ST VI: "And the good news is they're not going to prosecute."

[WarpFactorZ]

Why is this good news? Valeris cold-bloodedly murdered two Starfleet officers and framed Kirk AND McCoy (the one who thought it was good news!). It's not like she willingly cooperated with an investigation and ratted out her co-conspirators, either. The only information she volunteered was that Chang's BOP was one of a kind (and who knows if that's even true).

So, you get off pretty light in the 23rd century, I guess.

Discuss!

 

[Locutus of Bored]

That was referring to Kirk and McCoy for the Gorkon assassination, the crew of the Enterprise for disobeying orders and entering Klingon space to beam them off Rura Penthe, and metaphorically for all of them prejudging the Klingons. Valeris will still be prosecuted for her crimes, as will the other conspirators.

It's made clear that they're talking about themselves in the dialogue:

Kirk: Once again, we've saved civilization as we know it.

McCoy: And the good news is they're not going to prosecute.

Uhuru: They might as well have prosecuted me. I felt like Lt. Valeris.

McCoy: [looks at Spock] Well, they don't prosecute people for having feelings.

Chekov: Just as well, or we'll all have to turn ourselves in.

 

[urbandefault]

Kirk and McCoy escaped from the Klingon prison (supposedly impossible), and the Enterprise was there to pick them up in violation of orders. It's a good thing, too, else the conspiracy would have been successful and there would have been years of war.

Bones was making a little joke. "Miniscule," as Spock would say.

 

[Joe_Atari]

I don't think it was meant to be taken literally. Coming off Kirk's jokey "Once again we've saved civilization as we know it" (all that was missing from the delivery was Shatner winking at the audience, but that would never happen right?), McCoy's line was, I think, meant as a take on the old "no good deed goes unpunished" saying. At least that's how I always understood it.

Just more self-referential humor from Meyer; it's all over his Trek work.

 

[2takesfrakes]

As for Valeris "cold bloodedly" killing the 2 assassins, I do not believe that the character was that kind of a killer, at all. I wouldn't call a soldier firing his weapon on the battlefield a cold blooded killer. Even if he used his bayonette on The Enemy, I'd be hard pressed to call him that. She killed because it was logical and necessary to the conspiracy plot. She killed in the line of duty, as a soldier would, if ordered to. In fact, when she creeps up on Spock in Sick Bay, I know she's trying to be "careful," but there's no sense of urgency, either. It's almost as though she doesn't want to do it. That's my perception, at any rate.

In other words, if she could've gotten away without killing anyone on ENTERPRISE, whilst still supporting the assassination of Gorkon with falsifying the databanks, she wouldn't have looked for an opportunity to kill anybody. But it would've helped to know why she bought into the conspiracy, though. What she was afraid of. As to prosecuting Kirk & Bones, the Klingon Chancellor's daughter isn't overly surprised at Kirk being freed when she sees him at Kitomer. What that's about, I don't know. But I would've demanded he get sent right back to that penal asteroid, whatever happened. That part always bothered me ...

 

[Locutus of Bored]

As for Valeris "cold bloodedly" killing the 2 assassins, I do not believe that the character was that kind of a killer, at all. I wouldn't call a soldier firing his weapon on the battlefield a cold blooded killer. Even if he used his bayonette on The Enemy, I'd be hard pressed to call him that. She killed because it was logical and necessary to the conspiracy plot. She killed in the line of duty, as a soldier would, if ordered to. In fact, when she creeps up on Spock in Sick Bay, I know she's trying to be "careful," but there's no sense of urgency, either. It's almost as though she doesn't want to do it. That's my perception, at any rate.

In other words, if she could've gotten away without killing anyone on ENTERPRISE, whilst still supporting the assassination of Gorkon with falsifying the databanks, she wouldn't have looked for an opportunity to kill anybody. But it would've helped to know why she bought into the conspiracy, though. What she was afraid of. As to prosecuting Kirk & Bones, the Klingon Chancellor's daughter isn't overly surprised at Kirk being freed when she sees him at Kitomer. What that's about, I don't know. But I would've demanded he get sent right back to that penal asteroid, whatever happened. That part always bothered me ...

She was a criminal carrying out an illegal order who framed her own crew for an assassination and attack and risked their destruction at the hands of the Klingons (and ultimately got two of them arrested), and then murdered her own co-conspirators.

The idea that she was a reluctant and otherwise honorable soldier "just carrying out orders" (that's never been used for foul deeds before) is absurd. She was willing to get her whole crew possibly killed or provoke a war that could kill millions, so the idea that she wasn't really a killer at heart isn't supported by evidence. She was ruthless. She only hesitated when her intended target turned out to be her mentor Spock. If it had been the two assassins lying there she would have killed them again without a second thought.

 

[Sir Rhosis]

I always thought it referred back to TVH. There they saved civilization and were (Kirk, anyway) prosecuted.

Sir Rhosis

 

[RoJoHen]

They were not referring to Valeris. They were referring to themselves.