Kirk's most blatant obliterations of the Prime Directive

Cafe Society
1

I’m going to give “A Taste of Armageddon” a pass because the Feds seem to be under orders to bring this war to a halt no mattter what.

“The Apple.” Excuse: “This is a stagnant society”. So Fucking What??? Vaal also controlled the weather. That society is dead dead dead. You may as well have broken open an ant farm and stuck it outside in a storm.

“The Omega Glory” Excuse: “I was just showing them the meaning of their own sacred script” ANNNNNNDD??? Aliens show up on Earth, look at the Bible and go “WHAAA?? That cut-up thing is your Bible? Here, we have the original version, you guys are getting this all wrong.”

“Miri”…can Feds show up after apocalypses and help out?? That sure doesn’t seem their style. Pretty innocuous violation.

“Return of the Archons”…Look, the PD seems pretty simple. Don’t show up and turn a society completely upside down.

“Mirror Mirror”…Jesus Christ Kirk…we see what happened there.

“Friday’s Child” Kirk what THE FUCK are you doing??? “Well I couldn’t just let them execute that woman.” And why not??

“A Private Little War” I’ll mostly give it a pass, but this really seems like the kind of thing you should let Starfleet and the Feds handle. This is like a pilot discovering a secret Russian base in El Salvador and bombing it.

“Patterns of Force”…I’ll give it a pass. “I’m correcting the error” isn’t a great excuse but…

“Spocks Brain” FFS. “I want my First Officers brain back. And for the life of one guy, I’m going to turn your entire society upside down. Now get those pretty asses of yours up onto the surface to get raped.”

“Paradise Syndrome” I absolutely believe it is within the purview of the Feds to stop natural disasters from wiping out societies. They kind of fudged about it with that ep with Data and the little alien girl, the one with Worfs human brother they made it sound like the disaster was unavoidable…but the reboot movie with Khan? That was dumb as **** if that really is Fed policy to let civilizations die out from natural occurances.

2

“A Piece of the Action”?

“Youse guys’ll go on jus’ the way you have been, except Oxmyx’ll be yer new Boss, and Krakow’ll be his Lieutenant. Oh, an’ we’ll come by every now an’ then for Our Cut!”

Perfectly in character for Kirk!

3

In “Private Little War,” why didn’t the Feds just present the evidence of Klingon interference to the Organians? What, they can decide who develops Sherman’s Planet, but they can’t stop the Klingons from smuggling arms? :dubious:

4

Nope. “Establish diplomatic relations, no matter what.” Even if it means completely upsetting two entire societies by imposing a resolution to their conflict.

Ever wonder what happened after Kirk & Co. left that system? How long do you think “peace” would have lasted between two planets that obviously hated each other’s guts?

My bet is that they started building and using real cobalt bombs inside of a month.

5

I’d cite “Friday’s Child” as by far the most egregious and unambiguous example, especially since Kirk gave a speech earlier to the Capellans along the lines of “The highest of our laws is… your world is yours”.

As for the others:

“A Taste of Armageddon”: Arguably, the Eminiarians attacked first. I suppose if Anan 7 had said “Y’know, your presence is fucking up our war-simulation so bugger off!”, it would be a blatant Prime Directive violation to stick around anyway.

“The Apple”: Vaal also attacked first. I could understand if the Enterprise countered with enough force to disable Vaal temporarily and then got the heck out of there, but once Vaal was broken, they had some responsibility to try to restore it to let the humanoid natives continue as before.

“The Omega Glory”: Captain Tracey had blatantly and eagerly interfered. Kirk’s actions were to try to clean up the mess. Actually, it was unclear to me what was going on - the dialog suggests the unseen battle was the last, allowing the “Yangs” to reclaim all their lost territory. Does that mean elsewhere in the Yankee-analogous areas, the reconquest was complete and the Yangs were recivilizing? It’s suggested the scope is global, but everything we see is determinedly local.

“Miri”: I’d give it a pass, if the idea of the Prime Directive not applying to non-growing societies matters. This planet was pretty much the literal definition of arrested adolescence.

“Return of the Archons”: Lampshaded by “we’re here to assess and repair the damage of earlier contamination.” Same for “A Piece of the Action”, I daresay.

“Mirror Mirror”: Not sure why this is in the list. Kirk follows the PD in the “main” universe. What happens in the mirror universe, stays in the mirror universe.

“A Private Little War”: Well, the Klingons seemed determined to interfere, so I guess it mattered to the Federation for some reason.

“Patterns of Force”: Well, Ekos struck first, and their society and technology had been determinedly influenced by a Federation scientist. Clean up on aisle Nazi!

“Spocks Brain”: I dunno, this was a culture who had tech more advanced than the Federation. They could probably figure something out - their “teacher” machine was not damaged or altered. What should happen is someone goes through the brain-zapping and ponders how to make the effect longer-lasting or even permanent.

“Paradise Syndrome”: Weird episode. I can get why the Enterprise would deflect a planet-killing asteroid, but the Native society had pretty much screwed itself over by letting the one person who knew how to open the obelisk die without passing on that info. It also kind of suggests that this planet gets hits by asteroids on a regular basis but no matter. I don’t get why the ship needs a sustained and damaging Warp 9 course to intercept a slower-than-light asteroid, but physics were never really the show’s strong suit. Kirk’s interference wasn’t his fault, what with getting mind-zapped and all.

6

Speaking of the Organians: Where does Kirk get off inciting an armed insurrection against the Klingons that would get innumerable hostages executed, when the people who own the planet are perfectly happy living under the occupation?

(Granted, no natives would actually have been killed, but neither Kirk nor Spock knew that at the time.)

