"Stigma": A Harbinger of the Death of Trek

[CaptainHawk1]

I happened to be flipping through the channels last night and I came across SciFi and Stigma was on and I watched the whole thing again and in retrospect I came to a very profound conclusion: this episode represents everything that is wrong with Trek over the last 10 years and was the ultimate indication of Trek's demise.

Allow me to explain...

First, let me preface this by stating that I am not an ENT basher and in fact I watched every single episode when they aired and bought each boxed set as they were released. That aside, I certainly did recognize the problems that this show had from the beginning and I also recognize the improvements this show made in season 3 and especially in season 4 under the direction of Manny Coto. Flaws and all (and there were a lot of them), I actually like ENT as I firmly believe that even the worst Trek is better than most of anything else on TV in primetime. ENT is not my favorite show, but I understand the appeal that this show has to many fans, especially in this forum. To each his own.

Now that that is out of the way, on to the ep. I remember all of the hype surrounding this episode when it first aired on how profound it was suppose to be and that in Trek fashion, it was supposed to be an allegory to a contemporary social issue: HIV/AIDS sufferers and the stigma that society attaches to the disease because it contracted through what society considers abherrant behavior.

This is all well and good and I remmeber when I first saw this ep., I thought it was a good ep. but I was non-plussed by the message and I couldn't figure out why.

Now I know why.

It's an old message. This episode would have been poignant as a TNG episode from the late 1980's or early 1990's but in 2003 when this aired, the audience was well beyond the need for this lesson being taught. Contemporary society for the most part, understands that HIV/AIDS is not just a "Gay" disease anymore and the disease can be contracted from a variety of different madiums including blood transfusion, drug use, a mother passing it on to their unborn child and sexual contact of any kind, not just homosexual. We are brutally aware that young heterosexual women are the most at risk of contracting HIV. It also can be contracted through rape (which is exactly what happened to T'Pol) which like some of the other examples is through no fault of the person who has the disease.

Another thing too, this isn't 20 years ago. Society has pretty much accepted homosexuality as inate and not a choice and in fact, some parts of the country outright embrace it.

To sum up, either this ep. was targeted to teaching a conservative religious audience a lesson or Trek is simply outdated. I think the answer is the latter. I think the formula of Trek that has been used since TNG (and yes, every incarnation that followed, because they are all the same formulaically) is simply archaic and hasn't kept up with modern viewing audiences since the mid-1990's with substance or formula.

I'd appreciate your thoughts and if we can keep this from bein a free-for-all bashing of ENT or the subject matter of the episode, it would be appreciated.

-Shawn

 

[Captain X]

I agree. I thought that the message they were trying to preach was out of date, and furthermore, I thought the sub-plot featuring Phlox's wife and Trip was exactly the wrong kind of message to put in an episode you want to be about HIV/AIDS. Not to mention that the humor just didn't fit the serious tone of the episode.

 

[CaptainHawk1]

Captain X said:
I agree. I thought that the message they were trying to preach was out of date, and furthermore, I thought the sub-plot featuring Phlox's wife and Trip was exactly the wrong kind of message to put in an episode you want to be about HIV/AIDS. Not to mention that the humor just didn't fit the serious tone of the episode.

I hadn't even considered the ridiculous B storyline. You're absoluttely correct.

-Shawn

 

[T'Parm]

HIV/AIDS is still a problem and the message still needs to be out there. Also, UPN asked them to do an HIV/AIDS episode this was not something TPTB chose to do on their own.

 

[JiNX-01]

Having been long bored by Trek's "hit me over the head with a frying pan moral lectures," I found Stigma to be a bit of a "meh." And yes, it was only about 20 years too late.

However, upon reflection I see something interesting in the parallel plotlines.

Mind meld (read: homosexuality) is taboo and judged harshly.
Denobulan "open marriage" (read: adultery) is taboo but gets a wink.

I wonder if this episode was supposed to be a commentary not on bigotry but rather on hypocrisy?

 

[Kegek]

For me, "Stigma" was the death of Trek.

Allow me to explain: Flash backwards to 2002. I'd sat through Voyager's final two seasons, good and bad. There was a residual but declining good feeling from the good old days of TNG and DS9, and those beloved TOS reruns. I kept watching VOY partly because of that, and mostly because of the Doctor, who I felt was a brilliant character.

Then ENT came along, which had all of VOY's flaws, but no character comparable to the Doctor... and the flaws were even worse. I put up with it, though, got pleasantly rewarded in "Dear Doctor", but mainly trundled through mediocrity... but also plenty of cheesy awfulness, be it the head-breast collision Archer and T'Pol had, lousy speeches about gazelles, the atrocious "A Night In Sickbay". My patience was getting strained.

