DS9 Morality Survey! (spoilers)

[anti-matter]

WOW! This poll is tough even after a 2nd look....

I never cared for the idea of situational ethics but it would seem that an otherwise just society can easily set aside moral absolutes in times of crises….and live contently if the results are favorable.

I guess when your survival is at stake it would seem ….. “the ends justify the means.”

…..I still haven’t finished voting either.

 

[glenniebun]

I object to the premise of the second-to-last question: Sisko, Dax, Worf, Julian, Ezri, O'Brien, even Rom--these people got to make love and war!

 

[Scott Butler]

Wow, great poll! There was only one I had to go Undecided for, the Section 31 genocide question. I usually do go for a desperate times/desperate measures arguement, and if S31 had tried this in Season 6 when entire fleets were being wiped out every week, then fine, do what you gotta do to survive. But S31 didn't do this in desperate times, they did it back in the fourth season. I can't pick "They did what they had to do, it was war!" because it wasn't war yet.

Scott Butler

 

[DS9 Fan 2]

^ Not war as we would define it. But I think as far as Section 31 was concerned, it was war the second a Jem Hadar fighter made a kamikazee run into a Galaxy class starship. Then of course they tried to start war between the Federation and the Tzenkethi, then the Klingons and the Cardassians and the Federation. The bombing on earth and their infiltration of the planet didn't help much either, and I'm guessing Odo was infected while he was on Earth during that crisis. So by then the Dominion's aggression would have been more than enough to be considered an act of war for S31. Not that I'm defending it. I don't think there was any justification for trying to kill the changelings, even if that action had been committed in S6.

 

[Xerafin]

Yeah, I have to chime in as well, and praise this poll. Great idea for a poll and great poll too. The best I have seen on this board (including mine and Vash's DS9 awards poll! ). I really had to pause and think about some of these, and there were ones where I forgot what the issue at hand was (which clearly means I need to watch all of DS9 again!). Of course, I'm still in Season 6 on the DVDs, but I remember enough from Season 7 to be able to answer.

Anyway, maybe I'm paradoxical, but I don't really have a problem with Sisko's actions in ITPM while I have a big problem with his actions in FTU. Go figure...

 

[PKTrekGirl]

Posted by Xerafin:
Anyway, maybe I'm paradoxical, but I don't really have a problem with Sisko's actions in ITPM while I have a big problem with his actions in FTU. Go figure...

Actually, you are not alone there....I voted the same way.

 

[eastman23]

Posted by Vash:

Posted by Xerafin:
Anyway, maybe I'm paradoxical, but I don't really have a problem with Sisko's actions in ITPM while I have a big problem with his actions in FTU. Go figure...

Actually, you are not alone there....I voted the same way.

Same here. Great minds think alike.

 

[tomalak301]

Like I said, it has to do with a certain situation. Also, at least in ITPM, sisko did have second thoughts about what he was doing. He said he can live with it, but it really hurt him on the inside. In For the Uniform, I don't think sisko's act is what I disapprove of necessarliy, it was the fact that sisko showed no remorse towards what he just did, there were no consequences, and he laughed about it. In a very good episode, he was really out of character.

 

[Moocey]

You find out how deeply-rooted your morals are when it comes down to either abiding by them or staying alive.

 

[Dr.Cox]

Wow. I guess all other Treks together don't have so many controversial things in them! Gotta love DS9 ...

 

[DS9 Fan 2]

Posted by Dr.Cox:
Wow. I guess all other Treks together don't have so many controversial things in them!

I think so too. But I'd be interested to see the TNGer's or the Voyager's take on their series with a poll of their own. With TNG, I can think of that time when Crusher gave Odan the shaft when he became a woman, or the time when Picard condemned religion as superstiton and ignorance(and took my respect for him down a few pegs). Worf refused to donate blood to a Romulan, and the Romulan died because of it. Worf also demanded to be euthanized in "Ethics" after he became crippled...I think that's an excellent ethical question since he's a Klingon and there could actually be a convincing argument made in either direction.

