@Rosamund Powell In Star Trek Earth is indeed paradise. But when Sisko said "paradise" he did not mean earth particularly, he meant peace and prosperity. In the beginning, DS9 was always in the middle of political, ethnical and religious conflicts, the poverty of Bajor was increasing those conflicts. Later on, DS9 was in the epicentre of war. Look on our world today. Since we have big crises, uncertainty and big changes of the way we live, civilisation got out of balance.
If we're including Archer's temporary piracy gig, then you need to include Captain Ransom's torture and murder of multiple extradimensional beings to power his ship.
I think it's because Ransom's actions had no official sanction. When Starfleet ordered Archer to destroy the Xindi weapon they made it clear that anything goes.
@@miketaterparker I'm pretty sure SFC was in on the plan to seduce the Senator. But even if they weren't I still don't think that one should count either. SFC didnt sanction the murder and all Sisko did was cover it up.
@@trajan74 Starfleet Intelligence might've known about the Sisko-Garak plot, maybe even helped out behind the scenes. But not Starfleet Command. If things went bad they'd sacrifice one errant Commander and one Cardassian criminal, not valuable Flag Officers in time of war. They know that the less they know the better.
“In the Pale Moonlight” is a damn fine episode and presents quite a moral conundrum for Sisko. This episode is one of the main reasons I adore Deep Space Nine so much.
Probably my favorite DS9 episode, not because of the morality problems for Sisko...but as he's speaking into the log, he's also trying to justify his actions to you, the viewer.
While I agree with a couple of these things, the presenter seems to call "self defence" evil on a couple of occasions. Starfleet's lofty goals would mean precisely squat if the Federation is wiped out by an enemy. There's a fundamental difference between trying to get the Ba'ku's "nice to have" de-aging technology and stopping the Klingons (or the Dominion, or the Borg) from destroying the Federation.
Certainly not in all of Star Trek, but possibly the best moment in DS9 I think belongs to Garak. Garak (to Sisko): "...and if your conscience is bothering you, you should soothe it with the knowledge that you may have just saved the entire Alpha quadrant and all it cost, was the life of one Romulan senator, one criminal, and the self-respect of one Starfleet officer. I don't know about you, but I'd call that a bargain."
In #4 OP left out one small detail: Species 8472's Catchhrase "The weak will perish". Once done with the Borg, 8472 intended to purge all life in the Milky Way Galaxy. JANEWAY, knowing this, Chose the lesser of two evils while looking to get her ship clear of Borg space.
In Janeway's defense! This new species seemed pretty set on wiping EVERYBODY out, they didn't exactly have a lot of options. Least thats the impression that Kes and the writers gave us. Then a bit while later we learn, oh! They're not that bad! It was all a misunderstanding! A.k.a they had different writers pretty much doing whatever they wanted.
Sorry not going to defend Janeways ignorance. Anyone with half a brain would know the borg started the fight with another species. Then to suddenly act surprised was dumb. Chakotay was right and his plan saved her ass or else they would all be assimilated.
In total agreement with you there as species 8472 planed to launch a war of extermination upon all the species in star trek galaxy starting with the borg and delta quadrant, so Janeway doing a deal with the devil you know; the borg to save their reality/realm and defeat species 8472 is nothing more than reasonable self defence. Particularly as they went no further than creating a weapon that allowed them to fight effectively and used that as a deterrent to force them to call off their invasion.
@@surorov1 I get that. History is written by the victors, and such. I suspect it would be most gratifying to see it fall in some kind of twisted episode based on a federation lie or propaganda that sent it all spiraling into its own demise, and then give rise to the terran empire seizing control at the right moment. Now humans are the aggressors, and the rest of the broken federation are frightened down to the core of their spleens. Begin season one of THE TERRANS. Bring up all the human vices and faults, then have them defeated repeatedly in a witty fashion to remind them of their place. Might be fun having the shoe on the other foot.
'Picard' is the Apocalype Timeline Future. The SHIT is just that it's presented to us as the ONLY freaking Timeline! Everything would be fine (no actually it's still seriously bad writing and i hate the Show for all it is) if they would have stated that! And given us a Good Timeline! One that makes Sense and isnt just obviously meant to be 'Oh, look, it's so terrible, but don't worry, Superman will safe us'-Shit. God, 'Picard' was so bad and if we ever get more Star Trek it will surely be more of this Nonsense. AND DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED ON ARCHERS FUCKED UP ADVENTURES! Some of his Episodes are like Acid Dreams! LITERALLY!
Bear in mind, most of Starfleet likely wasn't aware of this, in fact it's safe to assume that this deal was organised mainly under the authority of Admiral Quinn. While it's not a good chapter in their history, it hardly reflects on Starfleet as a whole
Species 8472 wasn't just going to stop with the Borg though.They were going to destroy everything. Janeway made the deal as it was the lesser of two evils, as the Borg can be stopped, but 8472 was seemingly unstoppable.
Yep. They could have included the episode Tuvix instead as she basically kills someone who was pleading for their own life and that one was pretty iffy given they probably could have figured something else out given more time and the transporter tech.
@@wallacewallaby5782 Yep good one, and we have the similar Story of Enterprise season 3 with Trip getting injured badly and Archer desides to grow a clone of him "Sims". Sure, they though he would survive, and live and die naturally within a cople of days afterwards, but Phlox found out, Sims wouldnt survive. In the same time, Sims found out that there might be a way for him to grow normally and old, and in sense he is Trip. But Archers still desides Trip is more important that SIms.... tough and maybe evil choise.
Well, that's true but as I remember, David Marcus was reluctant to see the Genesis project in Starfleet hands. Such distrust in the military means something...
@@estudiordl From a man who himself invented a weapon of mass destruction using an illegal substance which every ethical scientist in the galaxy denounced as dangerously unpredictable. I think if we're fair, the Marcus's downplayed the negative aspects of Genesis.
@@lawrence5584 I didn't see that, so true. One would think after 200 years scientist would know if you are splitting the atom again, someone would make the bomb, again. 😏😉
just good? BEST ST episode EVER I'd say. Has the kind of drama and deepness, which can easily rival the most hardcore 50's noir. The only thing it is missing is sepia filter and fedoras...
When Captain Sisco says, "I can live with it", and tries to get comfortable on the sofa and says it again, you know he just isn't comfortable at all with the chain of events he set in motion. That is a great episode.
'In the Pale Moonlight' is my favorite episode of any Trek show. Superb writing and performances from the cast. That speech from Garak at the end is just *chef's kiss*: "And if your conscience is bothering you, you should soothe it with the knowledge that you may have just saved the entire Alpha Quadrant, and all it cost was the life of one Romulan senator, one criminal, and the self-respect of one Starfleet officer. I don’t know about you, but I’d call that a bargain."
My favorite Star Trek: Voyager episode. It felt good to f see the Borg run away from a species they couldn't assimilate for once. Species 8472 was badass.
The assassination of the romulan senator was always the plan. Garak knew the data rod would not pass muster. However, a data rod recovered from a destroyed ship, and thus slightly damaged, would just not pass muster purely because of the damage to the ship. He explained it at the end of the episode.
@Leo Peridot Did you watch the episode at all? The entire episode in question was Sisko trying to come to terms with the deeply horrible things he was a party to. He never thought he was in the right. The only, ONLY reason he could even live with what happened was because it was a tactical military and political move that would potentially save his homeland. As for Sisko as a religious leader, have you watched Star Trek: Deep Space Nine? At best, for most of the series, he's a reluctant leader who would take an out. That's not to say DS9 doesn't portray religious leaders with an agenda. In that respect Winn Adami is the perfect juxtaposition. Ambitious, fundamentalist, and willing to abandon all her beliefs if someone offered more power over her adversary.
"Why is the Federation so obsessed with the Maquis? We've never harmed you. And yet we're constantly arrested and charged with terrorism. Starships chase us through the Badlands, and our supporters are harassed and ridiculed. Why? Because we've left the Federation, and that's the one thing you can't accept. Nobody leaves Paradise, everyone should want to be in the Federation! You know, in some ways, you're even worse than the Borg. At least they tell you about their plans for assimilation. You're more insidious, you assimilate people - and they don't even know it." -Michael Eddington, DS9
It's an interesting criticism of the United States. However in this case the maquis is not the group of settlers who left the Federation. It's the paramilitary guerilla organisation killing cardassians and giving cardassians the opportunity to threaten the truce between Cardassia and the Federation. The maquis are risking forcing war on the Federation to keep or possibly in retaliation for losing some planets of their own. It's selfish and somewhat materialistic. Perhaps also a criticism of some aspects of US culture. I understand why George Washington sought independence for his adopted country but a fight against injustice does not a just country make. In the pursuit of freedom it became acceptable to bear arms against others to protect what was yours. But what if it was not really yours in the first place? What if you have plenty and allow others to starve through no fault of their own? Does personal freedom Trump a duty to help and protect others, all others regardless of dividing lines invented to justify selfish values?
@@limburgishmapping7166 Yup. They gave them the colonies and told the colonist they had to leave and settle somewhere else that the Federation would choose or allow or stay and live under Cardassian rule with out Federation assistance.
You forgot the enslavement of the mark 1 series of the Emh, they are sentient. When the doctor from Voyager wrote a holonovel, it became a revolutionary holonovel to the emh mk1s who were being used as mine workers
@@Shadothecat That's the point. The doctor was seen as property rather than a life form, the same as Data was, although the EMH holograms seem to have been treated worse, especially once they became "obsolete". It's obvious they were sentient, since Voyager's EMH was able to create his own art and had interests beyond his programming as a doctor.
I was going to mention this as well. It goes hand in hand with Data being Starfleet property. I suppose it doesn't help that the Doctor is my favorite Star Trek character of all time.
Why in so many sci-fi shows, do artificial humanoid creations meant for work, menial labor, used only as tools, etc, are either given near or full sentience, allowed to attain sentience, or checks are not put in place to prevent that? (Prevention of them attaining sentience is another philosophical discussion, but for everyones' benefit, it should not be allowed for designated "workers".) Then either minor issues occur (relatively minor- fighting for your freedom is absolutely not minor, but it's far less destructive than), to full uprisings by synthetic beings? Usually followed by war and death on both sides. They should make one group of synthetics for solely work, and another as full-fledged lifeforms with the same rights as biological beings.
This list can be justified as necessary: 10. Genesis device was created to terraform and create life not destroy it. It can be used for evil but, that’s not its purpose. A warp core can blow up a planet, those are WMDs too then. 9. There was no alternative. If Captain Archer didn’t steal the coil then they would fail the mission which means many lives lost. They weighed up the moral implications, you did not. 8. That was an all out war and they had a weapon that would win, I’d consider it as an option since freedom was at stake. Granted it came with collateral damage but that may be a necessity to win. 7. I cannot justify this one well. Though I agree with the Maquis’ overall motives, Sisko had to deal with a terrorist quickly and so called his bluff. 6. It’s not genocide, the Borg aren’t a race, they’re an infectious cybernetic disease. Though a drone can get regain its humanity, these are through unique conditions thus making it impossible to rehabilitate all other drones to be effective. They should’ve infected the collective as originally planned to potentially save civilisation. 5. That was a rogue agent not official an Federation directive. 4. Janeway chose the lesser of two evils. 3. Once again, they were at all out war. The Federation had a weapon to win it so they used it, the only collateral was one security officer. That’s a bargain. And at the end of the day, it was a contributing factor in winning the war. 2. Yeah that was pretty bad.😕 But nothing like this had ever happened, it wasn’t law yet. 1. That was a necessary action to win the war. Either that or totalitarianism for centuries. Freedom was won and like Garak said all it cost was one romulan senator, one criminal, and the self respect of one Starfleet officer, which was a bargain. Sometimes evil is necessary to save freedom and lives. ‘People sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.’ - Richard Grenier, derived from George Orwell
"You cant handle the truth! Son we live in a world that has walls and those have to be guarded by men with guns. […] I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. […] And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall! We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something, you use them as a punch line. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said 'thank you' and went on your way. Otherwise I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand at post." - Col. Nathan R. Jessep
“There’s a point, far out there when the structures fail you, when the rules aren’t weapons anymore. They’re shackles letting the bad guy get ahead. One day, you may face such a moment of crisis. And in that moment, I hope you have a friend like I did, to plunge their hands into the filth so that you can keep yours clean!” -Comm. James Gordon
Thank you so much you put what I’ve been thinking very eloquently and I greatly appreciate it because this is true because when you look at some things from World War II in our own planet and other stuff there of been some pretty nasty things done as well to cut to get the ends of a means
I mean, 103 years later after the Genesis device. The Vulcans (and Starfleet) created the Red Matter... and if you watch Star Trek (2009). You know how that work..
10- McCoy was the one who recognizes that Genesis is evil 9- That was actually Archer, not Starfleet. They didn’t tell him to do that. 7- Again, that was Sisko, he wasn’t ordered by Starfleet to do it. 6- It was the Borg. When faced with annihilation you can see why they consider it. My criticism is that they didn’t do it. 5- Again, was not done by order of Starfleet. 4- I’m seeing a pattern forming here. Not Starfleet yet again. 1- One last for the pattern. Sisko was not ordered to do it by Starfleet. Your list said it was what Starfleet had ever done. This was what Starfleet officers had ever done. And in some of the cases, it was kinda understandable.
