posted
I�ve found something very troubling about the Federation, called the Prime Directive. I cite the episodes: ENT - Dear Doctor, TNG � Pen Pals, TNG � Homeward as being the most troubling.
In Dear Doctor the crew comes across a small sublight vessel in space- the pilot is gravely ill, and they return him to his homeworld Volakis. They find that the world has two sentient species, the Volakians and the Mank, the first species is very evolved but suffers from a freak genetic problem that is killing their culture. The Mank are far more primitive, yet show adaptability and intelligence. As a lower species though they have not been allowed to fully expand over the planet, their lands tend to be less fertile, but the Volakians are a caring people, and feed and cloth the Mank. A cure is discovered that would treat the Volakians, yet Phlox, T�Pol, and later Archer all decide that the right thing to do is to leave without giving them the cure, so that the Volakians will die and the Mank will be able to take over one day. This episode sets the foundation of what will become the Prime Directive.
In Pen Pals, Data receives a communication from a girl on a dieing planet that also happens to be pre-warp (but also with neat door technology). Throughout the episode Data is lectured as he talks to the girl more and more, and then finally brings the girl to the ship. Since they are already involved, the crew easily repairs the planet saving all from destruction, the girl�s memory is erased, and all is well.
In Homeward, Worf�s Human brother Nikolai comes aboard after having studied the Boraalans, a people who are about to be killed as the atmosphere of their planet is becoming unstable. Nikolai breaks the Prime Directive by transporting the group he was with to the holodeck forcing Picard to relocate them on a new world.
In the last two episodes, I feel if Data and Nikolai had not intervened, and it was just Picard standing on the bridge as both civilizations died, people would feel differently about the Prime Directive. The reason behind it is non-interference with pre-warp cultures, and as has been stated over and over, Not to play God with these worlds. �.I then submit from a Bajoran perspective that the Terrans are playing god by what they are doing. In Terran history the god(s) they have worshiped have not yielded their knowledge to them, they have been allowed to perish in great wars and natural disasters, all while their god(s) simply watched- and now Terrans mimic the same response. How is trying to act, as you believe your god would act, not playing god?
With the Prophets it�s very different, as they have guided the Bajoran people throughout history- I see their role as one that should be followed. Now don�t misunderstand me in any way, the Prime Directive is a good rule to live by, and primitive cultures should not be interfered with- but when it comes down to interference, or the complete destruction of a culture� complete destruction is the worst possible path. I feel in Dear Doctor some sort of negotiated settlement should have been attempted to see that the Mank were given more territory in exchange for the cure. Worlds in peril from some disaster such as comets/asteroid, geo/volcanic, atmospherical, biological, or viral where the problem can be studied, solved or cured without the inhabitants ever even knowing, I feel such things must be undertaken.
Registered: Dec 2005
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posted
And who, then, should decide which situations merit interference and which don't?
Starfleet isn't playing god by refusing to interfere, they're attempting not to play god by not trying to decide what to interfere in and what not to. To lead a less-developed society down the Federation path as the Prophets did with Bajor could hardly be held out as a good thing for mere mortals to do. Sisko didn't even like the Prophets doing it.
The issue isn't just how Starfleet's decisions will effect this one society at this moment in time. They're trying to consider how what they do will effect the galaxy in the centuries to come. They're not taking responsibility for the development of societies just because they have the ability do so.
Dear Doctor may have set the stage for the Prime Directive issue, but had the PD already been established, Archer probably could have helped. The Volakians did, after all, ask for help. The events in Penpal were in clear violation of the PD, regardless of how Picard justified it. Sharzenka (SP) was not a representative of her society, and she had no idea whose help she was requesting.
posted
See, that's where I think there's a fuzzy line with the Prime Directive. Its supposed to dicate non-interference and even non-contact with pre-warp civilzations, but if somehow a pre-warp race learns of the Federation somehow and is in dire straits, if they ask for help would the Federation be obliged to help? (I'm thinking of a parallel with Earth asking the Asgard for help in SG)
-------------------- I haul cardboard and cardboard accessories
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
It depends on what kind of help they're asking for. Help in defending themselves against someone or fighting a war, probably not. Help with some form of humanitarian thing or diplomatic efforts, maybe.
posted
It also seems like the directive should tie the hands of starship captains, but not necessarily the federation. Massive pandemics, natural disasters, even comets flying down from above wouldn't normally eradicate a civilization in 60 minutes minus commercials. Surely it would seem reasonable in each of the cases above for the question to get routed to a federation group that would then more fully evaluate the problem and decide on a more reasoned course than Capt Smith and his band of loyal adventurers.
