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Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 1x05 - "Choose Your Pain"

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Well, Kirk gave Khan an option. Either a penal colony or wild uninhabited world. Khan chose the uninhabited world.

Would it even be Kirk's personal responsibility to check on Khan? Everything was logged and would be passed off to Starfleet Command. It seems like it would be their responsibility, if anyone's, to check in on him.

Not according to Khan. According to Khan, Kirk owed him a visit because HE left him there. And BECAUSE he didn't follow up, people (including Khan's wife) died. According to Khan, Kirk had blood on his hands.
 
That is simply categorically false.

In the real world, countless thousands have endured torture without ever buckling and giving in. Many resisted torture even without military training. Just last year, small Coptic Christian children who had seen their own parents murdered and tortured refused to give in to ISIS demands.

It is not in the least surprising that Picard would give in to torture though. His socialist utopianism did not give him sufficient moral fiber to resist.

Jesus Christ :rolleyes:
 
Let me put it this way:
I think Lorca leaving Mudd behind was NOT as immoral as Sisko firing biological weapons on a human Maquis colony. Maybe comparable to Sisko being an accomplice in murder and conspiracy of Senator Vreenak and the blue alien to bring the Romulans into war. But then again: Sisko had very distinct reasons to do so. Reasons Lorca didn't have, or at least weren't explained in the episode. And yes - those two instances are the reason why Sisko is never mentioned in the big "Kirk vs. Picard"-debate, despite being a pretty well-rounded character otherwise.

Umm those 2 instances are the reason why Sisko is never mentioned in the Kirk vs Picard debate? Why isn't Janeway and Archer mentioned then? TOS and TNG were the most popular Star Trek series in terms of sheer numbers watching. That is why the debate is between Kirk and Picard.
 
Not according to Khan. According to Khan, Kirk owed him a visit because HE left him there. And BECAUSE he didn't follow up, people (including Khan's wife) died. According to Khan, Kirk had blood on his hands.

Khan was a nut by that point. Do you think he would've been clamoring for the Federation to check in on him if he was busy building an empire?
 
Maybe you should revisit this episode then after Discovery has aired 7 seasons.

Why? We got to know Sisko before the war started, they made him a fleshed out character. I was saddened to see the road Sisko went down because we got to know him.
 
Not according to Khan. According to Khan, Kirk owed him a visit because HE left him there. And BECAUSE he didn't follow up, people (including Khan's wife) died. According to Khan, Kirk had blood on his hands.

You realize Kahn was the bad guy of the movie?
As in, his actions and intentions were certainly understandable in parts, but also wrong?
 
You can't criticize what Lorca did and then defend other dark and disturbing things perpetrated by main characters that we have already seen in Star Trek.
I didn't bring up Sisko as I said DS 9 is not my thing. I'm happy to keep the events specific to the show in question and regards behaviour, to the character Lorca. We're all on the same playing field here. Every comment is based on the same (Discovery) footage we've all seen.
 
After all this discussion, I've come to one, major conclusion:


But as it is, with clearly not enough information, everybody sees in it only what he wants to see, and the human desire for some nebulous form of "vengeance" brings out the worst in some people here, arguing in what little deeds they already believe is enough for deserving torture and death as punishment. Purely out of spitefullness, and not the logic or morality of the situation.

How about not making sweeping statements about the morality of complete strangers?

I didn't find anything sympathetic about Mudd as a character. My impression was that he was in league with the Klingons, he was mentally competent and clearly wasn't being ill-treated. If he'd been more like the Starfleet officer that we see when Lorca is first placed in the cell, it would have been a different story. If it had been shown that Mudd had been tortured to the point where he'd been broken and no longer had the correct mental faculties, I'd be much more sympathetic to his character. Instead he's an arrogant douche, who steal food from other inmates, betrays them and allows them to be tortured. Why should I feel any sympathy for him?
 
This is something that maybe needs re-iteration:

Lorcas action was completely, 100% understandable. It was also wrong as hell. Like, if one of the bad guys did it, I wouldn't be complaining. Or, if the episode would have pointed it out that Lorca clearly went over the moral even horizon in this episode, I would think "Oh, interesting, a bad guy as a Captain". That would certainly be something fresh and unexpected.

The criticism is, that Lorca's action were portrayed as something a good guy would do. And they certainly aren't. Like: I can totally see Frank Castle do the same thing, and wouldn't bat an eye. If Jack Bauer would do it, I would be annoyed for the lack of reasons. But a supposed "good guy" Starfleet Captain? That's wrong.
 
