SUMMARY: The Enterprise intervenes to save a dying planet and its population after Data communicates with a native girl.
In 2365, the Federation Starship USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D, commanded by Captain Jean-Luc Picard, visits the Selcundi Drema system. Drema IV possesses the largest deposits of dilithium ore ever recorded. This ore is laid down in unusually aligned lattices that converts the planet's geologic heat into mechanical stress, thus resulting in significant tectonic instabilities which nearly destroyed the planet. As at 2365, although the planet's people possess some advanced technology, this planet is still under Prime Directive protection. The Enterprise-D officer Data, indulging a hobby in listening communications, answers "Yes," to the desperate radio "is anybody out there?" appeal for help broadcast by a young girl named Sarjenka (who seems aged about 11) who lives on Drema IV. That planet's society is not space-faring. Data's single "yes" reveals the presence of the Federation starship and, despite keeping vague where he comes from i.e. space, his continued contact with Sarjenka over the next 6 weeks presents a significant problem - an infringement of the Prime Directive.
Data hears Sarjenka's appeal and answers "yes"
The planet's instability reaches crisis point with Sarjenka's death in prospect. Data eventually reports his contact with Sarjenka to Picard who orders him to cease contact with her.
Data interrupts Picard on the Holodeck to report his infringment of the Prime Directive
Picard convenes a senior staff meeting to discuss the problem. Usefully for any Star Trek commentator on the subject of the Prime Directive, at the staff meeting the participants air the various universal arguments for and against interference and how far the Prime Directive should morally and/or practicably be applied. Picard himself questions the validity of the Prime Directive but asserts that it was established to protect the members of Starfleet/the Federation from making decisions based on emotion, among other reasons. The senior staff are unable to agree except by default, from which Data correctly realises that they will not breach the Prime Directive and thus allow Sarjenka to die. There had been a glimmer of hope during the discussion that if Sarjenka appealed for help they might consider it, but Picard's general view is that they are merely trying to find ways around doing their duty, their duty being to implement the Prime Directive. Picard confirms the default decision by ordering Data to sever the link with Drema IV. Data disobeys and instead pipes to the meeting a frantic message from Sarjenka. Picard is emotionally moved and decides to heed Sarjenka's plea and decides to rescue the group of people trapped on the planet and thus he decides to contravene the Prime Directive. His decision is based on humanitarian considerations. The screenshot series on the right show the senior staff meeting, summarised by ST DVD subtitles which please note do not always report words verbatim.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "It is no longer a matter of how wrong Data was, or why he did it. The dilemma exists. We have to discuss the options, and please talk freely."
Worf: "There are no options. The Prime Directive is not a matter of degrees. It is an absolute."
Dr Pulaski: "I have a problem with that kind of rigidity. It seems callous and even a little cowardly."
Picard: "Doctor, I'm sure that's not what the Lieutenant meant. But in a situation like this we HAVE to be cautious. What we do today may profoundly affect the future. If we could see every possible outcome-"
Will Riker: "We'd be gods, which we're not. If there is a cosmic plan, is it not the height of hubris to think that we can or should interfere."
Geordi La Forge: "So what are you saying? That, that the Dremans are, are fated to die?"
Riker: "I think that's an option we should be considering."
La Forge: "Consider it consdered and rejected!"
Deanna Troi: "If there is a cosmic plan, are we not part of it? Our presence at this place at this moment in time could be a part of that fate."
La Forge: "Right, and it could be part of the plan that we interfere."
Riker: "Well, that eliminates the possibility of fate."
Data: "But, Commander, the Dremans are not a subject for philosophical debate. They are a people."
Picard: "So we make an exception in the deaths of millions?"
Pulaski: "Yes."
Picard: "And is it the same situation if it's an epidemic and not a geological calamity?"
Pulaski: "Absolutely."
Picard: "What about a war? If generations of conflict is killing millions, do we interfere?" Pulaski's shoulders slump. "Ah, well, now we're all a little less secure in our moral certitude. And what if it's not just killings? If an oppressive government is enslaving millions? You see, the Prime Directive has many different functions, not the least of which is to protect US, prevent US from allowing our emotion to overwhelm our judgement."
Pulaski: "My emotions are involved. Data's friend is going to die. That means something."
Worf: "To Data."
Pulaski: "Does that invalidate the emotion?"
La Forge sighs. "What if the Dremans asked for our help?"
Data: "Yes, Sarjenka's transmission could be viewed as a call for help."
Picard: "Sophistry."
Pulaski: "I'll buy that excuse. We're all jigging madly on the head of a pin anyway."
Worf: "She cannot ask for help from someone she does not know."
Data: "She knows me."
Riker: "What a perfectly vicious little circle."