10. Starfleet did not create the Genisos device. They funded it. They did not invent it. 9. Enterprise is pre Starfleet. 8. Discovery is not in the established timeline, this is a perfect example of why it is not. 5. Gill was a rogue agent, he was not acting under Federation / Starfleet orders. 3. Section 31 is a rogue faction of the Federation. They are not Starfleet / Federation proper. 2. Starfleet did not claim Data was property. Maddox did. Starfleet allowed the trial to prove his individuality.
Enterprise is pre-Federation, not pre-Starfleet. Remember in one episode Archer said he proposed to a woman? She turned him down because she would become a "Starfleet widow"
Picard had to fight tooth and nail and use his political weight to get that trial. Starlet had just accepted Madox theories and gave up Data with out much of a fight. The fact that they bowed to political pressure and allowed for a trial was more of a show then anything.
And the US military did not the develop the nuclear bomb, they just funded it. But the funding of a device that can be used as a weapon of mass destruction is bad enough if your actual standards on this issue is not to use them or to have them. Starfleet predates the Federation. Enterprise is only pre-Federation not pre-Starfleet. DIS is in the established timeline. Accept it. I'll give you Gil. He was acting on his own. Section 31 is part of Starfleet. Always were. They even get their name from Starfleet's founding documents. They are just so clandestine that barely anybody knows about their existence. But not only that, their actions towards the end of the Dominion War were known to Starfleet Command. Admiral Ross sanctioned their use of Dr. Bashir to assassinate a Romulan politician to replace her with somebody with a more favourable view of the Federation, and after Bashir and O'Brien found out about the virus developed by Section 31, Starfleet Medical blocked their attempts to finding a cure. And last but not least, who do you think approved Maddox's attempt to seize Data as property? That was Starfleet, Maddox was not operating on his own. And if it had not been for Picard pulling strings to get a trial going and really going all out within it to prove Data's case, Starfleet would not have given a damn about Data's rights as a person.
4. Initially, they were thinking of Species 8472 as an ally. However, after Kes has telepathic contact with them, she tells Janeway that ”it’s not the Borg we should be worried about, it's them.”
One thing you totally missed: DS9's two-parter, Homefront/Paradise Lost. Starfleet's head of security organized a coup of the Federation under everyone's noses. Sisko had to hold Admiral Layton at gunpoint before he gave up on his plan, and even then it took the "betrayal" of one of his underground officers for him to realize it was over. Also, Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges, another Section 31 episode where Starfleet complies under the table while a plot to assassinate the head of the Romulan Tal Shiar (which is later revealed to be a bid to entrench their spy) plays out behind the Dominion War. Starfleet does some nasty shit in DS9. I kinda love it.
@@sonofthewolfguardianofthef1214 It technically is though it operates completely separate, at least in DS9 it did. It is established and allowed by the Starfleet Charter, Article 14 Subsection 31. Hence the name. It predates the Federation, which is also technically separate from Starfleet. But that one is still controversial amoungst the fandom.
@@sonofthewolfguardianofthef1214 because it fucking is! It is made pretty clear in DS9 that central command is well aware of what they are doing and they condone it! Maybe they even ordered it. Also, in Discovery they are clearly a branch of Starfleet.
What about the android population from the. " I Mudd." episode ???. What happened to all those replicas of Mudd'.s wife Stella?.. The Federation could have a.field day.there. Or planet Exo 3 " What are little girls made of?," the android spinning machine? as I call it. Theres other androids besides Data.
I was gonna riot if you didn't include Lal's death, but you included Measure of a Man so I'm OK. But seriously....this was after it was established that Data had rights as a sentient being. By all accounts, his child should inherit those rights. But they were blatantly violated during a time of incredibly sensitive cognitive development in Lal's life, causing a cascade failure which killed her. Measure of a Man is at least vaguely understandable, since there was no legal precedent, but once there was it didn't even matter to them.
The weirdest thing about Measure of a Man is that you'd think there *was* a precedent. How could Data be admitted to (and graduate from) Starfleet academy if he wasn't even recognised as a living being?
1: Is creating a tool that could destroy entire populations evil in spite of the intention for colonization or because of it? Is creating a warp core evil because it could be used to annihilate planets? Was creating Friendship One evil? No, it's using it for destructive purposes that is evil. 2: Archer isn't Starfleet personified - He is one man. Starfleet didn't steal a warp coil, Archer made the decision. His crew is also not Starfleet personified - They are only a few people. This act of piracy is not Starfleet's fault. 3: That one is difficult to defend, and honestly, I don't want to do that for Discovery anyway... But look down to 5. 4: Similar to 2, Sisko's act was specifically pointed out to NOT be done with any consent from Starfleet or the Federation. Not something Starfleet did, just a few officers. I'm sorry, are we blaming Starfleet for everything their officers do? Are the actions of Captain Maxwell of the Phoenix all of Starfleet's fault too, or are we ignoring that because this time they found out and sent Picard to stop him? 5: Genocide of an enemy that has specifically declared their intent to genocide your species first, and has demonstrated the capacity and willingness to do so, doesn't count as self-defense? No? Well I guess we're gonna deal in absolutes. 6: 2 and 4 again??? Really?? ANOTHER blame shift from one person to an organization they have CLEARLY gone against in this course of action??? FFS. 7: 5 again, wow, changing it up. I'm sorry, what were the stated war goals of Species 8472? Purge the galaxy? I feel like blowing up a few of their ships to spook them out of war is pretty justified in that situation. Intermission 09:27 - Excuse me?!?! You literally just played the clip where CHAKOTAY finds that out, not JANEWAY, are you fucking kidding me???? I'm sorry, continue. 8: Section 31 isn't Starfleet. You can argue the corruption throughout Starfleet all you like, but the fact that all those Admirals supposedly in S31 couldn't just do it through Starfleet Intelligence shows that Starfleet couldn't - and DIDN'T - attempt to introduce a plague into the Founders. So I guess that's 4/10 that are shifting blame from the actually guilty party to Starfleet. Really good job. 9: No I do agree with this one. It was the whole point of the episode, after all, so, at least you do know how to pay attention. 10: Annnnnnd you ruined it. Literally. Half, guys. Half of your "Starfleet's evil acts" were NOT Starfleet.
But Starfleet condoned all of it...! Not one person was ever punished for their acts...! In most cases, if Starfleet didn’t come right out and tell them make this happen by any means necessary, then it was implied...
@@troystutsman1400 How would you know that? Its never addressed in the episodes what Starfleet's reaction is. In most cases, these examples are never brought up again. Additonally, we can also prove that Starfleet is unaware of some of these, such as Sisko's attempts to bring the Romulans into the war.
@@troystutsman1400 no starfleet never autherised some of these actions, as for punishment, who where they going to punish. in several epesodes involving Section 31 Sisco says afterwards....... "they dont exsist there a no records of the indviduls involved and all security footage has been deleted" WTF is supposted to happen next? Theres no everdance and no clues
@mjkalasky I don't know that I would argue Archer's actions, even for a "greater good", were right. I would argue that, if he had gotten another warp coil and taken it to the ship he stole from, fixing the damage he'd done would maybe have been a good thing. As for Measure of a Man, again, the whole point of the episode.
5. Founders declared war on the federation almost a year after s31/starfleet infected odo. Dominion in jemadar requested that the alpha quadrant stay out of the gama quadrant because they viewed it as a violation of their space and it is. What they do allow cardassians/romulans to try and genocide the dominion in season 3. Sisko was literally told do nothing while they potentially genocide the founders. This only push the dominion into heavier actions. Starfleet command was against odo from the very beginning. Several episodes in s1 and s2 they wanted to force odo out of chief of security. Section 31 is basically Starfleet. There are members of s 31 in the highest branches of Starfleet and federation. Sisko own words "starfleet says they are appalled at the idea of s31 but arent doing anything to stop it. Admiral ross openly supported s31 plans in the romulan episode.
I also disagree with associating Starfleet with that professor who turned a planet into Nazis. Here's the thing: Starfleet itself did NOT sanction what that professor did. He went rogue by disobeying the Prime Directive. The PD states that interference with non-warp capable civilizations is an absolute no-no. It didn't matter that the professor witnessed chaos and internecine conflicts. The ethical thing for him to have done would've been to let events unfold naturally & do NOTHING. So that professor became a war criminal according to the stipulations, regulations, and articles of Starfleet's own protocol: the Prime Directive.
"Patterns of Force". One of the top 12 TOS episodes. Moments before his death, John (the fuhrer) Gill told Kirk that even historians make mistakes. "The Prime Directive is the only way." Fast forward to "Bread and Circuses"... Merchant Captain R. Merrick (SF academy washout, aka Merrikus) totally throws out the regulations book. Brought his entire crew from the damaged ship down to New Rome. After telling that planet's leadership a hell of a lot about SF, the Federation, etc., many of the S.S. Beagle adapt to life on that world. Some don't and are sentenced to be fodder for televised gladitorial games as barbarians. Merrick does one last noble act and gets the landing party transported back to the Enterprise at the expense of his own life; the cultural contamination is done. In the TNG novel "Captains Honor", decades have passed and somehow New Rome is brought into the Federation family.
Exactly! She didn't even give the Doctor an inch of a bit of time to find an alternative solution. He found the cure to bring back Neelix & Tuvok. From this and the available technology, he could have searched for a way to preserve all 3 lives. Instead, Captain Jackassway was like: "We got the cure? Fine, let's kill Tuvix now." Even the Doctor was highly disgusted by that, and said to her: "It's murder. I'm out. Do it yourself." ( Not the exact quote, but that's the idea."
@@Paulafan5 Nice false equivalency there bud. At that time, Tuvok and Neelix were already gone. In the present, it was Tuvix. What created Tuvix was an accident, and no one was at fault. Destroying him was plain murder.
3:11 - you didn't mention that archer left the other ship with 3 years worth of supplies when he took the warp drive. It still doesnt make it a good thing, but it was very nice of him, technically he did a forced trade, see pirates take without giving and archer gave back when he too the warp drive, so their not pirates.
I would say 'Siege of AR-558' summarizes Starfleet's intentions thoughout ST's history quite accurately, more specifically the conversation between Quark and Nog.
Let's be real, during the Diminion War, if there were planets that held only Dominion shipyards and white facilities, starfleet would've been firing those things off left and right!
There wasn't any doubt that the man on the 1. place would be a the most badass and nuanced captain involved in a galactic war. That is one of the most insightful, deep and dark war story in SciFi.
#4 could be seen as saving the Federation from a known threat in favor of one that may not know of their existence yet- IMO more of a practical deal than an evil one. Of course Janeway should have expected the double cross- they are your mortal enemies after all...
To be fair, it was Chakotay who broke that deal first. The Borg then started taking things into their own hands. I have a feeling that if Janeway was not incapacitated that deal may have actually worked, and if it did it would be the first time anyone has ever made diplomatic relations with the Borg.
I like that episode you chose as number one. As Garak said that he, Sisko, saved millions of federation lives and it only cost the life of one criminal and one romulan senator. You sacrifice a few lives to make sure that many more will live. In a war that is a decision that can become a reality. Also, it was the sort of the excuse to use the A bomb in WW2. Sadly, but sometimes the end justify the means.
Sadly, we have learned thsat the US NEVER needed to use the H biombs on Japan, so that analogy is no longer valid. It's more on the lines of McCoy telling Spock, "If killing 5 lives, saves 10, it's a bargain. Is that your simple logic?"
@@loulfw2513 If 2 people not considered allies, are sacrificed to save billions, it is a bargain for STDS9. The US may have not needed to use the A bombs on Japan, as already they have internal struggles between those who wanted to surrender and end the war, and those who wanted to fight to the last man. By 1945, Japan was fighting basically for honor as they knew they could not stop the American advance. Americans did not want to risk it and decided to drop the bombs, and as an excuse they say that they wanted Japan to surrender so they would not need to continue island hopping and to invade japan, which of course will need more planning and manpower and of course deaths. That was their excuse. If after the bombs, the japanese did not surrender, they would go ahead with the invasion. We dont know for sure what would have happenned, so they just dropped the bombs and expected for a surrender, which came to true.
it was kind of the opposite of this list though...that JAG lady decided to go on a witch hunt and pissed everyone off so much that the admiral overseeing the investigation just got up and left. I'd say that's a win for Starfleet IMO.
@@swishfish8858 it kind of already happened. The whole episode was an allegory of the anti-communist MCarthy trails in the US where so many people including many figures in Hollywood were merely found guilty by association and were persecuted for it in violation of the 1st amendment of the US constitution.
Helps to remember that starfleet is still a military organization and The Enterprise is pretty much just a unit that's been left to its own devices. You get hints to that everywhere in the show. Other starfleet personnel acting like the cold, bitter jackoffs who see enemies everywhere.
