Both. Some people have got some serious rose-tinted glasses regarding older Star Trek and Gene Roddenberry. But I also think that you're deliberately interpreting certain things in the worst possible way rather than what was intended.
I'm pretty iffy on the decision to turn the Gorn into essentially xenomorphs in SNW, but I don't agree that the moral of the season finale was "mercy is bad." It's that Pike's more thoughtful and cautious approach wasn't as suited for the events of Balance of Terror as Kirk's more proactive and aggressive approach. Both would show mercy--Kirk offers to help the Romulans after their ship is disabled in the original--but not both would try to be conciliatory towards someone who's just attacked them unprovoked and hasn't stopped shooting. The sentiment is noble and works in your typical Star Trek episode where everything is a misunderstanding between well-meaning people, but aggressive dictatorships don't prize peace and don't see conciliatory acts as principled stands, but as signs of weakness. Appeasing fascists in the hope that they'll calm down if you just give them this one thing never works, because now that they know that threats work, they'll just demand more. Our grandparents saw this with Hitler, and we're seeing it now with Putin. Pike is hoping that if he can just talk this one guy down, then peace can be restored, but that's not the situation; even though the Romulan Commander wishes for peace, his government wants war. This is laid out in the original TOS episode as well: they explicitly state that if their mission is successful, then that means that they have the advantage over the Federation and will attack because they can win, and the commander laments that their victory means a new generation of war. TOS tells us that if Kirk hadn't defeated the Romulan Bird of Prey in that episode, the second Federation-Romulan War would have started then. SNW shows us that outcome when Pike does some things only slightly different. (Of course, this is also your standard time travel plot, where any small change to the timeline will cause a bad future, so you can't do anything to change the past. Pike has to accept his fate and not try to change what happens to anyone that day, or else it will all go wrong somehow.)
There's also some degree of genre deconstruction at play here. The Star Trek franchise has a long history of people attacking the Federation, having it even be called "an act of war," and then the Federation just kind of shrugging it off and ignoring it. But recent history shows us how authoritarians respond when they attack somebody and face no consequences: they figure everyone else is too weak to stop them and attack again. We even see this in Trek. Romulans violate Federation space several times in TNG and even outright attempt to invade a Federation core world, certain in their belief that they won't face any repercussions even if they fail. Cardassians attack their borders for decades, and despite losing get to put forth a peace treaty that is certain to cause future conflict and insurgency by trading territory instead of antebellum status quo, and for some reason the Federation agrees to it; they're at war with Cardassia again within four years. Preventing war for the moment by kicking the can down the road, delaying the consequences a few years. It's a "commitment to peace" in name only that basically guarantees war, because even if you don't want to fight, other people will, and they're more likely to attack if they think you won't defend yourself. This time we just get to see the results play out with a little more immediacy.
There's also some degree of genre deconstruction at play here. The Star Trek franchise has a long history of people attacking the Federation, having it even be called "an act of war," and then the Federation just kind of shrugging it off and ignoring it. But recent history shows us how authoritarians respond when they attack somebody and face no consequences: they figure everyone else is too weak to stop them and attack again. We even see this in Trek. Romulans violate Federation space several times in TNG and even outright attempt to invade a Federation core world, certain in their belief that they won't face any repercussions even if they fail. Cardassians attack their borders for decades, and despite losing get to put forth a peace treaty that is certain to cause future conflict and insurgency by trading territory instead of antebellum status quo, and for some reason the Federation agrees to it; they're at war with Cardassia again within four years. Preventing war for the moment by kicking the can down the road, delaying the consequences a few years. It's a "commitment to peace" in name only that basically guarantees war, because even if you don't want to fight, other people will, and they're more likely to attack if they think you won't defend yourself. This time we just get to see the results play out with a little more immediacy.
The 'for some reason' is almost guaranteed to be the Borg, or specifically the Battle of Wolf 359. There was an earlier truce, but the Armistice appears to have happened after the battle based on episode dates and the final peace treaty wasn't signed for 3 years. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the signers on the Federation's side didn't feel that it was going to be a temporary peace, but felt that they absolutely needed that peace given what had just happened. Sometimes kicking a can down the road is actually needed.
That said, yes, the Federation's portrayal does generally have some issues with how often they are willing to seemingly back down, in a way that ultimately seems counter-productive as a way of keeping the peace. It's not the 'peace at all costs' that they sometimes get portrayed as by detractors, but there's certainly room to criticize.
