Technically, you break the Prime Directive the moment you enter any system that isn't yours. Because you take a chance upsetting the natural order of things.
The Prime Directive on this show
- Thread starter The Overlord
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Technically, you break the Prime Directive the moment you enter any system that isn't yours. Because you take a chance upsetting the natural order of things.
Well, so much for the prime directive then. A rule that is constantly broken may as well not exist at all.
Say goodbye to the 5 year mission of "boldly going where no man has gone before".
Even probes have a chance to cause mayhem. V'ger looked to have digitized a great many things on its journey, and Friendship One inadvertently wiped out an entire civilization.
And Neil Armstrong could have stepped on the last Moon microbes. Better cancel everything then!
And Neil Armstrong could have stepped on the last Moon microbes. Better cancel everything then!
Well, according to quantum theory even looking at the moon changes it. You know why animals are never blinded by the sight of a total eclipse? Because they never look at it. You have to be human to feel that compulsion.
And Neil Armstrong could have stepped on the last Moon microbes. Better cancel everything then!
Not that I would ever be in favor of that. But it shows a flaw in the dogmatic interpretation of the Prime Directive we got in the 24th century.
Yeah, one of many.
Maybe it was some alien race, liek the preservers that built it for them. Sort of like the Ocampa and the Caretaker.
From what I understand, the guy who invented the Landru computer unilaterally decided for his people that they needed to return to a simpler time, and built Landru to enforce that. Over the millennia, the society devolved and forgot its origins or why they lived the way they did. Seems to me when a computer designed by a tyrant who has been dead for 6000 years is deciding for an entire society and using murder as a means to control it, and that society doesn't even know why, then that is a stunted society that is being controlled by unnatural progression, and has devolved. That was probably the rationalization Kirk made when he destroyed Landru. Destroying Landru wasn't going to hurt that society, because there was no where to go but up.
couldnt agree more one of my favorite lines from enterprise is the one where archer says maybe some day we will have a rule about it but until then we are here now or somethi g like this i dont remeber the exact line but its a to gue and cheek to the pd
sometimes i think kirk just did not like something then made up a reason lol
right , but i also think that was a commetary on american foriegn policy
here is a point that i think we r missing : and what i do not like in tng: while tng talks a lot about individual rights ; the pd was used as a metaphor for a
erican foriegn policy : when applying goes amock like in the example above about jacking up the immortals culture and then just jetting i think it was a very cutting attack on foriegn cou tey building : although this is not researched or cited properly so probably going to be in trouble for more dubious u researched responses that are supported by any quick google luv ya admin guys
erican foriegn policy : when applying goes amock like in the example above about jacking up the immortals culture and then just jetting i think it was a very cutting attack on foriegn cou tey building : although this is not researched or cited properly so probably going to be in trouble for more dubious u researched responses that are supported by any quick google luv ya admin guys
And gave them immortality? I don't know about that. It seems a bit strained.
Could've been an alien intelligence that forced the population to build and support Vaal. The thing is, do the "Vaalites" even count as a culture? We only see a dozen of them, and there is no real indication that there are anymore, anywhere.
The way I see it. We're supposed to pretend that there are an entire planet of them. Just like the klingon ridges, they were there but we just couldn't see them.
An interesting conceit; at the time Landru built the system to house his wisdom the people were highly evolved; we conjecture socially and technologically. Over the millennia and after Landru's death (presume he built the system knowing he was dying), the society went from the 22nd Century level (on the Richter scale of culture) down to the 19th (based on their appearance in "Archons". The system "downgraded" society to keep it under control.
The Enterprise as a representative of the Federation arrives to investigate and finds that downgraded society stagnant and worthy of improving.
Are there parallels in today's world of "downgraded" societies kept under control?
I think it was much higher than that, as the light panel they use to light the cell is ahead of Federation technology, according to Spock. Plus, they were able to build a single computer that controls a planetary population (funny looking back, before writers learned that control centers would need to have backups in case of failure).
Either decision would be troublesome. You leave them in a state where they are essentially zombies, with periods of terrifying violence, or you free them and they have an incredibly difficult task of rebuilding a world.
"Downgraded"? definitely! "Under control"? Not so much.
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