1. Melakon

    Melakon Admiral In Memoriam

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    Melakon's grave
    The Organians were just screwing with both sides anyway for laughs. ;)
     
  2. Avro Arrow

    Avro Arrow Vice Admiral Moderator

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    Canada
    I think this is it exactly. In a similar case: unless the Capellans were hiding warp-capable ships somewhere, they should probably have been covered by the Prime Directive. But the Federation needed that topaline, so...

    Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
     
  3. Metryq

    Metryq Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Jan 23, 2013
    Then there's the Troyians and the Elasians, who also do not have warp technology. (They merely have a wealth of the rocks needed to focus the antimatter power plants.) They're space-faring, just not warp equipped. I imagine they don't care about Coridan admission, either.
     
  4. LMFAOschwarz

    LMFAOschwarz Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Oct 1, 2013
    Fair question! :) I picked it because that's when the communication really began. Sure, Spock had communicated with it, but he's done that with other life forms, but I don't think the humpback whale was about to scrawl readable messages in the dirt, for example. The 'no kill I" is also intriguingly vague, as Kirk more or less said. It wouldn't have been much different than asking if someone means "yes" or "no". Yet...it got the ball rolling.



    So true. What is the point, when one factors in the Prime Directive? It'd be sort of like taking your kids to a petting zoo...in which no one is allowed to touch the animals!
     
  5. Marsden

    Marsden Commodore Commodore

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    Marsden is very sad.
    Wow, I thought everyone would want to rip me a new one for saying the Prime Directive is BS. Well, it's early yet.


    I think the "NO KILL I" is interesting because it can be interpreted at least two ways, so it's demonstrating the Horta did pick up some Federation Standard (English?) but it wasn't able to pick up a lot of grammar or syntax. It kept the tension up a bit but still forwarded the story to the point that Spock actually does the mind meld. We really never learn the answer if the Horta was saying "I won't kill you" or "don't kill me."
     
  6. LMFAOschwarz

    LMFAOschwarz Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Oct 1, 2013
    Why would we pelt you with tomatoes if you've got issues with the Prime Directive? It's so vague, it's like Starfleet's equivalent of "Maybe, and that's final!". :lol:
     
  7. Nerys Myk

    Nerys Myk A Spock and a smile Premium Member

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    Nov 4, 2001
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    AI Generated Madness
    Prime (Plot) Directive (Device)
     
  8. Ithekro

    Ithekro Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Apr 5, 2012
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    Republic of California
    The Prime Directive seems to have some flex to it in times of conflict and when dealing with situations were it was broken prior to the current situation.

    With the conflict with the Klingons, the Prime Directive is only partly in effect. The needs of the Federation to maintain the balance of power makes it necessary to keep all possible resources in Federation hands, or at least out of Klingon hands. Thus using pre-warp civilizations that have dilithium, or other vital minerals under Starfleet's protection. But when it comes to worlds that don't have resources (or at least not strategically vital resources) then the Prime Directive only bends if it can be proven that the Klingons have gotten involved (arming one primitive race against another, perhaps so they will have a local ally that won't mind they them having a base on the planet that uses local food while observing Starfleet movements). If neither condition is met, that the Prime Directive, normally stands.

    Iotians were a case of finding out what happened after the Horizon left, the Prime Directive being broken already and the locals aware of the spaceships already.

    The Horta wasn't a Prime Directive issue. It was a creature attacking at first, then a First Contact situation once it was clear that this silicon-based lifeform was intelligent. By that point it was far too late to invoke the Prime Directive, and just been to attempt to co-exist.

    That and I like the idea of the Horta's children joining the Federation as members.
     
  9. drt

    drt Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Jun 5, 2013
    To be honest, I half-expected this thread to be a poll to see which one people thought the Horta meant.

    I lean more towards, "don't kill me" - since she'd just been phasered and was in pain.

    But back on topic, in the original series and early TNG, if a species seems to be intelligent enough to understand interstellar travel, that there is life on other worlds and is not freaked out by it (which is perhaps the most important factor), it seems that that the Prime Directive need not apply.
     
  10. Metryq

    Metryq Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Jan 23, 2013
    I'm surprised no one has said it by now...

    ...but I guess the Prime Directive isn't written in stone!
    <rimshot>
     
  11. Timewalker

    Timewalker Cat-lovin', Star Trekkin' Time Lady Premium Member

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    May 26, 2007
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    In many different universes, simultaneously.
    What a great idea! :lol:
     
  12. Mr. Laser Beam

    Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Confederation of Earth
    And you can't take it for granite.