Star Trek: Voyager Nothing Human (1995–2001) Online

This episode attempted to present an interesting ethical dilemma revolving around the use of scientific research discovered through immoral methods...but it kind of missed the boat. They merely introduced a character with an immoral past and posed the question whether or not this person can be utilized ethically today in a new, unrelated situation. The true ethical dilemma for others (i.e. humanity) does not revolve around whether or not a particular *researcher* is an ethical person, but whether or not the *research* being utilized was gathered in an ethical way. A researcher might be a raging psychopath but being immoral doesn't automatically make everything they might do in life immoral simply through association.

** SPOILERS **

If B'Elanna could have only be saved by using the exact vaccine developed through the immoral experimentation done on Bajorans (the reason given for why the Cardassian was unethical), or perhaps by another new vaccine developed by this Cardassian, then the proper moral quandary that Tuvok raises in this episode would have been properly posed. However, B'Elanna's situation had nothing to do with viruses at all. Instead, her situation depended entirely upon a different scientific discipline (i.e. exobiology vs. virology) that this Cardassian happened to also be an "expert" in. One might rightfully use this Cardassian's past as a good reason why he shouldn't be allowed anywhere near patients, for example, or to ever work on immunological research, but there isn't much of an ethical reasons to stop such a person from doing new research on new problems in other fields, especially when under the proper ethical guidelines and supervision a person would have on board Voyager.

Moreover, given the fact that this plot depended upon a hologram with ethical issues, a slight rewrite in his "personality subroutines" (and perhaps changing his appearance too -- so he didn't appear Cardassian) -- things easily done in other episodes -- would have solved all of the moral issues raised in this episode in a matter of a minute or two.

** END SPOILERS ***

Its not a bad episode to watch if you don't think about it much. But the writers simply missed presenting any real moral conundrum here and ended up with no more than a Chicken Little / "The Sky is Falling" dilemma fabricated by simply making the characters over-react to a non-dilemma instead.

The basic premise of this episode is simple: is it moral to treat an individual for a disease when the cure was acquired through immoral means? From Nazi experimentation on the Jews to modern day embryotic stem cell research, this is an important real-world topic and is perfect territory for Star Trek to explore. Unfortunately, the Star Trek nerd in me hates this episode as a Voyager episode but thinks it would have worked great on Star Trek: Deep Space 9 (DS9).

In a nutshell, the crew encounters an injured member of insect-like alien race that attaches itself to Torres to sustain its life. The doctor (an Emergency Holographic Doctor: EMH) cannot figure out how to safely remove the organism so he creates a new holographic doctor from a portion of the ship's medical database that's not part of his own to assist. Unfortunately this doctor was based off a real Cardassian doctor that used cruel methods to acquire his research. Torres says she'd rather die than be assisted by this man and the audience is then treated to the controversy surrounding all sides of this situation.

First; the (sometimes nerdy) reasons why I think this was a bad Voyager episode: 1) The doctor is software. He shouldn't need to create another doctor to analyze this data. He should be able to read it in the same way Microsoft Word can read any word document I give it.

2) A few episodes ago the doctor was sent away so Paris and Kim attempt to create a backup doctor. This proves impossible. Then in this episode the Doctor and Kim quickly create a brand new EMH. And it was just a bit too easy to create this doctor and his personality.

3) We see Bajorian crew members (a race serious oppressed by the Cardassians) but I don't remember seeing any Bajorians on the ship before or after this episode. How convenient! 4) Torres would rather die than be treated by this Cardassian recreation or his research. While I don't doubt her convictions, this position would sound more plausible coming from an actual Bajorian than a Human-Klingon hybrid.

Second: Why I believe this would have made a better episode for DS9: 1) The DS9 doctor is human. Genetically enhanced, but human nonetheless. Therefore it would be believable for him to not know or not be able to assimilate Cardassian research. Being close to Cardassian space he could easily get the Cardassian in question or a protégé.

2) DS9 had an actual Bajorian (Kira) in its main cast. It would have seemed more natural for this Bajorian individual to be adamant against using this Cardassian research than Voyager's Torres. Bajorans popped up on that show all the time so their opinions would have seemed natural and not a convenient plot device.

3) I was nerdy enough to check the dates and this show was dated about a year after DS9's Kira gave birth to a human couple's child. If the concept of this show existed at that time, a DS9 version could have exploited that for further drama. With Kira being pregnant you immediately add more sides to the story. With the child not being hers you have a situation where the actual parents can cause additional friction. Oh well.