Okay, in slight defense of the killer gorn babies episode, I do actually think there is room to do something interesting with an intelligent species whose developmental stage are basically xenomorphs. How would a presumably functional spacefaring society with, as we see in their original TOS episode, some honor and respect for others, deal with their children being an inherent threat to all other species?
I don't know if SNW will actually explore these interesting implications, but I do think they are there.
Okay, in slight defense of the killer gorn babies episode, I do actually think there is room to do something interesting with an intelligent species whose developmental stage are basically xenomorphs. How would a presumably functional spacefaring society with, as we see in their original TOS episode, some honor and respect for others, deal with their children being an inherent threat to all other species?
I don't know if SNW will actually explore these interesting implications, but I do think they are there.
Sure, except the xenomorph babies came near the end of a season which portrayed the adult Gorn as unrelentingly hostile with zero exceptions. None of those questions are raised as the Gorn are just murder machines used without regard for the message it sends.
Both. Some people have got some serious rose-tinted glasses regarding older Star Trek and Gene Roddenberry. But I also think that you're deliberately interpreting certain things in the worst possible way rather than what was intended.
How would a presumably functional spacefaring society with, as we see in their original TOS episode, some honor and respect for others, deal with their children being an inherent threat to all other species?
Eh... I don't know how much "honor and respect" the Gorn had for others in TOS. The first thing we see them do is completely exterminate an entire colony, ignoring messages of surrender and pleas that there were civilians and children there, and then send a fake message (proving that they could have communicated if they wanted to) to lure in a ship to attack as well. They later said that they considered the planet part of their territory and the colony an invasion, but they never bothered to say anything before people settled there or ever tried just asking them to leave, just went immediately to slaughtering. The Gorn captain's only attempt to negotiate with Kirk was "give up and I'll kill you quick." So it doesn't imply that they put much value on the lives of other species.
While the Gorn had later appearances in novels (I seem to recall that the novel Dreadnought had a Gorn Starfleet officer who was the roommate of the protagonist), their only other appearance in live action before this was in the mirror universe episodes of Enterprise, so we just don't have a lot of canon about Gorn that doesn't involve them killing people.
The Gorn don't have to be evil just because they have parasitic reproduction. They could use livestock instead of other sapient beings. If they do not, then presumably it's because their society has decided that the lives of people who are not Gorn don't have value. It's comparable to if a culture decided to practice cannibalism on people of different ethnic group because their ideology saw them as inferior. And while I don't know if we have any cultures on Earth that practiced that on a wide scale, situations like Imperial Japanese troops cooking and eating POWs in World War II and the Aztecs practicing large-scale human sacrifice of conquered peoples are somewhat similar.
Balance of Terror is a tragedy. Making it into 'this was the best outcome we could get' is kinda ugly; making it into 'we have to have Kirk there, or things go to shit' is an argument against SNW's own existence.
Like, in "Tapestry" in TNG, the stakes of the time-travel plot are entirely personal, entirely internal to Picard's self-respect -- not that, say, if Picard doesn't make captain, the Borg assimilate the UFP:
PICARD: Change them? You mean change the past? Q, even if you have been able to bring me back in time somehow, surely you must realise that any alteration in this timeline will have a profound impact on the future.
Q: Please. Spare me your egotistical musings on your pivotal role in history. Nothing you do here will cause the Federation to collapse or galaxies to explode. To be blunt, you're not that important.
PICARD: I won't do it. I won't alter history.
Q: Oh, very well. Since you attach so much importance to the continuity of time, I will give you my personal guarantee that nothing you do here will end up hurting anyone, or have an adverse affect on what you know of as history. The only thing at stake here is your life and your peace of mind.
Which lets it be a much better story -- it's not 'Picard must suffer or the UFP ends', it's 'Picard chooses to suffer so that he can grow into the man he thinks he should be'.
As Mooney puts it in the review I linked (which is very much worth reading):
There is no scientific or moral justification for the dilemma at the heart of "A Quality of Mercy." The universe demands Pike's sacrifice because fans watched "The Menagerie," and Pike in that wheelchair is one of the franchise's most iconic visuals. Pike must suffer and die so that the internal continuity and coherence of the Star Trek franchise can be preserved. That is all there is to it. It is bleak.
It's a bit worrying how Dear Doctor's script wasn't originally torn in half and thrown in a garbage can. It's concerning that the only problem the network seemed to have with the show was disloyalty with the captain. Its sadly predictable that it seems the cast and crew at least publicly have praised it and some fan sites seem to legitimately enjoy this love letter to eugenics and a character driven episode focused on probably the least likeable character on the ship.
