Times the Prime Directive was a poor moral compass

[Spot261]

Ok, I've been thinking about this in light of a fair few threads over recent months and I'm curious. Can people think of specific instances where the PD was mishandled, either in universe as a Starfleet policy, or from a writing POV as a literary device?

One that springs to mind directly (I watched it last week) was "Code of Honour" where the PD was seemingly disregarded to suit the episode set up, Picard allowed full interaction with a pre warp culture and all the cultural contamination that goes with it, but disallowed direct use of the E's superior technology to take what was to me seemed to be clearly the right moral action, removing the vaccine without consent of the petty scheming Ligonian leader thus ensuring the safety of millions.

Instead Picard allowed Tasha to fight potentially to the death, interfered in the running of a primitive society by demonstrating a number of advanced technologies to them and effectively enacted a regime change by deliberately undermining Lutan's position. The end result is the crew left with the vaccine several days later than they could have done and left a society dramatically altered by their visit. A lose on every count because the PD was applied selectively and in a way that was contrived to create a difficult dilemna where none need exist.

 

[The Old Mixer]

They had seemingly primitive social customs, but remember that the Ligonians had their own transporter tech...this clearly wasn't a first contact situation, but a visit to a technologically sophisticated (beyond 21st-century standards) planet that the Federation had already established relations with.

 

[Spot261]

Yes, this is something that was unclear, whether the ligonians were truly pre warp, but nonetheless Picard refers to having his options limited by the PD, albeit not in any way that is clear based on my understanding of the concept.

 

[The Old Mixer]

The Prime Directive also prevents them from interfering with internal affairs and somewhat binds them to local customs, when dealing with cultures that are aware of who they are.

 

[Spot261]

True, which I would have been happy with if they didn't outright do exactly that throughout the episode. They exposed them to 24th century weapons tech, holodecks, replicators and any number of other technologies, then deliberately manipulated the situation to have Lutan removed in favour of a more sympathetic leader.

It seems that rather than being a guiding principle for both the characters and the writers the PD was a plot device used to create an unnecessarily difficult and dangerous situation, whilst still leaving the Ligonians culture deeply contaminated anyway.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I don't think this was supposed to be a matter of contaminating them with tech in the same way as if they were a culture that didn't even know they were space travelers. Clearly Federation tech was superior to theirs in areas, but they were on open / equal terms with the Federation, and thus the Enterprise crew wasn't "hiding" anything from them.

 

[Tenacity]

Picard allowed Tasha to fight potentially to the death
The vaccine was worth the risk, and it was their society, and their rules.

interfered in the running of a primitive society
Picard mention that he wrestled a Ligonian at the Academy, sound like a technological warp drive society.

effectively enacted a regime change
Yareen was the planet's actual leader, her husband Lutan just the administrator, her second husband replace Lutan, but she remain in power at the end.

 

[Tracy Trek]

What about the one where some of the crew beam down to peaceful, hedonistic society (Is this episode called Justice?) and Wesley receives a death sentence for tripping over/falling into a flower bed or something. So Picard let's the trial go on instead of just taking Wesley and leaving. The planet's people had an advanced technological something watching over them, but they were pre-warp, right? So what were they even doing there in the first place? Were they invited there for shore leave?

 

[JirinPanthosa]

The cases where the prime directive came off as morally bankrupt were the cases where it made them not intervene in apocalypses.

 

[Gary 11's]

I think the PD appears a little too black and white for such a cultured society. In some cases it should be taken subjectively and put to a board of enquiry... or something..

 

[CRM-114]

The Prime Directive has never really been anything but a plot device, anyway.

 

[Paul Weaver]

Having a meeting does feel like the tng way. Indeed they had one in Pen Pals.

Aside from Picard, did anyone hold the prime directive up as something that wasn't bent (Kirk), ignored (Sisko), or something to deliberately flaunt (Janeway)?

 

[Scotchy]

In Homeward they not only show that the PD can be flawed, but Worf's adopted brother Nikolai came up with an excellent solution. Rather than just standing on the bridge and watching a planet burn it's inhabitants alive, he used the transporter and holodeck to allow them to "journey" to a safe destination. While it was tragic that one of these people escaped from the holodeck and ultimately took his own life, the end result was the salvation of the culture. I think that Nikolai's solution could have been applied to save other cultures (like the world depicted in Pen Pals). Worf and Picard are critical of Nikolai's plan, but I thought it was something that Kirk would have approved of.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

The whole rationale given for the apocalypse-spectating is that 'If the universe has a grand plan we shouldn't interfere with it'. That explanation doesn't even hold up to minor scrutiny. When Geordi pointed out the 'Maybe we are part of that plan' response, Picard brushed it off as 'sophistry'. No, 'Universes plan' thing is sophistry and rather poor sophistry.

If one can argue for the prime directive I'd argue more along these lines. In the early 20th century the US adopted a policy to put out all forest fires immediately. Then later found out that by interfering with nature that way, bigger more destructive forest fires happened later on. Applied to foreign policy, plans to manipulate foreign governments for your benefit tend to lead to power vacuums filled by even worse people.

The problem with arguing that mass extinctions are a part of nature's process and if we do not prevent them something worse will happen later on is that you can't arbitrarily apply it to only pre-warp species and use the discovery of warp as this arbitrary borderline before which nature counts and after which it doesn't. Sentient creatures are either all subject to nature or none of them are.