Hopelessly optimism is after all a trek prerequisite .
-------------------- Twee bieren tevreden, zullen mijn vriend betalen.
Registered: Oct 2000
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posted
Someone else pointed out somewhere that the Prime Directive isn't that effective when you consider other races/nations aren't bound by it.
Just because Starfleet or the Federation won't interfere doesn't mean the Ferengi, Cardassians, Klingons, Romulans, Dominion, etc... will likewise step aside.
ENT's Dear Doctor alluded to this when the aliens mentioned they would turn to the Ferengi for aid.
I like the idea of some do-gooders in the Federation catching wind of the disaster and going out on their own to help. Who needs governmetal assistance when you have private organizations?
Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
I hadn't really considered before that the PD is only very dramatic when you consider the time limit imposed by the story. Very rarely would any decision need to be made on the spot by a field officer with regards to a PD situation. Voyager was really the best example of where the PD would become dramatic, Janeway being cut off from superior officers and having to make decisions on her own, without the possibility of consulting superiors.
I suppose captains of deep space explorers such as the ones sent to redevous with Voyager (and what the Ent D was supposed to be) might face those situations too.
It also should be noted that Federation citizens aren't bound by the Prime Directive, Starfleet personnel are, which is where Herb's private interest groups would come in. If they could get there hands on a ship and technology, they could go around involving themselves in whatever they wanted and there's really nothign Starfleet could do about it.
WizArtist II
"How can you have a yellow alert in Spacedock? "
Member # 1425
posted
Not to mention Kirk arming the people on one planet with firearms to match the Klingons. The prime directive is like the speed limit... it's obeyed when people are afraid they might get caught speeding.
The basic idea is to not bring about a technological upheaval to a civilization that isn't psychologically ready for the advancement. Of course, this is all based on the idiotic precept that any civilization you run into will have the same tendencies and traits as humans. The trouble is that Starfleet isn't the only group out there. Sure THEY can try to police themselves, but what about civilians or other outside factions? It's kind of hard to play by the rules when you realize everyone else is playing Calvinball.
-------------------- There are 10 types of people in the world...those that understand Binary and those that don't.
Registered: Nov 2004
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OnToMars
Now on to the making of films!
Member # 621
posted
But that's really a loophole when you think about it. Considering how important the Prime Directive is trumped up to be (ignoring for a moment the actual actions of some captains in the episodes in question, I don't think Starfleet or any officer would be inclined to overlook so core a belief. Rather, I imagine one of Starfleet's duties is to prevent civilian entities from corrupting pre-warp civilizations, like Worf's brother in that one episode with Kassidy Yates.
-------------------- If God didn't want us to fly, he wouldn't have given us Bernoulli's Principle.
Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
The Prime Directive's importance may have been amplified in light of that little incident where a Starfleet captian took over a planet. (Or was there more than one?) In situations like Starfleet officers sometimes find themselves in, it really is too easy to play god, and some restraints need to be put into place. However, there's a difference between a civilization that can survive on its own (if only they wouldn't kill each other) and one that can't. All other things being equal, if you allow something to happen when you could stop it, you're just as responsible as if you'd caused it.
I seem to recall Dr. Franklin on Babylon 5 once performing an operation against the wishes of a child's parent. Sheridan demanded to know who asked him to play god, and Franklin responded "Every patient who walks through those doors." The way the Prime Directive is treated in Star Trek sometimes, it's almost like a religion where the universe is planned to turn out in some specific way, and any action on the part of an intelligent species screws up that plan. Taken to those extreme's, it's an absurd concept. If Starfleet has the ability to help people and doesn't, what good are they?
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I think in many cases, with primative worlds which have asked for help- they are more the exception than the rule as to what we will find... I think more often there will come times when a disaster can be identified, such as a scan of a system can reveal a primative world, and an asteroid on a course to hit it in several hundred years. The world doesn't know it is in danger of destruction, and but a minor act on our part can overt it entirely. To alter the situation is against the Prime Directive... but I feel it is most certainly our duty. We can do it without the culture knowing they were saved, without their culture being altered. There then crops up the illogical argument that how things have changed- that this race could rise and become a tyranical foe oneday. I feel we will always be ahead of the culture, they certainly pose no immediate threat-
Registered: Dec 2005
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