Hello all!
Ric here once more asking a question, why a Prime Directive?
On an overall level, General Order One prevents a Starship (including its crew) from interfering
with another culture, power or government if they are external to the Federation, especially
in the case of pre-warp civilisations that may be unaware of the greater galactic communities.
This has subsections that include overt influence and second-hand or accidental alterations,
like leaving technology beyond their understanding in the hands of a less advanced culture, or
signs of Starfleet’s passing.
Other powers like the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Star Empire do not have their own
version of the Prime Directive and definitely exploit that and in the case of the Romulans
in particular, their entire Empire is built off of interference.
It was always suspected that the Romulans were aggressive in their occupation of the
Beta Quadrant beyond the Neutral Zone, however it was not really until the fall of Romulus
that the full extent of the Star Empire’s brutality was really revealed.
The Deep Beta Quadrant has always remained unexplored to Starfleet, beyond the occasional
missions that the Klingons allowed to pass through their territory in the 24th century.
Romulans however, downright prevented Federation ships into their space, so the only looks
the Federation ever really had were the rare chaperoned diplomatic endeavours, long range
observation posts or classified missions.
But with the Destruction of Romulus and Picard effectively dissolving the Neutral Zone in
his rescue efforts, this previously closed area of space is opening up to the Federation
to explore.
What has been found, confirms many previously speculative assumptions about the formation
of the Star Empire.
After their long diaspora, the exodus from Vulcan settled in the Romulus system and began
growing their strength.
This area of the Beta Quadrant was already inhabited, but most of these civilisations
were pre-warp, or only starting out in their journey such as the Haakonan.
By casting off the growing Vulcan ideals that had been consuming their former homeworld,
the Romulans simply exercised their advantages to conquer and suppress other inhabited planets,
forcing many to become vassal states to the Empire and supplying their resources to Romulus
to help foster its reach.
It was in this way that the Star Empire grew to cover a large area of space, as they simply
pointed out areas that could not contest their claim and said, this is ours now.
In order to maintain their influence, they kept a heel pressed down on their conquests,
through firepower and subterfuge.
Additionally, they had no qualms about employing things like biological weapons, as they did
to the aforementioned Haakonans, basically erasing that species entirely with an artificial
genetic plague.
Their unrestrained ambition fostered their Empire into a near unrivalled power, and they
continued to maintain that by employing agents among other entities in order to maintain
their superiority.
The Star Empire had a monopoly over space travel in its territory too, meaning that
many of their subjects were kept isolated from one another and Romulan technology was
kept away from them.
Many of these formerly suppressed species were uncovered during the evacuation attempts,
with every other Romulan colony world (such as Yuyat Beta) being home to a native species
that the conquering Romulans had forced into service, in this case as an agricultural workforce.
So I suppose, in this fashion, part of a “Prime Directive” can be seen, but this was one
motivated from fear and the desire to remain ahead of those they bullied.
The Klingon Empire’s history is a little different, but also one marred by interference
and interfering with other powers.
To begin with, back in their pre-warp times, the Klingon Empire was unaware of alien life
until the invasion of the Hur’q, although some speculate that their legendary “Gods”
were also aliens.
The Hur’q species is never seen on screen, but their legends were proved true in Deep
Space Nine and were featured prominently in Star Trek Online.
This insectoid species originated from the Gamma Quadrant and eventually found their
way to Qo’Nos, yes that is a distance to travel and I’m not getting into it here,
it's explained.
These aliens, simply referred to by the Klingon term for “outsider”, Hur’q were warred
upon by Kahless during his heyday and may have been one of the last wars he fought,
although other accounts claim he was already dead by this time.
I’m getting sidetracked.
It was around this time that the Klingon people, after fending off the Hur'q, began to expand
beyond their solar system with Warp Drive, again with some accounts stating that they
had simply stolen and reverse engineered Warp from the Hur’q.
Either way, the savaging of Qo’nos had left the Klingon homeworld resource deficient and
the Klingons turned outward to find new grounds.