Yeah that's right, I fucking hate Phlox. I've grown to hate Neelix less because he is just an annoying dude who means well, while Phlox stores his farts in Tupperware containers for later sniffing. He's inconsistently written, veers frequently into Mary Sue territory (the legitimate version of that), his species has new abilities as the plot demands and has zero character growth. Genocide aside (what a phrase!), he's insufferable this episode. The entire structure of the episode is akin to that of actually good episodes of other shows, like M*A*S*H*'s "Dear Sigmund", where the episode is from a POV character that narrates their thoughts and feelings on the characters they interact with. Only, you know, those episodes are good.
Unfortunately that means we are almost entirely stuck with him the entire and god this guy has a face waiting for fists. These are just some of his interpersonal interactions minus the baggage of, again can't believe I'm saying this, genocide. For example, he does some veterinary work on Porthos after he has some cheese related GI upset.
PHLOX [Voice Over]: I never thought I'd meet a species that forges such intimate bonds with lesser creatures. It's surprising the things you humans choose to invest your emotions in.
Motherfucker you have like 30 pets, what the fuck is this shit?
PHLOX [VO]: I've noticed how the captain seems to anthropomorphise his pet. He even talks to the creature although I'm fairly certain it has no idea what he's saying. Then again, I've been known to speak to my Pyrithian bat on occasion.
Yeah you stupid asshole, you do the same shit all the time! Stop trying to act superior to everyone else all the time!
CUTLER: (seeing Phlox looking around like an asshole) We can go if you're bored.
PHLOX: No, no. I'd like to stay and see what happens.
CUTLER: You won't be disappointed. The ending's classic.
PHLOX: No, not the film. I'm sensing a rising emotional undercurrent in the room. I'm curious to see if it culminates in some kind of group response.
CUTLER: They don't have movies where you come from, do they?
PHLOX: We had something similar a few hundred years ago, but they lost their appeal when people discovered their real lives were more interesting.
Oh fuck off. Phlox is written like he's self diagnosed himself with Asperger's in 2007 and is posting about how he's not handicapped by his emotions. Also he's either a liar or once again the writers can't remember shit because he watches The Court Jester in a later episode where he's even tripping balls so he has even less excuse.
PHLOX [VO]: It's remarkable, Doctor. Even fictional characters seem to elicit human compassion. My shipmates have calmly faced any number of dangers, and yet a simple movie can bring tears to their eyes.
I would rather listen to Neelix, Henry Mudd and Season 1 Wesley Crusher record season's worth of podcasts than spend 10 minutes with this guy. He's telling us that he quite simply has zero ability to feel actual empathy for others. Not in the Vulcan repressed way, but in a really fucking smug way. Can you imagine? Being moved to tears by the struggles of another person? This is during For Whom the Bell Tolls, so he probably thinks Farewell to Arms is a jokebook. I. Fucking. Hate. This. Guy.
PHLOX [VO]: Since we were on the subject of mating, I think Crewman Cutler may be romantically interested in me. I can't be certain, however. The pheromones of human females aren't as potent as Denobulans'.
Fuck, anyway, there's a plot to be had, such as it is. The Enterprise finds a nearly lifeless ship floating adrift in space. The passengers are two aliens from a pre-warp civilization experiencing a deadly plague. They have encountered other warp capable races and are trying to get help, because 12 million had already died before they left the planet and the situation is getting worse. They are of course, just sitting there interacting with everyone before TOS level medical care much less TNG plus with its "medical forcefields", so this dude is potentially just spraying viral loads at everyone like a toddler in a bouncy castle. There's absolutely no precautions here, because medicine is more of a vibe than anything really. Its only described as highly infectious.
But, Archer here at least means well and T'Pol says that the number of warp capable races they've already met means this doesn't really violate any Vulcan protocols so they go to try to help them.
PHLOX [VO]: The Captain has committed all our resources to helping people he didn't even know existed two days ago. Once again, I am struck by your species' desire to help others.
Seriously, he has emotions but zero empathy, its incredible.
ESAAK: It seems the more aggressively we treat the illness the more resistant it becomes.
PHLOX: What's the current rate of infection?
ESAAK: One out of three.
ARCHER: It's a full blown epidemic.
ESAAK: These are in the most advanced stage.
(Phlox checks the apparatus.)
