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Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 1x02 - "Battle at the Binary Stars"

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I can't think where Kirk violated it by bringing his ship down where every native for thirty miles could see it.
They weren't able to show that type of thing in TOS so it pretty much ruled that out.

Here's an article about 11 times that Kirk violated the Prime Directive. (Strangely the article lists 12 instances.) Some of them are pretty blatant. In fact, the first time the Prime Directive is broken occurs in the first episode it was mentioned!
 
It seems pretty obvious to me that TOS Prime Directive and TNG one are not identical. They may have similar purpose, but during TNG it is much more strict, I don't think it is just Picard's interpretations. Laws and regulations change over time.
Yep, I think the enforcement and perhaps even appreciation of its wisdom had changed.
 
Here's an article about 11 times that Kirk violated the Prime Directive. (Strangely the article lists 12 instances.) Some of them are pretty blatant. In fact, the first time the Prime Directive is broken occurs in the first episode it was mentioned!

:sigh:

1. "The Prime Directive refers to living cultures. Do you think this in one?"

2. He was ordered there.

3. He was ordered there.

4. The Klingons were already there. Not sure how it is a Prime Directive violation.

5. He was ordered to find out what happened to the Horizon.

6. The Klingons were already there. Kirk simply maintained the balance of power.

7. He was ordered there to find John Gill. And Gill had already broken the Prime Directive.

8. Tracey had broken the Prime Directive. Was Kirk supposed to leave him there as a strong man?

9. Merik had already broken the Prime Directive.

10. Spock and McCoy are the ones to break it there.

11. Not sure how that's a violation even?

12. Ardana was a Federation member.

None of those would really classify as Kirk's fault. Maybe, if you stretch it, you could claim "The Apple".
 
It seems pretty obvious to me that TOS Prime Directive and TNG one are not identical. They may have similar purpose, but during TNG it is much more strict, I don't think it is just Picard's interpretations. Laws and regulations change over time.
In the Prime Directive's case, I'm sure there were a lot of "Kirk clauses" added on.
 
I get what they were going for with the Europa. The Klingon rammer was reminiscent of the Phoenician trireme. But for it to work the way it is portrayed, you need three things: gravity, buoyancy, and resistance in the form of drag. Those three forces hold the prey more or less in place for maximum damage. Since those forces weren't present at T'Custer's Last Stand, Europa should have tumbled away, not just sit there like a building. The writers and effects people need to bone up on this stuff and fast. It was a stupid mistake.
The only way it would have worked is if the Europas engines were moving it forward with the same or greater amount of force and we know they were powered down, otherwise all the Klingon vessel would have done is push the Europa backwards with some localized damage to the Europa at point of impact based on the clearly superior tonnage of the Klingon vessel.

Made me laugh a bit when I watched it and that's the problem right there, it was supposed to be a serious WTF oh shit moment and I was laughing.

It made me fancy pizza as well, I always wondered why they added a saucer to the Starfleet designs, now I know it was to sell pizzas.
 
I get what they were going for with the Europa. The Klingon rammer was reminiscent of the Phoenician trireme. But for it to work the way it is portrayed, you need three things: gravity, buoyancy, and resistance in the form of drag. Those three forces hold the prey more or less in place for maximum damage. Since those forces weren't present at T'Custer's Last Stand, Europa should have tumbled away, not just sit there like a building. The writers and effects people need to bone up on this stuff and fast. It was a stupid mistake.
Now that I think about it, the shields should have reacted as well, they wouldn't have been able to stop the collision with the Europa but they should have reacted to such a large object passing through.
 
Admiral Douchebag likely had them down. There were supposedly under a cease fire.
Yet another newbie mistake and after everything that happened before that as well.

I like that the Klingons used such an age old method of attack but by all rights it should not have caused that much damage at all beyond what you would expect due to the Klingon vessel being superior in tonnage.
 
I can't go through all of them. In general, I do let them off the hook for the cases where the Prime Directive had already been broken and they clean up the damage. So, agreed on those.

A Taste of Armageddon he might've have been ordered there but on his own initiative he overturned what the two planets had been doing for centuries. That's definitely a violation. Picard would've just observed and not interfered. The Apple is likewise a violation.

Even if it was Spock and McCoy in Paradise Syndrome, they still violated the Prime Directive. Not Kirk but shows how it was more loosey goosey in that era.

:sigh:

1. "The Prime Directive refers to living cultures. Do you think this in one?"

2. He was ordered there.

3. He was ordered there.

4. The Klingons were already there. Not sure how it is a Prime Directive violation.

5. He was ordered to find out what happened to the Horizon.

6. The Klingons were already there. Kirk simply maintained the balance of power.

7. He was ordered there to find John Gill. And Gill had already broken the Prime Directive.

8. Tracey had broken the Prime Directive. Was Kirk supposed to leave him there as a strong man?

9. Merik had already broken the Prime Directive.

10. Spock and McCoy are the ones to break it there.

11. Not sure how that's a violation even?

12. Ardana was a Federation member.

None of those would really classify as Kirk's fault. Maybe, if you stretch it, you could claim "The Apple".
 
