· July 2, 2024 · Stardate: -298497.26 · Mesut Yılmaz
Enterprise-2001
Season:01
Episode:13
Overall Score: 76.95 / 100
Star Trek Values: 4.50 / 5
Inspiring: 4.75 / 5
Story Development: 4.50 / 5
View Episode (Imbd)
What an episode, I’m still thinking about the dilemma…
The Enterprise team faces a great deal of saving Valakians from their deadly illness. Valakians share their home planet with another Humanoid species, “Menk”. It seems like they’re enslaving or petting them, but after leaving the human-centric perspective, it seems acceptable.
Dr. Phlox asks a principal question about preventing the evolution, because Menk are in the path of gaining skills and mental empowerment, so curing Valakians will prevent Menk’s evolution. Also, Menk are immune to the illness. So there are no prime directives here, but captain chooses to not play God.
Would you cure a pre-warp society?
Still, one thing made me think about the episode, in human evolution, Homo sapiens and Neanderthals are not strictly separated, people carry some Neanderthal genomes today. So in the examples of multiple humanoid species, it’s not a pattern to see only one exist, a mix is likely to happen.I don’t know, but this might be a point to consider in the future. I’m still thinking about it.It’s best to see Star Trek episodes bring dilemmas and force us to leave human-centric perspective!