There is a long silence.
Data gets up and goes over to stand facing Picard. "We are going to allow her to die, are we not?"
Picard decides. Regretfully: "Data, I want you to sever the contact with Drema IV."
Data goes over to the computer control interface and presses some buttons.
Computer: "Isolating frequency."
Sarjenka: "Data, Data, where are you? Why won't you answer? Are you angry with me? Please, please, I'm so afraid. Data, Data, where are you?"
Data goes to sever the contact with the planet.
Picard: "Wait." He sighs. "Data. Your whisper from the dark has now become a plea. We cannot turn our backs."
[TNG: Season 2: Pen Pals]
Data computes the location of the safest place on the planet and Picard agrees that he can contact her to tell her. Picard and his first officer Riker realise that the only way to save the Dremans is to utilise the starship and implement a major rescue plan. As regards infringing the Prime Directive, Riker and Picard agrees that they are in it up to their necks. The Enterprise crew draw up a means of assistance but one which avoids cultural contamination, even if the latter is to some extent already too late. The Enterprise crew plan to neutralise the planet's geological instabilities by the use of resonator probes launched from orbit without the knowledge of the planet's inhabitants. When Data is unable to contact Sarjenka he points out that Picard authorised him to give a message to her and it is acceptable to beam down to tell her. Picard and Riker now conclude that, as regards infringing the Prime Directive, they are fully in trouble (to the top of the head).
Data beams down to Sarjenka's quarters. The impending danger worsens and he infringes the Prime Directive further by letting her know he is taking her up to the stars (he points heavenwards, she surmises, he nods). She is brought to the Enterprise-D. Rather than restrict Sarjenka, and thus her knowledge, to the transporter room, Data takes her to the Bridge where Picard, after trying to get Sarjenka to leave, agrees that she can stay with Data at his work station. The plan to neutralise the planet's geological instabilities is then carried out successfully, with Sarjenka a witness.
Data rescues Sarjenka and brings her to the Enterprise-D Bridge, she watches as her planet is made stable
Picard then has the ship's doctor, Katherine Pulaski, carry out a memory-erasure procedure to rid Sarjenka of all knowledge of her contact with the Federation. To Data's regret that the procedure is necessary, Pulaski offers him the comfort that though she will not remember their relationship, he will. Afterwards Data takes Sarjenka, who is still unconscious after the operation, back to her home. He places into her hand the singer stone that she had taken from Pulaski's desk. She had loved the beautiful sound it made and will be able to go on enjoying it. After seeing directly from her quarters, that the planet is now stable, Data then beams back to the Enterprise.
Sarjenka sees the singer stone on Pulaski's desk, Pulaski administers Sarjenka's memory-wipe, Data returns the unconscious Sarjenka to her home, Data activates the window and sees the world is stable, Data puts the singer stone into Sarjenka's hand as a farewell gift, [TNG: Pen Pals]
DISCUSSION:
The story involves a breach of the Prime Directive with respect to the society of a planet which is pre-warp and thus is not space-faring. This is a particularly important story in any discussion of the Prime Directive because, usefully, at a meeting of the senior staff the participants air the various universal arguments for and against interference and how far the Prime Directive should morally and/or practicably be applied, moving from discussion of it as a general principle to approaching it more specifically as regards a specific individual/society.
It is odd that Data, the only android in Starfleet (and mentioned in that capacity by Torres in [#29 Prototype]), makes an emotional response when he, of everyone on the Enterprise-D, should most be expected to abide by Starfleet's rules. Not only that but he stays in radio communication with Sarjenka (they become kind of pen pals, hence the episode's title) for several weeks. Following a staff meeting convened to discuss the problem, Data against takes an apparently emotional action when he disobeys Picard's order to sever links with Drema IV and instead plays Sarjenka's appeal to the meeting. It seems the story possesses the sub-thread of Data's development toward humanity, a series theme and one which is also explored in the [TNG]-related films.
Data also realises that starship and crew are being drawn further into involvement with the planet and with Sarjenka in particular, but he realises it with more equanimity than Picard or Riker. Yes, he is an android and more logically minded than humans Riker and Picard, but again it is odd that as an android he should react emotionally.
Granted that Data disobeys the Prime Directive, Picard is the ultimate one responsible as he is the senior commanding officer. But Picard reacts emotionally and chooses to rescue the group of people trapped on the planet and thus he decides to contravene the Prime Directive. His decision is understandable, namely that humanitarian considerations expect a means of assistance but one which avoids cultural contamination, even if the latter is to some extent already too late.
