Federation Assassination
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in The Bridge
I strongly object to the references that the federation would assassinate Dukat in this week's event.
The federation would not. It goes against everything they stand for.
Section 31 would do it, and I agree that it should have been done a long time ago. But the federation would find an alternative.
(I realize this has been mentioned within another thread, but honestly, I think it's a big enough breach that it deserves its own thread.)
The federation would not. It goes against everything they stand for.
Section 31 would do it, and I agree that it should have been done a long time ago. But the federation would find an alternative.
(I realize this has been mentioned within another thread, but honestly, I think it's a big enough breach that it deserves its own thread.)
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Comments
If you want to get upset about something, get upset that according to the event text, Dejaren is a Federation hologram, when in fact on Voyager he was an alien isomorph.
That's one thing I noticed and I was also wondering about...is this Dejaren really a non canon character that's working for Starfleet instead of........ Who did he work for again?
This and given the character arc of Ben I don't think it is a stretch after all he planted the seed for "removing (Gowron) from office"
And although an unwitting pawn on the assassination of Vreenak he would still be deemed a collaborator.
Forgot a big one.....
IT'S A FAKE!!!!!
Multiversal incursion of alternate timelines? This Dejaren is a Federation hologram? {Which would make him a Timelines Original, like the in-game Thrax.}
This. I think the funniest thing in the world is two or more people arguing over a movie, TV show, or two "opposing" franchises. Photon torpedoes would kill a Death 🌟 with one salvo. End of discussion.......
My cousin once told me the doctor on House is a genius because of the way he figures things out. I told him you realize it’s a scripted television show right?
I stopped doing that at least 2 years ago
Usually he figures things out after almost killing the patient a dozen times......
Sorry. McGyver isn't real.
...but Stargate is, so that's something.
Remember in the pilot when Sam said it took them years to MacGuyver a dialing device? I fangirled hard........
DS9 put all the assassination options on the table.
I'm open to buying that Captain Sisko would, given the chance at a do-over, opt to assassinate Gul Dukat. That would track. But it's something else for the Federation to back him on it, and that's literally what the shuttle missions in the event have them doing. I'm in agreement that this would be far more palatable as a Section 31 operation.
As for Dejaren, I'd like to repeat here my observation in the event thread that we're weaponizing mental illness by using him as the assassin because of his psychopathy. As a mental healthcare advocate, that one bothers me more than the assassination. It was bad enough the original episode upheld the message that mental illness = violence, but at least then Dejaren was acting out all on his own, untreated. Here, we are actively selecting him to be used as the instrument of death because of his mental illness. That's something else entirely, and it troubles me.
I do appreciate that Dejaren's facial expression is one of anguish, rather than malice. Kudos to the artist who made that choice. It feels especially subversive here of the event narrative. Anti-kudos to the writer(s) who made these choices.
Flame away...
I would direct you to the following text from the event:
I don't know how much clearer what we're doing in this event could be.
Also, I'm genuinely disappointed by "crazytown".
Actually Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country put the assassination options on the table. General Chang, Romulan Ambassador Nonclus, and Admiral Cartwright conspires to kill Gorkon. When they attempted to kill Azetbur, Colonel West (another Starfleet officer) was the triggerman.
1. The use of a damaged hologram/isomorph as a proxy for mental illness; this was primarily done by the writers of Voyager but that theme was continued here.
2. The question of whether or not a hologram/isomorph can actually have a mental illness; Star Trek did an OK job of establishing that androids and holograms are capable of achieving sentience, but it is much less clear how that sentience operates. The EMH for example encountered several issues that could be classified as mental illness and in every case they fixed the bad code and he returned to normal.
3. The use of an artificial life form as a third party assassin to assuage the guilt of killing someone, and the ethical ramifications of the very idea of creating robots/androids/holograms/etc for the purpose of killing.
In this event, the Dejaren character is functioning very similarly to the Equinox EMH that had his ethical subroutines removed to allow him to torture and kill those extra-dimensional beings they were using to fuel their modified warp drive; the Equinox crew deliberately modified his program to manifest what could be classified as a mental illness (in this case sociopathy) in order to use him as a living weapon to torture and kill so they would not have to do it themselves, which is very similar to what seems to be happening in this event. Here the event crew are taking an isomorph already known to be homicidal, and are working to try and refine that homicidal impulse to use it for a specific purpose, ie achieving the assassination of Gul Dukat.
it is very complicated to unpack all of this because it seems reasonable to ask why, if it is established that holograms/isomorphs are considered sentient, why they are not working to fix his programming to remove the bad code rather than work to enhance it for unethical reasons, creating an almost meta-ethical violation. In this case I think it is important to remember that in this example the event crew are essentially members of the Bajoran Resistance living in horrible conditions and desperate to affect change, and also important to remember that in later years former members of the Bajoran Resistance felt great regret about much of what they did while in the Resistance. It feels to me that within the self-contained narrative of that arc it is established that actions like this are very much not OK.
Not an accurate example, though. That was a conspiracy by individuals, not a sanctioned action done with official Federation/Starfleet backing.
I would argue that Star Trek VI is not supportive of this event, but rather against it. The conspirators were explicitly identified as the bad guys. Having the Federation participate in this operation to assassinate Dukat is as antithetical as it gets. As for Sisko assassinating Gowron by proxy, I would argue that 1) he acted as an individual, not as the Federation and 2) that doesn't make it right.
I also think it matters that this time, he's reliving an experience and going along with a Bajoran plot rather than conceiving of it himself. Assassinating someone may not be out of character for Sisko, but just going along with someone else's plot to do it is.
And that's to say nothing of how unthinkable it is for Odo to participate in all this!
Starfleet's sanctioning of Sisko plot to bring the Romulans into the war through subterfuge is much more problematic, and the writers wisely sidestepped the issue by having Garak assassinate Vreenak.
Motive.
Method.
Opportunity.
My dude was ordering a hit, and they both knew damn well that's what he was doing. That it was legal under Klingon law does not give Sisko the standing to participate in something against Federation law. Sisko and Picard both came down hard on Worf over the years for doing something perfectly fine by Klingon standards because it didn't jibe with Federation principles. Consider how Sisko reacted when Kurn wanted Worf's assistance in ritual suicide. It may have been Klingon legit, but it wasn't Federation legit and that was that. The only appreciable difference between Worf following the legal Klingon custom ending in Kurn's death and Worf following the legal Klingon custom ending in Gowron's death is that Sisko wanted Gowron gone, which Worf made happen.
I hope for all of this. I want his artwork to be with the paper flowchart and pointer. There are bridge crew possibilities with Professor Sato that intrigue me.
Colonel West as the Threshold for 4 🌟 in an Event. Assassin West as a new 3 🌟 in the Ranked Rewards.