THE PRIME DIRECTIVE

MAIN DISCUSSION

FOREWORD

This discussion presents a number of issues with their implications, given with examples in Star Trek stories including [Voyager].

The series [TOS], [TNG] and Season 1 of [DS9] all preceded [Voyager], with [Voyager] commencing in 1995, while the film [Star Trek IX: Insurrection] was released in 1998. (More of [DS9] also preceded [Voyager] but there is only one [DS9] story with a page devoted to it, namely a story from Season 1.) This means that by the time of [Voyager] the essential principles of the Prime Directive and its major implications have already been explored on the television screen via depictions of the more obvious or more interesting situations and types of violation. That is why, in this section 'Main Discussion', mainly there are references to non-[Voyager] stories.

For detailed discussion regarding certain specific Star Trek stories, please see the Index or follow the relevant links; there is an illustrated page is devoted to each one. However, this article's main emphasis remains with [Voyager] and so only a selection of the more interesting or more important stories from non-[Voyager] series are dealt with in such detail.

[Voyager] should not be dismissed as not having stories, and interesting ones at that, about the Prime Directive. USS Voyager's unique situation in the Delta Quadrant leads to Captain Janeway and her crew facing new Prime Directive dilemmas and at times the challenge to come up with unusual ways to solve new and difficult problems. There are over 10 episode entries which discuss individual [Voyager] episodes in detail. There is also an article section discussing just [Voyager]: [Voyager] And The Prime Directive.

The subject of the Prime Directive is involved and, once a variety of implications are included, complicated. As elsewhere on site, wherever I express an opinion I do not ask anyone to agree. Indeed, I myself do not necessarily believe what I say, and I do not know how much of what I say is true. I prefer to raise issues and let you decide for yourself. If I seem to babble in doing so, I apologise.

Picard: "Data, don't babble!" Data: "Babble, sir? I'm not aware that I ever babble, sir. It may be that from time to time I have considerable information to communicate, and you may question the way in which I organise it." [TNG: Season 1: Justice]