Epsiode 40: Stigma

Ahh, yes, another episode written by Berman and Braga, another episode that focuses on T'Pol and the demonizing of the Vulcans.


To be frank, "Stigma" is a pretty strong episode which attempts, at least, to introduce larger philosophical/moral themes and to build on earlier shows.


I am even willing to ignore that this episode appears to steal from Voyager the plot that the only significant Vulcan officer onboard suffers from an untreatable, progressive, private disease that the ship's doctor tries to control without disclosing it to the Captain.


T'Pol appears to have picked up her disease from the mental sexual assault she experienced in the season-one episode "Fusion". T'Pol is hesitant to reveal that she has the disease 1) because it will stigmatize her in the minds of the Vulcan High Command as potentially being part of a despised sub-culture and 2) because the fact that a member of the subculture assaulted her would expose that sub-culture to even more negative attention on Vulcan.


Although the episode manages to deliver the goods, it does have a number of significant problems that are attributable directly to its writers:


First, Phlox is uncharacteristically clumsy and naiive in approaching the Vulcan medical people for information on T'Pol's disease, apparently not realizing they will see through his flimsy excuse immediately and T'Pol's career will be put into jeopardy. This is just plain sloppy writing. B&B prove themselves consistently willing to take the easy way out in their scripts: rather than working harder to figure out a way to resolve a plot issue in a manner that is consistent with their established characters, they simply make the character behave, well, out of character to help out the plot.


Second, the portrayal of the Vulcans is highly problematic. Even in the B&B universe, the Vulcans value logic above all else. The prejudice the Vulcans display in this episode to the despised sub-culture is not at all logical and neither is their fear and suspicion of the mind meld itself. Vulcans would be interested in studying the practice as a different, potentially more efficient manner of communication. They would not simply vilify both it and those who are capable of it.


Third, the Vulcan assumption that, if you have the disease, you must be part of the despised sub-culture, does not hold logical water. There are a number of other possible explanations for how a Vulcan could contract the disease, including assault as an adult or exposure to a mind meld as a child, or simple experimentation. The leap the Vulcans in this episode make to guilt based on the fact of the disease is most illogical, to a level not even explicable by the prejudice attributed to them.


Fourth, the hearing Archer forces the Vulcan doctors to hold makes no sense. If the doctors cannot take any steps to affect T'Pol's career other than report her to the Vulcan High Command, then a hearing of this kind would not be applicable. Since the hearing does appear to be required by the Vulcan policies, however, there is no way the Vulcan commander would fail to hold it.


Fifth, the manner by which the Vulcans confirm their suspicion that T'Pol has the disease is dishonourable and highly suspect for any civilized race. Earlier series established many facts about Vulcan culture, including the aforementioned commitment to logic and to infinite diversity in infinite combinations and their almost pathological obsession with privacy. Yet, in this episode, we have high ranking Vulcan doctors deliberately violating T'Pol's personal privacy by setting her up and stealing her DNA to run their tests.


Sorry. That's not the Vulcan way. Even if B&B's screwed up universe.