Yes, one must be prepared for any contingency. 
Remember, by the time Kirk ordered GO24, the Eminiarians (Eminiarites? Eminiarizens?) had already declared the Enterprise a casualty of war, tried to imitate Kirk’s voice and captured Ambassador Fox. I’m sure the Federation has some sort of “It’s either us or them” rule, expecially when you get to the level of capturing ambassadors.
I want to refer back to the “Enterprise arc” mentioned…the handwringing over Archer’s actions was annoying as hell. They were there to prevent the destruction of Earth…and the crew is getting bent out of shape over Archer tormenting a baddie for info?? This is drama?
Have him torture a pacifist like seen in Mirror Mirror…there’s drama. Nor did we ever see our heroes faced with a good PD dilemma. How about a planet that’s launched nukes? You just going to sit there when you can shoot the nukes down? (This was dumbly covered in the book “Prime Directive”)
Oddly one of the more interesting turns was used in the begininng of “Into Darkness”…but that just makes the Feds look like complete dicks if they arnt allowed to stop natural disasters.
The plot of “Pen Pals” muddles Picards decisions enough to spare him some, but Pike just looks like a dick. (Good scene though…“Spock you’re dismissed.”
But both Eminar and Vendikar had given up actual destructive weapons generations ago, so that would have been a little difficult. Plus I doubt Star Fleet wouldn’t think to check in on their representative fairly soon.
I thought of these two episodes as well. Bread and Circuses wasn’t an advanced society. I really liked how Kirk kept trying to downplay how advanced they were (i.e. obey the Prime Directive) even though the evil fat guy already knew all about it. They were comparable to contemporary Earth in the 20th century, they certainly didn’t have FTL travel. Capt Merrick hadn’t so much violated the Prime Directive as he had, well, let his crew be murdered in exchange for a cushy desk job. That in mind he didn’t deserve much praise for saving Kirk & Co. at the last minute.
More importantly, not being advanced the B&C planet wasn’t a threat to other systems. Eminar and Vendikar however had advanced computer technology that they used to fight their ‘simulated’ wars with for centuries. It stands to reason that if/when they started venturing out into the galaxy they would start ‘simulating’ the destruction of other races and systems. That would be a real threat to the Federation. They’d already ‘destroyed’ (executed) a previous Federation starship’s crew and were pretty determined to do the same to the Enterprise. That emotionless, senseless attitude toward genocide is approaching a Borg-level threat.
To speculate further, if the worst happened Scotty would have started slow, destroying uninhabited structures, minimizing casualties. Which would have fit in with Kirk’s whole plan to give them “A Taste of Armageddon” to make them come to their senses…
You’re misremembering the plot of AToA. Previous crews appear in B and C and also Return of the Archons. I dont think there is one in AToA
The ship wouldn’t have had to destroy everybody. Just knock out the governmental & communications infrastructure. I think Kirk was bluffing a tiny bit.
And why do people think the Enterprise would have glassed the second planet, in “A taste of Armageddon”? An actual physical attack on the ship in the episode “Patterns of force” didn’t generate an automatic “you’re ALL dead” response there…
Don’t back off just yet, Counselor. A single reference on Memory Alpha isn’t the end.
I remembered that the whole point of the episode in question was that Captain Garth was in an insane asylum. So I went to check out the MA page for the episode “Whom Gods Destroy.” No general order is mentioned there.
So I googled for the script. It’s not mentioned there, either. It seems to be an inference from the Memory Alpha author(s) based on the following exchange:
GARTH: You, Captain, are second only to me as the finest military commander in the galaxy.
KIRK: That’s very flattering. I am primarily an explorer now, Captain Garth.
GARTH: And so have I been. I have charted more new worlds than any man in history.
KIRK: And tried to destroy Antos Four.
SPOCK: Why?
GARTH: Well, I could say because they were actively hostile to the Federation.
KIRK: Yes, you could say, but that would be untrue.
