Hey, OP over here. Consider the word "might" taken out. And probably the 24th century. At least it seemed that had a stricter version of the PD.
Hypothetical situation involving the Prime Directive
- Thread starter Tracy Trek
- Start date
The TNG PD means you don't intervene. You rescue your people, kick over the ladder and then let the impending planetary apocalypse occur.
The PD on TOS was sometimes described like a sacrosanct, sometimes gleefully utterly ignored.
That's what Worf's human brother was supposed to do, not to mention attending the party celebrating the end of his mission, while the planet was dying.
Noone, either in TNG or TOS, ever really gets punished for ignoring the PD.
It's described as sacrosanct but everybody breaks it and everything is hunky-dory by the next episode. .
You're right. As far as I know Wesley is the only one to ever suffer lasting consequences for something he did and it had nothing to do with the PD.
I always got the impression that the PD is something strictly thought in the academy, our heroes to various degrees sincerely believe it and struggle with it but actually the top brass are quite casual about it all. It's all a bit of a 'whatever' with them.
To me it's just an excuse to make Picard say asinine things and get away with them.
lol, I remembering watching this scene which at that time actually reminded me of evil Kirk in the Mirror Universe threatening that planet with destruction.
Everyone reclining in their chairs, watching the natives below die their fiery deaths whilst enjoying it on the cinematic big screen that is the Enterprise bridge viewer.
And then later on they leave the young lad stewing below in those dismal quarters of his where he promptly offs himself. Our heroes do not cover themselves in glory in this episode that's for sure. It's like the Indian episode in that way.
That's a much nicer way of putting it than I would have used.
Let's not pretend that our heroes could actually have done something to stop the disaster in "Homeward". "Pen Pals" had a manageable calamity; "Paradise Syndrome" had a catastrophe the heroes thought they could handle if they were lucky (but they were either wrong, unlucky or both), but "Homeward" had a scenario where the world was going to die no matter what. Nikolai's little bubble of air was a ridiculous non-solution and justly dismissed outright (indeed, he probably offered the idea only as a ruse in the first place, having his sights set on the holodeck plan already).
The dilemma, if any, was over whether saving a select few people by simple evacuation would be the way to go. There are obvious issues with that. Which five thousand or so out of the millions do you choose and why? Kirk never had to face that question, as he could have evacuated the entire population of the planet in "Paradise Syndrome" if he wanted... Only he opted not to, for whatever reason.
However, the episode is an epic fail in that very respect. We never really hear the argument for not saving the random five thousand (or the hundred or so in the village central to the eventual outcome). Supposedly, it somehow stems from the PD, but how? None of the characters tell us. Worf just drones on about Nikolai disobeying Picard's direct orders, while Picard himself says "PD" but doesn't expand on that. Troi interjects something about non-interference, but doesn't make this case-relevant. And all the others just watch.
Timo Saloniemi
The dilemma, if any, was over whether saving a select few people by simple evacuation would be the way to go. There are obvious issues with that. Which five thousand or so out of the millions do you choose and why? Kirk never had to face that question, as he could have evacuated the entire population of the planet in "Paradise Syndrome" if he wanted... Only he opted not to, for whatever reason.
However, the episode is an epic fail in that very respect. We never really hear the argument for not saving the random five thousand (or the hundred or so in the village central to the eventual outcome). Supposedly, it somehow stems from the PD, but how? None of the characters tell us. Worf just drones on about Nikolai disobeying Picard's direct orders, while Picard himself says "PD" but doesn't expand on that. Troi interjects something about non-interference, but doesn't make this case-relevant. And all the others just watch.
Timo Saloniemi
The truth is that we don't know if this disaster was preventable because it was never said. All we know is that according to Picard it was unacceptable to try to save even a handful of them. You can help people without necessarily help all of them. In fact helping as many as you can should be the objective.
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