Love this! I disagree with #4: Making a deal with the Borg to destroy an unknown species. Species 8472, did not only want to destroy the Borg, they wanted to destroy everyone and everything. Kes mentioned it in Scorpion, part I. What are your thoughts?
Archer could have attempted one other deal with the alien captain, though its a real long shot. Ask him to transfer his crew onto Enterprise. The captain does say "anything else" but... Yeah, it would be really dangerous for them, and be asking another species to essentially join the war with the Xindi. At the very least Archer could have promised to return later (if they survive) with the Warp Coil and additional compensation. Would probably have still been a no, but at least he'd be attempting another option or two. Or heck, just ask the captain to carry Archer and his senior staff in their vessel so they can make the rendezvous on time. Then the allied Xindi could go and pick up Enterprise with the Subspace Rifts.
*Genesis Device* - Anything that manipulates vast sums of energy can be turned into a weapon. Like the antimatter fuel of any warp capable vessel. A single metric ton of antimatter is about 2-3 times more powerful than _all the nuclear weapons in the world today._ And a large starship of Kirk's era, like the Constitution class, carries _many tons_ of this stuff. In terms of destructive potential, the Genesis Device is really nothing special. Its application as a weapon of conquest is practically zero: there are cheaper, more readily available means of wiping out a planet. The advantage of Genesis is that it leaves behind a habitable planet, but you do not colonize enemy planets on the front line of an ongoing war. *Archer steals a warp coil* - Captain Archer is not Starfleet. He is a captain in Starfleet. Starfleet did not strand some aliens in interstellar space by stealing a warp coil. Archer did. *Planning to blow up Qo'noS* - I have no criticisms about this one. Starfleet was straight up evil here. They considered and approved a heinous act of terror that would have murdered billions of civilians. *Sisko poisons a planet* - Sisko acted without the approval of Starfleet. Once again, this is the action of a single ship, not the entire organization of Starfleet. Though I admit it is quite suspect he wasn't immediately court-martialed and put in the slammer. *Picard almost kills the Borg with math* - Everyone has the _potential_ to be a good person, but not everyone is. We judge people by their actions, not what they _could_ do, or in this case, what they could become. The Borg are belligerent, effectively genocidal, and do not have noncombatants. Wiping them out may not have been the "good" decision, but it certainly wouldn't have been evil, either. Picard put his conscience above the lives of countless billions of people all across the galaxy, who might have lived if the Borg had been stopped that day. *Space Nazis* - Once again: this disastrophe was the result of a single person who acted without the knowledge or approval of Starfleet. *A deal with the Borg* - Captain Janeway acts without the knowledge or approval of Starfleet. Judge Janeway however you wish, but _Starfleet_ had nothing to do with these events. *Section 31's morphogenic virus* - Yep. Maybe not all of Sarfleet knew about this, but the top brass did, or at least tacitly condoned it by allowing Section 31 to operate so freely. *Data is a toaster* - Starfleet really dropped the ball here. This might really be the worst thing Starfleet ever did, when you consider the implications. *Garak blows up an ambassador* - Sisko was attempting to get the Romulans on Starfleet's side by using diplomacy and subterfuge. He did so with Starfleet's approval as well. However, neither Sisko nor Starfleet had _any_ idea about Garak's intention to plant a bomb on the ambassador's ship. Sisko might have decided it was worth it _after_ it happened, but probably wouldn't have agreed to it beforehand. And it's pretty clear he never told Starfleet about it either, so once again these are the actions of individuals, and not Starfleet as an organization. So of this list of 10 things, only 9 of which are actually evil, Starfleet can only really be culpable for 3 of them.
Data is a toaster - actually it was mostly due to ambitions of Maddox. Starfleet just had no laws defending artificial beings. Cpt. Picard made a precedent by defending AI rights. Then Federation government will make it a law. That's how democracy works. I do not count Discovery and Picard episodes, cause they are not Star Trek.
The problem with Picard is that it portrays the entirety of Starfleet as EVIL. The better written Treks had rogue members of Starfleet and dealt with the issues with some nuance. Picard doesn't because Kurtzman is a hack.
I think Picard was very consistent with existing lore. A few synthetics do something bad, so all are banned and branded as villains out of fear, prejudice, and bigotry, showing Starfleet's shallow, reactionary nature. A few models of genemods do bad things, so all of the other trillions of possible models are banned and branded as villains out of fear, prejudice, and bigotry. Same. Exact. Behavior. Starfleet's behaving no different in Picard than it did in the past.
Most of the cases you have pointed out , are acts where Starfleet are in a war situation, then a few soley upon the actions of individuals. As for the situation with Genesis , Genesis WAS designed to terraform dead planets for colonisation. It was down to Khan and the Klingons attempting to lable it as a weapon or to use it as such. Spocks theorisation was just that, not an actual intention. A very shaky video and a lot of shaky supposition
One truism that dates back to the original series is as soon as you got that nice broad Commodore's braid on your uniform sleeve, your brain turned to tapioca or something. Probably the only Commodore I ever felt any respect or sympathy for was Matt Decker, 'cause he pretty much went thru his own personal private Hell on the way to offing himself.
Most of the acts on the list were done by isolated rogue elements of Starflight and weren't sanctioned. However, the false flag subplot in Star Trek VI was approved by some of the highest ranking officers in Starfleet. I'm surprised it didn't get a mention. I'm mean they were even willing to throw Kirk under a B'Rel in order to get their way.
Well you need to be able to differentiate between the collective and the individual drones. The Drones can still be saved, and really aren't responsible for their condition, is it at all right to kill them off unless there's absolutely no choice? It's one of the truly tragic thing about the Borg, if a Federation ship and a Borg ship duke it out, it doesn't matter who wins because both ships are filled with innocent victims.
@@AeneasGemini There are no "individual drones". Except for that lot that broke off to go with Lore, and Hugh. Every drone is part of the collective unless acted upon by outside forces.
@@vsgfilmgroup Note that Picard didn't spend a moment considering a virus that would break the collective hold on the drones. It was kill them all or move on to the next episode.
1) Species 8472 had threatened Voyager via Kes - working with the Borg was not an evil choice 2) As others have pointed out, the actions of Captain Ransom and the U.S.S. Equinox were pretty fricking horrible 3) As others have pointed out, the attempted coup of Starfleet during the Dominion War was hardly its finest hour 4) As Picard complained, the abandonment of the Romulans after the supernova was bad 5) I would add that pretty much everything Kelvin Universe Admiral Marcus did - except for impregnating Carol's mother at least once - was all bad 6) Also, getting rid of the TOS miniskirt uniforms
I cannot believe that Captain Ransom wasn't on this list. He was yet another Starfleet officer who was committing genocide just to get home a little bit faster. There's actually quite a few examples of genocide from Starfleet. It's kind of freaky
Genesis is tenuous at best but try the Voyager episode "Equinox" when the crew for the Starship Equinox find they can use a multidimensional alien race as fuel for their warp core , In T.O.S. episode "A taste of Armageddon" Captain Kirk threatens to use general order 24( the destruction of all major cities on a planet ) he never dose , but the fact the order exists in the first place .
A taste of Armageddon was actually the closest thing to an evil committed by Starfleet. An order to destroy all life on a planet as a threat to save some of his crew and command is pretty extreme. I'm not sure if it was ethical at all even for survival, but since he didn't have to do it the consequence was good.
Lots of wiggle room here. Two of the incidents were vetoed by Starfleet personel in one way or another (Data's side won the hearing, Picard decided not to genocide the Borg). A couple were Section 31, which is not really part of Starfleet. Likewise, Sisco never planned to murder Vreenak. That was all Garak. Voyager never agreed to genocide Species 8472, just defeat them militarily. The Genesis Device was never meant to be a weapon. And so on. Starfleet DOES have biosphere and even sun-destroying weapons, and almost never uses them.
A few moderately armed ships could glass a planet with directed energy beams and antimatter warheads. That's just their conventional day-to-day shit they shoot off willy-nilly. A planet killing device seems underwhelming in a universe like that.
Section 31 is part of Starfleet. It is made pretty clear in DS9 that Central Command endorsed both the plot to infect the Founders and the one to remove the Romulan senator and substitute her with a Federation mole. They also agreed to trick the Romulans into the war, even tho their version of the plan didn't involve murdering Vreenak.
@@VuotoPneumaNN Sloane on the other hand made it sound like Section 31 operated completely independently of Starfleet. If it did coordinate with the Federation leadership, I suspect it was only a few bad apples (or desperate men) in Starfleet who signed off on it. memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Section_31
@@VuotoPneumaNN Who do you trust then? The corrupt Starfleet admiral who colluded in the overthrow and likely death of a Romulan who was an ally? Working with Sloane the was an act of desperation during wartime. It doesn't mean that Section 31 is officially part of Starfleet.
Credit where it's due, pal! Dr. McCoy pointed out that the Genesis Device could have been a weapon. "Dear Lord. You think we're intelligent enough to... suppose... what if this thing were used where life already exists?"
@Leo Peridot I don't think they are. I just started the New Frotier series and enjoying it immensely. Any good evil Starfleet moments in there that you know of? No hardcore spoilers please, just a simple yes or no. On book 5 "Martyr."
Fun fact about the atmosphere poisoning in DS9: The poison Eddington used only made the planet uninhabitable by Cardassians, while what Sisko did made it uninhabitable by humans, forcing the two factions to trade... which is what they were supposed to have done years ago!
You missed the Tuvoks affair. Janeway wiped out a new and unique lifeform made by fusion Tuvok and Neliks into a single being. She wanted her security chief and personal chef back. The end of the episode she berates her first officer for trying to save her from herself.
So, interesting enough The one where Archer stole a warp coil. Given the situation and its eagerness to save their home planet. I would of made the same call. In the episode they gave them enough food and supplies to last the three years they needed to return home.
one of the most is in voyager when they meet the other starfleet ship stuck in the delta quadrant and that crew is killing aliens because the aliens are essentially fuel that boost the speed of the starship. that was one of the most evil moves to happen under starfleet command
at least back then they were willing to admit it was evil rather than pushing the "desperate times call for desperate measures" agenda they would follow post 9/11. On Enterprise Captain Archer would have totally trapped those aliens and used them as fuel if it meant he could get to the Xindi.
in archer's defence, he was thinking of EARTH being destroyed by the Xindi Death Star and he had no time to go back and no reinforcements.... SO he made a very hard choice and had to live with it.
10 - That wasn't the intention. Doesn't make them evil. 9 - Enterprise had to steal the warp coil to save Earth from being destroyed. That wasn't them being evil and seeing how Starfleet didn't order it to happen, it certainly wasnt them being evil. 8 - Nothing from DIS or PIC can be used as an example. 7 - Wrong to do, but this is Sisko's personal vendetta. Not a Starfleet action. 6 - Questionable, but it isn't evil to launch a strike against a threat that is responsible for the destruction of hundreds of thousands of worlds. 5 - This was one man, not Starfleet. 4 - Janeway's decision to do this in an act of desperation to save her crew. Again, this isn't Starfleet's decision. 3 - Section 31's action was not sanctioned by Starfleet. 2 - Hardly evil when they considered a machine to be a machine only. They had a trial and that was that. Would anyone evil accept the result of that trial? 1 - Again, this was Sisko's action. Not Starfleet. Honestly, I can't believe this list didn't include the incident with the Ba'ku. One of the few genuine villainous moments from Starfleet itself and you didn't even include it. Oh, and there was also the plot as seen in Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges. Another sorely missed from this list.
7 - Sisko used Starfleet resources and personnel to take that action. He was in uniform, representing the Federation and Starfleet. He committed a war crime, which should have seen him jailed whether he was acting personally or not. That Starfleet did not court martial him, nor take any action against him at all, shows they were quite willing to allow it. That makes them complicit in his crime.
@@maisiesummers42 fabricating a secret meeting isn't a war crime. Garak was the one that committed murder, which I still wouldn't classify a war crime anyway and Sisko didn't report it because of the bigger picture. War is terrible and terrible things need to be done to win. Just imagine if the Dominion had won. Garak said himself something like "humans have rules [in war]. Rules that make winning difficult." He has a good point.
Four number 1. Starfleet did know about the plan to bring in the Romulans. Sisco told that Admiral and the Federation backed the plan, but would claim no knowledge of anything should Sisco fail.
Was going to say pretty much the exact same that none of these are Starfleet, but rather individuals, or they're not evil at all. Seriously, its like the people running this channel have never actually watched Star Trek.
In one episode of Voyager, Voyager destroys an anti-Borg trap that a civilization put out to protect itself from the Borg. Voyager left a whole civilization to get assimilated just because it could kill one crew member on Voyager. Poisoning space. In Star Trek The New Generation, it is found out that flying at warp speed degrades space to the point that people flying in degraded space with a space ship could have the space ship blow up. All this time, there could already be "cracks" in space due to the constant warping between key lines of travel to the point that Star Fleet must have known about it. Kirk's threat to nuke two planets that didn't have warp capability because he didn't like the way the two planets were fighting. Basically each plant was using disintegration chambers on their planets and when one planet "tagged" the other planet, the tagged planet sent some people to the disintegration chamber. Picard siding with a genocidal space creature. Picard has fired on space creatures before, but when a scientist kills a space creature that ate her home planet, he arrests her saying that isn't the Starfleet way.