I can't go through all of them. In general, I do let them off the hook for the cases where the Prime Directive had already been broken and they clean up the damage. So, agreed on those.

A Taste of Armageddon he might've have been ordered there but on his own initiative he overturned what the two planets had been doing for centuries. That's definitely a violation. Picard would've just observed and not interfered. The Apple is likewise a violation.

Even if it was Spock and McCoy in Paradise Syndrome, they still violated the Prime Directive. Not Kirk but shows how it was more loosey goosey in that era.
When I first watched the TNG episode "Pen Pals", I was half expecting Picard to tell Data, "I'll tell you what. We have a gas, smells just like applesauce. They won't feel a thing."
 
Yet had no issue dropping that training and philosophy when she used a corpse to bomb T'Whothehellcares ship.

As others have alluded to, there is nothing in Starfleet training that says you can't use tricks to get a weapon aboard an enemy vessel during war. The Klingons started this fight under a cease fire agreement, they get to suffer the rightful consequences.

...Who is easily the worst main character in Trek...Also he didn't pull of a mutiny that ended up starting a war just because she talked to a Vulcan. Most of the crew were just serviceable and there...
"worst main character"? It is this kind of hyperbole that makes reasonable discussions difficult. Two episodes into seeing a main character who is undergoing a fall-from-grace-and-redemption arc and you are declaring her "worst ever"?

She failed to pull of the mutiny, but also failed to start a war. The Klingons did that for her. Notice she was not charged with any crimes relating to causing a war.

"Most of the crew" (i.e, everyone but Burnham, Georgiou, and Saru) were meant to only appear on the Shenzhou and thus didn't need full fleshing out for a series and story that takes place on the Discovery.

And probes could be programmed to go, do the fly-by with scans and visual records, then return to the ship. If it were destroyed by something or someone, they'd know.

Plus any evidence Burnham had with her visual and scanning records were all gone after her stunt. They said the computer in the suit was corrupted and nothing could be retrieved.

I understand the ideas behind her maybe having PTSD or something to that matter. I thought Starfleet had psych evaluations and other such testing for people, much less cadets.

I agree that since optical scanners were ineffectual, and the records of her suit were corrupted, that it seems like the scattering field or whatever it was had a pretty powerful effect on computer systems. Seems unlikely that an automated probe would have fared any better.

As for PTSD evaluations. I am sure they have it. We have it now, but neither group is 100% effective at it.

I dunno. I think there is a possibility that if Georgiou's plan had been followed, T'Kuvma might not have fired the first shot. It's possible that he felt he needed to demonstrate Federation hostility towards the Great Houses before they would have united under his leadership against the UFP.

I say "possible," because I don't think there's any way of knowing with certainty. It is possible that Georgiou's plan may have worked and that Burnham's illegal order to lock weapons on the Sarcophagus Ship is what prompted T'Kuvma to fire the first shot. It is also possible that T'Kuvma was going to fire anyway.
I suspect that Burnham is going to have to live with that uncertainty for the rest of her life....

Yeah, I would assume that Archer had information on Suliban cloaking technology classified and hidden away to protect the timeline--assuming any of their tech even worked after "Storm Front, Part II," of course.

Meanwhile, I just think the Suliban having cloaking devices was a shit idea in the first place and I'm just as happy for DSC to ignore it entirely...

I agree. I think Burnham was probably right in that a crippling blow would have stopped the war, but not by Starfleet gaining respect in the Klingon's eyes, but through preventing T'Kuvma from rallying the houses to war. But she doesn't know that.

As for the Suliban cloak, I hadn't thought of this idea before, but I like the idea that Starfleet would have classified the knowledge of the Suliban cloaking devices because of the interference from the future. I agree that cloaking devices and the whole temporal cold war were terrible ideas (from what I have heard they were largely forced on the producers and writers), and I am glad to have a justification for the lack of widespread knowledge about them later on.

He would have talked too much and had at least 3 conferences in the briefing room before coming to that decision.

Maybe you are joking about the conference thing, so this might not apply to you, but I am tired of people bagging on The Next Generation for having conferences. Give me a conference where meaningful things are argued about logically, or emotionally, or whatever, over mindless action (ala Into Darkness) any day. I can think of a dozen conference scenes that I would never want to give up because of the character interactions.

Absolutely. T'Mushmouth undercut his honour babble by attacking first the Europa and then the rest of the Federation fleet while they were under the protection of parlay. That shot him from zealous ideologue to criminal dirtbag in one horribly slurred sentence.

EDIT: Actually, he was already well within dirtbag territory when he responded to Georgiou's message of "Howdy, neighbour. Looks like you strayed over the property line for your little picnic. Care to talk about it?" by opening fire.