So, their first interstellar encounter being war, their planet in need of resources, and
many of these new Warp vessels being crewed by militant Houses, what do you think happened?
Yeah these Klingons also found other neighbouring species and simply settled on those worlds
with something they required.
They effectively strong armed any existing native populus into serving them, taxing them
with goods and resources and like the Romulan Star Empire, this saw the Klingon Houses grow
rich off exploitation.
It seems however that the Klingon Empire placed less restriction and control on its conquests,
throwing its weight around for sure, but many houses lacked the cohesion of the Star Empire
and by the 22nd century, it was the case that if a planet became too much trouble for them,
they would often just leave it alone or… well… raze it to the ground.
So in this way, their Empire grew but was also one never lacking in conflict, which
suited the Klingon’s just fine as their culture shifted ever more towards one of warfare,
eschewing their prior trades in favour of seeking more conquest, resources, glory and
battle.
They had no non-interference policies at all and that stems from a fundamental difference
not seen in either the Romulans of the Federation.
The Klingons philosophy is closer to a more honest “might makes right” than the Romulan
one, which can be best described as “Our might makes us right”.
If one of the Klingon’s subject worlds rose up against them, they best be ready to fight
and spill blood for it, because the Klingons would accept that challenge wholeheartedly
in an attempt to crush any rebellion.
However if a rebellion succeeded, then the Empire was more likely to enter into an alliance
or some neutrality or trade partnership with them.
This is what happened with the Orion Syndicate which even had a strong presence on Qo’nos
after the two powers butted heads and settled on working together.
Incidentally the Orions are another species whose entire culture was practically the result
of interference in their history, in this case, the mass slavery of the Orions.
In this case, the Syndicate formed in the image of their former masters, becoming a
criminal empire across numerous worlds.
Finally, there are two more species that were messed with, the Vulcans and the Humans.
In fact, the Vulcans are speculated to have their entire existence owed to the Arretans,
who settled numerous other colonies in their heyday, uncaring of if those worlds were already
inhabited, birthing the Vulcan civilization.
Likewise, the Greek Gods of Earth mythology were proved to have been real, and simply
visiting aliens in the 23rd century when the remnants of these Gods were discovered by
Kirk on Pollux 4.
Their culture, styles and commandments had become the bedrock for the ancient Grecian
society, shaping a large period of Earth’s own history and mistaking technology for magic,
enshrining themselves in myth.
There are a number of other entities in canon and apocrypha that could be chalked up to
alien interference across the board, not to mention Time Travel incidents.
One thing that I did like the Kelvin films for was the opening of the second film which
had the Enterprise sighted by a primitive native populus, in a flagrant disregard for
General Order one by a cocky Kirk.
This had these tribes throw away their “holy scroll” that they had been prepared to kill
to protect, and begin to worship the Enterprise as a saviour.
All this goes to show that even the smallest impact changes a culture completely.
Sometimes, the Federation did involve itself with another culture, pre-warp or no, if too
much harm had already been done and it was deemed better to simply come clean.
We see examples of honesty from Starfleet from Kirk on Neural in “A Private Little
War” where he had visited before and been exposed, choosing to be honest and work with
the natives, and from Pike in Strange New Worlds when he just lays out everything to
the governments of Kiley 279 after their subterfuge only exacerbates things.
The Prime Directive overall exists because of the numerous examples Starfleet has witnessed
from others without such a mandate.
When the mighty do as they please without constraint, it often leads to others being
exploited in their efforts to attain more might.
So, the Federation took on the Vulcan’s principle of non-interference as a caution,
placing it foremost among their rules.
This way any violation must be weighed and balanced accordingly and any intervention
made on the part of a Starship captain, accidental or not, is one that is then judged on a case
by case basis and never lightly.
Otherwise, entire civilizations courses are altered from uncovering their own development
and fate.
Thanks for watching this video on the Prime Directive, I’ve been Ric and I’ll see
you next time from my hidden observation post.
Wait, what?
Uh…Nevermind you did not hear that.
Goodbye!