 | THE PRIME DIRECTIVEwith emphasis on [Star Trek: Voyager] |  |
| THE PRIME DIRECTIVEwith emphasis on [Star Trek: Voyager] | |
STORIES INVOLVING THE PRIME DIRECTIVE
[Season 7: #155 and #156 Flesh And Blood]
Episode Index - part of Ship's Logs which includes illustrated transcripts and synopses
In 2374, as depicted in [#86 and #87 The Killing Game], Janeway gives the Hirogen Federation equipment giving them the means to introduce holographic technology into their society so as to confine their killing to holograms. This constitutes a breach of the Prime Directive - see the entry [#86 and #87 The Killing Game].
A consequence of Janeway's breach of the Prime Directive is that the natural development of Hirogen society is altered, as Hirogen hunters start hunting holographic prey, and program increasingly more and more realistic prey. The major resulting consequence is that their holographic prey become sentient. A hologram named Iden, a favourite prey of one Hirogen, understandably wishes to escape the endless cycle of pain and suffering through being hunted then killed then reactivated to be hunted and killed again. He also wants revenge on the Hirogen and gathers around him a group of like-minded holograms, all of them liberated prey. Janeway must face the question of what moral rights a sentient hologram has, with her views having been partly moulded through her experience of Voyager's Emergency Medical Hologram whom she increasingly considers as a person. In that story, Janeway realises that her decision to give the Hirogen holotechnology had unfortunate consequences (the terrible suffering of the sentient holograms the Hirogen programmed as prey), but she deals with the situation as best she can, with the Doctor's help. Unable to trust the majority of Iden's followers who might still be bent on revenge, she opts to trust two of them (Donik and Kejal) and lets them go free aboard Iden's ship (a captured Hirogen ship), with the imprisoned (offline) holograms' future left open. It is possible that these holograms might form a peaceful society of some kind. The issue of the Hirogens' possession of holotechnology for use to hunt holographic prey is, however, not resolved.
Two Hirogen are killed by their holographic prey. Iden, about to kill a Hirogen. Kejal and Donik.
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