As many have said before, the Klingon's sense of honor (especially in TOS) is very flexible. Victory is often the most honorable thing.

That brought a fleet, yet no diplomatic people, to the area.

If you're trying to sell Starfleet as not being militant, then you probably shouldn't have abrasive GI JOE running the show.

The ships that were assembled were those that were available and in the vicinity, with the Admiral being the one in charge of the sector. There simply might not have been diplomatic personnel available in range/time. And maybe this runs counter to the attempts toward diplomacy, but maybe an abrasive GI Joe type is exactly who you want to be negotiating with the Klingons. ;) They are not exactly known for diplomacy or nuance.

At least in Into Darkness, Kirk acknowledges he is breaking the shit out of the Prime Directive.

Ah, but he doesn't acknowledge it! He tries every way he can to hide it until Spock blows his cover.
Plus I think that with the storm front and the distance walked from the alien habitat, the Shenzhou was likely not seen by any natives, unlike in Into Darkness.

And it never occurred to anyone on the bridge to go ask her what she saw???? If it was Kirk or Archer he would have demanded that the doctor wake her up for a debriefing,even at risk to her life.
As another poster mentioned, she was critically injured. Plus at that point, Georgiou didn't yet have cause to resort to extreme measures. There was no known risk to the ship. All they knew at that point was they had a crewman who had been out on a scouting mission too long, who came back with a cracked visor and radiation poisoning from the accretion disk field. For all they knew, she was hit by an asteroid on her way to the object, never even got there and floated around until rescue. The satellite damage was inconclusive as to hostile action, and the object was an unknown, inactive object.
 
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It's clear that Starfleet captains (and therefore also admirals) are expected to be diplomats, among many other things. The admiral would certainly be expected to have the expertise to conduct initial negotiations if the Klingons had had any interest in talking, and to arrange for a meeting of diplomats later if appropriate. Sure, his "if we're fighting we aren't talking" line was annoying, but it isn't why the Klingons attacked.
 
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I can't go through all of them. In general, I do let them off the hook for the cases where the Prime Directive had already been broken and they clean up the damage. So, agreed on those.

A Taste of Armageddon he might've have been ordered there but on his own initiative he overturned what the two planets had been doing for centuries. That's definitely a violation. Picard would've just observed and not interfered. The Apple is likewise a violation.

Even if it was Spock and McCoy in Paradise Syndrome, they still violated the Prime Directive. Not Kirk but shows how it was more loosey goosey in that era.
Every one of those instances was reviewed by StarFleet Command and Kirk was judged to have acted appropriately. Therefore, there was no violation of the Prime Directive. It may have seemed so, or like he was skirting GO #1, but he never crossed the line in StarFleet's opinion. And that thing is far more complex than most people understand. They are even allowed to talk to world leaders, top scientists and other societal leaders, without violating the GO, but only revealing themselves to the general population would be a violation.

It's mostly a guideline, anyway, and there was numerous exceptions, not because Kirk decided there should be and they later modified the rule, but he did decide which existing exceptions applied now and again.

Despite everything, Kirk was ordered to go to that planet in A Taste Of Armageddon, and regardless of what he did, Fox was in command, so technically Fox was responsible for what happened - unless he disobeyed a direct order from Fox, which he didn't. Even if you considered this a complete violation, it wouldn't be Kirk's. And I'm not sure that civilization wasn't a warp capable one, anyway.

In The Apple, that was an arrested culture - not a living, growing one, so the GO didn't apply.

In The Paradise Syndrome, I surmise the very reason they visited the planet first with such a time constraint on the incoming asteroid was to determine if the natives would notice such a rock being deflected. If advanced to that point, they might not have been allowed to deflect it since it would reveal the presence of other life in space and more advanced civilizations. They saw no such evidence and so proceeded. But Kirk became Kirok. The fact Spock and McCoy unfortunately beamed down in front of the natives didn't really violate their culture since they would have been taken for Temple Gods, and part of that culture's existing belief system. They got lucky. And returning them to the norm is often an exception, so using the existing temple was fine. But don't forget, they also determined those "natives" were nothing of the kind - transplanted there by the Preservers, and therefore not a natural development, anyway. I'm not sure the Prime Directive would apply there.
 
I am happy to see most people are enjoying the show and giving it pretty high marks. I tend to be fairly nitpicky and gave it a rather low rating, mostly just due to personal taste and enjoyment.

I can't really rate the second episode much differently than the first. They truly do feel to me like one being a twin sister to the other. They had the same "way out is through" vibe to me.

I am more interested to see the third episode and forward. I have a feeling from the trailers that the third episode is really going to set the tone for the show, and annoyingly the first two were a way to try to sell CBS all access.

But seriously, the typical "female action poses" in that trailer, give me a little pause.
 
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