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Presumably, the Temporal Prime Directive was instituted at the same time that the Department of Temporal Investigations was created. Obviously, the Federation thought there was enough time travel going on to create an entire new section of the bureaucracy to deal w/ it, so I don't see why they wouldn't start making some SF regulations about it, too.
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agreed. the DTI wouldnt have any power to prosecute cases unless there was legislation to the effect of what they were investigating.
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The problem with that reasoning is that the two officers who visited Sisko to discuss his actions in "Trials and Tribbleations" mentioned some numbered regulation that stated all Starfleet personnel shall take reasonable precautions to avoid interferance in historic events.
Shouldn't they have just said, "The Temporal Prime Directive says your butt is toast"?
[ January 14, 2002: Message edited by: Aban Rune ]
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quote: The problem with that reasoning is that the two officers who visited Sisko to discuss his actions in "Trials and Tribbleations" mentioned some numbered regulation that stated all Starfleet personnel shall take reasonable precautions to avoid interferance in historic events.
thats not the problem with my reasoning.. thats exactly what i said.. if there werent any regulations like they said, the DTI would have no power.
And Sisko didnt break the Temporal Prime Dirctive, he followed it. Just like you can visit a primitive planet without breaking the Prime Directive: you can visit but you can interfere. Sisko got stuck in the bast and did his damdest not to change anything or interfere too much. textbook adherence to the TPD.
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When you get down to it, the reasoning behind the TPD is exactly the same as the regular PD: to prevent less-advanced cultures and civilizations from getting their hands on information and/or technology that is too advanced for them.
For example, someone from 2002 going back to 1914 to give the US technology about the fusion bomb would be a violation of the TPD. But it's the same principle as contemporaries from outer space in 1914 giving countries involved in WWI nukes.
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Just because the DTI guys didn't say the words "Temporal Prime Directive" doesn't mean they weren't talking about it. Perhaps "Temporal Prime Directive" is a sort of "slang" term used by SF officers, and the DTI guys don't like to sound so "vulgar"...
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There are times when the Prime Directive does seem an amazingly stupid thing. "Homeward" for instance, when the Enterprise could fairly easily (especially if it was working properly) save a colony, but chose not to.
I think the argument is that once you start helping a bit, good intentions get the better of you, and you start sticking your superior nose in everywhere. The Prime Directive is to stop the Federation from becoming like the Vorlons.
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Mike: There are several other people posting...who says I was talking about your reasoning...? I was refering to TSN's comment about the TPD coming into existence at the same time as the Temporal Investigations Department.
TSN: I suppose it's certainly possible that the regulation they mentioned and the TPD are the same thing. It just didn't sound that way in the ep. I guess my big problem with the whole thing is that, in "Future's End", Braxton mentioned the TPD and it sounded like it was included to show us that, as Starfleet developed into patroling time, the PD developed with them. The all of a sudden, instead of being something from the future, it turned into something that Janeway was familiar with and seemed to be bound by (or was supposed to be bound by).
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