PHLOX: You're treating them with a synthetic antibody?
ESAAK: It's effective at first, but the disease mutates. Once it moves into the respiratory system there's no way of controlling it. Pulmonary failure usually follows in a few days.
"Hey guys is it concerning we're just hanging out in the infectious disease ward with no ISO protocols and no protective gear?"
"I haven't" [starts coughing] "thought about that but its probably" [keeps coughing] "fine."
I know this is pre-Covid-19 but it was post Outbreak, so like, COME ON. The writers have that typical failing of knowing what is going to happen and so introduce plot holes based on their own foreknowledge. The characters are at no actual risk but they don't know that, but the writer does, so he doesn't have the characters waste their time doing smart things that they should do like wear any protection or not be 4 inches away from plague victims or potential asymptomatic carriers. Because the writers know its down the genetics failings of the aliens.
We find out there are two races on this world, the Valakians and the Menk. The Valakians operate an apartheid state where they have taken all the usable land from the Menk and use them as menial labor. The Menk have no industrial, agricultural or other capabilities and are simply used as cheap manual labor. The humans on the ship naturally find this abhorrent but Phlox is all in on this not being a bad thing really.
PHLOX [VO]: On the surface the Menk appear to be a primitive species, unsophisticated even by human standards. No offence. But their abilities appear to have been underestimated, even by myself.
PHLOX [VO]: They think the Menk are being exploited by the Valakians, so their first instinct is to rise to their defence, despite the fact that the Menk don't appear to need or want a defender.
CUTLER: This really doesn't bother you.
PHLOX: What?
CUTLER: The way the Valakians treat them.
PHLOX: Why should it? On most worlds with two humanoid species one would have driven the other to extinction. Here, they've developed a symbiotic relationship that seems to work quite well.
CUTLER: They force the Menk to live in compounds. They treat them almost like pets.
PHLOX: Their culture is different. It's their way.
CUTLER: Doesn't make it right.
We're going to see exactly why Phlox feels this way soon enough, because two things happen: He finds out the sickness is entirely genetic and that the Venk are smarter than he initially thinks they are. He tells Archer that genetic degradation like the Valakians are seeing is extremely hard to treat, but admits its not impossible. The Menk have no such problems, their genetic code is rock solid apparently. He estimates that every Valakian will be dead in 200 years and the cure may come from studying the Menk. In the meantime we have an absolute red fucking herring of a plot point: The Valakians say that if the humans can't fix their condition they will need to find someone who can and so they ask for a warp drive. Everyone points out this isn't feasible, the Vulcans have spent almost a hundred years on Earth assisting with uplifting humanity after they made contact and neither the humans or Vulcans have the ability to make that commitment to the Valakians. Archer feels like his hated Vulcans for a moment when actually forced to do the numbers of the colonialism required and realize he just can't make the commitment and has to say no, because these people don't even have the ability to make facilities to make the tools required to manufacture and contain Antimatter alone.
But this is a red herring born out of the episodes desire to be a prequel to the Prime Directive which stipulates you can't interfere in pre-warp civilizations. This doesn't even need to come up at all, because Phlox is holding back a cure on purpose. Apologies for posting such a long transcript but there is no cure and there is a fucking lot wrong here:
PHLOX: Even if I could find one, I'm not sure it would be ethical.
ARCHER: Ethical?
PHLOX: We'd be interfering with an evolutionary process that has been going on for thousands of years.
ARCHER: Every time you treat an illness, you're interfering. That's what doctors do.
PHLOX: You're forgetting about the Menk.
ARCHER: What about the Menk?
PHLOX: I've been studying their genome as well, and I've seen evidence of increasing intelligence. Motor skills, linguistic abilities. Unlike the Valakians they appear to be in the process of an evolutionary awakening. It may take millennia, but the Menk have the potential to become the dominant species on this planet.
ARCHER: And that won't happen as long as the Valakians are around.
PHLOX: If the Menk are to flourish, they need an opportunity to survive on their own.
ARCHER: Well, what are you suggesting? We choose one species over the other?
PHLOX: All I'm saying is that we let nature make the choice.
ARCHER: The hell with nature. You're a doctor. You have a moral obligation to help people who are suffering.
PHLOX: I'm also a scientist, and I'm obligated to consider the larger issues. Thirty five thousand years ago, your species co-existed with other humanoids. Isn't that correct?
ARCHER: Go ahead.
PHLOX: What if an alien race had interfered and given the Neanderthals an evolutionary advantage? Fortunately for you, they didn't.
