Prime Directive

[Mark]

I just logged back into the forum and one of the quotes caught my attention. For all of the times that Kirk violated the prime directive, clearly and concisely, doesn't Starfleet have any kind of review? I understand a Captain must often operate under his own authority and judgement when out of comm range, but doesn't anyone every review a Captains and Senior Officers logs? I mean, wouldn't you think that Starfleet would call an accounting when they found out what he did?

What are your thoughts?

[Mikey]

Someone mentioned something on here about Kirk operating in the time of the "Old West" paradigm of space; I am sure that captains of the TOS-era were allowed a lot more leeway in their decisions. In addition, the PD of the TOS-era seemed a bit more pragmatic and practical than that of the TNG+ era.

[katefan]

I just logged back into the forum and one of the quotes caught my attention. For all of the times that Kirk violated the prime directive, clearly and concisely, doesn't Starfleet have any kind of review? I understand a Captain must often operate under his own authority and judgement when out of comm range, but doesn't anyone every review a Captains and Senior Officers logs? I mean, wouldn't you think that Starfleet would call an accounting when they found out what he did?

What are your thoughts?

I agree with what Mikey said below. I also think that a Starfleet captain has to be the sort to be able to make controversial decisions and stand behind them. They were in command of incredibly powerful warships, at the edge of explored space, having to make snap decisions without the benefit of advice/counsel from their superiors.

And look at Kirk's decisions. If he was not cleaning up someone else's mess he was attempting to better the lives of the aliens he was dealing with. How can altering the Prime Directive's philosophy to letting entire races getting wiped out be better? I watched Homeward and Bernd Schneider's statement about one scene sums it up for me:

When the planet's atmosphere is about to dissipate and the rest of the crew is just watching how every living being dies...

Wow, how brave, how moral.

[KuvahMagh]

The thing about the PD is that it is in place to prevent people from trying to play god along with maintaining the statis quo in the area.

[Deepcrush]

The problem with the PD is that it fails more often then not.

[KuvahMagh]

The problem with the PD is that it fails more often then not.

The TNG one yes but the TOS version made sense, instead of the TNG version they should have set proticals for when to interfere, how it should be done and such, rather than a flat out condemnation.

[Blackstar the Chakat]

The annoying part is that the PD is used as a point of ethical debate in the episodes that center around it. Usually the have it fail so that the characters have to be morally right while being legally wrong, something not uncommon in modern society but not to such an extent.

[Deepcrush]

Plot Drama i'd say.

[Sionnach Glic]

The PD, in theory, is an excelent idea. Preventing captains from doing whatever they like with races that can't stop them is a must for any space-faring organisation. In TOS that's how it was treated: a way to stop people f*cking around with other races, while still allowing leeway for some situations that call for intervention.

In TNG, however, the PD was taken to the extreme. You could no longer get involved at all, regardless of what the situation was. This meant that not only were crews forced to sit back and watch entire species get wiped out, but they called it moral to do so.

[KuvahMagh]

Yep, it would have been nice to see some proticals, varying levels of allowed intervention, when you could and when you couldn't, how far you can go and such with the TOS PD lying at the heart of it...

[Teaos]

It might take an official complaint against them for it to be brought up. Its not against the law unless your caught sort of thing.

[Sionnach Glic]

Quite true. Unless someone on the ship reports it there's no way for Starfleet to know.

[Deepcrush]

I think is TOS the fact that SFHQ seemed a lot futher away so they tended more to trust the Captains choices. In TNG we see a SFHQ that has offices everywhere and anywhere. Now they're try mirco manage.

[Captain Picard's Hair]

A violation should be easy to spot in the mission logs; it's hardly something that could be hidden without writing a completely bogus report. I'd just say the Admiralty in TOS was a lot more pragmatic than the TNG era equivalent.

We have also discussed in the past that the TNG era, until things started to get hairy in DS9, was a period of relative stability compared to TOS, so Admirals may tend to become more bureaucratic "paper pushers."

[Deepcrush]

True enough, they seemed to lose their drive for anything other then sitting in their chairs and playing with their uniforms.