Picard and the Enterprise crew come to realise that, at least in the case of Drema IV, they cannot get away with minimal involvement and thus with minimal infringement of the Prime Directive. To save Sarjenka, and the planet's people, they come to realise that they must fully intervene, by employing the starship's technological capabilities, which are beyond those of Sarjenka's people, to stabilise the planet. This realisation is amusingly and succinctly depicted in the story, with Picard indicating with his hand how far in trouble they are regarding breach of the Prime Directive - at first, up to their necks, then all the way (to the top of the head), and then ultimately, "Unless...." The sentence does not need to be finished - they both know the situation and know each other well, a character-interaction which is also excellent comedic scriptwriting.
Picard changes his mind and decides to help Sarjenka and her people upon hearing the appeal of the little girl. Perhaps all anyone has to do is to issue their appeal for intervention to him or any Starfleet captain always through the mouth of a child, so as to generate and then exploit as much emotion as possible.
Even Miles O'Brien, on duty in the transporter room, understands the implications when he beams Data back to the Enterprise and sees that he has brought Sarjenka. O'Brien queries the wisdom of Data taking her to the Bridge. Sarjenka clasps Data's hand and begs him not to leave her, so Data replies to O'Brien that it is not possible to leave her and departs.
Essentially, "In for a penny, in for a pound" summarises the story's development, and possibly combined with "the end justifies the means".
Albeit that all ends well, Data carries out one more infringement of the Prime Directive. He leaves Pulaski's singer stone with Sarjenka (we could speculate that he leaves her with a replicated stone but there is nothing in the story to support it). When Sarjenka wakes, with no memory of Data, she will wonder what the stone is. She might quickly overcome her curiosity as to how it comes to be in her hand and thereafter enjoy it, as Data intends. But really Data should be slapped on the wrist for doing this as Sarjenka retains evidence of having been in contact with someone outside her society, leaving her with, at the least, a mystery. She would wonder where she has been that she should have found such an item, thus implying a memory loss, and knowledge of a memory lapse is unsettling (as anyone knows who mislays their keys or suffers a "senior moment"!).
NOTES:
This is a favourite [TNG] story. The first time I watched it, when Data replies to Sarjenka's message "yes", it made me sit up, snap my fingers and say aloud "Prime Directive!" There are so many aspects to like in this story. I like Sarjenka - her character, her long alien fingers; I like her room mainly its overall impression and overall colour scheme; I like the special effect of window and door activation/deactivation. I like Picard's reaction when Data tells him the native population is not spacefaring i.e. that they are under full Prime Directive protection and that Data has infringed that - Picard says "Oops." I observe that the ST DVD subtitles stenographer seems not to have heard that as it is omitted from the subtitles, which thus gives the misleading impression that Data informs him and Picard ignores him. I like the interplay between Riker and Picard - the unfinished sentences or they complete each other's sentences often with an incomplete one of their own, indicative of the fact that they are in full agreement and that they know each other well. I like their assessments of how far in trouble they are with regard to the breach of the Prime Directive - Picard's indicating with his hand first up to the neck then to the top of his head. I like the little things like the fact that Data, when conducting his hobby, is messy and leaves equipment strewn on the floor, which Worf accidentally steps on. As a fan of O'Brien, I like his moments and his wonderful reply when Riker enters to beam Data down to the planet and tells him to take a nap. O'Brien moves away: "I'll just be over here dozing off." and when Riker is summoned to the Bridge requiring someone to beam Data back, O'Brien says: "I just woke up."
Apart from the main story of Sarjenka and Data, this story has the sub-plot of Wesley Crusher's experience in the major responsibility of command in leading a team for the planetary surveys. I like seeing how he copes with this. None of this sub-plot is mentioned in my story synopsis given above as it is not relevant to the main story as regards the Prime Directive which is the subject of this article. Its only relevance is that it is thanks to Wesley Crusher that the Enterprise crew are able to learn the information they need to be able to devise a method of stabilising Drema IV.
In December 2006 I spent (or wasted) time thinking up a list of suitable Christmas presents for Trekkies. The list includes a singer stone.
Most of the staff who participate in the discussion about the Prime Directive are seen or mentioned in [Voyager]. Riker briefly visits USS Voyager in [#34 Death Wish], and is the only Enterprise-D crewmember to visit the Delta Quadrant although he is returned to the Alpha Quadrant without the memory of his visit; he would probably learn of it after Voyager returns home, if that part of the ship's logs be made known to him. La Forge is seen in the unrealised future timeline in [#100 Timeless], as captain of the same starship class as the Enterprise-D, namely a Galaxy-class ship. Deanna Troi is seen in Pathfinder-related stories, in [#130 Pathfinder], [#144 Life Line] and [#152 Inside Man]. Picard is mentioned by Janeway in [#69 Scorpion, Part Two]. Data is mentioned by Torres in [#29 Prototype].
