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In the fictional universe of Star Trek, the Prime Directive (also known as Starfleet General Order 1, General Order 1, and the "non-interference directive") is a guiding principle of Starfleet, prohibiting its members from interfering with the internal and natural development of alien civilizations.^[1] The Prime Directive applies particularly to civilizations which are below a certain threshold of technological, scientific and cultural development; preventing starship crews from using their superior technology to impose their own values or ideals on them.^[2] Since its introduction in the first season of the original Star Trek series, it has served as the plot focus of numerous episodes of the various Star Trek series.

The Prime Directive

Although the concept of the Prime Directive has been alluded to and paraphrased by many Star Trek characters during the television series and feature films, the actual directive has never been provided to viewers.^[3] The most complete attempts to define the directive have come from non-canonical works and include:

The Prime Directive prohibits Starfleet personnel and spacecraft from interfering in the normal development of any society, and mandates that any Starfleet vessel or crew member is expendable to prevent violation of this rule^[4]

and

As the right of each sentient species to live in accordance with its normal cultural evolution is considered sacred, no Starfleet personnel may interfere with the normal and healthy development of alien life and culture. Such interference includes introducing superior knowledge, strength, or technology to a world whose society is incapable of handling such advantages wisely. Starfleet personnel may not violate this Prime Directive, even to save their lives and/or their ship, unless they are acting to right an earlier violation or an accidental contamination of said culture. This directive takes precedence over any and all other considerations, and carries with it the highest moral obligation.^[5][6]

Creation and evolution

Creation of the Prime Directive is generally credited to original-series producer Gene L. Coon.^[7] The Prime Directive reflected a contemporary political view that US involvement in the Vietnam War was an example of a superpower interfering in the natural development of southeast Asian society; the creation of the Prime Directive was perceived as a repudiation of that involvement.^[8][9]

Notable on-screen references

• Although filmed between 2001 and 2005, Star Trek: Enterprise (ENT) is a prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) and references are made to the Prime Directive. Most notably in the first season episode, "Dear Doctor", Captain Jonathan Archer says "Some day, my people are gonna come up with some sort of a doctrine, something that says what we can and can't do out here, should and shouldn't do. But until someone tells me that they've drafted that directive, I'm gonna have to remind myself every day that we didn't come out here to play God."^[10] Additionally, in the ENT episodes "Fight or Flight" and "Civilization", references are made to a Vulcan policy of non-interference that imply it may have been a model for starfleet's Prime Directive.


• The first filmed reference to the Prime Directive occurs in the first season TOS episode "The Return of the Archons" (1966), when Spock begins to caution Captain Kirk when he proposes to destroy a computer controlling an entire civilization. Kirk interrupts him after Spock says, "Captain, our Prime Directive of non-interference" with, "That refers to a living, growing culture..." Later, Kirk argues the computer into self-destruction and leaves behind a team of sociologists to help restore the society to a "human" form.


• In the TOS second season episode "The Omega Glory", after finding out that Captain Tracy may have violated the Prime Directive, Captain Kirk states, "A starship captain's most solemn oath is that he will give his life, even his entire crew, rather than violate the Prime Directive."


• In the TOS second season episode "Bread and Circuses", the crew discusses that the Prime Directive is in effect, saying, "No identification of self or mission. No interference with the social development of said planet. No references to space, or the fact that there are other worlds, or more advanced civilizations."


• In the TOS second season episode "A Piece of the Action", interference 100 years earlier by the Federation ship, the Horizon, hints that the Prime Directive was not in force at that time.


• In the TOS second season episode "A Private Little War", two different factions on a planet were at war with each other and it is discovered that the Klingons were furnishing one faction with advanced weapons. Kirk responded by arming the other faction with the same weapons. This resulted in an arms race on that world, as a fictionalized parallel to the then-current Cold War arms race, in which the United States often armed one side of a dispute and the Soviet Union armed the other.


• In the TOS second season episode "Patterns of Force," Federation cultural observer and historian John Gill created a regime based on Nazi Germany on a primitive planet in an effort to create a society which combined the high efficiency of a fascist dictatorship with a more benign philosophy. In doing so, he contaminated the normal and healthy development of the planet's culture, with disastrous effects; the regime adopts the same racial supremacist and genocidal ideologies of the original.


• Captain Jean-Luc Picard states during the Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) episode "Symbiosis", "The Prime Directive is not just a set of rules; it is a philosophy... and a very correct one. History has proven again and again that whenever mankind interferes with a less developed civilization, no matter how well intentioned that interference may be, the results are invariably disastrous."


• In the VOY episode "The Omega Directive," an exception to the Prime Directive was introduced. Starfleet General Order number 0 authorizes a captain to take any and all means necessary to destroy Omega particles including interference with any society that creates them.


• In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9) episode The Circle, the government of the planet Bajor experiences an internal, civil war-like conflict. Starfleet Commander Benjamin Sisko's superior orders him to evacuate all Starfleet personnel from the station noting, "The Cardassians may involve themselves in other people's civil wars, but we don't."


• In the TNG episode "Homeward", it is said that Starfleet had allowed 60 races to die out rather than interfere with their fate. However, in the episodes "Homeward" and "Pen Pals", the crew debates the Prime Directive and the saving of civilizations.


• In the feature film Star Trek: Insurrection, Picard violates orders to protect the rights of a planet's population when he feels an admiral is breaking the Prime Directive.

Criticism

The Prime Directive has been criticized in-universe because of the inconsistencies in which it is applied. In the TOS episodes "Friday's Child," "For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky," "The Cloud Minders," "The Apple," "The Return of the Archons," and "A Taste of Armageddon," the crew of the Enterprise interferes with laws or customs of alien worlds to achieve a Federation objective, to save the lives of the crew, or to better the lives of the inhabitants.^[11]

Out-of-universe criticisms focus on the above problems; that the Prime Directive is simply a plot device and is manipulated by the writers. If the Federation is not colonialists (or conquerors), but are trying to ethically "share" the universe, doesn't that imply a need to communicate and work together?^[12] Would the Prime Directive work (or not work) much like our present-day International Law, with levels of enforcement varying on how powerful the violator is?^[13]
Or, as one critic writes, "If your concern is not to change the natural behavior or development of alien citizens at any cost, your best bet is to stay at home rather than to explore new worlds."^[14]

Temporal Prime Directive

The "Temporal Prime Directive" is a fictional guideline for time travelers (from the past or future) from interfering in the natural development of a timeline.

In the TNG epsiode "A Matter of Time", Picard compares the Prime Directive to a possible Temporal Prime Directive:

"Of course, you know of the Prime Directive, which tells us that we have no right to interfere with the natural evolution of alien worlds. Now I have sworn to uphold it, but nevertheless I have disregarded that directive on more than one occasion because I thought it was the right thing to do. Now, if you are holding on to some temporal equivalent of that directive, then isn't it possible that you have an occasion here to make an exception, to help me to choose, because it's the right thing to do?"

As 31st century time traveler Daniels revealed to Captain Jonathan Archer in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Cold Front", as time travel technology became practical, the Temporal Accords were established sometime before the 31st century, to allow the use of time travel for the purposes of studying history, while prohibiting the use of it to alter history.

See also

• Law in Star Trek
  


• The Songs of Distant Earth


• Three Laws of Robotics


• Fermi Paradox

References

External links

• 
  Prime Directive at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)