I sat down and watched "Stigma". And it was... ugh... just... so... dumb. The speeches were stupid, meandering, painfully bad. Bakula was insipid. Blalock was boring. I felt embarrased, especially with the cringe-worthy subplot of cheesy hormones. I just sat there, agape (but not with love) wondering why the hell I was wasting my time anymore. Why the residual respect for this overworn, overwrought franchise?

"Stigma" was the last first-run episode of Star Trek I ever saw. I turned off the TV when the credits rolled and didn't come back. I left ENT, a while later I left the TrekBBS ('twas known as Kegg back in the day) and the whole damn rat race disappeared.

I didn't watch a single episode of Star Trek again until 2006, when I caught the first episode of the Augment arc. I remembered Enterprise being abysmal, but I thought I'd watch the first few minutes anyway because I liked Brent Spiner. But then I somehow got hooked. I watched through ENT's S4 and loved a lot about it. That made me moderately interested again, and I went searching.

And so, flipping through youtube, I found a clip of an old conversation: "I'll kill him!" Quark exclaims when he realizes Rom has cannibalized his gun. "With what?" Odo wryly replies. And I cracked open DS9 and got sucked right back into that great show. Then I heard a new movie was in the works... and somehow, with tenative steps, I slouched towards Bethlehem to be reborn.

But I'll never be as obsessed as I once was. "Stigma" was endgame for that, for better or worse.

 

[DeafPoet]

It's not bad, but it's definitely forgettable. The message, while important, loses a lot of its impact because it's pretty much a truism at this point. Well, to most of us anyway.

The biggest flaw in the episode isn't its message or preachiness but rather that it uses, to borrow an Ebertism, the 'idiot plot'. Whereby all the action hinges on the fact that nobody just speaks up about what's going on because if they did the story would be over in all of two seconds.

But this is worse that your average idiot plot in that it explicitly calls attention to it with dialogue! Archer says, 'Just tell them what's up T'Pol!' And she can't come up with anything remotely approaching a convincing answer as to why she shouldn't.

You know what? I dislike this episode more than I did at the start of this post

 

[CaptainHawk1]

T'Parm said:
HIV/AIDS is still a problem and the message still needs to be out there. Also, UPN asked them to do an HIV/AIDS episode this was not something TPTB chose to do on their own.

AIDS still being a problem wasn't what the episode was about, though. It was about discriminating against people with an illness because you don't agree with their lifestyle.

And regardless of whether or not they were directed by UPN (which I question) to do an AIDS episode, the subject matter of the episode really did nothing to bring about awareness of AIDS. Again, it was about discrimination and it was 20 years too late.

-Shawn

 

[CaptainHawk1]

JiNX-01 said:
Having been long bored by Trek's "hit me over the head with a frying pan moral lectures," I found Stigma to be a bit of a "meh." And yes, it was only about 20 years too late.

However, upon reflection I see something interesting in the parallel plotlines.

Mind meld (read: homosexuality) is taboo and judged harshly.
Denobulan "open marriage" (read: adultery) is taboo but gets a wink.

I wonder if this episode was supposed to be a commentary not on bigotry but rather on hypocrisy?

Good observation and another thing that makes this episode so confusing is that while we are being preached to during the A storylne about discrimination against sick people who's lifestyle some might not agree with, Trip's 'human' morality is openly mocked by Phlox and his wife in the B storyline.

So not only did they did they send that message that it's not OK to discriminate against people who live their lifestyle out of the ainstream for reasons of morality but, it's OK to discriminate and outright dismiss the legitimacy of someone's personal moral values.

It would have been one thing for Phlox and his wife to simply explain that on Denobula that the moral standard was different and to accept Trip's personal moral standard but, no, they didn't do that. They picked on him for it and then dismissed his values and made fun of him when he left the room.

So, indeed the message itself in the ep. was mixed and filled with hipocrosy.

Interesting...

-Shawn

 

[Captain X]

I put up with it, though, got pleasantly rewarded in "Dear Doctor"

You actually found something to like about that episode?

 

[Kegek]

Captain X said:
You actually found something to like about that episode?

Yes, actually. Probably the best episode of the first season, and the series, in that it made an attempt to seriously tackle an intriguing ethical issue.

It's got problems, of course, not least of which that the premise of the argument makes not the slightest bit of real world sense (evolution isn't a static thing with preordained laws charting paths centuries in advance which we can't interfere in, it's continuously in flux and irregular), but it's willing to take both sides of its flawed premise seriously. Though again, even working within the premise I wouldn't agree on allowing arbitrary evolutionary laws to condemn a species to death just because they marginalize another group. You can adovcate civil rights and whatnot, which is a better answer than tacit genocide. But at least, despite these dual, significant flaws, the episode asks these questions, presents its arguments in an interesting manner, and makes an attempt at a balanced viewpoint... all normally sorely lacking on the show. Though UPN interference also resulted in a quicker rapproachment between Archer and Phlox then there really should have been.