GARTH: Agreed. Actually they were quite harmless, and they made me whole when I was maimed and dying. And in my gratitude, I offered them the galaxy. They rejected me, and I condemned them to death.
SPOCK: How could you, a Starship fleet Captain, believe that a Federation crew would blindly obey your order to destroy the entire Antos race, a people famous for their benevolence and peaceful pursuits?
GARTH: That was my only miscalculation. I had changed. I had risen above this decadent weakness which still has you in its command, by the way, Captain. My crew had not. I couldn’t sway them, but my new crew, the men in this room, will obey my orders without question. Gentlemen, you have eyes but you cannot see. Galaxies surround us, limitless vistas. And yet the Federation would have us grub away like some ants on some somewhat larger than usual anthill. But I am not an insect. I am master of the universe, and I must claim my domain.
KIRK: I agree there was a time when war was necessary, and you were our greatest warrior. I studied your victory at Axanar when I was a cadet. In fact it’s still required reading at the Academy.
GARTH: As well it should be.
KIRK: Very well. But my first visit to Axanar was as a new fledged cadet on a peace mission.
GARTH: Peace mission! Politicians and weaklings!
KIRK: They were humanitarians and statesmen, and they had a dream. A dream that became a reality and spread throughout the stars, a dream that made Mister Spock and me brothers.
GARTH: Mister Spock, do you consider Captain Kirk and yourself brothers?
SPOCK: Captain Kirk speaks somewhat figuratively and with undue emotion. However, what he says is logical and I do, in fact, agree with it.
GARTH: Blind! Truly blind! Captain Kirk is your commanding officer and you are his subordinate. That is all. Yet, Mister Spock, you are a worthy commander in your own right, and in my fleet, you will surely have a Starship to command.
SPOCK: Please forgive me, but exactly where is your fleet?
GARTH: Out there waiting for me. They will flock to my cause, and for good reason. Limitless power, limitless wealth, and solar systems ruled by the elite. We, gentlemen, are that elite, and we must take what is rightfully ours from the decadent weaklings that now hold it.
SPOCK: Captain Garth
GARTH: Lord Garth!
SPOCK: As you wish. At any rate, you must be aware of the fact that you are attempting to recreate the disaster which resulted in your becoming an inmate in this place.
GARTH: I was betrayed and treated barbarically.
SPOCK: On the contrary. You were treated with justice, and with compassion which you failed to show towards any of your intended victims. Logically, therefore, one must assume
GARTH: Remove this animal!
(Spock is hauled away, and Garth draws his phaser as Kirk stands. Then he becomes friendly again.)
I have bolded the parts that I think are relevant. Not only was Garth an inmate in an insane asylum, but it was the very fact that he destroyed a planet (against his crews wishes) that got him there in the first place.
There is no mention of any general order, and there is plenty of talk about how peacetime is different from wartime. The other general orders appear to apply in peace and war.
So I argue that this episode has no bearing on the existence of General Order 24. We still have only what Kirk said in what we are quite sure was a bluff.
I personally say the order didn’t exist. There may have been such allowance of force at some points in Federation history, but not in peacetime.
To be clear, here is my opinion:
The Enterprise had permanent weapons built in to her systems, that are generally described as being powerful enough to destroy all life on the surface of a planet. (Not to mention adhoc methods, like tapping in to some of that antimatter supply for a IEMD (“Obsession”), or suicidal shuttlecraft (“Doomsday Machine”)).
We know from the various episodes that Starfleet has many regulations. Note that Kirk was even Court Martialed for not following procedure, resulting in the [apparent] death of a crewman: Areel Shaw: [as all observe the viewing screen] If the court will notice, the log plainly shows the defendant’s finger pressing the jettison button. The condition signal reads yellow alert. Not red alert, but simply yellow alert. When the pod containing Lt. Commander Finney was jettisoned, the emergency did not as yet exist. (Underlined for emphasis.)
This level of organization leads me to believe that there are more than likely comprehensive protocols that define the conditions for the use of the ships weapons, particularly against sentient beings.
