Spoilers General Prodigy plot-arc speculation thread...

[Wouter]

Dal definitely tried to play "hero of the story" for nearly all of Season 1 and would pay for it several times and have it also pay off several times.

As much as he desperately wants to be an officer or captain of note there's a long streak of episodes of him having to learn and grow about what a captain actually is beyond the shots-caller. The general courage and daring would actually serve him very well in the officer's track in Starfleet training. Pike, Kirk and Picard don't seem to have any "particular" skill outside of their ability to command and trust in their crew.

Yes, but they have the advantage of having had decent schooling (probably at the Academy). Dal doesn't yet have their general knowledge, and he will probably not be in classes (or at least not often) but directly "in the field". Something which is better suited to characters that already have specific skills, like Jankom.

People played double-duty on the Protostar because there was no crew. I think pairing Zero up in Medical with Dr Goum would be a good contrasting "odd couple" moment and Zero did seem to have a nack for medicine despite being incorporeal.

Zero did seem to be the doctor, already starting when he diagnosed Gwyn's leg.

If I remember it exists as a general rule of thumb in the galaxy 1) Because it's a holdover from the Vulcan way of doing things and was probably part of what they lobbied for as part of the foundation of the federation. 2) The opening episode of Strange New Worlds writ rather large with flashing lights how big of a screw up even vaguely revealling technology can do to a society. A whole planet was able to observe an artificially created wormhole and extroplate Warp-tech derived anitmatter bombs from it. The Federation is post-scarcity due to its sheer size, doesn't mean its rescources are infinite.

Now, could we see more limited humanitarian (what would the actual word be when most of your members aren't human?) maybe.

But how is a society going to feel when they're in the middle of a plague, or some other disaster and people materialise from thin air claiming they're here to help? They're going to assume you're there with false intentions and probably put you immediately to the torch. So you move to hiding the cure in foodstuffs, or blend into the population for a short time and that has its own moral implications too.

Also, what's going to happen when a similar incident or disaster happens again and there's no convienient ship of the week in orbit? It'd create an immediate dependancy of "well those guys came before and gave us free stuff, so let's sit back! They'll be back, right?"

Well, there are times when the Prime Directive is applicable, but not doing anything when a world/society is certain or near certain to be destroyed does seem to be an extreme form of it.

And I think that it is applied too broadly even to peer powers, like the refusal of Picard/Starfleet to intervene in the Klingon internal affairs when Gowron called for their help. It was not a smart move because the other main candidate already had full support of the Romulans, and Gowron lost respect for the Federation as a result of it. The Klingons are not some backwater aliens that shouldn't be interfered with, the direction the empire takes is of drastic importance for the Federation. They were lucky that events transpired that would force Gowron to re-ally with the Federation, later on in DS9.

 

[Markonian]

Do we know if Zero qualified as a medical specialist? Or are they proficient because that's a Medusan thing?

 

[Commander Troi]

I think Zero just took it upon themselves because of their caring nature.

 

[Deks]

Well, there are times when the Prime Directive is applicable, but not doing anything when a world/society is certain or near certain to be destroyed does seem to be an extreme form of it.

The problem the UFP faces is the unknown consequences that can arise as a result of that interference.

And I think that it is applied too broadly even to peer powers, like the refusal of Picard/Starfleet to intervene in the Klingon internal affairs when Gowron called for their help. It was not a smart move because the other main candidate already had full support of the Romulans, and Gowron lost respect for the Federation as a result of it. The Klingons are not some backwater aliens that shouldn't be interfered with, the direction the empire takes is of drastic importance for the Federation. They were lucky that events transpired that would force Gowron to re-ally with the Federation, later on in DS9.

Gowron was a bit of an idiot in that regard.
He knew the UFP's stance on meddling in internal matters, so him losing respect for the Federation didn't really occur here.
Picard did act as Jadich which ultimately helped uncover a corruption within the Empire and even helped Gowron ascend to a position of power... but in fairness, that was within the law and Picard had acted impartially here.

And SF/UFP more than made up for refusing to intervene in the internal civil war of the Klingons by uncovering the fact the house of Duras was in league with the Romulans (who were supplying Duras) and stopping this relationship from continuing.
It wasn't until DS9 where he launched the invasion of Cardassia and the UFP refused that he lost respect for the Federation (and even here, the Klingons acted on 0 actual proof).

SF deals with 'bigger issues' (things that affect the whole quadrant/galaxy. Going in blindly into a conflict to support Gowron wouldn't have helped anyone. The Romulans were mainly banking on UFP's willingness to stay outside the conflict, but they probably also accounted for the remote possibility SF could potentially interfere. What really blew their problem out of proportion was when the Federation blocked the Romulans from sending in supplies to Duras and got actual proof of Romulan involvement (when a cloaked Warbird was exposed by USS Sutherland).

SF did the right thing.
There's no telling the consequences of them interfering in internal Klingon affairs in the future... and the Klingons did show they can be a bit 'fickle' when it comes to allegiances (at times).
The USS Enterprise-C did sacrifice itself to help the Klingon outpost which helped the Klingon Empire to establish more lasting peaceful relations (and probably assisted stray/damaged Klingon ships and outposts since then)... but as we have seen, unstable individuals (like Gowron showed he can be) can change their minds quickly... so rash action would have been counterproductive.