It also focuses mostly on Phlox, who was probably the show's most interesting character. I enjoyed the utilisation of the old technique of 'the outsider comments on customs in a letter'. 'Tis as hoary as the Persian Letters, but it's always fun.

Still, it was only good, not great, for the reasons detailed above, and after the bad spate I'd been through, it wasn't enough.

 

[Captain X]

Dude, no offense, but Dear Doctor is yet another horrible episode, and just one of the latest in a long line of horrible PD episodes. Bottom line was that what Phlox wanted to do, and convinced Archer to do was morally reprehensible, and just plain frakked up. How anyone could think that that was the right decision is beyond me.

 

[Jack Bauer]

After all this time there's really nothing new to be said in order to raise awareness of AIDS. There's nothing more to be said on that subject other than to repeat it over and over until it penetrates the skulls of those who are still completely ignorant of the issue.

 

[CaptainHawk1]

Jack Bauer said:
After all this time there's really nothing new to be said in order to raise awareness of AIDS. There's nothing more to be said on that subject other than to repeat it over and over until it penetrates the skulls of those who are still completely ignorant of the issue.

You mean like the entire continent of Africa south of the Sahara?

Regardless, this episode did nothing to further awareness of AIDS and that wasn't even what it was trying to do.

But I guess I'm beating a dead horse on this because as usual people keep commenting without reading my original post or subsequent posts.

So just keep trying to be sarcastic and cute instead of actually commenting on what I said.

Good for you. :thumbsup:
You're clever.
It must be nice.

-Shawn

 

[Chris_Moderato]

With such a dramatic title, I thought this thread would be on fire. Yeah, Stigma was dull. That's what happens when you phone it in on an episode with a mandated theme. Meh indeed, Jinx. Meh, indeed...

 

[Kegek]

Captain X said:
Dude, no offense, but Dear Doctor is yet another horrible episode, and just one of the latest in a long line of horrible PD episodes. Bottom line was that what Phlox wanted to do, and convinced Archer to do was morally reprehensible, and just plain frakked up. How anyone could think that that was the right decision is beyond me.

Yes, as you might have noted I acknowledged the weakness of the argument as amounting to a poor excuse for tacit genocide. "Dear Doctor" was far from perfect, but at least it made a stab at being meaningful - and that's by taking a controversial stand on its argument while acknowledging the other side fairly well. As such, it's easily better than most of the tepid and/or boring and/or terrible material ENT's first season produced, and anything I've seen from later seasons as well.

 

[Schistocerca]

Forgive me if I have this wrong but wasn't the episode part of a bigger strategy to involve AIDS type story lines across a range of media; and that several other TV shows had AIDs related episodes. I think the Enterprise episode "Stigma" was part of a bigger effort to raise HIV and AIDs awareness. Of course this has nothing to do with the quality of the episode or the story.

 

[Captain X]

Kegek said:
Yes, as you might have noted I acknowledged the weakness of the argument as amounting to a poor excuse for tacit genocide. "Dear Doctor" was far from perfect, but at least it made a stab at being meaningful - and that's by taking a controversial stand on its argument while acknowledging the other side fairly well. As such, it's easily better than most of the tepid and/or boring and/or terrible material ENT's first season produced, and anything I've seen from later seasons as well.

JUst thinking of a couple off the top of my head, both Strange New World and Shuttlepod One were much better than Dear Doctor, even if they weren't "issue" episodes. To me, Dear Doctor was up there with Stigma as an example of what was wrong with ENT.

 

[Kegek]

Schistocerca said:
Forgive me if I have this wrong but wasn't the episode part of a bigger strategy to involve AIDS type story lines across a range of media; and that several other TV shows had AIDs related episodes. I think the Enterprise episode "Stigma" was part of a bigger effort to raise HIV and AIDs awareness. Of course this has nothing to do with the quality of the episode or the story.

Yes it was, if memory serves. I think it was a UPN drive to have a relevant episode about AIDs in all of its main shows, or something similar. It was often commented on at the time that Trek had become so stolid it took outside pressure to have it make an episode voicing an opinion at all.

 

[Kalen Archer]

Captain X said:
Dude, no offense, but Dear Doctor is yet another horrible episode, and just one of the latest in a long line of horrible PD episodes. Bottom line was that what Phlox wanted to do, and convinced Archer to do was morally reprehensible, and just plain frakked up. How anyone could think that that was the right decision is beyond me.

Captain X said:

JUst thinking of a couple off the top of my head, both Strange New World and Shuttlepod One were much better than Dear Doctor, even if they weren't "issue" episodes. To me, Dear Doctor was up there with Stigma as an example of what was wrong with ENT.

Captain X, just remember that your opinion is just that - your opinion. Apart from the last line in the second post, your posts give the impression that you feel that your opinion is final. Remember that the opinions of others, such as Kegek, are equally valid to yours.