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"the Prime Directive is not just a set of rules. It is a philosophy, and a very correct one."
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this post was submitted on 14 Feb 2024
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Come on'n get your jamaharon on! There are no real rules—just don't break the weather control network.
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I've been thinking about the prime directive recently and it just doesn't make sense in the grand scheme of things. You don't involve yourself because "well what if this extinction level event was meant to happen?" Could just as easily be phrased as them being there with the capacity to fix the problem was also meant to happen.
Especially if they can magic the problem away without even exposing knowledge of their existence to the pre-warp civilization. Would people who don't know about starships really notice if a tachyon field was routed through the deflector dish to [science fiction jargon], causing the tectonic activity to stabilize?
It's one thing to not interfere with internal politics, but another entirely to not save a planet from a random space anomaly while you happen to be passing through the system.
If we're having a serious conversation about the PD, it's important to note that it's a blanket "don't interfere" rule that applies to all civilizations, warp-capable or otherwise.
Most of the time, it makes sense, but these edge cases are wild.
The prime directive is a great example of how even a good rule taken to the extreme can end up causing more harm than good.
But beyond that, it's just an easy aid for the writers to add a point of conflict for their stories. The prime directive as a value within the federation seems secondary to me.
Where did you get that idea??? It only applies to pre warp civilizations. Not getting involved in the internal politics of warp civilizations isn't Prime Directive- that's just regular diplomacy.
It's applied to other civilizations pretty regularly.
The most cut-and-dried one off the top of my head is Sisko citing the PD when declining to help Tosk in "Captive Pursuit".
The Prime Directive and the rules governing first contact overlap, but they are distinct.
There have been plenty of indications that the Prime Directive applies to warp capable species. I think episodes like "Too Short a Season" and "30 Days" could be cited as evidence, though some would argue we're never explicitly told that either of the civilizations being interacted with are explicitly warp capable. In "Redemption" Worf resigns his commission after Picard claims the Federation cannot support Gowron in the Klingon Civil War, citing the Federation's, *"principle of non-interference." Granted, he does not explicitly say it's the prime directive. However, there is "The Outcast" the J'naii that Riker falls in love with, Soren, claims to be familiar with all the systems aboard a Starfleet shuttle, including the warp nacelles, and Picard later tells Riker he can't interfere with the J'naii subjecting Soren to conversion therapy because of the Prime Directive.
And, if you want the most explicit example, in the PRO episode, "First Con-Tact", a screen displays text -- copy and pasted from the book "Star Trek: Federation - The First 150 Years" -- outlining the general rules for how the Prime Directive applies to warp capable cultures.
I wonder if "_social_ development" is a word that a lot of Federation case law (and the 47 sub-orders) hinge on.
Interfering with an election is clearly "social", but preventing a natural space disaster (without any contact) shouldn't be.
Or perhaps the latter is in a "if we start here, we'll never stop" category. So it's against the rules, but if you're nearby, you can. But it's against the rules so Starfleet doesn't feel the obligation to go out looking for these situations.
Yeah, I'm sure the full PD is riddled with case studies and examples of what sorts of decisions Starfleet captains can unilaterally make without specific approval from the Federation Council.
And of course, the Council seems to be able to order Starfleet to override the PD if they want to.