In Kirk's defense, one of those planets was forcibly trying to shove Kirk, his crew, and a high ranking Federation diplomat into a disintegration chamber because the war computer calculated the Enterprise as destroyed. After watching that episode, I have to say that those aliens kinda deserved whatever they got (be it Kirk nuking them or the other planet nuking them for breaking the rules).
The Genesis device wasn't anything to do with Starfleet. It was Federation scientists i.e. civilians who created it. Starfleet was just helping them out till Khan got involved...
Species 8472 wanted to destroy everything not just the borg and where a bigger threat then the borg. Also at the time they couldn't make a alliance with Species 8472. Their only option was to ally with the borg.
When you take event out of context of in the episode you can make all shorts of judgments.. 8472 wasnt just taking borg. They try to dissolve ensign kim. They for days sent kes threatening messages. 7 stated it herself when they discover the earth recreation that 8472 built. The only contact that voyager got was your galaxy will be purged. Ultimately they never gave the borg anything. Hint why the borg queen want 7 back but as an individual in dark frontier.
I admit to being baffled by the modern attempt to completely rewrite the history of Voyager. It wasn't the greatest show; it surely wasn't the crap many people seem to want to make it out to be. Janeway in particular is being singled out for a complete distortion of who her character was. I always considered her a great captain. With flaws. A very well rounded character that Mulgrew played perfectly. Thank the gods this show came along before wokeness destroyed women.
@@dylanogg347 The word has actually been around for quite a while. In current times it is a slang word used used to masquerade self righteousness as enlightenment. It is particularly abused in the feminist movement when it is abused to portray women as perfect and men as idiots.
The point of the "Starfleet isn't evil" exception isn't that Star Trek doesn't deal with these issues, it deals with them almost exclusively. Gene Roddenberry was adamant that Starfleet never be seen to engage in activities that are cruel, unjust, or evil because he didn't want to make yet another sci fi epic in which humans are root of all evil, and that we'd never learn. He wanted to make something that showed us how good we COULD be if we tried, just a little bit. He wanted to give people hope that there would be a future in which we were capable of overcoming our petty differences and prejudices. Conflict was supposed to come from outside the Federation, and while later Star Trek producers didn't fully agree with this and explored grey areas, most of them tried to stick close to the whole "Starfleet are the good guys" theme. The new series' and movies don't just undermine this theme, they seem to want to retcon it out of existence, and that makes me angry. Star Trek isn't supposed to be a dumb action-adventure romp. It reaches its fans on a level usually reserved for religion and mythos. It gives people hope. Or at least, it used to. Now it's just Wagon Train to the Stars, which is exactly what Gene DIDN'T want.
Ummmm...actually that’s EXACTLY how Roddenberry described it: as “Wagon Train to the Stars”. Also, Roddenberry’s vision was unrealistic. And if you don’t like Picard because it goes against that, then you’d better not tell me that you like DS9, because if you do, then you’re kind of a hypocrite, because guess what? DS9 DID IT FIRST.
@@Shadowkey392 that's how he described how he sold it to the studio, but when he started writing that, he realized he wanted something more, and the studio fought it all the way. If you think that kind of shit is unrealistic, then you miss the entire point of Star Trek. DS9 wasn't based on a Federation Starship, and most of the characters weren't Starfleet. There were more moral grey areas explored, but I dont recall Starfleet ever engaging in passive genocide or slavery.
What about when they grew a clone of Trip to harvest it’s body parts to save the real trip...? Obviously, Starfleet had to be made aware of this and had to sanction it or they never would’ve been able to do it without getting in trouble...!
Earth Starfleet and UFP Starfleet are two entirely different organizations with different rules of engagement. Nothing in Enterprise ultimately says ANYTHING about the UFP or it's Starfleet.
i thought Enterprise was like the beginning of that stuff. Like, Enterprise was BEFORE what we knew as Starfleet. It was Starfleet's beginning. so, they took ALL that they learned from Enterprise and other voyages and made the rules and guidelines that we came to know. So, some shit happened with Enterprise and NOW they have rules and guidelines against it...or for it
In fact I'm not sure it's that episode but there is a point in which archer says he shouldn't morally do something but as there were no guidelines written out (foreshadowing the prime directive) he chose to do it.
@@smash461986 IIRC i think its at the end of the first episode of the second season where Archer foreshadowed, what we now know to be, the Prime Directive.
She gets Admiral Kirk's jacket, not the full uniform set. Besides Marcus and her team were not part of Starfleet. Just being sponsored by them and using some of their resources, like the USS Reliant
There were rumblings about a spinoff from Discovery with Ash Tyler and Mirror Georgiou in Section 31. I think it could be a cool series but I'm guessing it would be hard to get Michelle Yeogh to commit for a long series. But maybe one season with her then spin into a new character. Like she becomes the head of Section 31 because she knows how to get the dirty work done properly and then she can make the occasional guest appearance?
You make a good point, liked the video but I think there are better examples then some in this list. Some of the points you make I would not consider as Star Fleet's doing but more one man's doing. Captain Sisko's opinion about doing it again is 1 man's opinion maybe or maybe not shared by the rest of Star Fleet. It doesn't really represent Star Fleet as a whole. Better examples are installing a "military" regime on earth to ensure safety; Move a population to steal eternal youth by an Admiral (not worth watching it, Insurrection, all again but I think the admiral was somewhat supported by Star Fleet).
You said "with shameless and wicked intent" but this is the list you provide, I'd argue only number 1 fits that criteria #10: Because technology can be used as a weapon does not mean that is why it was created, besides why would they need that when a Constitution class vessel and basically level a planet anyway #9: Evil would have been slaughtering them, or just taking without leaving supplies. Very damn dark however #8: From Discovery, shouldn't be on this list as Picard and Discovery are from the same production era and therefor thematically similar, you're trying to show Starfleet has previously been depicted as evil #7: They even said in the episode that he didn't get approval for this from Starfleet Command, although the fact he wasn't sent to a penal colony is tacit approval #6: I don't get this one, yes it's considered but it's abandoned when thee true horrible scope of what is been proposed actually means morally is confronted, isn't that opposite of evil? #5: Not a sanctioned operation, in fact the Enterprise crew work to undo and correct the situation #4: So you ignore that 8472 was planning to destroy all life in the galaxy? Borg wanted to turn the weapon into a WMD which voyager wouldn't do. Janeway didn't want to wipe out 8472, just defend the galaxy as we know it from annihilation #3: Finally you get to one that I agree shows a truly evil act by the Federation #2: Wait up, the ranking starfleet officer heard the arguments from 2 officers and made the judgement Data was sentient and had individual rights, how is this showing starfleet as evil? #1: Again another actual good choice Ones I think would have made for a better list, no specific order, altho some I still agree wouldn't meet the "with shameless and wicked intent" criteria but still evil imo * TNG: Insurrection * DS9 S7E16 Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges * TNG S7E12 The Pegasus * TNG S7E20 Journey's End Plenty of material that starfleet can be evil, as Sisko said "It's easy to be a saint in paradise" but all in all most of this list was weak.
To be fair: Janeway only went along with the borg because species 8472 more or less said they were going to wipe out all life in the universe, not just the borg. But yeah, everyone is the Paragon until you're backed into a corner with no way out. Still, things like Measure of a Man also point out that even in times of peace they're totally willing to do underhanded things.
"It is easy to be a saint when you live in paradise" - Benjamin Sisko, who was not living in paradise but on DS9
I think comparitively speaking that DS9 was paradise. Just speculation.
@Rosamund Powell In Star Trek Earth is indeed paradise. But when Sisko said "paradise" he did not mean earth particularly, he meant peace and prosperity. In the beginning, DS9 was always in the middle of political, ethnical and religious conflicts, the poverty of Bajor was increasing those conflicts. Later on, DS9 was in the epicentre of war.
Look on our world today. Since we have big crises, uncertainty and big changes of the way we live, civilisation got out of balance.
@@justinreed4613 Compared to earth nowadays, maybe.
Those who seek and worship evil always have complaints about those who have morals
The Federation was never evil... especially when President Janeway Instituted the Hunger Games.
If we're including Archer's temporary piracy gig, then you need to include Captain Ransom's torture and murder of multiple extradimensional beings to power his ship.
I think it's because Ransom's actions had no official sanction. When Starfleet ordered Archer to destroy the Xindi weapon they made it clear that anything goes.
@@trajan74 Sisko's actions with bringing the Romulans in the Dominion War did not have official sanction either. That was all him and Garak.
@@miketaterparker I'm pretty sure SFC was in on the plan to seduce the Senator. But even if they weren't I still don't think that one should count either. SFC didnt sanction the murder and all Sisko did was cover it up.
@@trajan74 Starfleet Intelligence might've known about the Sisko-Garak plot, maybe even helped out behind the scenes. But not Starfleet Command. If things went bad they'd sacrifice one errant Commander and one Cardassian criminal, not valuable Flag Officers in time of war. They know that the less they know the better.
@@pwnmeisterage starfleet actually did know, sisko states in the episode that he ran the plan past starfleet and they agreed to it
“In the Pale Moonlight” is a damn fine episode and presents quite a moral conundrum for Sisko. This episode is one of the main reasons I adore Deep Space Nine so much.
Probably my favorite DS9 episode, not because of the morality problems for Sisko...but as he's speaking into the log, he's also trying to justify his actions to you, the viewer.
Maybe DS-9's Best episode
One of the best episodes in the entire franchise .... real badass Sisko
Iiitss a faaaaake
My favorite episode, not only in DS9, but of every trek episode ever written
It was actually McCoy who realised the implication of using the Genesis Device on a planet where life already existed 😳
Yeah
Take that Trek Culture
And by the way,the script makes it clear that Starfleet did not develop the Genesis Device
While I agree with a couple of these things, the presenter seems to call "self defence" evil on a couple of occasions. Starfleet's lofty goals would mean precisely squat if the Federation is wiped out by an enemy. There's a fundamental difference between trying to get the Ba'ku's "nice to have" de-aging technology and stopping the Klingons (or the Dominion, or the Borg) from destroying the Federation.
One of the greatest moments in all of Star Trek was when Sisko looked straight into the lens and said "I can live with it."
Certainly not in all of Star Trek, but possibly the best moment in DS9 I think belongs to Garak. Garak (to Sisko): "...and if your conscience is bothering you, you should soothe it with the knowledge that you may have just saved the entire Alpha quadrant and all it cost, was the life of one Romulan senator, one criminal, and the self-respect of one Starfleet officer. I don't know about you, but I'd call that a bargain."
In #4 OP left out one small detail: Species 8472's Catchhrase "The weak will perish". Once done with the Borg, 8472 intended to purge all life in the Milky Way Galaxy. JANEWAY, knowing this, Chose the lesser of two evils while looking to get her ship clear of Borg space.
A small detail of "your galaxy will be purged" as in kill trillions of people.
You've never seen the Voyager episdoe 'In the Flesh', have you?
In Janeway's defense! This new species seemed pretty set on wiping EVERYBODY out, they didn't exactly have a lot of options. Least thats the impression that Kes and the writers gave us. Then a bit while later we learn, oh! They're not that bad! It was all a misunderstanding! A.k.a they had different writers pretty much doing whatever they wanted.
Sorry not going to defend Janeways ignorance. Anyone with half a brain would know the borg started the fight with another species. Then to suddenly act surprised was dumb. Chakotay was right and his plan saved her ass or else they would all be assimilated.
"The weak shall perish." includes pretty much everyone, the Borg just being the start of it.
In total agreement with you there as species 8472 planed to launch a war of extermination upon all the species in star trek galaxy starting with the borg and delta quadrant, so Janeway doing a deal with the devil you know; the borg to save their reality/realm and defeat species 8472 is nothing more than reasonable self defence. Particularly as they went no further than creating a weapon that allowed them to fight effectively and used that as a deterrent to force them to call off their invasion.
Anyone that thinks Starfleet is dark in "Picard" obviously missed pretty much every season of DS9
When I saw the episode where Janeway made a deal with the borg I was thinking "WTF?" If I am the first officer, I would have conducted mutiny.
People who complained about Picard and Disco, clearly wach only memes on internet. Literally every series has such moment.
I know! The lighting on that station is horrendous.
Not only that, the dark episodes I. DE9 are among the best episodes ever written
You forgot the entire premise of Star Trek Insurrection. That was rather naughty, as well.
Forced relocations are okay when the Federation does it!
Star Trek Insurrection never happened
@@surorov1 I get that. History is written by the victors, and such. I suspect it would be most gratifying to see it fall in some kind of twisted episode based on a federation lie or propaganda that sent it all spiraling into its own demise, and then give rise to the terran empire seizing control at the right moment. Now humans are the aggressors, and the rest of the broken federation are frightened down to the core of their spleens. Begin season one of THE TERRANS. Bring up all the human vices and faults, then have them defeated repeatedly in a witty fashion to remind them of their place. Might be fun having the shoe on the other foot.
