Prime Directive continued...

[Toril Toran]

I was wondering where the Prime Directive came from, when I discovered this in the Articles of the Federation:

"Nothing within these articles of Federation shall authorize the Federation to intervene in matters which are essentially the domestic jurisdiction of any planetary social system, or shall require the members to submit such matters to settlement under these articles of Federation; but this principle shall not prejudice the application of enforcement measures under Chapter VII.

 

[Toril Toran]

This is from Articles of the Federation, Chapter 1, Article 2, paragraph 7 in Franz Joseph's book STAR TREK STAR FLEET TECHNICAL MANUAL
ISBN 0-345-34074-4

 

[Guy Gardener]

I was wondering where the Prime Directive came from, when I discovered this in the Articles of the Federation:

"Nothing within these articles of Federation shall authorize the Federation to intervene in matters which are essentially the domestic jurisdiction of any planetary social system, or shall require the members to submit such matters to settlement under these articles of Federation; but this principle shall not prejudice the application of enforcement measures under Chapter VII.

The Technical manual was originally published 1975, which is after the Original series and the animated series had played out.

Articles of Federation is about foreigners joining the Federation.

The Prime Directive is General Order One to the Starfleet Charter.

If you are not in Starfleet, even if you are a Federation Citizen, then Starfleet's Prime Directive does not apply to you.

 

[Toril Toran]

Chapter 1 is entitled Purposes and Principles.
The Articles of the Federation set the way the Federation is run, by whom, and by what principles.
I suggest you read them.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Chapter 1 is entitled Purposes and Principles.
The Articles of the Federation set the way the Federation is run, by whom, and by what principles.
I suggest you read them.

Why?

It's practically fanfiction.

800 hours of Star Trek later, whatever that book says has been contradicted.

 

[Toril Toran]

Hmm.
You may be right, but it is still what the Federation was originally based on.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Hmm.
You may be right, but it is still what the Federation was originally based on.

No it isn't.

The United Federation of Planets is from the Star Trek the Original Series, which ran from 1966 to 1969.

That book came out 6 years later, and was made by a nerd who ran a Star Trek fan club. So what we have is a fan who is trying to rationalize what he saw on the show from a MODERN 1970s perspective, to fill in the gaps and smooth out the wrinkles left by vague clues about how the Federations works, contradicting canon, and really bad fake science, or actual mistakes about real science made by tv spec writers who don't know why they are not still sending in new scripts for Bonanza.

Anthropologically interestingly, but woefully out of date.

 

[Toril Toran]

Then what are the principles of the Federation? Where do I find them?

 

[Toril Toran]

So far, this is the only place I have found them.

 

[at Quark's]

It's just a TV show. Officially, there's probably little there, except for the script themselves and a set of guidelines for writing episodes (a 'series bible'). I don't expect a full Constitution of the Federation to come rolling out of an as of yet undisclosed safe that once belonged to Gene.

 

[Toril Toran]

But it already has...

 

[JesterFace]

Federation has Prime Directive, what about everyone else?

 

[Toril Toran]

Until we get some other source, or confirmation from Star trek, I am going to treat it as cannon (even though it isn"t)

 

[The Wormhole]

Until we get some other source, or confirmation from Star trek, I am going to treat it as cannon (even though it isn"t)

What about a contradiction? Because the Prime Directive is stated in on screen dialogue to only be a Starfleet policy which others in the Federation are not obligated to follow, as per TNG Angel One.

 

[Toril Toran]

If you weren't in Starfleet, how would you encounter other species?

 

[The Wormhole]

If you weren't in Starfleet, how would you encounter other species?

There are other organizations in the Federation with starships. In the case of Angel One, it was a civilian freighter.

There is of course also a civilian exploration service, the guys who wore the gray jumpsuits on TNG. Though they seem to also follow the Prime Directive, though with possibly a looser definition, as the guy in Who Watches the Watchers thought Picard should pose as the Mintakan god. Assuming this is the same organization Nikolai Rozhenko worked with, it appears they still believe extinction is preferable to exposing the existence of alien life, as Nikolai's career was believed to be finished because he saved those people.

 

[fireproof78]

If you weren't in Starfleet, how would you encounter other species?

Private starships, colonies, space stations

 

[Guy Gardener]

Until we get some other source, or confirmation from Star trek, I am going to treat it as cannon (even though it isn"t)

Books are not canon.

The people who make TV don't read the books, and there's no nerd on staff to tell the powerful rich white men running the show that the story they just spent 2 million dollars producing, sadly contradicts an out print novella from 1974. And if such a nerd was hired to speak truth to power, then they would be rolled up in a carpet, and drowned in the river at the end of their first day for being an asshole.

Books don't even have their own Canon.

TV and Movies, have Canon unto themselves, but the men and women who make Star Trek do not care if they violate Canon, because that's a lot of work to keep on top of everything, and we actually like it when they make mistakes.

Then there's this.

https://memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/Articles_of_the_Federation

 

[Mudd]

Until we get some other source, or confirmation from Star trek, I am going to treat it as cannon (even though it isn"t)

So, you're going to deliberately commit an error?

 

[Toril Toran]

Actually, ideas from books are integrated into cannon all the time.
You are simply dismissing it as non-cannon. What about all the other Star Trek technical manuals? What about all the blueprints? Are you just going to dismiss them as well?

 

[1001001]

Actually, ideas from books are integrated into cannon all the time.
You are simply dismissing it as non-cannon. What about all the other Star Trek technical manuals? What about all the blueprints? Are you just going to dismiss them as well?

Yes.

Cannon is what is shown on screen. Period.