Otherwise known as Starfleet order no. 1, which goes a long way in showing how important it is, the Prime Directive is a rule that prohibits a Starfleet officer from interfering with less technologically advanced civilizations, while they are off gallivanting across the galaxy. The benchmark for when a culture is technologically advanced enough is most commonly accepted to be the ability to achieve warp, or another warp-like method of long-distance traveling. This is because it likely that with this technology, it would only be a short matter of time until they bump into others in the vastness of space. The exact summary of the order, which was first explained in the Original Series episode “Bread and Circuses” is as follows:

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When Gene Roddenberry first created Star Trek way back in the late 1960s, it was a time when the consequences of years and years of colonialism and unwanted interference with other cultures and civilizations were still fresh in people’s minds, especially in light of the conflict in Vietnam. The “white man’s burden,” as it often referred to, harks back to the early 19th and 20th centuries, where western empire stook it upon themselves to swoop in and “civilize” these “less advanced” people, building schools, hospitals, and roads, and educating them with western ideals of religion and forced social etiquette. It was, suffice to say, horrific, “helping” these cultures effectively at gunpoint and erasing much of their history and tradition.

The Prime Directive was created as a fairly direct political commentary on this. As Star Trek effectively portrayed the age of sail in space, Roddenberry wanted to create a rule that would stop exactly what had happened previously on Earth. It was also incredibly topical, hinting at the heated topic of whether the United States should have interfered with the affairs of Vietnam, or left well alone. In this sense, the very purpose of the Prime Directive is to avoid repeating the immoral actions of the past.

The rule, however has come under flack over the years with questionable morality. When looking into this, it’s important to note that there are technically two different versions of the prime directive — not canonically, but in the two slightly different ways in which the various shows choose to define it. The first is more in line with the attitude of The Original Series, which is that the rule is put in place to be followed nearly as a guideline, and that it is almost expected to be broken at some point or another if the situation calls for it. The other is that it is the most important rule in the book, and must never be broken no matter the circumstances, a stance that the more bureaucratic Starfleet of the later series stood by.

Examining the first, more flexible Prime Directive, it is one that understands and teaches that interfering with a “primitive” civilization is incredibly complex and even dangerous, and that no matter who is doing it or how clever they are, they will never know enough to be able to do it safely. While both variations of the Prime Directive center around this idea, the flexible version of the early iterations into the franchise also state that a person can only interfere if they are certain all the alternatives are worse for their culture; for example, if they were about to be wiped out by a natural disaster or disease. In these situations, if said member of Starfleet were to interfere, they better be ready to justify it in front of a jury. For context, the death of a captain’s entire crew and destruction of their ship would not be enough justification to interfere — whole civilizations must be at stake to argue in favor of breaking the Prime Directive.

The other, stricter, variation on the rule is where a lot of fans take issue, as it can often be a complete moral atrocity. While it helps stop issues such as colonization, there is a massive difference between interfering with a civilization to teach them about God, and interfering to prevent an entire species from being wiped out by a supernova. There can be negative consequences of interfering, such as in a memorable episode in which somehow a member of Starfleet broke the Prime Directive and accidentally created an entire planet of space Nazis. However, is still a better outcome for this society that being completely destroyed, if the Federation could stop it. This was something even said by the rule-following, logic-driven Vulcan and meme magnet Spock in the episode “For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky.” This version of the rule would have a highly advanced Starfleet ship sit in orbit and effectively watch as whatever easily fixable situation unfolded below them, watching on the view screens as the entire planet gets wiped out, each and every member of staff knowing full well how easy it would be for them to help.

The problem then seems to be a matter of trust between Starfleet and the Federation, and the people they govern. In the old days of Star Trek, the rule was important because it made a captain think twice before acting impulsively, forcing them to fully consider what they were about to do before messing with something that might completely change the course of a culture’s future. It makes them realize they are essentially about to play god, something that should never be taken lightly. It would change their actions from striding in and visibly stopping a pandemic for example, and doing it on the sly, without anyone noticing they were there. They were, however, then permitted and almost trusted by their superiors to make the decision on their own, as long as they could justify it afterwards.

Meanwhile, in the later iterations into the franchise, such as the Kelvin timeline Into Darkness film, the breaking of the rule was paramount to treason and completely unforgivable. Somewhere along the way, the Federation and Starfleet stopped trusting their people to make the moral decision, instead creating and relying on a bureaucratic blanket rule that was designed to be ethical and good, regardless of the staggering amount of unethical consequences. The Prime Directive itself is not unethical, but being forced to follow it regardless of the context often is.

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