Wanderlust

2.24 — “Tuvix”

2.24 — “Tuvix”

Plot: A transporter accident combines Tuvok and Neelix into one person.

Thoughts: Another installment for the “Transporter is Terrifying” annals. I hope we can agree that, from a scientific point of view, the premise of combining Tuvok and Neelix is preposterous.

Nevertheless, somehow, eventually, by asking a hard question, the right question for once (last week no one bothered to question the sentience or human rights of “The Thaw’s” fear clown), “Tuvix” becomes one of the best episodes of Voyager so far, one that I actually expect to remember by the time I post this blog entry. Maybe even for years to come, the way I can still remember every episode of TOS.

Let me cut to it. Janeway’s decision is wrong, isn’t it? Neither Tuvix nor anyone else aboard Voyager bears any fault in the disappearance of Tuvok and Neelix (that fault lies with the writing staff). While someone close to the departed like Janeway or Kes may wish for Tuvix to sacrifice himself to recreate them, they can’t ethically compel him to do that, any more than they can compel a person to dive into treacherous rapids to save a drowning stranger.

Add in that Neelix and Tuvok’s consciousness does survive, albeit in altered form, and that you will never convince me that EMH’s untested-on-Vulcans-or-Talaxians transporter remedy is safe, and I don’t think this is even a close question.

I’m surprised no member of the crew besides EMH is willing to stand up for Tuvix. This does not reflect well on them. It would have been interesting to add a utilitarian aspect. Do the interests of the ship and the lives within require for Tuvok and Neelix to be separate people in some way ?

Janeway’s conduct seems true to where her character is heading. She likes to make tough calls and demands a rigid standard of sacrifice from herself and her crew. She has a tendency to see things in black and white.

I imagine Tim Russ and Ethan Phillips shitting themselves reading this script. This is how you get written off a show. “What do you mean they’ve hired another actor to play me? What if he turns out to be better than me?” (He is!)

I have to deduct a point based on the first half of the episode, before EMH announces his cure, which does not measure up to the second half. I do not think Kes’ standoffish, reserved reactions are true to character, and certainly not Janeway’s perfunctory, hardly-seems-curious initial response to meeting Tuvix and losing her closest friend.

4 out of 5 sickbay executions.

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Tuvix_(episode)

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9 responses to “2.24 — “Tuvix””

  1. Randi Cohen Avatar
    Randi Cohen

    Yes… I love that this episode does ask the correct question!

    I found it annoying that so much time was spent exploring a potential romantic relationship between Kes & Tuvix… I was wishing more time was spent on exploring what it’s like to experience a merged consciousness, what are the differences and similarities in terms of memories skills and abilities, how does the character experience himself, positive and negative corrections in self-expectation, are there new things about him that the prior characters do not have as interests, etc.

    That’s interesting that you’re so clear on it being wrong for Tuvix to be reconverted back into Tuvok and Neelix! I don’t feel clear on that at all, which is what makes the episode so interesting. Tuvix was given life through killing two other beings and the process is reversible. It reminds me of the “train track problem” where you can let the train kill a bunch of people or switch the track so it can kill only one. I always thought people who didn’t want to be involved in the choice were making the wrong call even though the whole situation is horrible.

    I feel confident that Spock would agree with me. 🙂

    Reply
  2. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    It is a version of the train track problem. I was going to call it more contrived, but I guess the train tracks are fairly contrived already. But they aren’t asking whether the conductor (Tuvix) should decide to kill one (himself) to save two (Tuvok & Neelix), but whether third parties who disagree with the conductor should kill the conductor in order to impose the choice they think is best.

    I think it is significant in this scenario that Tuvok and Neelix are already dead, so they have already had the experience of their own passing, and their community has already begun the process of grieving (which raises a point: did Voyager have a memorial?). Janeway is trying to unring a bell that has already rung. I’m not convinced that any great duty is owed to people who are already dead.

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  3. Randi Cohen Avatar
    Randi Cohen

    Not sure why Tuvix is necessarily the conductor… I guess he is the most affected one who can be consulted… But captains make decisions all the time weighing crewman lives and definitely will at times order people to sacrifice themselves to save others. Why is this so different? I guess to me the fact that Tuvix’s life is “fruit of the poison tree” makes a difference, and that the wrongful deprivation of life can be corrected. A trial episode would have been awesome here to explore different views on the topic.

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  4. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    I feel like there was juice left in the apple after the abrupt ending. How do Tuvok and Neelix feel about coming back? Do they remember being Tuvix? Do they experience loss? If they do remember being Tuvix, does that mean they also remember each others’ memories?

    Reply
  5. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    The military (quasi military?) context and Janeway’s commanding officer position does complicate the question!

    I get how Tuvix would be poisoned fruit in a sense, but not really from his point of view, since he had no agency in his creation and doesn’t have any stake other than consciousness and a will to live.

    Reply
  6. Linda Smith Avatar
    Linda Smith

    Hated this episode. Reminded me of the science fiction story “The Cold Equations.” Doomed from the beginning and no way out.

    Reply
  7. Randi Cohen Avatar
    Randi Cohen

    True… not from Tuvix’s view. He is blameless but does not necessarily deserve the right to exist at the expense of two other beings. I guess it depends on whether you think the circumstances of his birth are significant (two other lives ended untimely, without their consent, and potentially reversible). And whether you believe a live being is always privileged over a dead one (not a moral dilemma one usually has).

    Reply
  8. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    Right. Do you have to deserve the right to exist? Does anyone? Why not Tuvix?

    In law school we are primed to analyze situations based on whether a duty of care is owed to a person, which is the foundation of tort liability. I would say that a duty exists to not murder Tuvix, but much more limited duties exist to comrades who have recently suffered accidental deaths but are metaphysically reborn as a joined being.

    Does you think that Tuvix’s preference can be imputed as a preference by Tuvok or Neelix, or do we have to assume that Tuvix is motivated by fear/self preservation and Tuvok and Neelix would prefer to be restored? This could be like the Trill situation, where hosts willingly give up their separate lives in exchange for higher status and enhanced faculties after joining.

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  9. Randi Cohen Avatar
    Randi Cohen

    Interesting about how important a “duty of care” is! In general I don’t think one has to deserve the right to exist, but I think if it’s an “either/or” question with someone else’s continued existence, then “deserve” begins to make more sense.

    I certainly think that Janeway and the others on the ship act as if they have a duty to rescue their crewmates if they possibly can, even from seemingly certain death, or apparently even after seemingly certain death. It goes to ridiculous extremes, such as seeking out that horrifying scavenger race so that Janeway won’t have to be marooned (I think it might be the next episode).

    I think the way Tuvix communicates it, the wish to survive is his alone. He doesn’t say that either part of him prefers the new form and doesn’t want to be returned to the old… the episode would be better if he had that kind of self-awareness though.

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