Were that episode written and produced today, it would have been a bluff, or would have been a clear violation of Starfleet orders that Scotty was prepared to pay the price (die) for.
But it was the 60’s, man. We didn’t think so much of destroying an entire planet. Shit happens. The general order was real, and didn’t require any pansy-ass OK from HQ.
I’d bet my paycheck there are captains of submarines (that sounds wrong. I know a sub could have a commander as top officer, but I also bet the 18 Ohio-class subs all have captains[sup]1[/sup]) out there now with authority to launch their nukes on their own initiative if they are, for one reason or another, out of communication with higher authority. That’s not a planet, or even a country (unless we go to war with Monaco), but it is millions of people. Once you’re a space-faring species, “planet” doesn’t seem as big a thing as it used to.
[sup]1[/sup]Holy cow I’m wrong. That’s scary.
The Prime Directive means that the general public on the Roman planet must not be made aware of the Enterprise’s existence, her crew’s extra-planetary origins, or the existence of space flight in general. That one or two high-ranking Romans knew about it wasn’t relevant; on the whole, it was still possible, and therefore obligatory, to preserve the secret and allow the planet to grow up in its own time and way.
Eminiar and Vendikar were already well aware on an official basis of the Federation’s existence, and of space flight, and of all the rest of it; they had some space capability of their own and weapons that were able to fire on the Enterprise (although the ship’s deflectors were more than enough defence). That means that the Prime Directive didn’t apply; they were big enough to get a spanking.
Starship captains are rigorously trained and given immense responsibilities. If you have ships capable of destroying the surface of a planet, Starfleet is going to want to have regs about just how and when that might be done. I think it’s clear GO24 did exist (Scotty knew what it was just by Kirk referring to it), but agree that it was intended as an absolute last resort, and there’d be hell to pay if it was done for the wrong reason(s). I also agree with those who’ve suggested that Scotty could start laying waste on a limited basis such as against govt. and military installations, and only then crank it up to 11 if he had to.
That means it meant something, but not necessarily what Kirk said it meant, like the misleadingly-named Condition Green. General Order 24 could mean “I just bluffed that I have full authority and willingness to slag the planet. If the need arises, strike facilities that will scare the locals into thinking a full attack has begun (electric utilities, communications, government centers but NOT the most key or top) so the leaders relent.” Like you said 
except more formalized.
I dunno, if they encountered anything like Jack Chalker’s Dreel, they might be forced to slag a few planets.
She was saving herself for Sgt. Esterhaus.
Didn’t she kill him? In the best possible way?
[QUOTE=BigT]
I have bolded the parts that I think are relevant. Not only was Garth an inmate in an insane asylum, but it was the very fact that he destroyed a planet (against his crews wishes) that got him there in the first place.
[/QUOTE]
Not necessarily; the part you bolded doesn’t just have Kirk talk at Garth for telling said crew to destroy the Antos race; Kirk then finishes that sentence by noting that the Antos race are a people famous for benevolence and peaceful pursuits.
Now, maybe that’s just there to make Garth look worse. But maybe it’s the part that’s doing all the work: “Giving an order to wipe out belligerents, that’s a judgment call. But shooting the Space Amish? That’s just crazy talk, man.”
I don’t know if I’d put it quite that way.
What other way is there?
Death by snu-snu?
Given communications lag times and that the “Five Year Missions” (remember, Kirk and Enterprise weren’t the only ship on such a mission) of exploration, something like GO 24 makes some sense; it’s contingency planning, put in there to give a Star Fleet Captain, far from home, reinforcements, or higher command authority, broad authority to protect the Federation, should it be necessary.
I would think that any Captain enacting GO 24 would face at least a very thorough Board of Inquiry, with possible Court Martial charges resulting if he/she were found to be in error.
I would say that even in Picard’s time, GO 24 was still on the books; but no one mentions it in polite company, and everyone is a little embarrassed whenever it’s brought up.
Yeah, what are you? Gay?