Ben, I don't recall anyone displaying blind reverence for divine forces or mysticism or worshipping the god Darwin and making offerings to his altar in "Dear Doctor." I saw two men struggling with their values and with science, and finally making a choice, even though the choice was impossible. There was no easy answer, no way to tie the ends up neatly with a pretty bow. That was the point. And it worked just fine for me.
But the problem I have is that I don't believe the choice was impossible, I believe that the choice they made was based on faulty logic and faulty science and that the "right" choice (based on my understanding of the situation) was for them to give the aliens the cure. Given the arguments presented on screen then Archer and Phlox's decision made sense, but my point is that the arguments presented on screen were faulty.
So what if the elk (and their faulty mating instincts) are preserved due to our good-intentioned "intervention," but as a result, some other species dies out because there are so many elk around?
Humanity has caused an unknown number of extinctions in our time on this planet and we are continuing to cause them. Just imagine all the lifeforms which could be saved if we were to die out; over thousands of years the endangered species on this planet would have a chance to recover, and over millions of years a new dominant species could emerge. So lets stop treating people for their medical troubles, hospitals are healing people who have developed natural illnesses like cancer and if those people die then the other species on this planet will have a greater chance to flourish.
Besides, saving the elks would be unlikely to cause the extinction of another species because we would not be altering the environment of this other species, we would be maintaining it. Also, if we saved the elks and thousands of years later that somehow led another species towards likely extinction, then I would advocate some more human intervention to save the other species. It's not an either/or situation, we can try to save both.
No one knows the future, and you can't predict mutations and their consequences. And with intelligent species such as the Valakians, you can't know what they are capable of accomplishing with time or research or determination. I'm still not seeing a catch-all solution for this kind of dilemma.
Yes, the Valakians may find a cure in the decades in the decades that follow and their race might be saved, but that doesn't alter the fact that Phlox already had a cure and they chose not to use it. It wasn't a case of might and maybe, it was a case of could and will. Archer had a cure and chose not to use it, so if the Valakians never did find a cure then they're deaths are on Archer's head.
What about "Assignment: Earth"? Our gallant Enterprise crew went back to 1968 and tried to keep humans from destroying themselves.
No, they went back in time to do historical research and found evidence of aliens interfering in human affairs so Kirk and Spock tried to stop them. Personally, I think the aliens were wrong to interfere in our affairs, and it was also a terrible episode planned as a pilot for another series, so I have trouble considering it canonical.
Or "City on the Edge of Forever"? Hitler destroyed Earth, but our heroes went back to keep the species from wiping itself out.
They went back to fix the timeline because McCoy accidentally changed history, they weren't interfering, they were attempting to prevent interference.
That's exacty what you proved young Ben, and that your crap at understanding it.
Admittedly, my crap is indeed poor at understanding evolutionary theory.
It just tends to sink and not do much else.
Your brother may overcome the razor sharp fan scenario in a way YOU never thought of... but HE did, so he gets smarter not shorter.
Whaaaaa?
Firstly, I never said that my brother would get shorter because
evolution does not work on a single generation, it builds upon variation over several generations. Secondly, I never said that my brother
would die, I said he was
more likely to die.
He begins to develop physical traits and mental advantages that you short little fucks can't defend against or advance beyond. So your brother and his prodginy will be giving your short little offspring well deserved noogies for the next million years !!
What you're advocating here is Lamarckism and evolution does not work that way, traits "learned" over the course of one's life are not passed down to your offspring, only your predetermined genetic traits. For example, I'm pale and scrawny, but I could go to a gym and build up some muscles, and I could suntan until I'm a darker shade. It would be difficult because I'm not that way naturally, but I could become buff and tanned with enough work. However, that would not be passed on to my children because those are "learned" traits, my children would still have the genes which made me pale and scrawny.
But most importantly: I'm not short! I'm 6 foot.
Darwin had a theory, and a good one, but as any student of Darwinism will tell you, Darwin barely scratched the surface. And a vast array of other factors that we may never see in practice, or even have thought of, will also have influence in the development (or lack there of) of a species... but you said (in Mordo's voice) "that's not how evolution works" refering to the episode, and yet I don't think you or anyone really knows how evolution works in that respect, and that's the point, let the natural course of things decide....
Okay, if that's what you want to do, but that means we're going to destroy hurricane levees, destroy flash-flood canals, we'll stop warning people when tsunamis are about to hit in their area, volcanoes too, and we should stop trying to predict earthquakes. And we'll have to close down the hospitals as I've previously suggested. Lets let the
random and unthinking forces of nature decide which of us lives and dies and lets not complain when it is somebody close to us who bites the bullet. After all, they were
supposed to die.
I don't believe in a god or the notion that certain things are "supposed" to happen, I believe that the universe works under the principle of organised randomness; things happen under the laws of physics and biology but there is no plan to it.
What or whom is Tasty Coma Wife?
Behold the
Tasty Coma Wife. She eventually became JD's girlfriend and then disappeared in the season 2-3 hiatus so that they could have JD lust after Elliot again.
And for those of you wondering about that Archer/Daniels slash fiction I wrote, it was purely to get the "It's like a baguette" line in there. (
The scene starting at 1:40)
Shadows of P'Jem (*½)
Shuttle-crashes, main characters captured, ransoms and rescue attempts... all original material which we've never seen on Star Trek before.
I've said it before, episodes which focus on main characters being captured and trying to escape often fall into the trap of being boring unless there's an interesting and unusual twist, such as B'Elanna being split into human and Klingon halves in
Faces. Archer getting some boobs in his face does not qualify.
Mike Sussman: Hey mom, I'm finally living my dream of being a Star Trek writer!
Mother Sussman: That's great son. What did you write today?
Mike Sussman: Today I wrote a scene where the captain gets some ginormous Vulcan boobs in his face!
Mother Sussman: ...
Nipples Ahoy!: 3
I like that there's an episode which is all about following up on the events of a previous episode, but it has been about four or five months since the events of
The Andorian Incident, it's a little late for this sort of direct follow-up. I like that they've brought Shran back, but his reasoning about wanting a good night's sleep is so simplistic it is almost as if a child wrote it. I even like the idea that Vulcan is propping up puppet governments to support them, but I don't like how T'Pol's situation is resolved all because she jumped in front of a bullet. This episode should have been earlier and it should have been much, much more than it is.
Archer Abuse: 6
I was being vague because I was only trying to explain how evolution can affect one physical attribute of a species, namely height. I didn't go into detail on all those other things because I wasn't trying to explain all those other things, and I think you know that.
