The Man Trap - Was Crater Right?

[CoveTom]

In "The Man Trap," Dr. Crater and the creature in disguise as Dr. McCoy make the argument that the creature is not killing out of malice or evil, but rather simply using its natural abilities to survive. They suggest offering the creature salt openly and without deception, as when its need for salt is met it has no reason to kill. This seems confirmed in the fact that Dr. Crater, when providing the creature with salt, was left unharmed.

So, my question is... was it the right or wrong decision to kill the creature -- and thereby cause its species to be extinct -- given the circumstances? Given the Federation's philosophy of respecting all life, no matter how different from our own, would it not have been a more appropriate decision to find a way to meet the creature's needs and avoid future harm? Or does the threat the creature poses when deprived of salt justify the action they took?

 

[Shatmandu]

If the creature had taken the first step and ceased killing to get what it needed.

It knew, for example, that Earthmen could be reasonable: Crater had both forgiven it for killing his wife and had given it his salt.

If the creature had simply walked up to Kirk and McCoy in the teaser and explained the situation, I doubt Kirk would have whipped out his phaser and zapped the poor bastard.

Plus, it would have made for boring TV, having it sit and eat Kettle-cooked chips while McCoy gave Crater a prostate exam.

Joe, salty

 

[Wingsley]

I'd say that the salt vampire monster kept Crater alive to lure a starship to the place with the intent of attacking the crew, one by one if necessary, and Kirk suspected as much when people started dying.

There's a difference between Mama Horta and the salt vampire. The Horta obviously had an objective of stopping the mining operation, not just killing people to feed off them. Kirk and company saw the Horta as a menace, but came to recognize it was rational. When the salt vampire killed Crater, and subsequently attacked Kirk in front of McCoy, McCoy aimed his phaser and killed a predator. Pedators kill because they see their prey as prey, not as an enemy. If the salt vampire monster behaved like a Horta, it would've tried to damage the ship to blackmail Kirk to replicate a million tons of salt for food.

 

[ElScoob]

Right or wrong, I've always felt that "The Man Trap" gives the lie to Roddenberry's argument that Kirk was mischaracterized in The Wrath Of Khan when he vaporized the Ceti eel (because he would 'study a new life form rather than destroy it', or whatever).

But yeah, it seems to me like just beaming the critter back down to the planet with Crater and sending along a few cases of salt tablets would have saved a lot of trouble for everyone. Not really an auspicious public debut for Star Trek, which was explicitly intended to make a SF television series that was a bit more than just a monster-of-the-week parade...

 

[Forbin]

It was an ugly critter. It deserved to die.

 

[Timewalker]

This episode is one of the best for generating discussions about right and wrong, ethical or not. We never got to know the creature's true ethics, as it was the last of its kind, and desperate. Desperation will make people act in ways they might otherwise not do.

What should have happened is for Kirk to have found a way to ensure a sufficient supply of salt to meet the creature's needs, and taken Crater back to somewhere that he could get grief therapy.

Somebody wrote a filksong about this episode, and it's such a sad one... there really wasn't an "everybody wins" solution to this.

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

What was the Salt Vampire? Was it a remnant of the civilisation of M-113? It could reason and was able to fit in as McCoy. Surely that was more than illusion?

 

[jgdst]

In the 60s, it probably wasn't thought about as in-depth as this, it was just a case of "hooray, our heroes won!", but we're a bit different as a culture these days. The episode finishes, and you're kinda left feeling a little ashamed of what just happened

And I think we can all safely say that it was Spock's fault For the first few episodes, his only suggestions seem to be to shoot it, kill it, or hit it (beating Nancy and asking the Doctor "hey do you like what you see, son?" is still one of the best scenes of Star Trek ever).

Then again, as Janeway says in an episode of Voyager, they're more eager to shoot first and ask questions later in Kirk's era. So there is probably some feeling from both a viewer and a later era character standpoint that Crater was right, and that the preservation of life should've been top priority as part of Starfleet's mission...

On the other hand, how do you learn if you don't make mistakes?

 

[cbp44189]

It would've gone extinct anyway since it was the "last" of the species. Presumably it needed a mate to breed with.

 

[RobertScorpio]

If the creature had taken the first step and ceased killing to get what it needed.

It knew, for example, that Earthmen could be reasonable: Crater had both forgiven it for killing his wife and had given it his salt.

If the creature had simply walked up to Kirk and McCoy in the teaser and explained the situation, I doubt Kirk would have whipped out his phaser and zapped the poor bastard.

Plus, it would have made for boring TV, having it sit and eat Kettle-cooked chips while McCoy gave Crater a prostate exam.

Joe, salty

Well...he was a good old country doctor...probably has a rubberglove in his pocket incase it was needed..

Rob
Scorpio

 

[JM1776]

What stops McCoy from employing his phaser on stun, training it on the creature for as long as it takes to render it unconscious (a la Crusher with Admiral Quinn in "Conspiracy"), then calling for security, putting it in restraints and carting it off to either sickbay or the brig for study/incarceration? Granted, Bones may not have felt he had that luxury, with Kirk and Spock imperiled ... but it might have been worth a try.

It's also possible that the creature, when ravenous, loses much of its capacity for reason/restraint and becomes more savage and animalistic. It certainly wouldn't be the only predator that did, man among them. Again, on the other hand, it seemed to be very much enjoying the chase when stalking Uhura. [Of course, I too would have felt that way if stalking Uhura. ]

There was evidently very little digestible salt left on the planet. Perhaps Crater had been rationing the supply, and the creature was already half-crazed with hunger when Enterprise arrived.