ARCHER: I appreciate your perspective on all of this, but we're talking about something that might happen. Might happen thousands of years from now. They've asked for our help. I am not prepared to walk away based on a theory.
PHLOX: Evolution is more than a theory. It is a fundamental scientific principle. Forgive me for saying so, but I believe your compassion for these people is affecting your judgment.
ARCHER: My compassion guides my judgment.
PHLOX: Captain.
ARCHER: Can you find a cure? Doctor?
PHLOX: I already have.
Ok, lets break this down here: They come across an apartheid planet and Phlox goes "this is fine" but that seems to be predicated on the Menk being an "inferior species" using every phrenology tong in his arsenal. When he finds out that they're smarter than he thinks, he still sticks to his guns but when he does some bullshit analysis of their genetics, he decides they're getting smarter and so they should have a pathway cleared for them by the death of an entire sentient race, who since they have a genetic illness, he has now labeled as the inferior species. He has a cure. How easily could they implement it? They don't say, but based on him refusing to give it to them or let them know it exists, it seems like he thinks that they could duplicate it.
He is blatantly a eugenicist and proponent of genocide by inaction. This is, without saying, morally repugnant. He holds up the sacredness and surety of evolution to say that in a thousand years the Menk will become a superior race. Let's assume this is true, will they survive that long? Will the last Valakian just calmly turn off the lights and lay down and die? Or will they experience a violent societal collapse? Are they going to hand the keys to their society over to the Menk who live on barren, poisonous land? The Menk don't have control over their food, clothes, medicine or anything else. They work as menials.
I already mentioned that they have had contact with other warp capable races and you know who one of them is? The Ferengi. I do not hold that Phlox alone is the smartest, most capable doctor, whose work cannot be duplicated. Other races of the same intelligence given the time could probably duplicate it, and they might not be as nice about it. Imagine the Ferengi having that much leverage over a civilization for just a moment, where they have the cure to a disease that will wipe them out. They'd be absolute debt slaves to them. But even if we don't assume worst case, what if a benevolent alien race finds them and gifts them a cure and they realize that Earth had it and didn't give it to them? The best case scenario is that the reason we don't hear about Phlox much post Enterprise is that he was killed by Valakian Mossad ten years after this episode.
PHLOX [VO]: Two days ago, when we first discovered the alien shuttle, I had no idea that I'd be facing a dilemma of this magnitude. For the first time, I find myself in conflict with my Captain. But he is my Captain and he's placed a great deal of trust in me. I believe I owe him the same. I only hope that he is willing to look beyond his sympathy for these poor people.
Please captain, don't use your morals, ethics, or emotions, subscribe to my scientific racism instead!
ARCHER: I'm going down to the Valakian hospital.
PHLOX: Sir, it would go against all my principles if I didn't ask you to reconsider what I
ARCHER: I have reconsidered. I spent the whole night reconsidering, and what I've decided goes against all my principles. Someday my people are going to come up with some sort of a doctrine, something that tells us what we can and can't do out here, should and shouldn't do. But until somebody tells me that they've drafted that directive I'm going to have to remind myself every day that we didn't come out here to play God.
Laying it on really fucking thick there aren't we guys? Surprised you didn't just have Archer say "We need some kind of primary directive out here!"
PHLOX [VO]: I'd like to think, Doctor Lucas, that if I'd had the chance to talk to you face to face you'd have never let me even consider withholding my findings from the Captain. But I'm ashamed to say that I almost did just that.
TNG Season 1 Rodenberry called, he says you need more interpersonal conflict than this.
And so they just lie to the face of the Valakians about not having a cure and leave. The Valakians are mad about not getting a warp drive but really, the Enterprise could have cured them right there or given them more resources. The Valakians seem to know something is fucking off and are real pissed. And who can't blame them when you have the full picture? When they tell them "I'm sure you'll develop a cure on your own!".
Again, they saw a global plague that was killing 12 million people a year and cannot be stopped without advanced medicine and decided to let it take its course because it would kill the right people as far as the resident eugenicist was concerned. The episode gets distracted by making it about warp drives when its a plague episode. The Babylon 5 episode we discussed was tense, well written, and allowed the character of everyone to show through. They advanced storylines, they handled broad social topics, they had heartbreaking shit. Enterprise sees megadeaths and goes "meh". Are we supposed to forget this? It revealed that a major member of the crew has an awful soul. Just pitch black, operating from a detached racism that categorizes people by their genetic superiority. He in fact says that the Menk are a primitive species "even compared to humans". So he absolutely views himself and his race as superior. What's worse? So does the show.
