• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Wanted for Murder: Cmdr Riker

c0rnedfr0g

c0rnedfr0g

Commodore
Commodore
I just finished watching the Blu-Ray of 3x09 "The Vengeance Factor" and was appalled to realize that Riker flat-out murdered Yuta! I mean, he tried stunning her twice with his phaser, then without any warning of the use of deadly force, vaporized her. All that needed to happen was for anyone NOT of the Lornak Clan to restrain her (read: anyone but Chorgan).

Not only that, but 3 episodes later, Riker chastises Devos for using deadly force on Finn in 3x12 "The High Ground."

What a hypocrite and murderer!
 
This is silly.

When he shot her the second time, it should have put her down, but it didn't. It was probably set to kill by that point. She's apparently impervious to being knocked out.

No one was in the position to restrain her. All she needed to do was lunge at Chorgan to kill him, and was only about four steps away.

Besides, she had it coming. :lol:
 
She'd already murdered all but one of the other clan and was trying to kill the last one. He already tried to stun her and it didn't work. He tried talking her out of it, and failed so he had no other options to save Chorgan's life. He warned her that he had no choice and needed to stop her - she just ignored him....
 
jimbotron said:
...and was only about four steps away.
Click to expand...

Four steps is a pretty good distance for Riker to interject himself between Yuta and Chorgan.

jimbotron said:
She's apparently impervious to being knocked out.
Click to expand...

...but not necessarily unable to overpower. Riker didn't even try it, or say, "Hey, next step you take, I'm gonna kill you." I'm not arguing that she didn't have it coming, I'm just thinking that in the idealistic society of the Federation, Riker should've exhausted every option to take her alive.
 
I always thought killing her seemed unnecessary.

The first two quick shots did move her back a bit, so Riker could've tried a sustained heavy-stun beam.

And she didn't so much ignore Riker as just couldn't fight the imperative for vengeance. For all we know there was some mind programming involved.
 
Chorgan was grateful enough to Riker for saving his life that I'm sure he used all his influence to get Riker off the hook. And the Sovereign was plenty pissed at Yuta as well, so I doubt Yuta would be missed.
 
What would've happened to Yuta if they had captured her? Stick her on a penal colony until the last of the Lornak clan was dead? Riker did the merciful thing by ending her life.
 
It was clear to me that there wasn't any setting that would stun her but not kill her.

Maybe he could have overpowered her. But when an innocent person's life is at risk you don't mess around. You don't risk the victim's life to save the attacker's life when you can save the victim's life by killing the attacker.
 
BillJ said:
What would've happened to Yuta if they had captured her? Stick her on a penal colony until the last of the Lornak clan was dead?
Click to expand...

Yuta was probably strong and smart enough to escape any confinement the Acamarians could devise for her. They couldn't risk that.
 
His actions seemed just fine to me.

Think of it in terms of our time...

A serial killer carrying a deadly weapon is caught in the act of trying to murder yet another victim.
The police taze them to minimal effect.
They taze again, killer still not going down. The police implore the killer not to do it.
When the killer lunges for the victim, do the cops shoot to kill?
 
Tosk said:
His actions seemed just fine to me.

Think of it in terms of our time...

A serial killer carrying a deadly weapon is caught in the act of trying to murder yet another victim.
The police taze them to minimal effect.
They taze again, killer still not going down. The police implore the killer not to do it.
When the killer lunges for the victim, do the cops shoot to kill?
Click to expand...
I hope not, because for the comparison to work the weapon has to be specialized to work on the intended victim only posing no threat to the cops, so there's no reason the cops couldn't position themselves between the killer and the victim. The victim is also not hurt and unrestrained and can move away from the killer who has no long distance weapon.

I think the scene was just badly staged, everyone acted as if Yuta had a bomb and threatened to blow the place up. If the stun setting doesn't work, tackle her, kick her in the face, break her legs if you have to but don't just vaporize her.
 
Dale Sams said:
And he vaporized his clone under the pretense of "Well, it came from my cells"!
Click to expand...

And Pulaski's clone. That was intentional murder. Using deadly force to defend an innocent life can be questionable at times, but isn't murder. Seems to me you could only make a case for manslaughter at best with that.

Which, given you can smuggle for the Maquis(Kassidy) or try and hijack a Federation ship and bombard the heads of state of a foreign power(Garak) and only get a few months in prison, I'd say Riker would only get sentenced to time served at best even if found guilty there.
 
Unfortunatly one of the scenes, where the writer (Roddenberry?) forcefully tried to make a point: A starfleet officer puts his duty first and even kills a person which he has feelings for.
 
Well if you wanted to go down an alternate oute, they could simply have beamed Yuta into a containment cell.
 
Yuta was a few feet away from Chorgan and only had to touch him briefly to kill him. For all intents and purposes she was holding a gun to his head. He could have tried to overpower her, but probably wouldn't have gotten to her in time. He could have aimed for her legs or gone for a sustained shot, but no guarantee then she would not somehow manage to touch him.

When innocent lives are in imminent danger you don't mess around.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top