So I disliked how it was shoehorned into Voyager and cannot watch this episode without thinking it belonged on DS9.

Lt. Torres is attacked by a giant green slug-like creature. It sends its tendrils into her body and they are inextricably linked-- so much so that the Doctor cannot remove the creature without killing B'Elanna. However, some Cardassian doctor has done some research and his work might help them remove the creature. So, the Doctor has a holographic Dr. Moset consult with him. However, apparently Moset is some sort of Cardassian war criminal and Maquis members on the crew and Tuvok object to the Doctor consulting with the Moset hologram.

I didn't really understand why this was such a HUGE problem. Had the ship brought the real Dr. Moset aboard to treat B'Elanna, I could easily understand the concerns. Heck, in this case I'd even like it if they shot him in the face. But it's NOT this man--it's a hologram. Despite this, the episode is moderately interesting and it is worth seeing.

In this episode Voyager attempts to address whether it is ethical to utilize medical knowledge obtained by unethical means. However, they fail to properly address the point that much of our medical research has been developed by methods that would be considered unethical in their 24th century society. When the point is made that most of our medical research has been obtained through the use of animals against their will, they merely counter with "but not humans". Hold on there buddy. Medical advances including the smallpox vaccine relied on what would now be considered unethical research on humans. Even more recently, the Tuskegee syphilis experiment in the United States from 1932-1972 involved the failure of medical researchers to administer penicillin to migrant workers suffering from syphilis in an attempt to study the disease. Unethical research on people isn't something that just the Nazis or Star Trek's own 24th century war criminals have done. By failing to address the issue in its actual complexity, Voyager failed to really address this ethical dilemma at all.

So I started re-watching my Star Trek Voyager series. I watched the episode entitled "Nothing Human" with that great character actor David Clennon (Palmer from 1982's The Thing) playing the role of a Cardassian "hologram" thinly veiled version of Nazi SS officer "Dr. Joseph Mengele" who in this show was responsible for tortuous experiments resulting in the deaths of thousands of Bajorans. Now the drama of the show is that Torres is on deaths door and the only way to help her is to use the knowledge obtained from the "real" Doctor's past experiments to save her life. Now the writer's take on the subject was that it was immoral to use the info obtained from those "horrific" experiments and to delete the program instead of using the Dr. and his knowledge in the future. Ok. So that's what they did on the show and they pushed that agenda very heavily towards non-use. My 2 cents.... I get that they wanted to disassociate themselves with a Nazi-like Doctor working in the sick bay on the ship. But... he is only a hologram version and not the real Dr. that committed the actual crimes. The hologram version wants to use the "tainted" info from the past crimes to help future patients. "If" I were one of those victims, I wouldn't want my death to be in vain and I would want the info gained from those horrific experiments (on myself and others) to be used to help others in the future. Keep the hologram on board and turn a negative into a positive. That's my own opinion. But the politically correct card was used and the Bogey man was put back into the bottle per say. Something that Spock might not agree with on a logical level.

