What if the Doctor had been a Cardassian?

[at Quark's]

From Memory Alpha:

"It was just a great episode of Star Trek. That's one I look at fondly." Braga further commented, "For a Star Trek episode to work, like 'Dear Doctor', it's gotta have a conceptual hook that's fresh, it's gotta have some sort of moral spine, and something that engages all the characters, most of the characters, in some interesting way. And if you look at that one, everyone's got a moment […] I thought 'Dear Doctor' was by far the best episode of the season. And it was very specific to Enterprise […] It dealt with a real issue. It had it all. It was charming, it was funny, it was well-paced, it had a good framing device, and it ended up […] dealing with a really good issue you'd never seen dealt with before.

All of these points could even be correct. The only thing it doesn't do is send a message I can live with instead of 'It's OK to let these people die out since 'evolution' has destined them to' (disregarding the goal-driven description of evolution here). I may be an aging, foolish lover of classical trek, but to me, them arriving at the morally 'right' conclusion is an integral element of Trek, and this wasn't it. For which I vehemently disagree with the follow-up:

That's Star Trek at its best […] I wish they'd all been 'Dear Doctor's that first season."

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Fair. As I say, I haven’t even rewatched it yet and it’s been years. I’m up to Cold Front so it’s only a few episodes away.

Weirdly and coincidentally I was reading a Bakula interview on sci-fi wire and it came up again in a list of ten best Enterprise episodes.

I wasn’t challenging the idea that it’s any good. I don’t know that. I was challenging the surprise expressed that it’s celebrated. It does seem to be a standout for many, but I’ll wait and make my own mind up.

 

[dupersuper]

The worst part is, its not even the original ending, which WOULD have made it a great episode, and instead was made edgy on purpose!!! GRRRRRRR.

What was the original ending?

From Memory Alpha:

"It was just a great episode of Star Trek. That's one I look at fondly." Braga further commented, "For a Star Trek episode to work, like 'Dear Doctor', it's gotta have a conceptual hook that's fresh, it's gotta have some sort of moral spine, and something that engages all the characters, most of the characters, in some interesting way. And if you look at that one, everyone's got a moment […] I thought 'Dear Doctor' was by far the best episode of the season. And it was very specific to Enterprise […] It dealt with a real issue. It had it all. It was charming, it was funny, it was well-paced, it had a good framing device, and it ended up […] dealing with a really good issue you'd never seen dealt with before. That's Star Trek at its best […] I wish they'd all been 'Dear Doctor's that first season."

And Wikipedia has:

Michelle Erica Green, whilst writing for Trek Nation described "Dear Doctor" as the "first truly great episode" of Enterprise and compared it to "Pen Pals" from Star Trek: The Next Generation and "Tuvix" from Star Trek: Voyager in the way that the ethical dilemma is presented. She enjoyed the "seamlessly interwoven subplots and moving character development" and the pace of the episode, but wanted to see more of the society of the two races.

Peter Schorn, writing a review for the first season for IGN, described "Dear Doctor" as one of the more solid episodes.

Jamahl Epsicokhan, on his website Jammer's Reviews, said that it was "by miles the best episode so far". He calls it a "real story" with an actual issue, and praises the performance of John Billingsley as Phlox.

The cast and crew:

The episode was received warmly by members of the Enterprise cast and crew. Anthony Montgomery said prior to the end of the first series that he "absolutely loved 'Dear Doctor'; I thought that was fantastic". After the end of the series, John Billingsley named the episode as one of his favourites as it was the first time he felt the character was three-dimensional, and executive producer Brannon Braga subsequently called the episode a "classic". Writer André Bormanis said that "Dear Doctor" was a "great example of a classic Star Trek / Science Fiction "what if" scenario that raised interesting and complex social issues."

Finally:

In 2016, Vox rated this one of the top 25 essential episodes of all Star Trek.

 

[Phoenix219]

From my understanding, Phlox would have gone behind Archer's back and saved the day.

 

[dupersuper]

From my understanding, Phlox would have gone behind Archer's back and saved the day.

The story must have been quite different: he was the one who pushed Archer into the idiotic conclusion in the aired version.

 

[Phoenix219]

The story must have been quite different: he was the one who pushed Archer into the idiotic conclusion in the aired version.

I may be misremembering. But I know that I've heard before that the original ending was more of a traditional optimistic Trek ending.

I tried to look quick but everything I found was just very vague references.

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

I'm liable to be burned in effigy for this, but I did not hate "Dear Doctor." I thought it was a classic Trek "impossible dilemma" scenario, with no one obvious choice to make. And I still love Phlox and Archer.

*making a hasty getaway*

 

[Farscape One]

Apparently, I'm also in the minority of loving this episode. I agree that it's one of the best of season 1 and 2.

 

[dupersuper]

I'm liable to be burned in effigy for this, but I did not hate "Dear Doctor." I thought it was a classic Trek "impossible dilemma" scenario, with no one obvious choice to make. And I still love Phlox and Archer.

*making a hasty getaway*

The problem is it's only impossible if evolution doesn't work the way it does at all.

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

Hmm. I remember watching the pilot of "ER" and being blown away by it. I called up my brother, a doctor, to tell him to check it out. He said he turned if off after 5 minutes because the medicine wasn't accurate. So he missed out on 15 years of great storytelling. But... maybe it never would have been watchable to him, if he saw dramatic license being taken and just got frustrated. So I can see it both ways.

I'm a writer, not a doctor. Or an expert on evolution. I look at the storytelling-- the (from my POV) impossible choice, and how the characters wrestle over it. I have a different view of whether Phlox and Archer committed genocide!!!! because they gave the "highly evolved, technically advanced" Valakians medicine that would give them a 10-year respite from the disease and time to maybe develop a cure themselves, or flag down another passing ship and try again to acquire warp technology, or get help with a cure - if Phlox figured it out, some other spacefaring race could. But I've seen others weigh in with such rock-solid certainty that the entire Valakian race was finished, kaput, certain goners. Few viewers seem to entertain the possibility that the Valakians would be able to gather enough brain cells together to solve this problem. Why not? Necessity is the mother of invention. (We have 5 Covid-19 vaccines now, and we didn't have any a year ago. And we don't have warp technology. But I digress.) We don't know what happened to the Valakians. We didn't get a follow-up to this episode.

But nearly 20 years later, there are still strong opinions on both sides of the issue... which is probably what the writers hoped for.

 

[dupersuper]

I'm a writer, not a doctor. Or an expert on evolution. I look at the storytelling

You really don't have to be an expert. I don't expect much from Star Trek science, but this episode may as well have said the sun was a ball of ice.