Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site mmm.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!ihnp4!stolaf!umn-cs!mmm!cipher From: cipher@mmm.UUCP (Andre Guirard) Newsgroups: net.startrek Subject: Re: prime directive Message-ID: <277@mmm.UUCP> Date: Wed, 30-Oct-85 13:44:45 EST Article-I.D.: mmm.277 Posted: Wed Oct 30 13:44:45 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 8-Nov-85 07:40:54 EST References: <1668@umcp-cs.UUCP> <264@ukecc.UUCP> Reply-To: cipher@mmm.UUCP (Andre Guirard) Distribution: net Organization: 3M Company, St. Paul, Minn. Lines: 39 Summary: In article <264@ukecc.UUCP> edward@ukecc.UUCP (Edward C. Bennett) writes: > Here we have the Capellans >happily killing each other on thier own little planet... >And all of a sudden here come strange-looking beings, wearing strange >clothes, carrying weapons that shoot beams of light, materializing out of >thin air and talking about mining treaties. To me, just beaming down in >full view of the inhabitants of a planet violates the PD. > > Now of course there are episodes where they do things right. >In "Bread and Circuses" they beam down outside the city to avoid being >seen. Even though I can't think of any episodes where they outfit themselves >in native costumes BEFORE making contact, they do refit to blend in >several times. > > To carry this to extremes raises this problem. If your most strict >rule is non-interference, how do make friends with alien cultures? > > To me, this is on of the major questions that WE are going to face >when we finally start venturing beyond our solar system. > It's a little hard to tell when the Prime Directive is being violated because we are never given the full text of it. Kirk and McCoy recite part of it in "Bread and Circuses". In another episode, Kirk justifies his apparent violation of the PD by saying that it "applies only to living, growing cultures." Presumably the PD has numerous clauses detailing special cases where it can be violated, as for instance to save the entire population of the planet in question, or else to correct damage already done by other spacefaring races (as for instance in "Bread and Circuses", "A Private Little War", "The Organian Treaty", etc. etc.) Also, the Prime Directive probably does not apply to races more technologically advanced than the Federation ("The Gamesters of Triskelion", for instance), or perhaps it even exempts all races of a sufficient level of technology (perhaps capability of interplanetary travel is the criterion, as e.g. the episode whose name I forget, with two planets carrying on a computerized war). Does one of the numerous Star Trek books out contain the exact wording of the Prime Directive? I would be interested to see it. Please reply by e-mail.