And when VGR got controversial once in a blue moon, it could get pretty good. Janeway allied herself with the Borg, got carried away with her pursuit of the Equinox. The Voyager crew benefited from the suffering of thousands of Bajorans when they treated BLT in "Nothing Human"(the one with the Cardassian doctor)...that's another "ends justify the means" issue. Paris's actions in "Thirty Days" that got him demoted deserve scrutiny. Kim got himself an STD and screwed up a society in "The Disease." Janeway, in essence, put Tuvix to death.

TOS would be a little harder, since what was considered controversial then, isn't anymore. Plus it only had three seasons to draw these moments from.

But DS9 did have the most of all the series, quite easily.

 

[naf9sd]

This is really a great poll.

Posted by Steven:

Posted by Vash:

Posted by Xerafin:Anyway, maybe I'm paradoxical, but I don't really have a problem with Sisko's actions in ITPM while I have a big problem with his actions in FTU. Go figure...

Actually, you are not alone there....I voted the same way.

Same here. Great minds think alike.

Same here
The only one that I picked undecided on was Odo's actions in Children of Time.

 

[Spurk]

I'm noticing that Odo's actions in "Children of Time" has the most Undecideds. Is that because none of us have any real ethics about what's right or not right when time travel is involved?

 

[tomalak301]

Last night I saw the episode Change of Heart and I was wondering if what Worf did (going back to his wife instead of getting valuable information) was on this list. I'm kind of surprised that it wasn't, but still this is a great list in it's own right. Not only IMO was it contraversial, but I loved the final scene when Sisko admits he probably would have done the same thing with Jennifer.

 

[DS9 Fan 2]

^ "Change of Heart" was one I regretted missing, but to make it up, I went through the Companion and found enough hard questions for two more surveys, 16 questions apiece like this one. I'll be posting the next one on Thursday, but I'd like people to get a chance to vote on this one before I move on.

RE: Spurk I also put undecided on Future Odo's actions. It was simply because I was too biased to answer the question. Kira's life was at stake, so I wouldn't answer that I disapproved, but I couldn't approve either...a few thousand lives do outweigh the life of Kira. I don't know if it's about the ethics of time travelling people out of existance, but you could argue that they never existed and somehow justify it that way...but for me it was simple bias on my part.

 

[Fencer]

I'm noticing that Odo's actions in "Children of Time" has the most Undecideds. Is that because none of us have any real ethics about what's right or not right when time travel is involved?

Well, there's the fact that with time travel that nobody really dies. Also there's the fact that you have to take into account the DS9's crews actions in the Dominion War. If they had been trapped on the planet, what effect would it have? If they'd stayed maybe billions would have died instead of the eight thousand or so who disappeared?

 

[trek_dude]

Sisko's actions in In the Pale Moonlight - Approve

Sisko poisons a planet in For the Uniform - Undecided

Worf destroys a target without looking first in Rules of Engagement - Didn't have a choice

Section 31's attempted genocide of the Founders - Nothing justifies genocide!

Jadzia fulfills her Blood Oath - Just fulfilling Klingon tradition

Future Odo saves the Defiant in Children of Time but wipes out a small colony in the process - Undecided

Kira's actions as a resistance fighter during the occupation - She did what she had to do

Bajoran splinter group tries to drive outsiders away in the Circle Trilogy - A little extreme, don't you think?

The Maquis' actions against the Cardassians - Undecided

Kai Winn prevents The Reckoning - I reckon I'm still Undecided

Nog and the USS Valiant try to stop a Jem Hadar warship single-handedly - They're cadets, not Q!

Kira murders a Bajoran collaborater during the Occupation in Necessary Evil
You may choose only one - Undecided

Worf kills Gowron in Tacking With the Wind - Let's tack it to Klingon tradition!

Quark gets into the weapons business in Business as Usual -
Undecided

The Dominion War - War was necessary


Overall - DS9 is the master of gray areas!