Prime Directive

In the Star Trek fictional universe, the Prime Directive, Starfleet's General Order #1, is the most prominent guiding principle of the United Federation of Planets. The Prime Directive dictates that there be no interference with the natural development of any primitive society, chiefly meaning that no primitive culture can be given or exposed to any information regarding advanced technology or alien races. It also forbids any effort to improve or change in any way the natural course of such a society, even if that change is well-intentioned and kept totally secret. "Primitive" is defined as any culture which has not yet attained warp drive. Starfleet allows scientific missions to investigate and move amongst pre-warp civilizations as long as no advanced technology is left behind, and there is no interference with events or no revelation of their identity.

Discussion

Star Trek stories have used the Prime Directive as a literary device which allows the exploration of interactions with less advanced societies without the heroes having the overwhelming advantage of easy access to and use of their technology. Since Star Trek has consistently used alien interactions as an allegory for the real world, the Prime Directive has served as a template to tell stories which resemble those of real human societies and their interactions with less technologically advanced societies, such as the interaction between advanced cultures and indigenous peoples. In the philosophical view of Star Trek, no matter how well intentioned the more advanced peoples are, interaction between advanced technology and a more primitive society is invariably destructive.

Related Topics:
Star Trek - Allegory

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In the fictional storyline, the Prime Directive was created by Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets shortly after they were first formed. Since then the Prime Directive has been broken on many occasions intentionally and unintentionally. Sometimes when a Federation starship or vessel crashes on a planet that has a pre-warp civilization the survivors or the wreckage are collected by the natives and this then influences their society, especially when Federation technology is recovered and added to the technology of the planet. Sometimes the Directive is deliberately violated; circa stardate 2534.0 (2266), cultural observer and historian John Gill openly created a regime based on Nazi Germany on a primitive planet in a misguided effort to create a more benign version of the original. However, the intervention proved disastrous with the regime adopting the same racial supremacist and genocidal ideologies of the original.

Related Topics:
Starfleet - United Federation of Planets - Stardate - Nazi Germany

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By time of the era of ', the Prime Directive was indicated to apply not only to just pre-warp civilizations, but to any culture with whom Starfleet comes into contact. In such situations, the Prime Directive forbids any involvement with a civilization without the expressed consent or invitation of the lawful leaders of that society, and absolutely forbids any involvement whatsoever in the internal politics of a civilization. For example, when the planet Bajoran government experienced a power struggle that nearly lead to civil war, Deep Space Nine Commander Ben Sisko's superior explicitly cited the Prime Directive, and ordered him to evacuate all Starfleet personnel from the station, as the situation was deemed internal to Bajor, even though it was known that the Cardassians were supplying weapons to one side. An earlier example occurred when the Klingon Empire experienced a brief civil war of its own, and Captain Picard refused Chancellor Gowron's offer of aid for the same reason, even though he was the legitimate rule of the Empire, and even though the Romulans were suspected of supplying weapons to the opposing side. (Although the Prime Directive was not explicitly mentioned, it is presumable that this was the pertinent basis for Picard's refusal, in light of the latter example on '.)

Related Topics:
Bajoran - Deep Space Nine - Ben Sisko - Cardassians - Klingon - Captain Picard - Gowron - Romulans

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On ', the Prime Directive was used more than once as a plot device as well, and on more than one occasion, Captain Janeway also applied the Prime Directive to a situation which clearly did not involve a pre-warp civilization. Also, in at least two different situations, the Prime Directive or a policy similar to it was used against Janeway and her crew, wherein they encountered civilizations that had technology which could shorten their journey home, but were denied access to it because the alien cultures likewise had policies against sharing advanced technology with other races.

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The only Starfleet order capable of rescinding the Prime Directive is the Omega Directive, a situational order invoked only when the volatile Omega molecule is detected. In this situation, Starfleet personnel have the power to interfere in any civilization to ensure that any such molecules are destroyed, and (where possible) knowledge of their existence is suppressed.

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