I love this thread and honestly Pen Pals is one of my favourite Prime Directive related episodes. I just love it but it makes me so angry every single damn time because I just want those poor people to be saved.
How Messed Up is the Prime Directive?
- Thread starter Tallguy
- Start date
One of the best things about "Pen Pals" is something very subtle... Pulaski's change in attitude with Data.
She went from thinking of him as just a walking calculator to not only respecting his opinion on this matter, but actively agrees with him and promotes the idea helping Sarjenka because she's important to him and that was good enough for her.
It was a good character growth arc for her.
She went from thinking of him as just a walking calculator to not only respecting his opinion on this matter, but actively agrees with him and promotes the idea helping Sarjenka because she's important to him and that was good enough for her.
It was a good character growth arc for her.
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"Let" - I won't help you if you don't want me to, but the offer stands - know that I'm willing if you are.
"Me" - I'm not just suggesting you go get some help, or making an offer on behalf of someone else. I will do what I can, even at personal risk to me.
"Help" - I want you to benefit from this. I'm not just doing what I want, to further my own goals. I want to do something that actually aids you.
I suppose mere expressions of love aren't enough. Don't tell me of your care, show me by (being prepared to) do(ing) something, whatever the cost.
When there's a discussion about Prime Directive I usually think that if you can help someone, do it.
TOS interpretation of the Prime Directive was better and allowed for Starfleet to assist pre-warp civilizations so long as those civilizations remained unaware of the outside influence. The most notable example is when Burnham and Georgiou helped that primitive planet with their water supply issues in the DISCO premiere. Another example would be Paradise Syndrome where the Enterprise mission is to deflect the asteroid before it hits the planet. The fact that the planets inhabitants are human is irrelevant in this case because the mission was assigned first before the biological origin of the inhabitants was known. Another example is Bread and Circuses where Scotty is able to cause a power outage that assists the landing party while still keeping in line with the PD
Not sure the PD applied there. If it did, then I suppose. In both A Taste of Armageddon and The Apple Kirk's primary goal was saving the Enterprise. (And in AToA he had Federation Stooge of the Week who was messing about more than Kirk would even think about.)
PD (Peter David) ended his first year of the 1990 run of DC Comics Star Trek with Kirk on trial and several of his chickens coming home to roost. One of them was that it turned out that the two planets did NOT turn to peace and actually bombed the snot out of each other. (I remember that run being really good.)
Still one of the best episodes. It's also the case of "The PD was already violated, now we're cleaning up the mess."
It's an excellent comic, though they eventually did find peace.
Its been a while since I've watched the pilot, but wasn't there also a bureaucratic component too?
The original Prime Directive violation occurred as part of the battle against Control and Discovery's transition to the future, which Starfleet has covered up. If they were to punish Pike for his actions, they would have to acknowledge it and possibly risk a reveal of the existence of Section 31. So it gave Pike a loophole where he could intervene with the Federation's hands being tied.
I don't think Pike had gamed out how Starfleet was going to react when he made the decision to act. But he did get lucky.
No, once they "fired on" the Enterprise the war ceased to be an internal matter and the Prime Directive no longer applied. Kirk was a legitimate combatant.
As with most things, and "Pen Pals" alludes to, that we are sometimes too certain in our moral superiority. Helping out someone regardless is as much a vice as completely withholding help.
The Prime Direcetive is as much of a negative reaction to past mistakes, as it is trying to prevent further contamination of a population. But, I think another part of it is the idea responsibility on the part of the developing culture. Yes, we could give them the knowledge but would they respect it, use it and develop it for furtherance of their culture, or use it to empower and enslave? Knowledge can be very dangerous, and unearned knowledge and privilege can then be regarded with apathy towards it's potential misuse vs. the value of self-discovery.
Humans have already proven that whether earned or unearned, that technology will be abused, by someone.
It still doesn't wash that extinction is better than contamination.
"A star captain's most solemn oath is that he will give his life, even his entire crew, rather than violate the Prime Directive."
But that said, I don't think it was a PD situation. If it were they wouldn't be trying to open a treaty with them.
Agreed.
Generally, I agree. That wasn't my overall point. I think helping should be done, but the tendency is to go all in to help. There's no balance.
If you have to help, it should be done as quietly as possible. Ideally, the natives should never know.
Only the second half applied, until it didn't.
1. Don't tell species that alien life exists if they don't already know.
doesn't apply, they already know about life in other star systems, so diplomatic contact is allowed
2. Don't interfere with internal matters of a society
The Federation wasn't party to the war, so the Prime Directive prevented them from trying to change the outcome in any way. That changed when the Enterprise was fired upon. Vendikar, for all intents and purposes, declared war on the Federation, with that act. Eminar did a really awful job trying to warn them.
They sent a Code 710, which was a warning to stay away. Technically, the Federation is an invader under those circumstances.
Vendikar sent a strongly worded letter. Eminiar was the one who was actually going to execute the crew.
Fox should be brought up on some sort of charges.
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