 

[CoveTom]

The point is that we don't really know the creature's state of mind. Or it's objective level of intelligence. Or much else about it. Because they killed it. Now, granted, at the moment McCoy made that decision, it was probably the right one, since the creature was attacking and on the verge of killing Kirk.

But, had some thought been given to the situation earlier on, and they approached the creature openly with salt, perhaps they could have learned more about it, studied it, and figured out how to co-exist with it. From the way things were handled, we have no idea of knowing just how desperate the creature was or how "out of character" its actions were compared to its normal, well-fed self.

Certainly, at least taking the opportunity to learn about the creature would seem more consistent with the Federation's philosophy.

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

I'd give McCoy as pass on the phaser setting, there have been quite a few creatures immune to the stun effect for him to be fooling around with the Captain's life.

 

[Forbin]

So, was Crater banging this ugly alien critter for several years?

 

[Timo]

What stops McCoy from employing his phaser on stun, training it on the creature for as long as it takes to render it unconscious (a la Crusher with Admiral Quinn in "Conspiracy"), then calling for security, putting it in restraints and carting it off to either sickbay or the brig for study/incarceration?

Well, McCoy gave it a shot, literally. He fired once, at an unknown setting, and the creature didn't succumb. He had to do something differently the next time around - either fire at a higher setting, or hold down the trigger for a longer time. Whichever he did, it was enough to kill the creature, quite regardless of whether McCoy intended that outcome or not.

We know McCoy lamented the death, at least immediately after the fact. We know Kirk was sorry for his friend's torment, and just possibly also for the loss of life. We don't hear any post-scuffle debriefing where we might find out what our heroes hoped to accomplish and whether they succeeded. But we do hear Kirk's final, carefully ruminated sentiments: "I was thinking about the buffalo". I guess that's telling enough.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

It is irrelevant *why* the creature was killing. All that matters is that it was. The thing was murdering members of Kirk's crew, and thus he'd have had every right to kill it at any time (although, AFAIK, they didn't know exactly what it was until the last minute).

The final straw was its attack on Kirk itself. The right of self-defense is as near to absolute as possible.

Besides, I don't think it was half-insane with hunger or anything. It seemed rational enough when it was imitating people.

It could even be argued that Crater bears some responsibility for the deaths of members of the crew, since he obviously knew exactly what this creature was - and yet did nothing to warn anyone.

 

[Timo]

The thing was murdering members of Kirk's crew, and thus he'd have had every right to kill it at any time

Only if a) killing was the accepted punishment for killing and b) Kirk was legally entitled to dish out such punishment. Real-world analogies vary. If a crazed murderer rampaged through a naval vessel today, and there existed a chance of capturing him alive, that step should be taken, and failure to attempt this could be considered anything ranging from excessive use of force to wanton murder itself. And if the capture succeeded, the crazed murderer might well be sentenced to jail rather than executed, quite possibly in a civilian court where the Navy had no say.

The right of self-defense is as near to absolute as possible.

Actually, one of the very first steps in forging a functioning society is the taking away of the right to self-defense. The act is delegated to a third party, largely for the reason that a person entitled to self-defense is a menace to societal order.

In this situation, Kirk would have been entitled to defend himself, his fellow crew and his ship - but that by no means establishes that said defense would have included the right to use lethal force. As Kirk or McCoy was never said to have suffered ill consequences for the act, though, we can deduce that the killing (intentional or accidental) was deemed acceptable by their superiors.

Besides, I don't think it was half-insane with hunger or anything. It seemed rational enough when it was imitating people.

Its imitations were those of seemingly rational people. Doesn't mean the sentience behind the imitations was rational, any more than a smart suit makes a maniacal mass murderer a self-controlled and responsible individual.

Remember that the creature did not shapeshift. It created illusions in the minds of the people watching it - it showed what those people wanted to see. If the people wanted to see rationally behaving humans, then that's obviously what they would get. It seems highly unlikely that the creature really spoke a word of English, or Swahili, or understood what its illusions were saying to its victims. Those illusions were just lures teased out of the minds of the victims, so it would suffice for the victims to be rational.

It could even be argued that Crater bears some responsibility for the deaths of members of the crew, since he obviously knew exactly what this creature was - and yet did nothing to warn anyone.

Agreed. And McCoy could be held negligient in his duties for not firing at the creature sooner. But such charges probably wouldn't have been carried in the aftermath of this mess.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[CoveTom]

True enough, but only to a point. The general defense of individuals is delegated to a third party, such as the police. But when an individual is in a situation of immediate, imminent, life-threatening danger, I'm unaware of any civilized society that forbids him the right to defend himself.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Actually, one of the very first steps in forging a functioning society is the taking away of the right to self-defense. The act is delegated to a third party, largely for the reason that a person entitled to self-defense is a menace to societal order.

I agree that a third party, such as the police, should be entrusted with the responsibility of preserving order (or, to be more precise, preventing disorder).

But what if, for example, somebody breaks into your house in the middle of the night and tries to kill you? Unless you're very lucky, the police won't be there right away. You have the right to use force, even deadly force, to end an *immediate* threat to your life.

Which is exactly what Kirk did in this episode.

Let's break it down: 1) Stun, as we saw, does not work. 2) Kirk was in immediate danger of being killed. 3) Killing the creature is the only way to stop it. 4) The creature must be stopped, or Kirk will die. Therefore 5) The creature must be killed.

 

[EEE]

Since '66, I've always thought of the creature as essentially a wild animal and believed killing it fell under the "once they've tasted human flesh" animal theory.

When I eventually talked my wife into converting to being a Trekkie (although the approach had to be from new Trek series) and finally watching all of TOS, she abhored the creature's looks. So for many months "No salt for you Nancy!" became a bit of a regular saying here. (And of course I made her stand next to the one at the Star Trek Experience for a photo!)