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| The practitioner vs. the researcher: Dr. Crusher vs. Dr. Russell (Caroline Kava). |
THE PLOT
An accident in a cargo bay crushes Worf's spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. When Dr. Crusher tells him that even the most advanced medical treatments will only restore part of his mobility, Worf declares his wish to die. But Dr. Toby Russell (Caroline Kava), a Starfleet medical researcher, proposes an experimental treatment to regrow Worf's spine and restore full mobility. The problem? Her treatment is still in its preliminary stages, and even in holographic simulations, has a success rate of less than 40%!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Picard: Though he doesn't agree with Worf's reasons for wanting to die, he is able to understand them. He explains to Riker how unacceptable it would be for a Klingon warrior to try to live without the use of his limbs. He doesn't actually advise Riker to go through with Worf's request to help him commit ritual suicide, but he does add to the pressure on Riker by observing that Worf wouldn't have asked "if he didn't know he could count on (Riker)." He takes a similar tact with Dr. Crusher, pointing out that however dubious Dr. Russell's ethics may be, her treatment offers the only path to life that Worf could be persuaded to accept.
Riker: He feels an obligation to respect Worf's beliefs, but he is not prepared to help a friend commit suicide. Worf's ritual leaves him torn between these two opposite poles. He rages to Worf about the people they've known who have died over the years, talking about how they all struggled for life. For all that, his solution is a lawyer's one: He finds a third path, by reading up on the exact rules of the ritual and giving Worf an even harder choice than Worf gave him.
Worf: Another episode in which Worf's pride is made his defining trait. With Ronald D. Moore scripting, we get some glimpses of Worf's more thoughtful side, particularly with regard to his son. He tries to shield his son from a Klingon ritual he knows the boy would react badly to. He also asks Troi to take care of young Alexander if he doesn't survive the surgery, telling the counsellor that he can think of no one who would make a better parent to his son. Michael Dorn is at his best in these scenes, and I hope this more reflective Worf gets more focus in the future - because honestly, Worf's "Klingon pride" is starting to wear a little thin, as it becomes the focus of just about every Worf-centric episode we get.
Dr. Crusher: The core of the episode rests with Dr. Crusher and her differences with Dr. Russell. Crusher is appalled by the researcher's willingness to put patients' lives at risk to further her research. She sees the other woman as irresponsible, condemns her for taking "short cuts," and ultimately relieves her of all medical authority on the Enterprise. Crusher's concerns aren't entirely unjustified, and the script takes care to insert a scene in which Russell uses an experimental treatment on another patient, resulting in the man's death. But Crusher's refusal to see that the experimental treatment is the only one Worf will accept prevents her from seeming entirely in the right. The episode tacitly sides with Crusher, but I'm sure I wasn't the only viewer who felt she was being just a bit sanctimonious in her speech at the end.
THOUGHTS
I have dim memories of Ethics, from when my father and I watched the show in the early 1990's. We watched regularly, sometimes caught up in a really good episode, other times having fun ripping apart really bad ones. This episode, we only lasted about fifteen minutes before turning it off, and we avoided it when it came up in rotation on the reruns. It's fair to say it isn't one I was looking forward to.
Viewed as an adult? Well, it has a lot more merit than I had expected. Ronald D. Moore is the writer, which pretty well guarantees strong characterization and minimal oversimplification of complex issues. Crucially, both Dr. Crusher and Dr. Russell have valid viewpoints. The show may take Crusher's side, but the results owe more to Russell - and Picard, our regular "moral compass," takes Dr. Russell's side as the only pragmatic course available.
Caroline Kava was a very busy character actress during the late 1980's and 1990's. A good actress, Kava's greatest strength is how genuine she always seems on screen. She doesn't so much act her roles as inhabit them, lending instant credibility and authenticity when she appears. In her hands, Tory Russell isn't a villain. She doesn't have bad intentions, and she is as interested in saving lives as Dr. Crusher is. She just has a professional worldview that's utterly incompatible with Crusher's.
Crusher, the direct practitioner, sees medicine as caring for patients in the moment. "First do no harm," and after that, do what you can to alleviate their suffering. Russell, the researcher, is quite open about taking a longer view. She keeps her distance from the patients, to remain objective. Her priority is to gather as much data as possible so that she will be able to develop more effective treatments down the road. That may mean that the patient she treats dies when he might have lived (though the case in this episode likely was beyond saving in any case), but the data she gathers will eventually save a lot of lives later. Which, as Crusher replies, will be of little comfort to the families of the patients who die now.
This is, unfortunately, another one of those episodes that should present a life-changing event for one of the regulars, but won't. The ending sees Worf working on physical rehabilitation, telling his son that they "will work - together." But even though physical therapy takes months to bring a patient to anything like full strength, I have no doubt that the next episode will see Worf walking, running, and even fighting as if nothing had ever happened.
So while Ethics is far better than I had expected, I can still only rate it so high. Like Troi's "mind-rape," like Geordi's brainwashing, Worf's injury demands follow through of a kind that TNG's standalone format just doesn't allow.
Overall Rating: 7/10.
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