The Prime Directive on this show

[The Overlord]

How should the Prime Directive be handled in this show?

I hope the PD comes off as more reasonable then it was presented in TNG era. I don't want there ever to be a episode where a civilization is about to be destroyed by natural disaster and the captain uses the PD as an excuse to do nothing and let them die. Do more episodes that show why the PD is a good thing, Who Watches the Watchers and Patterns of Force are good examples. Make the PD moral debates interesting and don't make the people supporting it seem either callous or stupid.

 

[skip bittman]

Has Fuller ever been asked about the PD? Curious as to what his take on it might be in the past as it might inform the current direction.

 

[Mudd]

Fuck the Prime Directive.

 

[Tim Thomason]

Fuck the Prime Directive.

This should be the quote on the ship's dedication plaque.

 

[Rahul]

The prime directive works amazingly as an answer to the Fermi paradoxon.

Don't give critical technology to under-developed species. Let them find out on their own. Imagine if during the Cold War (our one), one of the fractions (China, or the UDSSR, or even 60s misogynist America) suddenly got their hands on transporter technology. That would completely shift the tide of the war, completely favouring one side, with the other one loosing totally and helplessly, to a fraction of the conflict that doesn't necessarily has evolved enough in social areas to know how to use that kind of technology approprietly, or what to do with their sudden superiority over their enemies.

Or imagine a planet with a society comparable to our own. Now an alien ship crashlands, and they want to reverse.engineer the warp core. Have them political infight, and spys of different nations trying to get access to the warp drive. Them not realizing that they lack the fundamental understanding of the underlying theories neccessary for the warp drive to work. And them going into direction where their very first practical warp core test would lead into an unimaginable catastrophe, polluting the whole atmosphere in potentially apocalyptic dimensions. Without them having the technology to recover from or contain those effects. And our heroes have to stop that, and make sure they take away or destroy the technology from all fractions of those savages.

THAT are the prime directive stories I want to see!

 

[BillJ]

It should be consistent with its portrayal on TOS.

 

[Paradise City]

I don't mind what they do with the Prime Directive. It's cool if it challenges people whichever way they happen to play it.

 

[BillJ]

I don't mind what they do with the Prime Directive. It's cool if it challenges people whichever way they happen to play it.

If it is a Prime universe show, it should be consistent with the closest Prime universe show that uses it, which is Star Trek. Which means a pretty loose interpretation and not letting people die because they are fated to. The dogmatic treatment of it during the Berman years really turned me off.

 

[Finn]

Wasn't Kirk a by the book guy during TOS?

 

[BillJ]

Wasn't Kirk a by the book guy during TOS?

I think he pushed pretty far on the Prime Directive. But, there's too many instances of Starfleet interacting openly with less developed civilizations for the Prime Directive to have been as strict as it is made out to be in the 24th century.

 

[Mudd]

This should be the quote on the ship's dedication plaque.

"To Fucking Go Where No One Has Gone Before."

 

[loghaD]

Fuck the Prime Directive.

This should be the quote on the ship's dedication plaque.

Only in Latin, to make it classy.

Futue derectivus prīmārium!

(Note: I've never studied Latin, so that's probably wrong.)

 

[Guy Gardener]

Has Fuller ever been asked about the PD? Curious as to what his take on it might be in the past as it might inform the current direction.

Prime Directive Voyager episodes written by Fuller.

- Friendship One. 200 years ago the Federation gave some half assed tech to aliens that destroyed their biosphere, and they blame the federation for giving them technology too toxic and harmful for their ancestors to safely control or regulate.

- Flesh and Blood. Janeway gave the Hirogen holotech to save the Hirogen from extinction by creating communities huddled around holohunting preserves, but the Hirogen used the technology to invent angry AI intent on exterminating the Hirogen as a species because the Hirogen are assholes. The Hirogen were too stupid to use holography in a way that would not create a new species insistent on committing genocide. It's like half way through building a car, deciding that breaks are for wussies.

Bryan produced the final season of Voyager, but above are the two episodes he had a cowriting credit on, that seemed relevant to the topic.