'Picard' is the Apocalype Timeline Future.
The SHIT is just that it's presented to us as the ONLY freaking Timeline!
Everything would be fine (no actually it's still seriously bad writing and i hate the Show for all it is) if they would have stated that!
And given us a Good Timeline!
One that makes Sense and isnt just obviously meant to be 'Oh, look, it's so terrible, but don't worry, Superman will safe us'-Shit.
God, 'Picard' was so bad and if we ever get more Star Trek it will surely be more of this Nonsense.
AND DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED ON ARCHERS FUCKED UP ADVENTURES! Some of his Episodes are like Acid Dreams! LITERALLY!
Bear in mind, most of Starfleet likely wasn't aware of this, in fact it's safe to assume that this deal was organised mainly under the authority of Admiral Quinn. While it's not a good chapter in their history, it hardly reflects on Starfleet as a whole
Species 8472 wasn't just going to stop with the Borg though.They were going to destroy everything. Janeway made the deal as it was the lesser of two evils, as the Borg can be stopped, but 8472 was seemingly unstoppable.
Yep. They could have included the episode Tuvix instead as she basically kills someone who was pleading for their own life and that one was pretty iffy given they probably could have figured something else out given more time and the transporter tech.
@@wallacewallaby5782 Yep good one, and we have the similar Story of Enterprise season 3 with Trip getting injured badly and Archer desides to grow a clone of him "Sims". Sure, they though he would survive, and live and die naturally within a cople of days afterwards, but Phlox found out, Sims wouldnt survive. In the same time, Sims found out that there might be a way for him to grow normally and old, and in sense he is Trip. But Archers still desides Trip is more important that SIms.... tough and maybe evil choise.
Sounds like the 2016 presidential election
@@tgr.4550 And 2020 election. Probably nearly every election tbh.
@@wallacewallaby5782 No, just 16 and 20... and probably 24. Which aging old white guy with no grasp on the real world do you want to vote for?
Star fleet didn’t create the genesis device. Human independent scientists created it. The Federation simply willing to test the technology.
Well, that's true but as I remember, David Marcus was reluctant to see the Genesis project in Starfleet hands. Such distrust in the military means something...
@@estudiordl From a man who himself invented a weapon of mass destruction using an illegal substance which every ethical scientist in the galaxy denounced as dangerously unpredictable. I think if we're fair, the Marcus's downplayed the negative aspects of Genesis.
@@lawrence5584 I didn't see that, so true. One would think after 200 years scientist would know if you are splitting the atom again, someone would make the bomb, again. 😏😉
"In the Pale Moonlight" is such a good episode!
@Greg Frost That's it?! You're behind quota, friend!
just good? BEST ST episode EVER I'd say. Has the kind of drama and deepness, which can easily rival the most hardcore 50's noir. The only thing it is missing is sepia filter and fedoras...
When Captain Sisco says, "I can live with it", and tries to get comfortable on the sofa and says it again, you know he just isn't comfortable at all with the chain of events he set in motion.
That is a great episode.
By good, you mean greatest...right?
@@TheLenaweeTrekker When it's all on the line you do what you have to.
'In the Pale Moonlight' is my favorite episode of any Trek show. Superb writing and performances from the cast. That speech from Garak at the end is just *chef's kiss*:
"And if your conscience is bothering you, you should soothe it with the knowledge that you may have just saved the entire Alpha Quadrant, and all it cost was the life of one Romulan senator, one criminal, and the self-respect of one Starfleet officer. I don’t know about you, but I’d call that a bargain."
" That's why you came to me isn't it captain? You knew I could do those things you weren't capable of... "
My favorite Star Trek: Voyager episode. It felt good to f see the Borg run away from a species they couldn't assimilate for once. Species 8472 was badass.
The assassination of the romulan senator was always the plan. Garak knew the data rod would not pass muster. However, a data rod recovered from a destroyed ship, and thus slightly damaged, would just not pass muster purely because of the damage to the ship. He explained it at the end of the episode.
@Leo Peridot Did you watch the episode at all? The entire episode in question was Sisko trying to come to terms with the deeply horrible things he was a party to. He never thought he was in the right. The only, ONLY reason he could even live with what happened was because it was a tactical military and political move that would potentially save his homeland. As for Sisko as a religious leader, have you watched Star Trek: Deep Space Nine? At best, for most of the series, he's a reluctant leader who would take an out. That's not to say DS9 doesn't portray religious leaders with an agenda. In that respect Winn Adami is the perfect juxtaposition. Ambitious, fundamentalist, and willing to abandon all her beliefs if someone offered more power over her adversary.
That was when Sisco became my favorite Captain. "Computer, delete that entire personal log."
Hes not my favorite, but damn was i happy at that moment!
The most damning thing of all? I can live with it. I CAN live with it...
Computer, Erase this entire video.
"Why is the Federation so obsessed with the Maquis? We've never harmed you. And yet we're constantly arrested and charged with terrorism. Starships chase us through the Badlands, and our supporters are harassed and ridiculed. Why? Because we've left the Federation, and that's the one thing you can't accept. Nobody leaves Paradise, everyone should want to be in the Federation! You know, in some ways, you're even worse than the Borg. At least they tell you about their plans for assimilation. You're more insidious, you assimilate people - and they don't even know it."
-Michael Eddington, DS9
One of my favorites he was very much right. That was on of the few things I disagreed with that Sisko was upset by.
It's an interesting criticism of the United States. However in this case the maquis is not the group of settlers who left the Federation. It's the paramilitary guerilla organisation killing cardassians and giving cardassians the opportunity to threaten the truce between Cardassia and the Federation. The maquis are risking forcing war on the Federation to keep or possibly in retaliation for losing some planets of their own. It's selfish and somewhat materialistic. Perhaps also a criticism of some aspects of US culture.
I understand why George Washington sought independence for his adopted country but a fight against injustice does not a just country make. In the pursuit of freedom it became acceptable to bear arms against others to protect what was yours. But what if it was not really yours in the first place? What if you have plenty and allow others to starve through no fault of their own? Does personal freedom Trump a duty to help and protect others, all others regardless of dividing lines invented to justify selfish values?
because like the first nations people of today they are taking back their lands one gambling debt at a time ;)
But wasn't the federation that signed those colonies over to Cardassia?
@@limburgishmapping7166 Yup. They gave them the colonies and told the colonist they had to leave and settle somewhere else that the Federation would choose or allow or stay and live under Cardassian rule with out Federation assistance.
You forgot the enslavement of the mark 1 series of the Emh, they are sentient. When the doctor from Voyager wrote a holonovel, it became a revolutionary holonovel to the emh mk1s who were being used as mine workers
Doctor was never viewed as sentient by anyone other than Voyager. He was only given rights to control his works.
@@Shadothecat That's the point. The doctor was seen as property rather than a life form, the same as Data was, although the EMH holograms seem to have been treated worse, especially once they became "obsolete". It's obvious they were sentient, since Voyager's EMH was able to create his own art and had interests beyond his programming as a doctor.
I was going to mention this as well. It goes hand in hand with Data being Starfleet property. I suppose it doesn't help that the Doctor is my favorite Star Trek character of all time.
@@ethanpottratz9058 mine too
Why in so many sci-fi shows, do artificial humanoid creations meant for work, menial labor, used only as tools, etc, are either given near or full sentience, allowed to attain sentience, or checks are not put in place to prevent that? (Prevention of them attaining sentience is another philosophical discussion, but for everyones' benefit, it should not be allowed for designated "workers".)
Then either minor issues occur (relatively minor- fighting for your freedom is absolutely not minor, but it's far less destructive than), to full uprisings by synthetic beings? Usually followed by war and death on both sides.
They should make one group of synthetics for solely work, and another as full-fledged lifeforms with the same rights as biological beings.
This list can be justified as necessary:
10. Genesis device was created to terraform and create life not destroy it. It can be used for evil but, that’s not its purpose. A warp core can blow up a planet, those are WMDs too then.
9. There was no alternative. If Captain Archer didn’t steal the coil then they would fail the mission which means many lives lost. They weighed up the moral implications, you did not.
8. That was an all out war and they had a weapon that would win, I’d consider it as an option since freedom was at stake. Granted it came with collateral damage but that may be a necessity to win.
7. I cannot justify this one well. Though I agree with the Maquis’ overall motives, Sisko had to deal with a terrorist quickly and so called his bluff.
6. It’s not genocide, the Borg aren’t a race, they’re an infectious cybernetic disease. Though a drone can get regain its humanity, these are through unique conditions thus making it impossible to rehabilitate all other drones to be effective. They should’ve infected the collective as originally planned to potentially save civilisation.
5. That was a rogue agent not official an Federation directive.
4. Janeway chose the lesser of two evils.
3. Once again, they were at all out war. The Federation had a weapon to win it so they used it, the only collateral was one security officer. That’s a bargain. And at the end of the day, it was a contributing factor in winning the war.
2. Yeah that was pretty bad.😕 But nothing like this had ever happened, it wasn’t law yet.
1. That was a necessary action to win the war. Either that or totalitarianism for centuries. Freedom was won and like Garak said all it cost was one romulan senator, one criminal, and the self respect of one Starfleet officer, which was a bargain.
Sometimes evil is necessary to save freedom and lives.
‘People sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.’
- Richard Grenier, derived from George Orwell
"You cant handle the truth! Son we live in a world that has walls and those have to be guarded by men with guns. […] I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. […] And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall! We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something, you use them as a punch line. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said 'thank you' and went on your way. Otherwise I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand at post."
- Col. Nathan R. Jessep
“There’s a point, far out there when the structures fail you, when the rules aren’t weapons anymore. They’re shackles letting the bad guy get ahead. One day, you may face such a moment of crisis. And in that moment, I hope you have a friend like I did, to plunge their hands into the filth so that you can keep yours clean!”
-Comm. James Gordon
You want me on that wall you need me on that wall
Thank you so much you put what I’ve been thinking very eloquently and I greatly appreciate it because this is true because when you look at some things from World War II in our own planet and other stuff there of been some pretty nasty things done as well to cut to get the ends of a means
McCoy pointed out Genesis could be a WMD, not Spock.
The Klingons immediately (and correctly) called it a "Genesis Torpedo".
As opposed to merely glassing the planet?
As if they know what they are talking about.
I mean, 103 years later after the Genesis device. The Vulcans (and Starfleet) created the Red Matter... and if you watch Star Trek (2009). You know how that work..
@@johnilarde8440 2009? There was no Star Trek in 2009
You forgot displacing a people to grab their lands in Insurrection. very trail of tears vibe on that one
Hell they did that one twice. First time with actual Natives
@@KalEL224 I don't remember this episode. Could you tell me which one it was (and which series)?
@@sergioaccioly5219 Star Trek TNG season 7 episode 20 journey’s end
Um, as far as Janeway and 8472
"We will purge your galaxy of all life."
Yeah, unless I can tern 8472 away from that, war is on, buddy.
Should have been Tuvix on this list. Not Scorpion
Nah men, Janeway is borderline evil. She make mirror universe Philippa Georgiou look like a saint.
10- McCoy was the one who recognizes that Genesis is evil
9- That was actually Archer, not Starfleet. They didn’t tell him to do that.
7- Again, that was Sisko, he wasn’t ordered by Starfleet to do it.
6- It was the Borg. When faced with annihilation you can see why they consider it. My criticism is that they didn’t do it.
5- Again, was not done by order of Starfleet.
4- I’m seeing a pattern forming here. Not Starfleet yet again.
1- One last for the pattern. Sisko was not ordered to do it by Starfleet.
Your list said it was what Starfleet had ever done. This was what Starfleet officers had ever done. And in some of the cases, it was kinda understandable.
10. Starfleet did not create the Genisos device. They funded it. They did not invent it.
9. Enterprise is pre Starfleet.
8. Discovery is not in the established timeline, this is a perfect example of why it is not.
5. Gill was a rogue agent, he was not acting under Federation / Starfleet orders.
3. Section 31 is a rogue faction of the Federation. They are not Starfleet / Federation proper.
2. Starfleet did not claim Data was property. Maddox did. Starfleet allowed the trial to prove his individuality.
Enterprise is pre-Federation, not pre-Starfleet. Remember in one episode Archer said he proposed to a woman? She turned him down because she would become a "Starfleet widow"
Picard had to fight tooth and nail and use his political weight to get that trial. Starlet had just accepted Madox theories and gave up Data with out much of a fight.
The fact that they bowed to political pressure and allowed for a trial was more of a show then anything.
Thank you!
And the US military did not the develop the nuclear bomb, they just funded it. But the funding of a device that can be used as a weapon of mass destruction is bad enough if your actual standards on this issue is not to use them or to have them.
Starfleet predates the Federation. Enterprise is only pre-Federation not pre-Starfleet.
DIS is in the established timeline. Accept it.
I'll give you Gil. He was acting on his own.