What's worse is, there was a better plot hidden inside this one. The Enterprise runs into an apartheid state where the main race is dying off. The Enterprise can cure it but they're uncomfortable with the treatment of another race by the ones dying. What are the terms of them giving them the cure? Do they try to demand social change? How do they mean to enforce that? Do they just give them the cure with no strings attached? What is the morality and ethics of the situation? Obviously they don't want to let a race die out but what if the aliens call their bluff if they do demand change? Do they enforce it at the barrel of a gun? There are many more interesting stories that can be done here. Maybe they can pick the wrong choice and the situation absolutely collapses and they leave the place worse than when it starts and they lament having made the wrong choice? That would require Archer to ever be wrong of course, but Babylon 5 wasn't afraid to have characters fail. Dr Franklin on several occasions becomes blinded by his own brilliance and moral superiority and does the wrong thing.
"You'd think I'd learn one of these days that I can't fix everything, but it never happens."
Instead, Enterprise casually endorses Eugenics and the crew of the Enterprise commit genocide by inaction. Our heroes.
Also I don't think I need to say that the disease does not match its symptoms do I? Its declared to be a protein binding issue in chromosomes but they talk about it like a viral or bacterial infection.
And then after this going to do the episode they wrote not knowing it was going to be turned into a Space AIDS episode the next season, in an orgy of bad planning and writing.
It sounds like one of the writers found some of the Tumblr "humans are charmingly weird" posts and wanted to do the same kind of thing. Unfortunately, they forgot they need to make both the humans and the aliens empathetic. And they forgot they needed their observations to be honest.
... wait they actually go through with it? They actually ultimately go "not our problem lmao" and dip? Even Captain Archer, Right-Wing Podcaster Extraordinaire who would probably jump out the airlock in nothing but a speedo if someone told him air is a Vulcan psyop, Captain 'my leaderhsip is based on vibes alone' Archer, Captain 'I treat anyone different than me like a cartoon Vegan' Archer, is just cool with the ship's doctor (who is an ALIEN with WEIRD VALUES and a FUNNY FOREHEAD) telling him eugenics are based???
I.... What? This shit can't be real. You have to be fucking with us. You can't tell me this shit actually went on television. They couldn't have actually done a eugenics and genocide episode and end with the bad guy actions being the heroic morale. This is insane. It is like saying all the doctors who healed both sides of a war and criminals are in the wrong despite swearing to heal everyone they can and not do harm. Christ this show is killing my brain cells. Thank God some other schmuck is watching this.
You have to love the "we have no right to play god"bullshit. You are playing god right now! You are deciding the fate of 2 species! You could not be playing god harder if you named yourself Jesus Christ the third!
I'm not sure why, but for some reason this brings to mind a season 1 B5 episode. The one where a species (the Ikarrans) got DEEP into ethnic cleansing and then automated it. Turns out, fanatics don't make good programmers, and computers do exactly what they're told to do, nothing more, nothing less. Also, playing with Shadow-tech generally doesn't end well. Point is, they wiped themselves out.
There's some odd parallels between Phlox's weird-ass take on evolution and the way the Ikarrans killed themselves off. I am remind once again of the truism: If you ever have to ask yourself "are we the baddies?", you aren't Star Trek.
Definitely the nadir of Star Trek. And probably one of the final nails in the coffin, as I can't imagine it going over well with any of the old Star Trek crowd.
The really funny thing is that the Neanderthals DID have a bunch of advantages. They were bigger, stronger, tougher, and possibly even slightly smarter (their brains were bigger than ours, though it's unclear if that means better in this case).
The reason they lost out was BECAUSE they were bigger and tougher and stronger. Greater size means greater resource needs, which pushes down the maximum size of your community. It also disincentivized the development of ranged weapons, since they didn't need them.
Cro-Magnons won out because they were, individually, weaker.
Also like, aliens randomly showing up and giving people on Earth evolutionary advantages is already a thing that happened.
Voyager revealed, in one of the two most racist episodes of the franchise, that a bunch of Delta Quadrant aliens came to Earth and decided to uplift the native peoples of the Americas because they "were peace loving" and "had a strong connection with nature." And in the end, Colonialism still happened anyway.
So according to the logic of the series, Phlox is still wrong. Neanderthals getting a leg up from passing space-people would have been irrelevant!