 

[Philip Guyott]

The Prime Directive is not set in stone. According to Star Trek Voyager episode, 'Infinite Regress', It had 47 sub-orders by the latter part of the 24th century. Presumably certain aspects of the prime directive had not yet been written in Kirk's time period, and it is possible that certain aspects of the prime directive had not yet been written during the Pike's time period, even though there is a gap of only ten years. We do not know what all the 47 sub orders are so STD writers could add new rules not seen in previous episodes so long as it does not contradict continuity. However I think that STD should strip it back to it's bare essentials as established in TOS:

Do not provide knowledge of other inhabited worlds (even if individuals or governments in the society were already aware of such) - "Bread and Circuses".

Do not provide knowledge of technologies or science - "A Private Little War"

Do not take any action which support one faction within a society over another - "The Omega Glory"

Do not subvert or avoid the application of a society's laws - "Wolf in the Fold"

24th century additions to the Prime Directive include:

Do not help a society escape a natural disaster known to the society, even if inaction would result in a society's extinction - TNG "Pen Pal's, (This was also a part of the prime directive in the Kelvin timeline as seen in "Into Darkness")

Do not take any action which generally affects a society's overall development - TNG "Who Watches the Watchers"

Do not help a society escape the negative consequences of its own actions - VOY "Time and Again" and "Thirty Days"

Do not interfere with the internal affairs of a society - TNG "Symbiosis", "Reunion", "Redemption", "Redemption II", "The Price"; DS9 "The Circle", "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges"; VOY "Thirty Days"

In his essay 'Star Trek in the Vietnam era', H. Bruce Franklin suggested that the prime directive reflected a contemporary political view of critics of the United States' foreign policy. Since the 1960's it would seem that world powers (not only the US) have still not learned from the mistakes of the past. However STD chose to address the Prime Directive, it should still speak to the same issues we face today.

 

[Timo]

Many of the above points are debatable. Spock (!) did not worry about getting chewed up by his superiors for "Paradise Syndrome" even though the events mirror those of STID. Kirk frequently interfered with the internal affairs of societies if they did not meet certain exacting criteria of being humanlike ("not dynamic enough" was used twice). In "A Private Little War", Kirk did give advanced technologies to primitives, and had spoken openly about them with local individuals earlier on. Etc.

Is this because Kirk forged his logs so that he never got caught (having first cleverly framed his Records Officer for framing him, so the only person who could have caught the forgeries was rotting in a funny farm)? Or does it actually tell us something concrete about the PD of the day? About the attitudes towards the PD of the day? It's just a single ship and a single crew that we follow, and every other skipper gets burned for doing the Kirk thing. Perhaps all starship skippers are natural enemies and generally act alike but vilify each other for it. Perhaps skippers are different, and the one commanding the Discovery is not Kirk. All the options are open, and compatible with TOS as such...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[BillJ]

Or does it actually tell us something concrete about the PD of the day?

I think it does tell us something concrete. Too many times where Kirk and Company beam down to less advanced civilizations that should be protected by the Prime Directive, in full Starfleet uniforms with weapons and other tech on them. We even have Ron Tracey, who beamed down to Omega IV in his Starfleet uniform.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

It'll be interesting with the main character not being the Captain, and how her view will differ from theirs. Will one of them be more hard-line than the other? What'll that throw up in their relationship/dynamic?

 

[CorporalClegg]

Fuck the Prime Directive.

Well said.

 

[JoeCabby]

They really need to lighten up on the prime directive, especially as it was in TNG. If the federation were to interact with "lesser beings", it would make sense to do it the way the vulcans did with humans in Enterprise. 100 or so years of bringing them "up to speed" before sharing all their technology.

 

[BillJ]

They really need to lighten up on the prime directive, especially as it was in TNG. If the federation were to interact with "lesser beings", it would make sense to do it the way the vulcans did with humans in Enterprise. 100 or so years of bringing them "up to speed" before sharing all their technology.

All that does is create mistrust, and make the lesser civilization feel patronized. If you're going to start dealing with a civilization, you must be ready to do it as equals.