Even though it seems like an all-encompassing ethical
principle in the Star Trek universe, should space-faring civilians of the
Federation be exempt from the Prime Directive?
By: Ringo Bones
To the seasoned Star Trek fan, they’ve probably first found
out that civilians are actually exempt from the prime Directive in the Star
Trek: The Next Generation episode titled Angel One which originally aired back
in 1987 during TNG’s first season. But before we proceed further, here’s a
brief refresher crash-course on Starfleet’s Prime Directive.
The Prime Directive – also known as Starfleet general Order
1 or the non-interference directive – was the embodiment of one of Starfleet’s
most important ethical principles: noninterference with other cultures and civilizations.
At its core was the philosophical concept that covered personnel should refrain
from interfering in the natural, unassisted development of societies, even if
such interference was well-intentioned. And it focuses particularly to
civilizations that have yet to develop faster-than-light interstellar travel
technology. The Prime Directive was viewed as so fundamental to Starfleet that
officers swore to uphold the Prime Directive, even at the cost of their own life
or the lives of their crew. The most recent example that younger Star Trek fans
are probably most familiar with was the opening sequence of Star Trek: Into Darkness
where Spock was willing to die rather than Captain Kirk and the rest of the
Enterprise crew violate the Prime Directive in order to save him.
In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode titled Angel
One, Data says that civilians – as in crews of freighters and trading vessels
whose home ports are members of the United Federation of Planets – are not
bound by the Prime Directive as opposed to Starfleet personnel. Does this mean
that civilians in the 24th Century can “evangelize” other
civilizations?
The issue whether civilians should be exempt from the Prime
Directive arises in the situation of that particular TNG episode is that the
planet Angel One has developed for centuries as a female-dominated society and
the crew of the freighter Odin which crashed there 7 years before and its
civilian crew had started to set roots after the hopes of being recued by
Starfleet or the Federation seems impossible. Though it was only a few years
after that the government of Angel One found out of the stranded male crew – as
in all male crew who grew up on Earth or at least raised on Earth like values –
became a problem after they have been secretly “evangelizing” their values to
the women of angel One that they have been secretly cohabitating with. Does the
issue set a legal precedent to the established laws of the United Federation of
Planets?