How about not making sweeping statements about the morality of complete strangers?

I didn't find anything sympathetic about Mudd as a character. My impression was that he was in league with the Klingons, he was mentally competent and clearly wasn't being ill-treated. If he'd been more like the Starfleet officer that we see when Lorca is first placed in the cell, it would have been a different story. If it had been shown that Mudd had been tortured to the point where he'd been broken and no longer had the correct mental faculties, I'd be much more sympathetic to his character. Instead he's an arrogant douche, who steal food from other inmates, betrays them and allows them to be tortured. Why should I feel any sympathy for him?

You are the person making sweeping statements about a complete strangers morality as well.

The difference is: I think the dude deserves the benefit of the doubt. Imprisonment and the prospect of torture can make people do nasty things, even good people. YOU on the other hand see a "douche", and immediately come to the conclusion that he also must be evil, and deserving of said punishment in the form of torture and death. I don't deny Mudd deserves punishment, he's a Con-man after all, so he probably broke a few laws and should stand for trial. But leaving him behind for certain torture and death? Because he's been kind of a dick? Come on.
 
That was what started us on this slide to begin with. People wanting edgy characters that are more Dirty Harry than Starfleet officers.

Sisko should've been tried and convicted for murder, and for war crimes when he used a biological weapon on a Maquis planet.

Exactly. And from what we know, he died before he faced the music. And what HE did, IMO, is far worse than what we're SO FAR heard Lorca has done... I'm still waiting, though ;)

The thing is that some of us don't have to "like" a character to, uhh, LIKE a character. Do you guys not get that? So when someone says they "like" Lorca (I'll just speak for myself here), they are not necessarily IN LOVE with that character.
 
I didn't find anything sympathetic about Mudd as a character. My impression was that he was in league with the Klingons, he was mentally competent and clearly wasn't being ill-treated. If he'd been more like the Starfleet officer that we see when Lorca is first placed in the cell, it would have been a different story. If it had been shown that Mudd had been tortured to the point where he'd been broken and no longer had the correct mental faculties, I'd be much more sympathetic to his character. Instead he's an arrogant douche, who steal food from other inmates, betrays them and allows them to be tortured. Why should I feel any sympathy for him?
Starfleet should aspire to standards, equality, and laws based on rights, not on likeability.
 
Exactly. And from what we know, he died before he faced the music. And what HE did, IMO, is far worse than what we're SO FAR heard Lorca has done... I'm still waiting, though ;)

The thing is that some of us don't have to "like" a character to, uhh, LIKE a character. Do you guys not get that? So when someone says they "like" Lorca (I'll just speak for myself here), they are not necessarily IN LOVE with that character.

Fair point. I don't think Lorca is irredeemable at this point. I'm more annoyed at the episode itself than at Lorca, which clearly didn't handle this topic with the care it deserves.

And with some posters here, who are clearly of the opinion that torture and death is a-okay for a guy simply because he was both a coward and a douche.
 
Exactly. And from what we know, he died before he faced the music. And what HE did, IMO, is far worse than what we're SO FAR heard Lorca has done... I'm still waiting, though

He killed his own crew, and skated away. Not sure there could be a bigger betrayal.

The thing is that some of us don't have to "like" a character to, uhh, LIKE a character. Do you guys not get that? So when someone says they "like" Lorca (I'll just speak for myself here), they are not necessarily IN LOVE with that character.

I think Isaacs is doing an absolute wonderful job with the material he has been given. At the same time, the material is so one-note that it is maddening. For me, the vast majority of the problems this show has starts in the writers room. Which is a shame considering they had eighteen months to put together a coherent story with rich characters.
 
You are the person making sweeping statements about a complete strangers morality as well.

The difference is: I think the dude deserves the benefit of the doubt. Imprisonment and the prospect of torture can make people do nasty things, even good people. YOU on the other hand see a "douche", and immediately come to the conclusion that he also must be evil, and deserving of said punishment in the form of torture and death. I don't deny Mudd deserves punishment, he's a Con-man after all, so he probably broke a few laws and should stand for trial. But leaving him behind for certain torture and death? Because he's been kind of a dick? Come on.

No I'm making assumptions about a fictional character based on my impressions of how he has been written. You are the one who is making sweeping statements about the morality of other posters based on a discussion about a character from a television show.

Nothing i saw of Mudd makes me want to give him the benefit of the doubt, to me he's not a redeemable or sympathetic character as yet. Maybe this will change with his subsequent appearances maybe it won't. It's just an opinion that I have currently. No need to get bent out of shape over it.
 
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