Section 31 is part of Starfleet. Always were. They even get their name from Starfleet's founding documents. They are just so clandestine that barely anybody knows about their existence. But not only that, their actions towards the end of the Dominion War were known to Starfleet Command. Admiral Ross sanctioned their use of Dr. Bashir to assassinate a Romulan politician to replace her with somebody with a more favourable view of the Federation, and after Bashir and O'Brien found out about the virus developed by Section 31, Starfleet Medical blocked their attempts to finding a cure.
And last but not least, who do you think approved Maddox's attempt to seize Data as property? That was Starfleet, Maddox was not operating on his own. And if it had not been for Picard pulling strings to get a trial going and really going all out within it to prove Data's case, Starfleet would not have given a damn about Data's rights as a person.
@@GermanLeftist good job! However I doubt this guy even reads or cares. There are so many trolls like these its crazy.
4. Initially, they were thinking of Species 8472 as an ally. However, after Kes has telepathic contact with them, she tells Janeway that ”it’s not the Borg we should be worried about, it's them.”
Except later, when they met again, the 8472s proved they had no ill intentions against our universe.
One thing you totally missed: DS9's two-parter, Homefront/Paradise Lost. Starfleet's head of security organized a coup of the Federation under everyone's noses. Sisko had to hold Admiral Layton at gunpoint before he gave up on his plan, and even then it took the "betrayal" of one of his underground officers for him to realize it was over.
Also, Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges, another Section 31 episode where Starfleet complies under the table while a plot to assassinate the head of the Romulan Tal Shiar (which is later revealed to be a bid to entrench their spy) plays out behind the Dominion War.
Starfleet does some nasty shit in DS9. I kinda love it.
The Undiscovery Country, a Starfleet admiral involved in assesinations with klingons
Swish Fish why does everyone think section 31 is apart of Star fleet
@@sonofthewolfguardianofthef1214 It technically is though it operates completely separate, at least in DS9 it did. It is established and allowed by the Starfleet Charter, Article 14 Subsection 31. Hence the name. It predates the Federation, which is also technically separate from Starfleet. But that one is still controversial amoungst the fandom.
@@sonofthewolfguardianofthef1214 They totally are. Just not "officially". That's part of the menace of S31, they're slimy as fuck.
@@sonofthewolfguardianofthef1214 because it fucking is! It is made pretty clear in DS9 that central command is well aware of what they are doing and they condone it! Maybe they even ordered it.
Also, in Discovery they are clearly a branch of Starfleet.
After the Xindi attack on Earth killed 7 million, it altered the timeline, making Starfleet more ruthless.
Most evil would be "star trek motion picture uniforms" also Q never got to eat his ice cream!
Nooooo
What about the android population from the. " I Mudd." episode ???. What happened to all those replicas of Mudd'.s wife Stella?.. The Federation could have a.field day.there. Or planet Exo 3 " What are little girls made of?," the android spinning machine? as I call it. Theres other androids besides Data.
Yet the Federation bans genetic engineering " we don't want another Khan noonien. Singhn,".
@@johnbockelie3899 if I had any money, I’d be sipping jippers on a beach somewhere!
@Logic Police frell that!
Thank you for pointing out why every argument that “Picard and Discovery aren’t Trek because they’re too dark” is BS!
"Before there was Dukat there was Michael Eddington" ...eh no, Dukat was in DS9 since the pilot.
You're missing the message.
I was gonna riot if you didn't include Lal's death, but you included Measure of a Man so I'm OK. But seriously....this was after it was established that Data had rights as a sentient being. By all accounts, his child should inherit those rights. But they were blatantly violated during a time of incredibly sensitive cognitive development in Lal's life, causing a cascade failure which killed her. Measure of a Man is at least vaguely understandable, since there was no legal precedent, but once there was it didn't even matter to them.
The weirdest thing about Measure of a Man is that you'd think there *was* a precedent. How could Data be admitted to (and graduate from) Starfleet academy if he wasn't even recognised as a living being?
@@AeneasGemini If that episode was 2 hours longer we could add all the people who allowed Data into the StarFleet Academy into the process.
1: Is creating a tool that could destroy entire populations evil in spite of the intention for colonization or because of it? Is creating a warp core evil because it could be used to annihilate planets? Was creating Friendship One evil? No, it's using it for destructive purposes that is evil.
2: Archer isn't Starfleet personified - He is one man. Starfleet didn't steal a warp coil, Archer made the decision. His crew is also not Starfleet personified - They are only a few people. This act of piracy is not Starfleet's fault.
3: That one is difficult to defend, and honestly, I don't want to do that for Discovery anyway... But look down to 5.
4: Similar to 2, Sisko's act was specifically pointed out to NOT be done with any consent from Starfleet or the Federation. Not something Starfleet did, just a few officers. I'm sorry, are we blaming Starfleet for everything their officers do? Are the actions of Captain Maxwell of the Phoenix all of Starfleet's fault too, or are we ignoring that because this time they found out and sent Picard to stop him?
5: Genocide of an enemy that has specifically declared their intent to genocide your species first, and has demonstrated the capacity and willingness to do so, doesn't count as self-defense? No? Well I guess we're gonna deal in absolutes.
6: 2 and 4 again??? Really?? ANOTHER blame shift from one person to an organization they have CLEARLY gone against in this course of action??? FFS.
7: 5 again, wow, changing it up. I'm sorry, what were the stated war goals of Species 8472? Purge the galaxy? I feel like blowing up a few of their ships to spook them out of war is pretty justified in that situation.
Intermission 09:27 - Excuse me?!?! You literally just played the clip where CHAKOTAY finds that out, not JANEWAY, are you fucking kidding me????
I'm sorry, continue.
8: Section 31 isn't Starfleet. You can argue the corruption throughout Starfleet all you like, but the fact that all those Admirals supposedly in S31 couldn't just do it through Starfleet Intelligence shows that Starfleet couldn't - and DIDN'T - attempt to introduce a plague into the Founders. So I guess that's 4/10 that are shifting blame from the actually guilty party to Starfleet. Really good job.
9: No I do agree with this one. It was the whole point of the episode, after all, so, at least you do know how to pay attention.
10: Annnnnnd you ruined it. Literally. Half, guys. Half of your "Starfleet's evil acts" were NOT Starfleet.
But Starfleet condoned all of it...!
Not one person was ever punished for their acts...!
In most cases, if Starfleet didn’t come right out and tell them
make this happen by any means necessary, then it was implied...
@@troystutsman1400 How would you know that? Its never addressed in the episodes what Starfleet's reaction is. In most cases, these examples are never brought up again. Additonally, we can also prove that Starfleet is unaware of some of these, such as Sisko's attempts to bring the Romulans into the war.
@@troystutsman1400 no starfleet never autherised some of these actions, as for punishment, who where they going to punish. in several epesodes involving Section 31 Sisco says afterwards.......
"they dont exsist there a no records of the indviduls involved and all security footage has been deleted"
WTF is supposted to happen next? Theres no everdance and no clues
@mjkalasky I don't know that I would argue Archer's actions, even for a "greater good", were right. I would argue that, if he had gotten another warp coil and taken it to the ship he stole from, fixing the damage he'd done would maybe have been a good thing. As for Measure of a Man, again, the whole point of the episode.
5. Founders declared war on the federation almost a year after s31/starfleet infected odo. Dominion in jemadar requested that the alpha quadrant stay out of the gama quadrant because they viewed it as a violation of their space and it is. What they do allow cardassians/romulans to try and genocide the dominion in season 3. Sisko was literally told do nothing while they potentially genocide the founders. This only push the dominion into heavier actions.
Starfleet command was against odo from the very beginning. Several episodes in s1 and s2 they wanted to force odo out of chief of security.
Section 31 is basically Starfleet. There are members of s 31 in the highest branches of Starfleet and federation. Sisko own words "starfleet says they are appalled at the idea of s31 but arent doing anything to stop it. Admiral ross openly supported s31 plans in the romulan episode.
"New trek is too dark and evil"
Berman Era: Hold my beer.
I also disagree with associating Starfleet with that professor who turned a planet into Nazis. Here's the thing: Starfleet itself did NOT sanction what that professor did. He went rogue by disobeying the Prime Directive. The PD states that interference with non-warp capable civilizations is an absolute no-no. It didn't matter that the professor witnessed chaos and internecine conflicts. The ethical thing for him to have done would've been to let events unfold naturally & do NOTHING. So that professor became a war criminal according to the stipulations, regulations, and articles of Starfleet's own protocol: the Prime Directive.
"Patterns of Force". One of the top 12 TOS episodes. Moments before his death, John (the fuhrer) Gill told Kirk that even historians make mistakes. "The Prime Directive is the only way." Fast forward to "Bread and Circuses"... Merchant Captain R. Merrick (SF academy washout, aka Merrikus) totally throws out the regulations book. Brought his entire crew from the damaged ship down to New Rome. After telling that planet's leadership a hell of a lot about SF, the Federation, etc., many of the S.S. Beagle adapt to life on that world. Some don't and are sentenced to be fodder for televised gladitorial games as barbarians. Merrick does one last noble act and gets the landing party transported back to the Enterprise at the expense of his own life; the cultural contamination is done.
In the TNG novel "Captains Honor", decades have passed and somehow New Rome is brought into the Federation family.
Are we going to just forget about how Captain Janeway straight up MURDERS Tuvix?
Exactly!
She didn't even give the Doctor an inch of a bit of time to find an alternative solution.
He found the cure to bring back Neelix & Tuvok.
From this and the available technology, he could have searched for a way to preserve all 3 lives.
Instead, Captain Jackassway was like:
"We got the cure? Fine, let's kill Tuvix now."
Even the Doctor was highly disgusted by that, and said to her:
"It's murder. I'm out. Do it yourself."
( Not the exact quote, but that's the idea."
Tuvix was never a thing. Stop trying to make Tuvix happen.
So, you think she should have murdered Tuvok and Neelix instead? Why does everyone forget the other side to the equation? 2 lives or 1?
@@Paulafan5 Nice false equivalency there bud. At that time, Tuvok and Neelix were already gone. In the present, it was Tuvix. What created Tuvix was an accident, and no one was at fault. Destroying him was plain murder.
Paulafan5, 2 or 1? By that logic, it’s acceptable to murder someone for their organs. That is the equivalent of what was done to Tuvix.
These are mostly bad actors within Starfleet, not the institution itself.
Yeah, it's a pretty important distinction that the defenders of Picard would prefer not to notice
In the Pale Moonlight is maybe my favorite DS9 episode.. just perfect storytelling. Even if the log gets deleted at the end.
3:11 - you didn't mention that archer left the other ship with 3 years worth of supplies when he took the warp drive.
It still doesnt make it a good thing, but it was very nice of him, technically he did a forced trade, see pirates take without giving and archer gave back when he too the warp drive, so their not pirates.
I would say 'Siege of AR-558' summarizes Starfleet's intentions thoughout ST's history quite accurately, more specifically the conversation between Quark and Nog.
Sorry quark was only thinking of himself
@@Shadothecat Go meta-text.
Let's be real, during the Diminion War, if there were planets that held only Dominion shipyards and white facilities, starfleet would've been firing those things off left and right!
So Hugh regained his HUGHmanity.........
I always feel that Capt Archer, after his communication with the Xindi, asked them to take care of the civilians that he stranded.
There wasn't any doubt that the man on the 1. place would be a the most badass and nuanced captain involved in a galactic war. That is one of the most insightful, deep and dark war story in SciFi.
#4 could be seen as saving the Federation from a known threat in favor of one that may not know of their existence yet- IMO more of a practical deal than an evil one. Of course Janeway should have expected the double cross- they are your mortal enemies after all...
She did. Why do you think they called the episode Scorpion?
To be fair, it was Chakotay who broke that deal first. The Borg then started taking things into their own hands. I have a feeling that if Janeway was not incapacitated that deal may have actually worked, and if it did it would be the first time anyone has ever made diplomatic relations with the Borg.
I like that episode you chose as number one. As Garak said that he, Sisko, saved millions of federation lives and it only cost the life of one criminal and one romulan senator. You sacrifice a few lives to make sure that many more will live. In a war that is a decision that can become a reality. Also, it was the sort of the excuse to use the A bomb in WW2. Sadly, but sometimes the end justify the means.
Sadly, we have learned thsat the US NEVER needed to use the H biombs on Japan, so that analogy is no longer valid. It's more on the lines of McCoy telling Spock, "If killing 5 lives, saves 10, it's a bargain. Is that your simple logic?"
@@loulfw2513 If 2 people not considered allies, are sacrificed to save billions, it is a bargain for STDS9. The US may have not needed to use the A bombs on Japan, as already they have internal struggles between those who wanted to surrender and end the war, and those who wanted to fight to the last man. By 1945, Japan was fighting basically for honor as they knew they could not stop the American advance. Americans did not want to risk it and decided to drop the bombs, and as an excuse they say that they wanted Japan to surrender so they would not need to continue island hopping and to invade japan, which of course will need more planning and manpower and of course deaths. That was their excuse. If after the bombs, the japanese did not surrender, they would go ahead with the invasion. We dont know for sure what would have happenned, so they just dropped the bombs and expected for a surrender, which came to true.
