"...and try to stay out of the way of history!" ha ha....what??

[Dale Sams]

So I was thinking about the Prime Directive in TOS time, and how they said "A Captain will sacrifice himself, his ship and if need be his crew rather than interfere with the development of a planet's civilization."

And I was wondering, "How would such an occasion arise where a Captain had to do that?" Well....maybe if a ship were crippled and it was going crash into a planet. You would need to blow up the ship and the entire crew rather than take the chance of your crew interfering. In fact. just about EVERY TIME we've seen a ship beam it's crew down (or crew get stranded), they ended up interfering.

BUT, I suppose if you're expecting a rescue, you could give it a try. It will almost certainly fail from what we've seen, but you could try.

BUT in ST:FC...Picard is stranded in time. In fact he's just gone to great lengths to assure the timeline is restored. I'm supposed to believe that some 900 people all meeting on one conviently uninhabited island (I suppose after WW3 it's plausible)...they and their descendants aren't going to interfere with history?? That's an insane chance to take.

Blow up the damn ship Picard!!...with...out letting anyone off.**


** Hey, if there's a novelization saying they were also taking the shuttles and planned to eventually relocate to some other planet, that'd be cool I suppose.

 

[Tosk]

In fact. just about EVERY TIME we've seen a ship beam it's crew down (or crew get stranded), they ended up interfering.

That's because we're only seeing the stories worth watching. They would have made first contact with other cultures where the events were too boring to show us.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I'm supposed to believe that some 900 people all meeting on one conviently uninhabited island.

"Lost". And in Data's cabin they have all the disassembled pieces of a Bad Robot!

 

[-Brett-]

900 people on a planet of billions isn't even a drop in the bucket. Since most are the same species as the population they'd be living in, it's unlikely to be a problem.

I wonder what any hypothetical Andorians or Bolians on the crew were expected to do, though.

 

[Warped9]

The PD as originally stated in TOS was made to seem very cut-and-dry, but as we saw there were obviously exceptions and grey areas. In many cases it probably isn't necessary to sacrifice oneself or one's crew and ship.

It would be interesting to contemplate a scenario where it actually was necessary.

In "The Apple" or "Bread And Circuses" or "Return Of The Archons" should Kirk have sacrificed himself and crew and ship (setting aside the series would then be over)?

In "The Apple" and "Return Of The Archons" the ship was under attack by a computer and not a society. The vast majority of the inhabitants likely never knew they were there (assuming there were other tribes around the planet). In "Return Of The Archons" there was even an underground working against Landru and Kirk basically helped them make it happen (while saving his ship). In Bread And Circuses" the Proconsul already knew of their existence because of Merrick, but the vast majority of the population had no inkling of what was going on.

In TNG's "Who Watches The Watchers?" should Picard have sacrificed Troi and the rest?

There's another way to look at this, depending on the degree and nature of interference, I suppose. What if ancient humans had actually been visited by alien star travellers? Would that be classified as interference? If it happened then they were likely remembered as gods of ancient mythology. And if so how has that hindered or affected us?

Today we are actively seeking signs of extraterrestrial life and intelligence? What would it mean if it were revealed us? A lot would depend on any ensuing interaction (if any). If they actively interacted with us to the extent of drastically affecting/altering our civilization that would be quite different than if they behaved in a more remote and hands off approach. How might we react if we asked for knowledge of advanced science and technology and yet they refused?

The PD raises all kinds of questions.