selects a species for extinction then they should be extinct?

If that's the case, what if nature selects us for extinction? Should we just stand aside and let humanity be wiped out by natural causes?

And as for Cogenitor.... It seems to me that the "message" about the Prime Directive being sent there is that it's better to just cover your own ass then it is to help those being oppressed.

 

[DonIago]

I would say Jurassic Park's message is that preventing a species from going extinct can have unpredictable and undesirable effects, and can ultimately cause more harm than good.

I don't see how a species fighting for its own survival is pertinent to the Prime Directive, as there's no extra-societal interference there.

If Enterprise -had- interfered in Cogenitor, and the results had been the extinction of that race, or perhaps simply a war with Earth, would that be somehow better?

It's incredibly arrogant to say, "We're not going to help you because we may do more harm than good, even though you can't see how that could be the case."

It's no less arrogant to say, "We know what's best for you, so we're going to impose ourselves upon you."

If you can think of a way the PD would be better as a blanket statement, I'd love to hear it. "We do not interfere with other cultures...except when we're really, really sure we're doing the right thing," sounds rather vague and vaguely self-righteous to me.

 

[Shatnertage]

^^^^I'm divided on this. On one hand, you make valid arguments for the PD. On the other, I'm becoming less and less enchanted with blanket anything. I'd rather give the people on the ground the freedom to judge for themselves whether the good outweighs the harm. That's asking them to take on a lot of responsibility, but it might be the best solution.

Then there's the whole concept of the "observer effect," that once you've introduced yourself into the equation, even as a "watcher," you've altered it. That's why my favorite moment of the episode is when the observers are observed by Phlox.

 

[DonIago]

I think there are plenty of situations where the PD stinks and forces people to make appalling choices...but being a starship captain has to be about thinking about the bigger picture and the possible long-term consequences, not just what appears to be the best or most humane thing to do at the time.

Plus, like I said, the exposure we've gotten to PD situations hasn't necessarily been even-handed. One of the S31 novels mentions an extremely dangerous race that would have achieved warp speed and become a menace to the Feds...except that they keep suffering "mysterious setbacks". Now there's a PD situation that would have been interesting to see on the screen.

 

[Shatnertage]

^^^Hmmm. Does that explain what's been going on with the LHC?

 

[DonIago]

Depends on how you feel about Occam's Razor I suppose.

I wonder whether the PD partly came about as it did because of Earth being "ever so grateful for Vulcan's assistance with their development" between First Contact and ENT.

 

[pookha]

I see "Dear Doctor" as being a pretty forceful moral statement about the Prime Directive, and "Observer Effect" as being about how you don't just sit back and watch suffering, you end it if you can. Granted that, as DonIago says, the actual decisions in each episode are "apples and oranges." It's the underlying idea of whether it's ethical to "interfere" that I'm after.

For that matter, what does "Observer Effect" say about "Errand of Mercy?" Kirk argued passionately that the Organians had no right to intervene in the Klingon-Federation war, though to do so would have saved lives. Archer and Phlox, at least in this episode, with their own friends being the ones in danger, disagreed.

uh it is a little more complicated then that.
for one thing kirk spends almost the entire episode trying to get the organians to resist the klingons.

and the organians finally show their hand a very passionate moment.
at first kirk isnt happy that the organians are not taking the federation side.,,.

KIRK: You should be the first to be on our side. Two hundred hostages killed

but as he calms down and really starts to think..

KIRK: How to handle their interstellar relations! We have the right
AYELBORNE: To wage war, Captain? To kill millions of innocent people? To destroy life on a planetary scale? Is that what you're defending?
KIRK: Well, no one wants war. But there are proper channels. People have a right to handle their own affairs. Eventually, we would have
AYELBORNE: Oh, eventually you will have peace, but only after millions of people have died. It is true that in the future, you and the Klingons will become fast friends. You will work together.

and at the end of the episode we get to the nitty gritty of why kirk reacted the way he did.

SPOCK: You've been most restrained since we left Organia.
KIRK: I'm embarrassed. I was furious with the Organians for stopping a war I didn't want. We think of ourselves as the most powerful beings in the universe. It's unsettling to discover that we're wrong.

 

[Shatnertage]

^^^You're right about "Errand of Mercy." I took Kirk's initial outburst out of context and didn't give him enough credit. So is it possible that Ayelborne is really "Mayweather," the compassionate Organian?

The more I think about this, the more interesting it gets. Thanks, pookha, for adding another layer to my understanding of this episode.