The Drumhead was pretty dark too.
it was kind of the opposite of this list though...that JAG lady decided to go on a witch hunt and pissed everyone off so much that the admiral overseeing the investigation just got up and left. I'd say that's a win for Starfleet IMO.
The Drumhead is an eerie echo of what the world would inevitably become. And in a way, what it's really always been.
@@swishfish8858 it kind of already happened. The whole episode was an allegory of the anti-communist MCarthy trails in the US where so many people including many figures in Hollywood were merely found guilty by association and were persecuted for it in violation of the 1st amendment of the US constitution.
Helps to remember that starfleet is still a military organization and The Enterprise is pretty much just a unit that's been left to its own devices. You get hints to that everywhere in the show. Other starfleet personnel acting like the cold, bitter jackoffs who see enemies everywhere.
Love this! I disagree with #4: Making a deal with the Borg to destroy an unknown species. Species 8472, did not only want to destroy the Borg, they wanted to destroy everyone and everything. Kes mentioned it in Scorpion, part I. What are your thoughts?
Hey! Great Vid
But you forgot Star Trek Insurrection where Star-fleet Admiral kidnaps a community for their resources
Archer could have attempted one other deal with the alien captain, though its a real long shot. Ask him to transfer his crew onto Enterprise. The captain does say "anything else" but... Yeah, it would be really dangerous for them, and be asking another species to essentially join the war with the Xindi.
At the very least Archer could have promised to return later (if they survive) with the Warp Coil and additional compensation. Would probably have still been a no, but at least he'd be attempting another option or two.
Or heck, just ask the captain to carry Archer and his senior staff in their vessel so they can make the rendezvous on time. Then the allied Xindi could go and pick up Enterprise with the Subspace Rifts.
*Genesis Device* - Anything that manipulates vast sums of energy can be turned into a weapon. Like the antimatter fuel of any warp capable vessel. A single metric ton of antimatter is about 2-3 times more powerful than _all the nuclear weapons in the world today._ And a large starship of Kirk's era, like the Constitution class, carries _many tons_ of this stuff. In terms of destructive potential, the Genesis Device is really nothing special. Its application as a weapon of conquest is practically zero: there are cheaper, more readily available means of wiping out a planet. The advantage of Genesis is that it leaves behind a habitable planet, but you do not colonize enemy planets on the front line of an ongoing war.
*Archer steals a warp coil* - Captain Archer is not Starfleet. He is a captain in Starfleet. Starfleet did not strand some aliens in interstellar space by stealing a warp coil. Archer did.
*Planning to blow up Qo'noS* - I have no criticisms about this one. Starfleet was straight up evil here. They considered and approved a heinous act of terror that would have murdered billions of civilians.
*Sisko poisons a planet* - Sisko acted without the approval of Starfleet. Once again, this is the action of a single ship, not the entire organization of Starfleet. Though I admit it is quite suspect he wasn't immediately court-martialed and put in the slammer.
*Picard almost kills the Borg with math* - Everyone has the _potential_ to be a good person, but not everyone is. We judge people by their actions, not what they _could_ do, or in this case, what they could become. The Borg are belligerent, effectively genocidal, and do not have noncombatants. Wiping them out may not have been the "good" decision, but it certainly wouldn't have been evil, either. Picard put his conscience above the lives of countless billions of people all across the galaxy, who might have lived if the Borg had been stopped that day.
*Space Nazis* - Once again: this disastrophe was the result of a single person who acted without the knowledge or approval of Starfleet.
*A deal with the Borg* - Captain Janeway acts without the knowledge or approval of Starfleet. Judge Janeway however you wish, but _Starfleet_ had nothing to do with these events.
*Section 31's morphogenic virus* - Yep. Maybe not all of Sarfleet knew about this, but the top brass did, or at least tacitly condoned it by allowing Section 31 to operate so freely.
*Data is a toaster* - Starfleet really dropped the ball here. This might really be the worst thing Starfleet ever did, when you consider the implications.
*Garak blows up an ambassador* - Sisko was attempting to get the Romulans on Starfleet's side by using diplomacy and subterfuge. He did so with Starfleet's approval as well. However, neither Sisko nor Starfleet had _any_ idea about Garak's intention to plant a bomb on the ambassador's ship. Sisko might have decided it was worth it _after_ it happened, but probably wouldn't have agreed to it beforehand. And it's pretty clear he never told Starfleet about it either, so once again these are the actions of individuals, and not Starfleet as an organization.
So of this list of 10 things, only 9 of which are actually evil, Starfleet can only really be culpable for 3 of them.
Data is a toaster - actually it was mostly due to ambitions of Maddox. Starfleet just had no laws defending artificial beings. Cpt. Picard made a precedent by defending AI rights. Then Federation government will make it a law. That's how democracy works.
I do not count Discovery and Picard episodes, cause they are not Star Trek.
we are seen antimatter explosions in star trek and they weren't all that
The problem with Picard is that it portrays the entirety of Starfleet as EVIL.
The better written Treks had rogue members of Starfleet and dealt with the issues with some nuance.
Picard doesn't because Kurtzman is a hack.
I think Picard was very consistent with existing lore.
A few synthetics do something bad, so all are banned and branded as villains out of fear, prejudice, and bigotry, showing Starfleet's shallow, reactionary nature.
A few models of genemods do bad things, so all of the other trillions of possible models are banned and branded as villains out of fear, prejudice, and bigotry.
Same. Exact. Behavior. Starfleet's behaving no different in Picard than it did in the past.
@Matthew Gillespie that is absolutely correct, sir.
A lot of these examples are not Starfleet as a whole but individuals using their position within Starfleet to get what they want.🤔
Most of the cases you have pointed out , are acts where Starfleet are in a war situation, then a few soley upon the actions of individuals.
As for the situation with Genesis , Genesis WAS designed to terraform dead planets for colonisation. It was down to Khan and the Klingons attempting to lable it as a weapon or to use it as such. Spocks theorisation was just that, not an actual intention.
A very shaky video and a lot of shaky supposition
You forgot the attempted forced relocation of the Baku in Star Trek insurrection
regain his hugh-manity
Only to have it stripped in Picard.
@@chefdean7257 Nah, he died trying to save others.
That one went down like a lead zeppelin
Turning all the EMH mk1 in to in slave miner should be on this list.
Starfleet admirals being immoral assholes is such a common thing in "old" Trek that it's become a meme.
One truism that dates back to the original series is as soon as you got that nice broad Commodore's braid on your uniform sleeve, your brain turned to tapioca or something. Probably the only Commodore I ever felt any respect or sympathy for was Matt Decker, 'cause he pretty much went thru his own personal private Hell on the way to offing himself.
@solistus (OP)
Hell, it was a meme in-house too, with it being "something in the water at Federation HQ"
Most of the acts on the list were done by isolated rogue elements of Starflight and weren't sanctioned. However, the false flag subplot in Star Trek VI was approved by some of the highest ranking officers in Starfleet. I'm surprised it didn't get a mention. I'm mean they were even willing to throw Kirk under a B'Rel in order to get their way.
6:05 The idea that you can commit genocide against the Borg is laughable. The Borg aren't a species. They're a FORCE.
Well you need to be able to differentiate between the collective and the individual drones. The Drones can still be saved, and really aren't responsible for their condition, is it at all right to kill them off unless there's absolutely no choice?
It's one of the truly tragic thing about the Borg, if a Federation ship and a Borg ship duke it out, it doesn't matter who wins because both ships are filled with innocent victims.
@@AeneasGemini There are no "individual drones". Except for that lot that broke off to go with Lore, and Hugh. Every drone is part of the collective unless acted upon by outside forces.
@@vsgfilmgroup Note that Picard didn't spend a moment considering a virus that would break the collective hold on the drones. It was kill them all or move on to the next episode.
What about Tuvix? A completely unique sentient being was murdered because Janeway wanted Tuvok and Neelix back, which wasn't even guaranteed.
Tuvix was created due to an error, wouldn’t Tuvok and Nelix’s lives be equally as important?
I notice this guy has distinctly Tal Shiary ears.
It takes being kicked out of Starfleet for being 1/4 Romulan to see the Federation clearly.
1) Species 8472 had threatened Voyager via Kes - working with the Borg was not an evil choice
2) As others have pointed out, the actions of Captain Ransom and the U.S.S. Equinox were pretty fricking horrible
3) As others have pointed out, the attempted coup of Starfleet during the Dominion War was hardly its finest hour
4) As Picard complained, the abandonment of the Romulans after the supernova was bad
5) I would add that pretty much everything Kelvin Universe Admiral Marcus did - except for impregnating Carol's mother at least once - was all bad
6) Also, getting rid of the TOS miniskirt uniforms
I cannot believe that Captain Ransom wasn't on this list. He was yet another Starfleet officer who was committing genocide just to get home a little bit faster. There's actually quite a few examples of genocide from Starfleet. It's kind of freaky
I'm disappointed he isn't on the list too.
Genesis is tenuous at best but try the Voyager episode "Equinox" when the crew for the Starship Equinox find they can use a multidimensional alien race as fuel for their warp core , In T.O.S. episode "A taste of Armageddon" Captain Kirk threatens to use general order 24( the destruction of all major cities on a planet ) he never dose , but the fact the order exists in the first place .
A taste of Armageddon was actually the closest thing to an evil committed by Starfleet. An order to destroy all life on a planet as a threat to save some of his crew and command is pretty extreme. I'm not sure if it was ethical at all even for survival, but since he didn't have to do it the consequence was good.
They also forget when Archer actually did commit genocide...
Lots of wiggle room here. Two of the incidents were vetoed by Starfleet personel in one way or another (Data's side won the hearing, Picard decided not to genocide the Borg). A couple were Section 31, which is not really part of Starfleet. Likewise, Sisco never planned to murder Vreenak. That was all Garak. Voyager never agreed to genocide Species 8472, just defeat them militarily. The Genesis Device was never meant to be a weapon. And so on. Starfleet DOES have biosphere and even sun-destroying weapons, and almost never uses them.
A few moderately armed ships could glass a planet with directed energy beams and antimatter warheads. That's just their conventional day-to-day shit they shoot off willy-nilly. A planet killing device seems underwhelming in a universe like that.
Section 31 is part of Starfleet. It is made pretty clear in DS9 that Central Command endorsed both the plot to infect the Founders and the one to remove the Romulan senator and substitute her with a Federation mole. They also agreed to trick the Romulans into the war, even tho their version of the plan didn't involve murdering Vreenak.
@@VuotoPneumaNN Sloane on the other hand made it sound like Section 31 operated completely independently of Starfleet. If it did coordinate with the Federation leadership, I suspect it was only a few bad apples (or desperate men) in Starfleet who signed off on it. memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Section_31
@@WUZLE lol what show have you watched? You think Sloane is the one to trust?
@@VuotoPneumaNN Who do you trust then? The corrupt Starfleet admiral who colluded in the overthrow and likely death of a Romulan who was an ally? Working with Sloane the was an act of desperation during wartime. It doesn't mean that Section 31 is officially part of Starfleet.
Credit where it's due, pal! Dr. McCoy pointed out that the Genesis Device could have been a weapon. "Dear Lord. You think we're intelligent enough to... suppose... what if this thing were used where life already exists?"
Elements of Starfleet also tried to overthrow the elected government of the Federation. TWICE.
@Leo Peridot I don't think they are. I just started the New Frotier series and enjoying it immensely. Any good evil Starfleet moments in there that you know of? No hardcore spoilers please, just a simple yes or no. On book 5 "Martyr."
Fun fact about the atmosphere poisoning in DS9: The poison Eddington used only made the planet uninhabitable by Cardassians, while what Sisko did made it uninhabitable by humans, forcing the two factions to trade... which is what they were supposed to have done years ago!
You missed the Tuvoks affair. Janeway wiped out a new and unique lifeform made by fusion Tuvok and Neliks into a single being. She wanted her security chief and personal chef back. The end of the episode she berates her first officer for trying to save her from herself.
Tuvix
I hate the Tuvix episode.
So, interesting enough The one where Archer stole a warp coil. Given the situation and its eagerness to save their home planet. I would of made the same call. In the episode they gave them enough food and supplies to last the three years they needed to return home.
I don't get how that one was evil either. Delaying some people for a few years to save your entire planet... how is this bad in any way?
one of the most is in voyager when they meet the other starfleet ship stuck in the delta quadrant and that crew is killing aliens because the aliens are essentially fuel that boost the speed of the starship. that was one of the most evil moves to happen under starfleet command
at least back then they were willing to admit it was evil rather than pushing the "desperate times call for desperate measures" agenda they would follow post 9/11. On Enterprise Captain Archer would have totally trapped those aliens and used them as fuel if it meant he could get to the Xindi.
in archer's defence, he was thinking of EARTH being destroyed by the Xindi Death Star and he had no time to go back and no reinforcements.... SO he made a very hard choice and had to live with it.
10 - That wasn't the intention. Doesn't make them evil.
