Results 1 to 8 of 8

Thread: what is the best show with a moral question

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2000
    Location
    heath ohio
    Posts
    163

    what is the best show with a moral question

    The next gen. show "hunted" was the one that caused me to think about for a week .

    The point of the show was about a planet that wanted to join the federation . The world just fought a war and to win the war they created super soldiers .

    The problem was the world leaders decided to lock them for the next war . The men and women could never rejoin their family and freinds after the war .

    Here a link to the one I am speaking of
    http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet...37/epid-19045/

    The webpage where we look up other one http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet...xt_Generation/

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2001
    Location
    Alexandria, VA
    Posts
    3,208
    Ds9 had some good ones.

    Go here for episode details: http://www.st-hypertext.com/

    Here's just a sampling:

    Season 2: Paradise

    Season 3: Past Tense, Parts I and II

    Season 6: Far Beyond the Stars and In the Pale Moonlight

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Location
    Baltimore, MD
    Posts
    1,331
    DS9: Inter Armin Silent Leges comes to mind. I may have botched the spelling on that one.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Location
    The Seventh Most Dangerous City in the USA
    Posts
    311
    They just re-ran the Ent episode where Trip gets cloned. Clones have been done to death, yes. But this episode felt very different, at least at the beginning. It dealt with a fairly contemporary genetic quandry: harvesting cloned material for transplant purposes. In Science fact, this may or may not be such a big deal morally. Cloning a liver will never be the same as cloning an entire person. But Sci-fi adds a different conotation, as shown in this episode. The issue seemed fairly clear; this was merely a collection of alien cells taken from an organism that had its own separate existence, with nothing to do with cloning. But when brought in mixture with Trip's cells, a side effect occured that caused that alien matter to completely mimic Trip. And the clone produced would live a normal life cycle of 15 days, growing from childhood to old age in that time.

    Why not harvest it for transplant material? It's not like they were interfereing with its normal life cycle...

    But that wasn't what made me perk up. it was Phlox's reaction to the concept. His distaste for it balanced against the need imposed by the impending threat of the Xindi. An otherwise ethical man being forced to put aside those ethics.

    The question raised by this episode was not so much one about the ethics of cloning, but rather one of extreme sacrifice vs.extreme necessity.

    Reminds me of a story a buddy in the Army once told me about something they called "the Iron Goat." I asked him what the hell he was talking about, and he responded, with a bitter chuckle, "In peacetime, how do you think army surgeons gain experience treating gunshot wounds?"

    I'll leave you to work out the connection. But while he may have been pulling my leg about it (which is possible) it raises a question which pits morality versus practicality. Interesting thing to explore in fiction. While the rest of the episode was fairly blah, Phlox's reaction made it worthwhile. Billingsly (I think that's his name) is a great actor IMHO.

    Strictly Speaking
    "When you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha."

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Apr 2001
    Location
    the Netherlands
    Posts
    1,459
    Measure of a Man, Hunted and I, Borg were the TNG ones that got me thinking.

    One of the first DS9 episodes I saw was the one with 'Tosk', the hunted (Captive Pursuit).

    Voyager's Equinox had me up in protest.

    The Andorian Incident, one of the first Enterprise episodes, was surprisingly cerebral.
    The darkness inside me is a lot scarier than the darkness out there....

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    Wichita, Kansas, USA
    Posts
    582
    Originally posted by strict31
    Reminds me of a story a buddy in the Army once told me about something they called "the Iron Goat." I asked him what the hell he was talking about, and he responded, with a bitter chuckle, "In peacetime, how do you think army surgeons gain experience treating gunshot wounds?"
    Well, today, a good many of them are stationed in civilian hospitals in gang-dominated and high-crime areas. . . .
    "The American Eagle needs both a right wing and a left wing in order to fly."
    -paraphrase of Bill Moyers

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    A Small Blue World at the end of one of the Spiral Arms of the Milky Way Galaxy.
    Posts
    271
    Not sure it qualifys a 'the' best show with a moral question.

    DS9 - The Visitor, Tony Todd plays the older Jake Sisko. Personally, one of my favourite episodes in DS9, the moral question though, is should he have sent his father back. He had no idea what effect it would have had on time, whether things would have been better or worse.

    Sundowner
    Sundowner

    "Sure, it will probably explode. But at least I won't be in it, on it, or near it."

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Location
    The Seventh Most Dangerous City in the USA
    Posts
    311
    Originally posted by Ezri's Toy
    Well, today, a good many of them are stationed in civilian hospitals in gang-dominated and high-crime areas. . . .
    Granted, but many, many more of them are green. Docs in regular service might not have the same experience as a reservist or NG who has done residency in an ER in the average city and who does have that experience. Many are corpsmen or medics who are not docs, who have zero battlefield experience who just chose an interesting MOS. Kids. I don't know the specifics, though. But, leep in mind this was prior to the first Gulf War (maybe I forgot to mention that), and nobody really had much in the way of battlefield experience except some guys in panama and some old-timers.

    Like i said, he may have been shitting me, but it does fit a sick sense of logic...In any event, that wasn't exactly the point I was trying to make. My point was about the choice Phlox had to make in defiance of his ethics. And I think it was well done.

    Strictly Speaking
    "When you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha."

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •