What was a decision made by Starfleet or one of its Captains/Officers that you vehemently disagree with?

[Dark Knight]

(TNG : The Nth Degree)
This one was super annoying to me. The dude had reached a new pinnacle in human existence and only wants to make completely benevolent technological leaps and bounds for organic life in terms of interstellar travel and likely usher humankind into a new plateau of being itself. Picard and the crew of the Enterprise in this episode end up looking like vengeful children trying to claw back power because they refuse to even consider the bigger picture here. At the very least they should have tried to learn from and negotiate with Demi-God Barclay on even the most basic improvements to the ship, to the organization of Starfleet and civilization, and to organic life all together. The episode fizzles out by the end and Barclay willingly just expunges the tech, and the knowledge that came with it, from his being, but I can't help but feel like he did so because of the inane and raving protests from his commanding officers. How short-sighted and selfish Picard and co were to independently declare that the current level of technology being employed by Starfleet and star-faring organic life was just the right amount of tech and that we should just forego any further alleviation of suffering for organic life. I get the criticism that Barclay in his new AI-increased form was moving FAST, as sapient AI would, but there wasn't an ounce of malevolence in his actions or words.. Honestly I think a human-turned-AI is far more trustworthy in terms of human interests than a pure AI like Data who they trust with their lives every single day.

Aaannywaaayyyss, this is just one of countless examples where I think Starfleet or its Captains were straight up stupid. What's your favorite example?

 

[Epiphyte]

 

[Omanisat]

That time Picard was going to let an entire civilization die, rather then risk "damaging their culture."

I'll leave it up you to decide which time he did this that I'm referring to.

 

[DrForester]

Obligatory...

Spoiler

Some better answers:

Janeway fucking over an entire timeline just to save 3 people form the title credits. Hell, at least when Harry did it, it was to save the entire crew.

Janeway making bilogical weapons for The Borg

Archer and Phlox dooming an entire species to a painful extinction because they believe it's natures plan.

 

[Dark Knight]

That time Picard was going to let an entire civilization die, rather then risk "damaging their culture."

I'll leave it up you to decide which time he did this that I'm referring to.

Click to shrink...

Lmao

 

[echoshifting]

Thread is off to a good start.

Picard letting the doctor's overachieving boy wonder drive the Starfleet flagship sticks out to me.

 

[Htown]

that time Archer and Phlox refused to give a medical cure to a sentient species, dooming them to extinction, basically because they thought evolution had a conscious will and was choosing the other species on the planet to be dominant later

 

[Burly]

5 pages of Tuvix debate.

But the justification for keeping the Crystalline Entity alive was always dubious. Yes, it may be a unique life form, but it kills other sentient people by the billions.

Like if a completely alien disease infected their crew, they would attempt to eradicate it. But I guess microscopic organisms don't get the same sympathy.

 

[B.K.]

Janeway should have beamed a photon torpedo with a timer to the Caretaker's array, used it to get back home, and let the torpedo destroy it after they were back home.

 

[Wrexis]

Tuvix. We're done here. I suspect by the time I finish writing this post DrForester will have chimed in.

------
More recently promoting Tilly. Now, I fully support someone like Tilly in a command role. It would be good for Trek because she's not a "traditional" command type.
There is not a bad thing and given how conservative Trek is it should be shaken up. It would be an amazing journey showing someone with insecurity growing to command a team. We've had some of that in the past, but nothing too dramatic.

But she was an Ensign promoted to First Officer. It would be like making Harry Kim take over Chakotay's role, or Nog taking over Kira's role.
Even taking into the fact that Discovery seasons are shorter and audiences expect more sooner these days, it still should have happened over two seasons, not a few episodes.

 

[DrForester]

Janeway should have beamed a photon torpedo with a timer to the Caretaker's array, used it to get back home, and let the torpedo destroy it after they were back home.

Click to shrink...

Worst thing about Voyager's pilot is it introduces the new Captain, and the entire show's premise, by having her fail the test that Counselor Troi passed in her command test.

 

[BossAttack]

I thought I made a thread about this before, but there is an episode of Voyager I actually consider worse than Tuvix. I can't remember the name, but in the episode Voyager is traveling through some uncharted region and slowly the crew starts all having flashbacks about being in some war. Eventually the whole crew is crippled by this PTSD and are near to killing each other. However, eventually they are able to realize its coming from a signal from a nearby planet. They all beam down and discover that the beacon emitting the signal that gave them such terrible trauma was actually a memorial.

These two groups on the planet were so prejudiced against each other they caused a nasty civil war with genocide all over. This beacon was erected as a memorial so all could experience what happened and understand, but it had malfunctioned and no longer warned people travleling through the area what they might experience.

So, dumbass Janeway decides to best way to respect these dead assholes is to repair the beacon and drop a comm buoy letting all ships entering the area what they might experience if they enter. In this way, she honors the dead race.

Excuse me?!!? Janeway, how long do you expect that comm buoy to be operational? 100 years? 500 years? 100,000 years? What happens when it breaks down and the Gomborts from Setta Six-Phi are just peacefully traveling through the area, only the comm buoy has broken down but the beacon on the planet is still going strong? Then they are going to experience the same crippling trauma that nearly got the entire Voyager crew killed! And maybe they aren't smart enough to figure out what's causing it.

Stupid Janeway, stupid decision. Destroy the beacon, sorry about the race of dead assholes.

that time Archer and Phlox refused to give a medical cure to a sentient species, dooming them to extinction, basically because they thought evolution had a conscious will and was choosing the other species on the planet to be dominant later

Click to shrink...

This is my second one.

 

[B.K.]

Excuse me?!!? Janeway, how long do you expect that comm buoy to be operational? 100 years? 500 years? 100,000 years? What happens when it breaks down and the Gomborts from Setta Six-Phi are just peacefully traveling through the area, only the comm buoy has broken down but the beacon on the planet is still going strong?

Click to shrink...

And what if they don't have a universal translator or speak English? The buoy was basically useless. Janeway wanted people to become traumatized.

 

[deimosmasque]

Tuvix. We're done here. I suspect by the time I finish writing this post DrForester will have chimed in.

------
More recently promoting Tilly. Now, I fully support someone like Tilly in a command role. It would be good for Trek because she's not a "traditional" command type.
There is not a bad thing and given how conservative Trek is it should be shaken up. It would be an amazing journey showing someone with insecurity growing to command a team. We've had some of that in the past, but nothing too dramatic.

But she was an Ensign promoted to First Officer. It would be like making Harry Kim take over Chakotay's role, or Nog taking over Kira's role.
Even taking into the fact that Discovery seasons are shorter and audiences expect more sooner these days, it still should have happened over two seasons, not a few episodes.

Click to shrink...

Well to be fair Ensign Kim was a department head with subordinates who were full lieutenants.

 

[GungHo]

They abandoned Tom and Kathryn's salamander love children on some planet.

 

[Quinton]

I don't appreciate Janeway keeping Chakotay alive for seven years

 

[sir_crocodile]

Janeway _____________

 

[Wrexis]

Sooo you guys are all going to watch Janeway on the new animated show, right? Right?

 

[Typhon]

Aside from the all the other mentions of Janeway. The one that really stuck in my craw was the episode The Swarm where she violates Star Fleet regulations by tresspassing in a hostile species territory just so she shave a few months off their trip.

 

[Volimar]

Starfleet calling off the rescue of Romulans after the supernova as seen in Star Trek: Picard. I get it, it parallels modern day "They're not like us" attitudes towards migrants, etc. but it felt very unstarfleet.

 

[DrForester]

I don't appreciate Janeway keeping Chakotay alive for seven years

Click to shrink...

I don't think Robert Beltran did either.

 

[Quinton]

I don't think Robert Beltran did either.

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Too true...

 

[BossAttack]

And what if they don't have a universal translator or speak English? The buoy was basically useless. Janeway wanted people to become traumatized.

Click to shrink...

Exactly so much is based on Alpha Quadrant bias and assumptions. Total idoocy.

 

[BringBackSonics]

Click to shrink...

one and done. It won't ever sit right with me.

 

[Sotha_Sil]

There's probably better examples, but the Tuvix memes are unbeatable.

 

[Ballpoint Ren]

Haven't watched DS9 or Voyager yet.

I'm probably in the minority on this, but I don't think Data should have ever answered that random message from space and formed a correspondence with that alien girl. If he had followed Starfleet protocol and procedure, then the Enterprise could have travelled to investigate the origin of the message, discover the planet, and still correct the seismic activity without giving themselves away.

It's also a shame that Picard didn't return to a Starfleet base to have the Moriarty hologram analyzed and interviewed more thoroughly. Even though he can't 'live' outside of the holodeck, it could have started more research into giving the hologram a chance at life.

 

[B.K.]

I'm probably in the minority on this, but I don't think Data should have ever answered that random message from space and formed a correspondence with that alien girl. If he had followed Starfleet protocol and procedure, then the Enterprise could have travelled to investigate the origin of the message, discover the planet, and still correct the seismic activity without giving themselves away.

Click to shrink...

But they wouldn't have corrected it. The whole point is that Picard was willing to let the planet be destroyed and everyone die, so he would have to violate the Prime Directive. He was completely fine with letting everyone die until he heard the girl crying for help from Data.

 

[NCR Ranger]

The one that pops out at the moment is the episode where a whole planet is addicted to a drug and Picard refuses to do anything about it because "prime directive." If I remember right not only did he refuse to help, or even tell them they didn't need the drug, but he just decided to let them go cold turkey, while thinking they were dying of a plague, and just fucked off to the next system.

Truly a prime example of evolved humanity.

 

[Volimar]

The one that pops out at the moment is the episode where a whole planet is addicted to a drug and Picard refuses to do anything about it because "prime directive." If I remember right not only did he refuse to help, or even tell them they didn't need the drug, but he just decided to let them go cold turkey, while thinking they were dying of a plague, and just fucked off to the next system.

Truly a prime example of evolved humanity.

Click to shrink...

He didn't get involved, but the drug suppliers' ships were falling apart and they wouldn't be able to keep supplying the drug for much longer. They wanted him to fix their ships but after discovering what was going on, he ordered the repairs reversed. In that case, he helped the addicts by adhering to the letter of the Prime Directive.

 

[B.K.]

Justice is an episode where Picard makes a really stupid decision that he shouldn't have, if he was following the Prime Directive. Picard decides to visit a newly discovered planet that has a pre-warp civilization on it. He decides to let the crew have shore leave and Wesley gets sentenced to death. Then he suddenly decides that he can't save Wesley because it would violate the Prime Directive. Except that he already violated it by visiting the planet. He had no business visiting that world and beaming to the surface. He broke the Prime Directive as soon as the first officers beamed down to the surface.

 

[Chairman Yang]

Better question: did Sisko ever do anything wrong? (The answer is no btw)

 

[B.K.]

Better question: did Sisko ever do anything wrong? (The answer is no btw)

Click to shrink...

He's a war criminal.

 

[mAcOdIn]

What about that episode of Enterprise where they grow a clone of Trip to harvest it's organs or some shit to save Trip?

 

[Bigkrev]

Ben Sisko literally assassinated a Romulan senetor and framed the dominion to draw the romulans into the war against the Dominion

 

[Dark Knight]

Speaking of the Prime Directive, the Enterprise should have just fucked off after they poked that civilization in "Who Watches the Watchers." None of this sticking around to meddle, and abduct, and explain everything. That's like the fucking polar opposite of the Prime Directive. The best thing you can do in that situation is let them work out their weird religious bullshit on their own.

 

[NCR Ranger]

He didn't get involved, but the drug suppliers' ships were falling apart and they wouldn't be able to keep supplying the drug for much longer. They wanted him to fix their ships but after discovering what was going on, he ordered the repairs reversed. In that case, he helped the addicts by adhering to the letter of the Prime Directive.

Click to shrink...

Probably better than keeping them addicted, but letting people go through terrible withdrawals while thinking they are dying of a plague ain't much of a kindness in my book. I would also argue trying to hide behind the prime directive in that situation was just some Picard bullshit. If he couldn't tell them they are being taken for a ride he could at the very least do something to help ease their withdrawal symptoms. I don't see how that would have violated his precious directive.

 

[DrForester]

Ben Sisko literally assassinated a Romulan senetor and framed the dominion to draw the romulans into the war against the Dominion

Click to shrink...

Garak did it.

 

[Murasaki]

Garak did it.

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Ehhhh...

Come on. Sisko knew.

Spoiler

What a fantastic episode

 

[gforguava]

Stop exploring other people's worlds if you are against "interfering" with them, Starfleet; the Prime Directive is basically garbage from the ground up.

Diet imperialism for a bullshit enlightened society.

Spoiler

/s...maybe

 

[Mona]

not allowing them to dissect Data in Measure of a Man

 

[ibyea]

Anything involving the prime directive. As far as I am concerned, it's all bullshit. Inconsistently applied, and always tend to be about the letter of the law rather than the spirit of it.

 

[LuciusAxelrod]

Captain Archer denied asylum to a slave because slavery was part of their alien "culture." That slave then commits suicide.

 

[focusedmaple]

The Prime Directive is the equivalent of trying to be apolitical.

You're going to participate, whether you like it or not.

 

[GungHo]

not allowing them to dissect Data in Measure of a Man

Click to shrink...

Riker was "doing his job", but fucking with Data's off switch was some cold shit.

 

[mAcOdIn]

not allowing them to dissect Data in Measure of a Man

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That's a crazy take but I'll stand by my opinion that that episode is garbage.

 

[Herne]

Tuvix and Phlox and Archer deciding to leave an entire species die out because it's the natural order. I love Phlox, and like Archer too, but they're both subject to a lot of shitty, contradictory writing. Archer could be perfectly rational one episode, then the next he's pouting like a child because the alien race they were having careful first contact with didn't appreciate his dog that he stupidly brought along peeing in their sacred flowers.

Great characters, but horribly inconsistent.

 

[Herne]

Better question: did Sisko ever do anything wrong? (The answer is no btw)

Click to shrink...

He willingly went along with a plan that murdered several people in order that the Romulans join the war (which will see probably millions of Romulans dead). We can grudgingly agree, as Sisko did, to overlook that for the evil necessity it was.

However, he also let his obsessive pursuit of Eddington get to such a stupid level that he poisoned an entire planet to make it unlivable to his then enemy, most of whom were former Starfleet/Federation members who were fighting more or less the same enemy. Brings to mind a line from the Serenity movie when the Operative murders many people that had sheltered the crew of Serenity and then rationalises it to Mal -

"I'm sorry. If your quarry goes to ground, leave no ground for your quarry to go to."

Edit - Oops, didn't mean to double post. My bad.

 

[BossAttack]

What about that episode of Enterprise where they grow a clone of Trip to harvest it's organs or some shit to save Trip?

Click to shrink...

You know how in the mirror universe Phlox is basically an SS Doctor? Yeah, regular Phlox wasn't that far off.

Speaking of the Prime Directive, the Enterprise should have just fucked off after they poked that civilization in "Who Watches the Watchers." None of this sticking around to meddle, and abduct, and explain everything. That's like the fucking polar opposite of the Prime Directive. The best thing you can do in that situation is let them work out their weird religious bullshit on their own.

Click to shrink...

What? No.

They were starting to worship Picard, they had already violated the Directive. He needed to in some way contain the situation.

 

[Leynos]

not allowing them to dissect Data in Measure of a Man

Click to shrink...

This is mine, too. Data, while advanced, is nothing more than a tool. It should have been taken apart to construct a whole bunch more to perform dangerous/onerous tasks.

Or just make a bunch of lifeless holograms to work in mines, or some shit.

 

[Dark Knight]

What? No.

They were starting to worship Picard, they had already violated the Directive. He needed to in some way contain the situation.

Click to shrink...

All early civilizations are going to see unexplainable phenomena and chalk it up to gods, that's waaaaaaaaay way way way less intrusive than bringing a member of a bronze age civ into an interstellar space ship and explaining the meaning of existence to them.