Prime Directive, poorly written?

[Deimos Anomaly]

It seems to me that the UFP could run into a starfaring civ with equivelant (or superior) FTL that wasn't Cochranian warp drive, and the PD would technically require them to have no relations with said civ.

This ignores all the other problems with the PD. But this particular implication of legalese occurred to me today.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I think the Prime Directive is meant to be a tricky situation that puts our heroes frequently in a moral dilemma.

 

[Timo]

It is just an urban myth that the Prime Directive would have anything to do with warp drives. Sure, it's often a pre-warp society that the heroes have to leave to suffer because of the PD - but they give the same cold shoulder to many warp-driven cultures such as Klingons or Bajorans, too.

IMHO, it's great how some of the writers have established that the PD only applies to Starfleet, not to civilians. It thus becomes a perfectly practical arrangement whose only purpose is to prevent starship captains from wielding too much power; if there's a primitive culture in need of help, the Federation Council can grant it at the drop of a ballot ticket, or Harry Mudd can sell the help for a good profit, but a starship captain will go to jail if he or she attempts to take the power of decision to his or her own hands. Which is as it should be, lest all starships become floating Mounts Olympos with a deranged God at the helm.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[MacLeod]

If the PD or rather the situtations the PD covers are set in stone it could lead to starfleet officers following the letter of the law rather than the spirit of the law. AFter all they could encounter a situation which should fall under the PD but because it wasn't convieved of when the PD was framed it wasn't included. With a more open PD it allows it to be covered.

 

[sonak]

I think the Prime Directive is meant to be a tricky situation that puts our heroes frequently in a moral dilemma.

I agree-there've been tons of discussions on the PD in fandom, and let's keep in mind that first and foremost it is a plot device to make the story less easily resolvable. It's not that well thought out because it wasn't meant to be.

 

[BillJ]

Must... resist... urge... to... post...

 

[JoeZhang]

I think the officers we see are simply using 'pre-warp' short-hand for 'pre capacity for interstellar travel'.

 

[scotpens]

The Prime Directive was a noble idea in theory. In practice, it was a bad idea in terms of drama, at least in Trek TOS. The PD became a fly in the ointment when it came to telling Mary Worth stories -- the Enterprise meddling her way across the galaxy, to quote David Gerrold. So we wound up with stories where either some justification had to be found to violate the Prime Directive, or it was just ignored altogether.

 

[sonak]

The Prime Directive was a noble idea in theory. In practice, it was a bad idea in terms of drama, at least in Trek TOS. The PD became a fly in the ointment when it came to telling Mary Worth stories -- the Enterprise meddling her way across the galaxy, to quote David Gerrold. So we wound up with stories where either some justification had to be found to violate the Prime Directive, or it was just ignored altogether.

right, it wasn't taken very seriously in TOS, then was taken waaaay too seriously in new Trek, from TNG to VOY. (Excluding DS9, which rarely dealt with it, and was a better show for it.)

 

[Therin of Andor]

It seems to me that the UFP could run into a starfaring civ with equivelant (or superior) FTL that wasn't Cochranian warp drive...

Whoever said "or its equivalent" was not allowed to be counted? Surely lots of alien civilizations have something other than Cochranian warp drive.

 

[C.E. Evans]

It seems to me that the UFP could run into a starfaring civ with equivelant (or superior) FTL that wasn't Cochranian warp drive...

Whoever said "or its equivalent" was not allowed to be counted? Surely lots of alien civilizations have something other than Cochranian warp drive.

We saw quite a bit of different forms of FTL drive in Trek--slipstream, transwarp conduits, graviton catapults, subspace vortex drive...

 

[Neutral Zone]

Was it ever used in TOS?

I watched the 'ManTrap' the other night and wondered about the PD then. Did they break the PD by killing the 'salt vampire' as it was the last of its kind on Planet M113?

It appears at times that the PD was a neat invention to add conscience to a story when required.

 

[C.E. Evans]

It appears at times that the PD was a neat invention to add conscience to a story when required.

In a real sense, that's all it was ever meant to do.

 

[scotpens]

In Trek TOS, it seemed the Prime Directive was more honored in the breach than the observance.

 

[BillJ]

Was it ever used in TOS?

I watched the 'ManTrap' the other night and wondered about the PD then. Did they break the PD by killing the 'salt vampire' as it was the last of its kind on Planet M113?

It appears at times that the PD was a neat invention to add conscience to a story when required.

The Man Trap was fairly early in the first season, the Prime Directive wasn't invented until late in the season in the episode Return of the Archons.

Even with that, I don't think the Salt Vampire would've qualified for protection.

 

[C.E. Evans]

In Trek TOS, it seemed the Prime Directive was more honored in the breach than the observance.

More often than not, Kirk went after others that violated the Prime Directive. In fact, his only official violation of the Prime Directive was stated in an episode of VOY. Otherwise, in TOS, Kirk generally sought to either restore or balance civilizations whose natural development had already been compromised by alien interference.

I think by the 24th-Century, though, the Prime Directive became much more conservative than it was during Kirk's time (even his attempts to fix Prime Directive violations by others might have been considered violations by Janeway's time).

 

[T'Girl]

I think by the 24th-Century, though, the Prime Directive became ...

I think the argument could be made that the PD isn't a carved in stone law, and more a general policy that was changed over time.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I think by the 24th-Century, though, the Prime Directive became ...

I think the argument could be made that the PD isn't a carved in stone law, and more a general policy that was changed over time.

In the part of my quote that you omitted, I said exactly that--that the Prime Directive has apparently changed over time. There are things in the 24th-Century that Kirk wouldn't have been allowed to do, but were seemingly acceptable (if not the proper course of action maybe) during the 23rd-Century.

 

[Anji]

The Prime Directive is not an absolute. You are tried for breaking the Prime Directive, not automatically put to death for breaking it.

And please don't judge episodes made before the Prime Directive was created using the Prime Directive law.

 

[plynch]

If the PD or rather the situtations the PD covers are set in stone it could lead to starfleet officers following the letter of the law rather than the spirit of the law. AFter all they could encounter a situation which should fall under the PD but because it wasn't convieved of when the PD was framed it wasn't included. With a more open PD it allows it to be covered.

Laws are written with letters so that we know as exactly as we can, what to do, and not. Spirit of a law is open to anyone's interpretation, rendering the writing of it unnecessary in the first place. Why write it down in letters if ya don't want it followed to the letter?

And no, i'm not a lawyer!