TNG Flashback: Ethics

In watching Star Trek: The Next Generation again from the beginning, I have been pleasantly surprised on occasion to find some episodes better than I remembered. One such episode is "Ethics."

When a cargo bay accident leaves Worf paralyzed, he begins to contemplate assisted suicide as a more honorable option. Meanwhile, Dr. Crusher and a neurological specialist named Toby Russell clash over his possible treatment. Russell offers a new genetronic therapy that would grow Worf a new spine and fully restore his mobility. But Dr. Crusher finds Russell's dismissal of the risks involved to be a major ethical violation.

What I remembered of this episode from first seeing it more than 20 years ago were its unfortunately bad trappings. Not for one moment do you believe that Worf will remain paralyzed -- or wind up dead -- by the time the end credits roll. Thus there's no tension in the episode, and the fake at the end (where Worf dies on the operating table only to miraculously recover) feels like a transparent cheat.

Perhaps worst of all is the nature of Worf's injury. Considering how many times we've seen him thrown against the wall by the "tough alien of the week," it's hard to believe that a falling cargo container would do him in. Even the staging of the accident is unfortunately cheesy -- Worf uses the time in which he could have easily jumped out of the way to instead turn around and curl into a ball, putting his back directly in a position to be injured.

That's what I saw the first time around, and what stuck with me. This time around, however, I focused not on the (non-existent) jeopardy, but on the moral dilemmas. This script, written by Ronald Moore, serves up some big ones, and this episode is no simple parable where these futuristic characters use an allegory to show us the "right answer" to some present issue. It presents the actual issues themselves, and presents both sides of them: assisted suicide and medical ethics.

The medical issues are a little bit more abstract, if only because just a small portion of the audience are doctors. While Toby Russell is set up to be a bit of a villain by jumping to her experiments before exhausting conventional treatment options, the fact is there's a legitimate debate to be had between her and Dr. Crusher. Beverly espouses the most literal interpretation of the Hippocratic Oath: she will do no harm. But she's blind to the fact that Worf sees continued existence as a paraplegic as the harm -- Russell's option offers him a chance at the only kind of life he would accept. And yet Crusher's not wrong to accuse Russell of seeing Worf as more of a test case than a patient.

As for the assisted suicide debate, it's presented with honesty to both the characters and the issue itself. In a powerful scene, Worf asks Riker to help end his life. Riker is an obvious choice, as he is one of the few people with experience understanding Klingons. Only Picard has more, and surely the that option is impossible due to the shame Worf would feel in asking that of his captain. But then, if Worf had asked Picard, he likely would have gotten what he wanted -- another strong scene soon follows in which Picard argues convincingly that Riker should grant his friend's request.

Even better scenes follow. Picard helps Crusher see Worf's point of view, making his points effectively without really getting righteous about it. Then Riker returns to argue Worf out of his death wish in a wonderful scene that honors the show's history, including mentions of Marla Aster and Tasha Yar.

This episode also reaps the benefits of recently bringing Worf's son Alexander on as a recurring character. When you think about the boy's history, watching his own mother die in front of him, you feel for him all the more as he faces the possibility of losing his father here. And yet another strong scene comes when Worf asks Troi to take over raising Alexander if he should die.

What I find interesting about this episode is that it puts the audience in a situation where you can't side with all the main characters at once. Do you side with Worf and Picard in believing a person should be able to choose death on their own terms? Or do you side with Riker and Crusher in finding assisted suicide reprehensible? Do you side with Crusher in her condemnation of Dr. Russell's methods, even if Worf would have killed himself or remained disabled if she'd gotten her way?

As provocative as all this is, I wonder if they might have gone a different route had this episode been made today. Star Trek: The Next Generation came just a little before stem cell research and the potential of human cloning became more widely discussed issues. This episode might just as easily have raised ethical questions about Dr. Russell's technique itself, rather than just her methodology.

Other observations:

• Wherever you land on morality of assisted suicide, I think we can all agree on the morality of Geordi LaForge. He is a cheater. In the teaser for this episode, he confirms what we all might well have expected: he can use his VISOR to read cards at the poker table. He tells Worf that he only peeks after a hand is over, but that still gives him knowledge about whether or not a player was bluffing in a hand. That affects his decision-making for future hands. Cheater.

• K'Ehleyr is long dead, but she still gets all the best lines. According to Alexander, "My mother always said Klingons had a lot of dumb ideas about honor."

• It's a nice detail that when Crusher comes with the news that Worf died in surgery, Troi knows immediately, sensing the doctor's emotional state.

• There's a deleted scene from this episode on the Blu-ray collection, in which Worf rejects another attempt by Dr. Crusher to undergo the implant treatment. It would have come just before the scene in which Picard helps the doctor to understand Worf's perspective. Having just witnessed Worf's stubbornness firsthand, it makes sense that she's finally receptive to Picard's arguments.

The setup for this story is unfortunately weak, but the scenes that follow offer strong moments for many characters and the actors who play them. So overall, I'd deem this episode a B+.