Penny for your thoughts – The Prime Directive

[Trek Writers Room]

Hi folks,
I've always had some misgivings regarding the Prime Directive and how it was presented in canon. Given how often various Starfleet captains have violated it across the different Trek iterations, I’m curious about how the Prime Directive might evolve over time. I’m seeking thoughts on creating a more practical application of this directive. Specifically, I want to consider how the language and intent of the Prime Directive could be adapted to address the complexities and moral ambiguities that captains face. The way canon treats the directive often seems rigid and, at times, impractical, prompting me to explore a more nuanced approach.

My idea is to reframe the Prime Directive as a "Prime Consideration." This modification would shift the focus from an inflexible rule to a guideline that allows for more contextual decision-making. Instead of strictly prohibiting interference, the Prime Consideration would emphasize making decisions based on the communal good, especially in situations where fate and chance play significant roles. By incorporating this flexibility, captains would be empowered to weigh the consequences of their actions more thoughtfully. I’d love to hear the community’s thoughts on this concept, as it will play an integral part in the fan fiction I am currently posting.

Thanks in advance for any input. I appreciate your help.
--TK

 

[Bynar0110]

I 've had similar thoughts about the Prime Directive. I felt like it was too restrictive

 

[Guy Gardener]

Hi folks,
I've always had some misgivings regarding the Prime Directive and how it was presented in canon. Given how often various Starfleet captains have violated it across the different Trek iterations, I’m curious about how the Prime Directive might evolve over time. I’m seeking thoughts on creating a more practical application of this directive. Specifically, I want to consider how the language and intent of the Prime Directive could be adapted to address the complexities and moral ambiguities that captains face. The way canon treats the directive often seems rigid and, at times, impractical, prompting me to explore a more nuanced approach.

My idea is to reframe the Prime Directive as a "Prime Consideration." This modification would shift the focus from an inflexible rule to a guideline that allows for more contextual decision-making. Instead of strictly prohibiting interference, the Prime Consideration would emphasize making decisions based on the communal good, especially in situations where fate and chance play significant roles. By incorporating this flexibility, captains would be empowered to weigh the consequences of their actions more thoughtfully. I’d love to hear the community’s thoughts on this concept, as it will play an integral part in the fan fiction I am currently posting.

Thanks in advance for any input. I appreciate your help.
--TK

It's about space money, which is another word for scarce resources. Dillithium and grain, since we know money definitely does not exist on Earth, and maybe the Federation as well.

The Federation is willing to send idiots out into space to explore, but not to bring back expensive perpetual problems that will use up all their grain and Dillithium. If they send out a hundred ships that come back with a hundred humanitarian crisises, every month, it's too much for the Federation to handle, so they drew a line between people they would talk to as equals, who could stand on their two feet and look after themselves, and useless %%%ks barely out of the push button age, still nuking their neighbour to control their planets grain supply.

The warp barrier is the line between our sort of people, and those people.

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

This was addressed tangentially in my Star Trek Hunter series and more directly in Star Beagle Adventures.

In STH, the philosopher, Dr. Kenny Dolphin, in his third book, Fundamentals of Federation Ethics (required reading at Star Fleet Academy) summed up both the Prime Directive and the prohibitions around genetic engineering into his First Commandment of Federation Ethics: "Thou Shalt Not Play God."


Notorious outlaw podcaster (and later Federation President) Emory Ivonovic complained at length about an extremely proactive interpretation of the Prime Directive that Star Fleet has invested in:

“In the past several decades we have increasingly invested Federation lives and resources into an interpretation of the Prime Directive that our ancestors never envisioned. Star Fleet now stands watch over more than a dozen worlds to enforce the Prime Directive not only as a discipline, but as a principle. We fight battles and shed our blood to protect these primitive pre-warp societies against other space-faring races. Sometimes at the expense of our own colonies.”

“All the orion slavers need do to raid a federation colony is to, at the same time, threaten a primitive species and Star Fleet races off to protect the so-called innocents. But if these same innocents were threatened by a stray asteroid tumbling toward their planet, Star Fleet would not lift a finger.”

“We fought for generations to protect one such world, only to see them exterminate their own species, destroying their own habitat with industrial waste until they could no longer survive on their own planet. Nearly 150 years of protection from ferengi traders, orion slavers and nausicaan pirates. Hundreds of our people killed in battle. All so that a doomed race of savages could die in ignorance, never knowing they were not alone in the universe.”


The reason for this rather extreme interpretation of the Prime Directive is being played out in STB Episodes 15 & 16, which I'm writing now. By discovering intelligent, pre-warp civilizations, Star Fleet is exposing them to the risk of the Orion slave trade and other bad actors. As such, simply due to their scientific investigations, Star Fleet has taken on the responsibility of protecting those societies they discover.


It's also the exclusive subject of a short spin-off story in the same universe: Star Trek Hunter: Rock of Ages

 

[Trek Writers Room]

This was addressed tangentially in my Star Trek Hunter series and more directly in Star Beagle Adventures.

(..snip..)

Hi Robert,
I appreciate your responding to the post and I intend to look at chapters 15 and 16 so that I can get a better feel for this particular character and the overall premise of his position. I hope there are no spoilers as I would like to read it next from beginning to end.
Thanks,
TK

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

...I intend to look at chapters 15 and 16 so that I can get a better feel for this particular character and the overall premise of his position...

Actually, Emory Ivonovic is one of the through characters in Star Trek Hunter. He starts as an outlaw and ends up Federation President. STH has slipped back in the Trek BBS slipstream, but I haven't posted it to the new Ad Astra yet. Here's a link to the first episode. Each episode has navigation that can guide you around that series:

Star Trek Hunter Episode 1: Flash Forward.


I have only posted the first 6 episodes of Star Beagle Adventures here on Trek BBS. If you want to see the content I'm currently posting that deals directly with Prime Directive (although it's really throughout the SBA series), here's a link to the most recently posted scene over on Ad Astra:

Star Beagle Adventures Episode 15, Scene 13


STH Spinoff short story about the Prime Directive: Star Trek Hunter: Rock of Ages


Thanks!! rbs

 

[Trek Writers Room]

Actually, Emory Ivonovic is one of the through characters in Star Trek Hunter. (snip...)

Okey dokey, will do!