9 - Enterprise had to steal the warp coil to save Earth from being destroyed. That wasn't them being evil and seeing how Starfleet didn't order it to happen, it certainly wasnt them being evil.
8 - Nothing from DIS or PIC can be used as an example.
7 - Wrong to do, but this is Sisko's personal vendetta. Not a Starfleet action.
6 - Questionable, but it isn't evil to launch a strike against a threat that is responsible for the destruction of hundreds of thousands of worlds.
5 - This was one man, not Starfleet.
4 - Janeway's decision to do this in an act of desperation to save her crew. Again, this isn't Starfleet's decision.
3 - Section 31's action was not sanctioned by Starfleet.
2 - Hardly evil when they considered a machine to be a machine only. They had a trial and that was that. Would anyone evil accept the result of that trial?
1 - Again, this was Sisko's action. Not Starfleet.
Honestly, I can't believe this list didn't include the incident with the Ba'ku. One of the few genuine villainous moments from Starfleet itself and you didn't even include it.
Oh, and there was also the plot as seen in Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges. Another sorely missed from this list.
7 - Sisko used Starfleet resources and personnel to take that action. He was in uniform, representing the Federation and Starfleet. He committed a war crime, which should have seen him jailed whether he was acting personally or not.
That Starfleet did not court martial him, nor take any action against him at all, shows they were quite willing to allow it. That makes them complicit in his crime.
@@maisiesummers42 fabricating a secret meeting isn't a war crime. Garak was the one that committed murder, which I still wouldn't classify a war crime anyway and Sisko didn't report it because of the bigger picture. War is terrible and terrible things need to be done to win. Just imagine if the Dominion had won. Garak said himself something like "humans have rules [in war]. Rules that make winning difficult." He has a good point.
@@AshPrimeDCFC Number 7 was Sisko using the biological weapon on the planet to poison the atmosphere for decades and drive out the Marquis.
Four number 1. Starfleet did know about the plan to bring in the Romulans. Sisco told that Admiral and the Federation backed the plan, but would claim no knowledge of anything should Sisco fail.
Was going to say pretty much the exact same that none of these are Starfleet, but rather individuals, or they're not evil at all.
Seriously, its like the people running this channel have never actually watched Star Trek.
I always wondered why every admiral in starfleet is a massive warmonger
Archer had to take that coil to save his planet, not evil
Still an immoral deciscion on his part. Though off screen he probably arranged a rescue for them.
@@victorm56 He gave them enough supplies to make it home.
Agree... Also, the federation wasn't founded yet.
Nice presentation Marcus, really enjoyed this!
Hey! The genesis device was still not intended to be a weapon, so it cannot be included :P
In one episode of Voyager, Voyager destroys an anti-Borg trap that a civilization put out to protect itself from the Borg. Voyager left a whole civilization to get assimilated just because it could kill one crew member on Voyager.
Poisoning space. In Star Trek The New Generation, it is found out that flying at warp speed degrades space to the point that people flying in degraded space with a space ship could have the space ship blow up. All this time, there could already be "cracks" in space due to the constant warping between key lines of travel to the point that Star Fleet must have known about it.
Kirk's threat to nuke two planets that didn't have warp capability because he didn't like the way the two planets were fighting. Basically each plant was using disintegration chambers on their planets and when one planet "tagged" the other planet, the tagged planet sent some people to the disintegration chamber.
Picard siding with a genocidal space creature. Picard has fired on space creatures before, but when a scientist kills a space creature that ate her home planet, he arrests her saying that isn't the Starfleet way.
In Kirk's defense, one of those planets was forcibly trying to shove Kirk, his crew, and a high ranking Federation diplomat into a disintegration chamber because the war computer calculated the Enterprise as destroyed. After watching that episode, I have to say that those aliens kinda deserved whatever they got (be it Kirk nuking them or the other planet nuking them for breaking the rules).
The Genesis device wasn't anything to do with Starfleet. It was Federation scientists i.e. civilians who created it. Starfleet was just helping them out till Khan got involved...
@jockadoobee no
"Just helping them out" lol
@@VuotoPneumaNN yea.. go back and watch the movie 🙄
That’s just like saying that the American government/military was just helping out the scientists that made the Atom Bomb...
@@troystutsman1400 exactly!
Species 8472 wanted to destroy everything not just the borg and where a bigger threat then the borg. Also at the time they couldn't make a alliance with Species 8472. Their only option was to ally with the borg.
Of course, Psycho Janeway thought it was a good idea. The actors in Voyager are fantastic. The characters, on the other hand, are jackasses.
When you take event out of context of in the episode you can make all shorts of judgments..
8472 wasnt just taking borg. They try to dissolve ensign kim. They for days sent kes threatening messages. 7 stated it herself when they discover the earth recreation that 8472 built. The only contact that voyager got was your galaxy will be purged. Ultimately they never gave the borg anything. Hint why the borg queen want 7 back but as an individual in dark frontier.
I admit to being baffled by the modern attempt to completely rewrite the history of Voyager. It wasn't the greatest show; it surely wasn't the crap many people seem to want to make it out to be. Janeway in particular is being singled out for a complete distortion of who her character was. I always considered her a great captain. With flaws. A very well rounded character that Mulgrew played perfectly. Thank the gods this show came along before wokeness destroyed women.
@@michaeldominic3183 What the hell is "wokeness"?
@@dylanogg347 The word has actually been around for quite a while. In current times it is a slang word used used to masquerade self righteousness as enlightenment. It is particularly abused in the feminist movement when it is abused to portray women as perfect and men as idiots.
@@michaeldominic3183 Oh...that...
"In the Pale Moonlight" Best episode ever love it as it shows what things were really like to win
Oh come on , in the wrong hands a pencil is a weapon of mass destruction .
What? John Wick is Starfleet???!
@@Walkbi oh great, now I have to watch the John Wick series again!
@@lhkraut or Orphan Black
Depends what you sign it with.
@@marccolten9801 I think you mean "with it" ;)
Garak. A charming, enigmatic and thoroughly elegant rogue with a diabolical sense of humour.
Let us haggle!!
We are betraying the principles of which the federation was founded. Picard
The line must be draw here!, this far, no further!
@@LDGPixels No Star Trek Picard fan will get that last line, haha.
LDG Pixels
Nine of the ten things mentioned here are completely justifiable.
The point of the "Starfleet isn't evil" exception isn't that Star Trek doesn't deal with these issues, it deals with them almost exclusively. Gene Roddenberry was adamant that Starfleet never be seen to engage in activities that are cruel, unjust, or evil because he didn't want to make yet another sci fi epic in which humans are root of all evil, and that we'd never learn. He wanted to make something that showed us how good we COULD be if we tried, just a little bit. He wanted to give people hope that there would be a future in which we were capable of overcoming our petty differences and prejudices. Conflict was supposed to come from outside the Federation, and while later Star Trek producers didn't fully agree with this and explored grey areas, most of them tried to stick close to the whole "Starfleet are the good guys" theme. The new series' and movies don't just undermine this theme, they seem to want to retcon it out of existence, and that makes me angry. Star Trek isn't supposed to be a dumb action-adventure romp. It reaches its fans on a level usually reserved for religion and mythos. It gives people hope. Or at least, it used to. Now it's just Wagon Train to the Stars, which is exactly what Gene DIDN'T want.
Ummmm...actually that’s EXACTLY how Roddenberry described it: as “Wagon Train to the Stars”.
Also, Roddenberry’s vision was unrealistic. And if you don’t like Picard because it goes against that, then you’d better not tell me that you like DS9, because if you do, then you’re kind of a hypocrite, because guess what? DS9 DID IT FIRST.
@@Shadowkey392 that's how he described how he sold it to the studio, but when he started writing that, he realized he wanted something more, and the studio fought it all the way.
If you think that kind of shit is unrealistic, then you miss the entire point of Star Trek. DS9 wasn't based on a Federation Starship, and most of the characters weren't Starfleet. There were more moral grey areas explored, but I dont recall Starfleet ever engaging in passive genocide or slavery.
Mike Lawson I do. I seem to recall Starfleet’s Section 31 trying to wipe out entire races with Starfleet’s backing.
@@Shadowkey392 Section 31 is an autonomous organization that is unaffiliated with Starfleet.
What about when they grew a clone of Trip to harvest it’s body parts to save the real trip...?
Obviously, Starfleet had to be made aware of this and had to sanction it or they never would’ve
been able to do it without getting in trouble...!
Earth Starfleet and UFP Starfleet are two entirely different organizations with different rules of engagement. Nothing in Enterprise ultimately says ANYTHING about the UFP or it's Starfleet.
i thought Enterprise was like the beginning of that stuff.
Like, Enterprise was BEFORE what we knew as Starfleet. It was Starfleet's beginning.
so, they took ALL that they learned from Enterprise and other voyages and made the rules and guidelines that we came to know.
So, some shit happened with Enterprise and NOW they have rules and guidelines against it...or for it
In fact I'm not sure it's that episode but there is a point in which archer says he shouldn't morally do something but as there were no guidelines written out (foreshadowing the prime directive) he chose to do it.
@@smash461986 IIRC i think its at the end of the first episode of the second season where Archer foreshadowed, what we now know to be, the Prime Directive.
Agon Leed
Exactly...
You nailed it...!
I thoroughly enjoyed this episode of TrekCulture 😂
WAIT-ONE-MINUTE: Marcus gets a uniform, but Adam doesn’t?!? That’s not fair! #ShirtJusticeForAdam
She gets Admiral Kirk's jacket, not the full uniform set. Besides Marcus and her team were not part of Starfleet. Just being sponsored by them and using some of their resources, like the USS Reliant
@@misterjei that's not what hes talking about 🤦♂️
Adam gets the Security Redshirt!
did not see this one before, great hosting!!!
I'm sure there's hundreds of these in Section 31s archives, shame we will never know them, Julian and Miles did their best, Slaon was formidable.
Need a Section 31 series
There were rumblings about a spinoff from Discovery with Ash Tyler and Mirror Georgiou in Section 31. I think it could be a cool series but I'm guessing it would be hard to get Michelle Yeogh to commit for a long series. But maybe one season with her then spin into a new character. Like she becomes the head of Section 31 because she knows how to get the dirty work done properly and then she can make the occasional guest appearance?
You make a good point, liked the video but I think there are better examples then some in this list. Some of the points you make I would not consider as Star Fleet's doing but more one man's doing. Captain Sisko's opinion about doing it again is 1 man's opinion maybe or maybe not shared by the rest of Star Fleet. It doesn't really represent Star Fleet as a whole. Better examples are installing a "military" regime on earth to ensure safety; Move a population to steal eternal youth by an Admiral (not worth watching it, Insurrection, all again but I think the admiral was somewhat supported by Star Fleet).
Did "Section 31" create the Coronanvirus?
Section 31 = CIA?
Garry Tam
No because we no the CIA exists. Section 31 isn’t known to anyone.
"Measure of a Man" contains the coldest line ever - when Riker switches Data off - "Pinocchio is broken....it's strings have been cut!"
You said "with shameless and wicked intent" but this is the list you provide, I'd argue only number 1 fits that criteria
#10: Because technology can be used as a weapon does not mean that is why it was created, besides why would they need that when a Constitution class vessel and basically level a planet anyway
#9: Evil would have been slaughtering them, or just taking without leaving supplies. Very damn dark however
#8: From Discovery, shouldn't be on this list as Picard and Discovery are from the same production era and therefor thematically similar, you're trying to show Starfleet has previously been depicted as evil
#7: They even said in the episode that he didn't get approval for this from Starfleet Command, although the fact he wasn't sent to a penal colony is tacit approval
#6: I don't get this one, yes it's considered but it's abandoned when thee true horrible scope of what is been proposed actually means morally is confronted, isn't that opposite of evil?
#5: Not a sanctioned operation, in fact the Enterprise crew work to undo and correct the situation
#4: So you ignore that 8472 was planning to destroy all life in the galaxy? Borg wanted to turn the weapon into a WMD which voyager wouldn't do. Janeway didn't want to wipe out 8472, just defend the galaxy as we know it from annihilation
#3: Finally you get to one that I agree shows a truly evil act by the Federation
#2: Wait up, the ranking starfleet officer heard the arguments from 2 officers and made the judgement Data was sentient and had individual rights, how is this showing starfleet as evil?
#1: Again another actual good choice
Ones I think would have made for a better list, no specific order, altho some I still agree wouldn't meet the "with shameless and wicked intent" criteria but still evil imo
* TNG: Insurrection
* DS9 S7E16 Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges
* TNG S7E12 The Pegasus
* TNG S7E20 Journey's End
Plenty of material that starfleet can be evil, as Sisko said "It's easy to be a saint in paradise" but all in all most of this list was weak.
I agree with you.
Thanks for covering everything I was thinking and honestly a lot more.
Lp
To be fair: Janeway only went along with the borg because species 8472 more or less said they were going to wipe out all life in the universe, not just the borg.
But yeah, everyone is the Paragon until you're backed into a corner with no way out. Still, things like Measure of a Man also point out that even in times of peace they're totally willing to do underhanded things.