 | THE PRIME DIRECTIVEwith emphasis on [Star Trek: Voyager] |  |
| THE PRIME DIRECTIVEwith emphasis on [Star Trek: Voyager] | |
STORIES INVOLVING THE PRIME DIRECTIVE
[Season 6: #127 Dragon's Teeth]
Episode Index - part of Ship's Logs which includes illustrated transcripts and synopses
In this story, it is not Janeway but Seven who initially interferes with an outside species and breaks the Prime Directive, although Janeway exacerbates the violation later.
When Voyager discovers and flies through a network of subspace corridors, a species called the Turei, laying claim to them, force them to leave and put down on a ruined planet for repairs and for refuge from the threat of the Turei ships waiting in orbit for them.
USS Voyager on the ruined planet
The Voyager away team discovers an underground chamber with lifeforms in stasis. Seven activates one of the stasis pods without Janeway's permission. She awakens Gedrin, one of the Vaadwaur species. Rather than take immediate remediary action and put Gedrin back into stasis without talking to him, Janeway contributes to the violation of the Prime Directive. Indeed, Janeway takes the breach further. Viewing the Turei solely as a threat, Janeway hearkens only to the Vaadwaur side of the story, and believes Gedrin when he explains that some 9 centuries previously the Vaadwaur developed subspace corridors for exploration. Gedrin explains that possession of the subspace corridors made the Vaadwaur envied and hated by an Alliance of a hundred species who attacked and destroyed the Vaadwaur civilisation. Gedrin, along with his people's last battalion, were put themselves into stasis in with the intention of emerging after 5 years, in the expectation that the Alliance would be riven by in-fighting. The intent was then to seek and found a colony somewhere, find allies and learn from them, and rebuild their civilisation. Janeway agrees to help Gedrin and his people fight against their enemies in exchange for passage through the subspace corridors.
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Accordingly, the Voyager crew awaken the Vaadwaur battalion and the two allies discuss a way to escape the planet. Voyager is definitely breaking the Prime Directive by involving itself in an alliance with one species against another, and in so doing influencing the evolution of one species' society.
the last Vaadwaur battalion, concealed and protected in a vast underground cavern [#127 Dragon's Teeth]
Neelix (not Janeway), and without Janeway's knowledge, investigates and uncovers the Vaadwaur's true past, which is that the Vaadwaur used their network of subspace corridors to conquer territory.
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| Neelix investigates the true history of the Vaadwaur | |
She adheres to Starfleet policy by refusing to arm the Vaadwaur directly, informing the battalion's commander, named Gaul, that Voyager will protect the Vaadwaur ships when they all make the attempt to escape the planet. Neelix's information, corroborated by cross-reference with Seven, is reported to Janeway. Janeway determines to keep her promise to help the Vaadwaur make a new start but she informs Gaul that only Voyager is to use weapons during their joint escape bid. In a way Gaul's next action helps to prevent a worse consequence of Janeway's Prime Directive violation. For if the Voyager-Vaadwaur alliance had ended up successfully enabling the Vaadwaur to emerge with the strongest military resources possible - their ships, backed by Voyager's weapons and resources - the balance of power in the region could have been radically altered. As it is, Gaul decides to seize Voyager, wanting to have direct control of Voyager's weaponry, flight capabilities and other resources. Gaul's plan is thwarted, thanks to Janeway learning just in time about the Vaadwaur's true past and their true likely intent (re-conquest), and thanks to Gedrin who betrays his own people to aid Voyager. Voyager runs the gauntlet of attack from the Vaadwaur, but Janeway warns the Turei about the Vaadwaur's re-awakening. Voyager is able to leave the Vaadwaur and the Turei in conflict and take the opportunity to escape.
By waking Gedrin, Seven is at fault for disobeying away mission protocols (Janeway tells her to remind her to re-acquaint her with them) and commits a breach of the Prime Directive. As the commanding officer Janeway has to take responsibility for Seven's original infraction, but she not only fails to remedy it immediately by putting Gedrin back into stasis but in addition she compounds it by failing to research her potential ally the Vaadwaur, and indeed in agreeing to an alliance in the first place. Gedrin proposes: "Help us off this planet, and we will show you subspace corridors known to nobody else. You will be free from the Turei, and you will be a thousand light years closer to your home." The last sentence contains 'magic words', and "a thousand light years closer to your home" must be music to Janeway's ears - she agrees as she wants a shortcut home, but it is at the expense of the Prime Directive.
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Janeway worsens the situation by failing to investigate the Vaadwaur, taking only their word, and it is left to Neelix to investigate and reveal the truth. Janeway tries to remedy the situation, but her action leads to interference in the Vaadwaur history and the unleashing of a hostile species bent on re-conquest and thus altering the balance of power in that region of space. Janeway has to revise her strategy. Her priorities remain that Voyager still faces the threat from the Turei ships in orbit and determination to adhere to a promise she made. It could be argued that she is no longer bound by her promise as it was made based on incomplete and even false information provided by Gedrin and then by Gaul. With Voyager's survival her main priority she continues the alliance with the Vaadwaur against the Turei. It is only when the Vaadwaur approach to attack Voyager that she abandons the alliance and contacts the Turei, knowing that warning them of the Vaadwaur would bring her aid in the form of Turei attacks on the Vaadwaur ships.
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It is a matter of speculation whether, without Seven's and Janeway's intervention, the Vaadwaur would eventually waken or be woken by someone at some time.
She forms the alliance with the intent of helping a species rebuild its civilisation, which can be viewed as laudable though not it turns out in these circumstances, plus Voyager's survival is threatened and she wants a shortcut home - these motives are understandable, even excusable, but it is Janeway's decision to form an alliance with the Vaadwaur against another species (the Turei) that is the most reprehensible and it is also that decision which most violates the Prime Directive. Even if the Turei did not threaten Voyager, even if the Turei were never there and Voyager never encountered them, the extent of Janeway's aid to the Vaadwaur violates the Prime Directive, which will have repercussions for a large area of space (at least the area covered by the vast network of still-viable subspace corridors).
It is possible that Janeway's decisions might have differed, or she might at least have researched Vaadwaur history first (maybe by talking with the Turei to hear both sides of the story), if Voyager had to spend a long time in the region. For it can feel easier to intervene knowing that at some point one is able to walk away. Voyager is unlikely to experience those repercussions as the starship leaves the area to resume the journey to the Alpha Quadrant. A minor consequence that Voyager does experience is that it encounters a Vaadwaur ship in the resource-poor area of space known as The Void, in [#161 The Void]. Janeway herself acknowledges the seriousness of the repercussions, but does not acknowledge her own contribution and allows Seven to shoulder all the blame:
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