THE PRIME DIRECTIVE

MAIN DISCUSSION

THE BROAD SCOPE OF THE PRIME DIRECTIVE

At first the Prime Directive, in terms of non-interference in the natural evolution of a society, applied essentially to pre-warp civilisations. The difficulty of applying the Prime Directive and its implications and enforcement increase vastly by the era of [TNG] when the Prime Directive prohibits interference with any society, particularly a culture less technologically advanced than the Federation, ref. [TNG: Tin Man]. This would seem to include "spacefaring" i.e. space travel at sublight speed; see section MAIN DISCUSSION: WHAT DOES "WARP-CAPABLE" REALLY MEAN?.

The Prime Directive directly covers a number of the situations encountered by our hero captains (including Sisko when his rank was Commander not Captain), and it indirectly raises implications for numerous other situations that at first might not seem to involve the Prime Directive. It is a broad subject, which is difficult to cope with but not impossible. However, it is a subject in which there are few absolutes (if any), since aspects large and small can be controversial because

1. they relate to a matter of degree e.g. how far should non-interference extend?
2. "ought to" and "ought not to" are subjective.

Those in the United Federation of Planets tasked with drawing up the wording of the Prime Directive and its various evolved manifestations would have had to tackle a plenitude of issues.