Prime Directive Breeches

[Joshua Howard]

In Star Trek, we are shown a very simple code which is supposed to be followed in most situations: if it ain't your business, don't get involved.

The whole thing is simple and logical, until something goes wrong. Something like Data forming contact with an alien girl. Once that first bit of involvement takes place, the Prime Directive starts fighting conscience; and in the end it winds up getting dropped in the lap of the Captain.

Where does one draw the line? Where should the line be drawn?

We see time and time again in Trek Canon instances where the Prime Directive is cited and endorsed as ample cause for leaving folks to die or be harmed, until somebody actually sees one of the victims. At that point, feelings for them kick in, and it is realized that it is too late to jump to warp and escape without lending a hand. In other words, we seem to kind of get the message that it is fine to leave a guy bleeding in the gutter as long as we are on the other side of the street and he doesn't notice us passing.

In real life, the same issue tends to come up, as a matter of fact. Once you help somebody, it feels inappropriate to just walk away and leave them there. You don't have to invite the homeless man in, but once he is sitting on your couch, is it right to push him out into the snow?

Thus the debate: When should conscience play a role in the Prime Directive? If you were Captain, would you support the prime directive, despise it, or bend it to fit the circumstance?

 

[Red Ranger]

Oh, and I thought you spelled it "breeches" because you were commenting on special pants you put on when you're about to break the Prime Directive! Kidding.

I probably would bend it to fit the circumstances, more like Kirk than Picard. Picard seemed to really follow the PD a lot more, for example, in Symbiosis. There, he decides not to help the addicted people who are helping facilitate the planet of pushers' lifestyle by, as Dr. Crusher said, condemning them to eventual pain when they suffer from withdrawal symptoms. I did happen to agree with that decision, but it was tough for Picard. I love how at the end, Geordi asks for a course, and he says, "I don't care. Let's just put some distance between us and this system."

Red Rum!

 

[StarryEyed]

I think the most flagrant violation occurred in TOS A Taste of Armageddon. The Eminians ask the Enterprise to not enter their system. They enter it anyway and Kirk ends up ordering Scotty to DESTROY THE WHOLE PLANET! Wipe out an entire civilization. Kirk wasn't bluffing and Scotty was fully ready to carry out his orders.

I know this episode occurred early on in the original series before they nailed down the format but this episode is still shocking.

 

[T'Girl]

Symbiosis, Picard's actions were a violation of the directive, don't interfere. By not helping the druggies Picard effected a change in the culture, some might die during withdraw, but the people who come out the other side will realize they didn't die without the drug. Some might return to the drug later, but certainly not the entire society.

When did the Federation direct Star Fleet to begin observing the prime directive? A Piece Of The Action is the first time I can remember non-interferance being mentioned. That's the sixteenth episode of season two. In all episodes after that point the prime directive seems to be in force. A Private Little War was the eighteenth episode season two, Kirk had been assigned to Neural as a younger man, possibly before the prime directive came into force.
Spock's Brain (season three) was a rescue mission on a world with FTL starships.
Spectre of the Gun, contact mission, space fairing culture.
World is Hollow, rescue mission, star fairing culture.

Miri, The Corbomite Maneuver, The Return of the Archons, A Taste of Armageddon, Errand of Mercy, The Apple, Catspaw, all happen before the prime directive kicked in. Friday's Child was the last episode definitely without the directive.

If the directive applies only to non-space or non-FTL cultures, can anyone sight a violation after A Piece of the Action?