Customer Reviews

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 116: Ethics [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This episode contains an excellent debate on medical ethics. Worf is in a situation where conventional treatment will not help him make a full recovery (necessary for Klingon honor) but a new, experimental treatment is likely to kill him. Though of course Worf makes a full recovery in the end, the argument is not really resolved. The nature of the debate does not lend itself to easy solutions, but it does bring up many interesting points to ponder.

In "Ethics" Worf is injured by a failing container that leaves the Security Chief paralyzed from the waist down. Worf's only hope is a radical medical treatment urged by Toby Russell, a neural specialist who has come to help Dr. Crusher with the injury. Russell wants to create a new spinal cord for Worf, but Crusher wants to try conventional therapy when she learns the new procedure has never been used on a humanoid. Worf would never survive if the experimental treatment failed. Worf rejects Crusher's suggestion since it can only restore partial mobility and asks Riker to help him commit suicide in accordance with Klingon traditions. Of course Russell goes behind Crusher's back to offer the experimental surgery to Worf, giving the injured Klingon another option besides suicide.

Certainly "Ethics" is a rather melodramatic episode, which tries to take full advantage of its title. The ethics of experimental surgery is old hat (have you ever seen an episode of a television show where they did NOT try the experimental surgery in the end?), but Riker's deliberation over Worf's request is the centerpiece of the show. It reminds me of the moment at the end of "The Best of Both World's" cliffhanger where Riker ordered the Enterprise to open fire on the Borg cube with Locutus/Picard. It is totally believable that Riker could honor Worf's request. Those scenes redeem "Ethics" enough to make it an average episode in the series. There are also some implications for the characters down the line when Worf asks a stunned Counselor Troi to care for Alexander in the event that he should die.

Worf is severely injured following an accident, and loses the ability to walk. Dr. Crusher tells him his condition may be permanent, and suggests treatments that could could restore much, but not all, of his mobility. However, Worf is not pleased at that, and considers his own remedy for his disability, until a doctor comes aboard the Enterprise hoping to try out an experimental but risky medical procedure that could restore virtually all his mobility. After conferring with his son about his situation, Worf decides to undergo the procedure, but will he come out of it alive? I like this episode because it's a story about Klingon rituals and what Klingons traditionally do when they're paralyzed.

I don't really need to explain the plot of this episode. That has already been done quite well by other reviewers. What I will tell you is my opinion on the episode.

It is really good overall. The only thing I don't care for from Star Trek TNG is how they handle most disability issues.... Most of the time the characters that develop disabilities view them as a fate worse than death (including this one)... and equally as often (including this episode) their disability is miraculously cured by the end of the show. I know that the show is based in a time frame several hundred years from now when medicine is supposedly much more advanced, but still, it gets annoying. I think the series missed out on some important messages by doing this.

Even so, the dicussions between Riker and Worf are great during this episode. (They discuss contradictory cultural and individual belief systems on life, death, what is important in life, and the "right to die").

In the end though, it is all neatly tied up and everything they talked about was for nothing as Worf is cured.

Incidentally, the only disability related episode that I remember that doesn't end with a cure is one in which a NON-Enterprise crewmember is the one who develops the disability. What does this say about the strength of the crew?

I generally LOVE the way in which TNG handles most social issues. Disability is one that could have been handled better though.

Excellent debates on disability issues and medical ethics. It's also a rough time for Beverly Crusher, who has been stressed by several upsetting events recently and this one adds to her quiet distress that lasts throughout the rest of season 5 and most of season 6 as well.

Worf is seriously injured when a pile falls on his spine, leaving his legs unable to move. Beverly tries nerve implants on his legs, but the not-very-patient and image-conscious Worf does not want to be seen "lurching about" (despite the fact that the "lurching" is temporary and that Bev tries to reassure Worf that in due time, he'd be walking smoothly again) and he gives up on them very quickly, which rather irked me.

According to traditional Klingon code, many Klingons, upon becoming possibly permanently injured, commit suicide. The crew is shocked when Worf announces that it is what he wants to do since he no longer sees himself as a productive, strong warrior Klingon. Even worse, he asks Will Riker to help him commit suicide, to which Will indignantly refuses.

Things become even more complicated when the visiting Toby Russell, who is revealing herself to be the kind of doctor who sees patients as nothing more than guinea pigs in her quest for glory for herself, manipulates Worf into agreeing to an untested surgery that may either fix his spine or kill him, to the horror of Beverly Crusher.

What follows is an interesting, scary mix of Toby's irresponsible using of patients and Beverly's desperate attempts to stop her, all while she's dealing with Worf's crabbiness and Worf's insistence on either suicide or the untested surgery.

I really felt for little Alex, whom Worf tried to talk into helping him with the suicide.

I really felt for Beverly; she really was caught in a vice...of Toby's borderline disrespect and domineering manipulation and unethical actions, then Worf's one-track insistence on suicide or the untested surgery.

Not long after this episode, her son Wesley faces a similar problem with an unethical classmates in Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 119: The First Duty.

I suspect Toby was nearly a sociopath and she certainly frightened Beverly.

Beverly handled it with her usual quiet grace and dignity very well, despite being extremely upset over Toby's actions and Worf's attitude.

I also liked that Deanna also really took Alex under her wing and I loved it when she gave Worf a little butt kick and told him to show some compassion for his own son instead of sinking into his own juice of some "fallen honor" simply because he was injured.

It was such a touching scene when Deanna comforts both Alexander and Beverly, who are both weeping at possibly more upsetting news; Deanna made a great counselor.