7

Yeah, but who does Good Kirk leave in charge of the Tantalus Field? A piratical Commander Spock!

Can you imagine what that world was like when Evil Kirk returned? :eek:

Giving a weapon like that to a Vulcan in that universe? Come on! The writing would be on the wall!

“My operatives would avenge my death. And some of **them **are Vulcans.”

8

No way Roddenberry and Justman could have shown the climactic battle scene with thousands of Yangs dying on the budget they had. Everything like that had to occur offscreen.

Anyway, Kirk’s motives in that episode were to get the hell off that planet and take Tracey with him to face charges. In what way did the fight between the two at the end interfere with the planet’s development? And did the Yangs really understand what Kirk was trying to tell them when he recited the preamble to the Constitution? I kinda doubt his speech had any great effect on them.

Seeing the landing party materialize inside the meeting hall at Spock’s behest (not Kirk’s) might have resulted in some colorful legends, but that’s all.*

*It’d be interesting to learn what effect these might have had, though.

9

Well, that was the point that the Organians made to him at the end of the episode.

But Kirk doesn’t really violate the Prime Directive all that much. Usually when he meddles, it’s to try to fix somebody else’s prior meddling or there’s a totalitarian computer around. (If you take one message from the show, it’s that Kirk hates totalitarian computers with a passion).

Now, Picard, on the other hand, was the type of loose cannon who violate the Prime Directive left and right.

10

Also, the people on that mirror-universe Enterprise are members of a warp-capable society, right? If he’s in a situation where folks with faster-than-light spaceships are pointing guns at him while asking him to negotiate with representatives of an alien race, he can maybe just shrug and do as he sees fit.

11

But he won’t let Riker save a dying child, and he thinks it’s a “good thing” that he doesn’t. Proof that Picard is an Grade-A asshole.

12

Self defence.

Other captain did it, and is condemned for it, Kirk is just stopping that interference and the damage done thereby,

Kirk has a soft spot for the doomed societies. Also, the planet is an exact replica of earth.

Prime Directive doesn’t count, due to interference by Archons, which predates Prime Directive.

Alternate universe humanity doesn’t count. Besides, literally all he did was tell them about the possibility of the Federation, and it’s not like he contacted an alternate universe on purpose.

Can’t remember that one either. Episode titles mean nothing to me.

Kirk is Starfleet and the Feds, they sent him because he’s the expert on this planet.

Again, trying to undo interference that had already happened.

The Prime Directive doesn’t apply to people who attack Starfleet vessels. You don’t want to get turfed out into the Ice Age, don’t steal people’s brains.

Also, those were Earthlings, so I’m not sure the PD applies.

13

The one where Julie “Catwoman” Newmar was pregnant? :dubious:

Amerindian-type humanoids transplanted by “The Wise Ones.” You may be confusing them with the colonists in “This Side of Paradise.”

14

Forget Kirk and Picard. You want industrial-grade Prime Directive violations, you need to look at Janeway. Don’t forget that the whole reason they’re stuck in the Delta Quadrant to begin with is because they insisted on violating the Prime Directive in the pilot episode.

15

On Omega Glory, I’m referring to Kirks lecture about the Constitution not Tracey’s interference. And Mirror Mirror I’m referring to his inciting Spock to revolt. We SEE in DS9 that Kirks actions lead to the subjugation of Earth.

16

I was already to give you all what-for for being wrong about Miri, that Miri’s planet was a colony of Earth, and the PD didn’t apply. Turns out, I was remembering Blish’s novelization, not the actual episode.

Well, they should have stuck with that. Made more sense. It also makes way more sense than the “parallel universe planet” that Memory Alpha mentions.

I have always held the opinion that the PD doesn’t apply to warp-capable civilizations. If the inhabitants of a planet are actively looking for other civilizations, then the PD doesn’t apply.

17

That’s not an opinion; that’s fact. If the Prime Directive did apply to warp-capable civilizations, then it would be kind of tricky to wage war against the Klingons or Romulans or whatever.

18

First of all, if you don’t have the exact wording of the “prime directive” in front of you, arguing what is a violation of that directive is a bit silly. For all you know, Section 5) sub-paragraph a) clause iii) has a specific exception for interfering with civilizations in hollow asteroids protected by megalomaniacal computers on their way to a new word they cannot possibly reach for another 500 plus years. If you don’t know that, you might think that Kirk & Co. are at it again on Yonada, when, in fact, they are doing exactly what they are supposed to do. :dubious:

The Prime Directive certainly seems to have been based upon the sort of thought process that keeps the Vulcans from introducing themselves to Earth until Zephram Cochrane builds the first warp-capable ship. And it’s pretty clear that you cannot avoid interfering with the culture of warp-capable civs who decide to come hunting your blood (Hello, Klingons, we’re looking at you!). And the Federation is certainly not squeamish about violating the idea behind the directive when survival is at stake; hence the reaming that Admiral Nechayev gives Picard for not inserting the destructive virus into the Borg collective in the episode “I, Borg”. So, perhaps we can generalize the Prime Directive to mean, “Thou shalt not disturb the natural progress of a non-warp-capable species unless the safety of the Federation and/or its members is at stake.”

And remember the conceit of the Original Series: the Enterprise is supposed to be a lone wolf, out exploring the outer reaches of the part of the galaxy mankind resides in. Kirk is supposed to be a bit like Sir Francis Drake, taking unilateral action and accountable only to his superiors for the results at the end of the voyage. Of course, we know that wasn’t how it actually worked, but Kirk is expected to Get The Job Done, and if he breaks a few eggs along the way, well…

19

I’m not really seeing Miri, it was a dead end, dying world without help.

20

Does this stir your memory?