Like the other 5 reviews of this particular episode I also had a problem with it. When a series runs for 7 years it is impossible to have them all great, there will be peaks and valleys just like anything else in life so it is impossible not to have episodes that just don't work or fall short. I am not one to do write-ups on a lot of shows but this one episode, like the other 5 reviewers, bugged me. All the other reviews made good points, some referred to other Start Trek shows, valid points, etc. My main objection was the writers hard stance that by using the information garnered by unethical or immoral means, taints it therefore it should not be used, period. They take the victim stance to the full tilt, as they should, the whole "lest we forget" road which is fine BUT they didn't balance it with …"on the other hand…" approach. They greatly downplay the theme of using the sins of the father (or past generations if you like) to benefit the future or future generations. The only counter punch to the victims stance was the Cardassian Dr. Moset's hollow arguments that "the ends justifies the means" morality. This character was set-up to lose from the get go and only re-enforces a very unbiased point of view to support the writer(s) personal stance. There's a lot going on in this episode…prejudice, moral/ethic medical practices, war-crimes, victims' rights, even Torres being forced to have the surgery against her will…etc. Lots of great stuff for effective drama. I think the episode focused too much on the facts of covered up war crimes, unethical experimenting for medical purposes AND relied too much on the huge plot hole that the hologram "looked" like the actual Cardassian mass murderer. Other s have pointed out the obvious plot hole in the show .. "a slight rewrite in his "personality subroutines" (and perhaps changing his appearance too - - so he didn't appear Cardassian) " I am sure having a doctor/surgeon who looks like Dr. Mengele standing over a patient in an O.R. would be a red flag situation for the best HR department in any hospital. All this stuff is great for drama BUT they did not put forth the one element that would have put more balance to all the arguments presented in the episode that favoured heavily on the side of NOT using the information to help Torres… using the information gained by "evil or immoral" actions to do some good in the end DOES NOT validate the horrific experiment as some characters even stated in the show. I will use real life analogies since the writers used real life events when writing this script. Clearly this was a Dr. Josef Mengele inspired story- line. I understand, as most normal people would, that the Nazi state was build on evil principles. No denying that. No denying that many normal people were sucked into the regimes influence that might not have done so had they been born on the other side of the world and in a different time period of history. Now my main objection to this episode was this….there was the strong point being made NOT to use the "treatment" on Torres based on the unethical/immoral way it was obtained in the past. Fine. Perfect dramatic hook in writing and structure. BUT there was not the counter argument made… If Dr. Mengele had done inhuman experiments on say, myself, back in Auschwitz and I died because of it…I would be furious if some person in the future totally removed from the event and my own death experience, even if it were my own son or granddaughter, decided that the information gathered from my death should not be used at all simply to honour my death. It would make my death in vain and NOT honour it. I would WANT my death to mean something and have the information used to save others after me regardless how it was obtained. What is done is done. I am dead. Obviously no one is advocating to do it in the present moment..that was NOT the argument of the show. Even Tuvok should have put forth that logic but he was given the opposite stance by the writers. Logic would dictate to provide all points of view and come to a conclusion based on that yet he jumped aboard the" by using it we validate the horror" bandwagon. The writers take a moral stance that has the Voyager Doctor erasing the Cardassian program at the end of show. This sends the message they will NOT use the medical information so as to NOT validate the information on how it was obtained. A better ending would to have left it as an unanswered dilemma. The current ending is now just a biased soap-box moment with plot holes left in by lazy writing.

When Voyager comes across a damaged alien ship a strange creature comes aboard and attaches itself to B'Elanna. It isn't immediately apparent whether this is a form of attack or if it is just trying to survive. The Doctor doesn't know how to safely remove the creature so uses the holodeck to recreate the Alpha Quadrants leading exobiologist; a Cardassian named Dr. Crell Moset. When B'Elanna sees who is going to treat her she objects as she doesn't want a Cardassian operating on her even if he is only a hologram. She isn't the only person to object; a Bajoran crew member recognises him as somebody guilty of performing medical experiments on Bajorans similar to those committed by the Nazis. This leaves the captain with a moral dilemma; does she let B'Elanna die or does she use techniques learnt through abhorrent means?

This was a fairly good episode with an interesting moral dilemma even if it is somewhat surprising that Star Fleet had not been told that such a high profile medical expert was in fact a war criminal, it was also a bit of a surprise when a Bajoran crew member popped up to expose him when this crew member had never been seen before.

This is an uncommonly silly episode. The stupidity of people having emotional reactions to a hologram under such circumstances is one thing, but the notion that scientific information gained through immoral means should be tossed aside on that basis alone is stunningly stupid. There was no real conflict in this episode, so the writers drummed one up. What a waste of television.

I suppose morality is rather relative at times. If one is saved by not eating a poisonous mushroom whose toxic properties caused the deaths of thousands of primitive humans, should we ignore that evidence. I know there is a difference. It does not diminish the horror of those practicing those awful experiments. The Nazis were involved extensively and should never be forgiven by the families of those victimized. But perhaps the saving of the innocents is a way of diminishing the awfulness of their actions. Let's be clear. The Doctor and B'ellana have no direct connection to this monster. What if the Doctor had accessed the database and found out about a curative, rather than the hologram that appears in the holodeck. Had the ensign not recognized the evil personage. If B'Allana had not reacted to a Cardassian presence. Would it have been OK in the entirety of the cosmos to just look at it as data. If one only has a single life (as I believe) and they are willing to give it up rather than be treated, that would be their right. But to have more people die, seems like an arbitrary universe.