Editing Prime Directive (section)

===Notable on-screen references===

==== ''The Original Series'' ====
*The first filmed reference to the Prime Directive occurs in the first season ''TOS'' episode "[[The Return of the Archons]]" (1966), when [[Spock]] begins to caution Captain [[James T. Kirk|Kirk]] of the [[USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)|starship ''Enterprise'']] when he proposes to destroy a computer controlling an entire civilization. Kirk interrupts him after Spock says, "Captain, our Prime Directive of non-interference" with, "That refers to a living, growing culture..." Later, Kirk argues the computer into self-destruction and leaves behind a team of sociologists to help restore the society to a "human" form.
*In the second-season episode "[[The Apple (Star Trek: The Original Series)|The Apple]]", Spock says of Kirk's plan to destroy Vaal, "If we do what it seems we must, in my opinion, it will be in direct violation of the non-interference directive."
*In the second-season episode "[[A Piece of the Action (Star Trek: The Original Series)|A Piece of the Action]]", Kirk, briefing Spock and McCoy before beaming down on possible interference 100 years earlier by the [[United Federation of Planets|Federation]] ship, the ''Horizon'', Kirk explicitly states, "the contact came before the non-interference directive".
*In the second-season episode "[[A Private Little War]]", two different factions on a planet were at war with each other and it is discovered that the [[Klingon]]s were furnishing one faction with advanced weapons. Kirk responded by arming the other faction with the same weapons. This resulted in an [[arms race]] on that world, as a fictionalized parallel to the then-current [[Cold War]] arms race, in which the [[United States]] often armed one side of a dispute and the [[Soviet Union]] armed the other. 
**In a similar storyline on ''TNG'', "[[Too Short a Season]]", a Starfleet admiral admits he interpreted the Prime Directive to mean equally arming two different factions on a planet, intended to reach a stalemate, but which resulted in 40 years of war.
*In the second-season episode "[[Patterns of Force (Star Trek: The Original Series)|Patterns of Force]]," Federation cultural observer and historian John Gill created a regime based on [[Nazi Germany]] on a primitive planet in an effort to create a society which combined the high efficiency of a [[Fascism|fascist]] [[dictatorship]] with a more benign philosophy. In doing so, he contaminated the normal and healthy development of the planet's culture, with disastrous effects; the regime adopts the same [[Racism|racial]] [[Supremacism|supremacist]] and [[Genocide|genocidal]] ideologies of the original. Eventually, this leaves investigating Starfleet officers with no other option but to arrange the overthrow of the government in order to mitigate the harm of Gill's interference.
*In the second-season episode "[[The Omega Glory]]", after finding out that Captain Tracy may have violated the Prime Directive, Captain Kirk states, "A starship captain's most solemn oath is that he will give his life, even his entire crew, rather than violate the Prime Directive."
*In the second-season episode "[[Bread and Circuses (Star Trek: The Original Series)|Bread and Circuses]]", the crew discusses that the Prime Directive is in effect, saying, "No identification of self or mission. No interference with the social development of said planet. No references to space, or the fact that there are other worlds, or more advanced civilizations."

==== ''The Next Generation'' ====
*In the ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' (''TNG'') first-season episode "[[Symbiosis (Star Trek: The Next Generation)|Symbiosis]]", Captain [[Jean-Luc Picard]] of the [[USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D)|starship ''Enterprise''-D]] states that, "The Prime Directive is not just a set of rules; it is a philosophy... and a very correct one. History has proven again and again that whenever mankind interferes with a less developed civilization, no matter how well-intentioned that interference may be, the results are invariably disastrous."
* In the third season episode "[[Who Watches the Watchers]]", the crew of the Enterprise expose a pre-warp civilization on Mintaka III to Federation technology. Despite an attempted mind wipe, the Mintakans remember and now revere Picard as a god. Picard intentionally breaks the Prime Directive again by beaming one of the Mintakans aboard the Enterprise and explaining they are on a starship, and not gods, showing them their world from space and encouraging them to spread the truth to the others. Eventually, he allowed himself to be shot by an arrow to prove he was mortal.
*In the fourth season episode "[[The Drumhead (Star Trek: The Next Generation)|The Drumhead]]", the captain of the ''Enterprise'' is being interrogated by retired Admiral Norah Satie, who says the Prime Directive is "Starfleet General Order Number One". She claims that Picard had "violated the Prime Directive a total of nine times since you took command of the Enterprise". (To this he responds "My reports to Starfleet document the circumstances in each of those instances".)
* In the fourth season episode "[[First Contact (Star Trek: The Next Generation)|First Contact]]", [[Commander Riker]] goes undercover to scout a pre-warp civilization that is on the verge of discovering warp technology, preparing to establish diplomatic relations. When he is captured, Captain Picard and [[Deanna Troi]] make first contact early, but Picard refuses to share Federation technology with them due to the Prime Directive. After worries of social upheaval, the alien scientists developing warp travel believe their society isn't ready for knowledge of extraterrestrial life, and they ask the ''Enterprise'' to leave without announcing their presence to the public, agreeing to delay developing warp technology until their culture is ready.
*In the seventh season episode "[[Homeward (Star Trek: The Next Generation)|Homeward]]", it is said that Starfleet had allowed 60 races to die out rather than interfere with their fate. However, in the episodes "Homeward" and "[[Pen Pals (Star Trek: The Next Generation)|Pen Pals]]", the crew debates the Prime Directive and the saving of civilizations.

==== ''Deep Space Nine'' ====
*In the ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' (''DS9'') first season episode "[[Captive Pursuit]]", [[Benjamin Sisko|Commander Sisko]] references the Prime Directive as his reason for choosing not to interfere in a hunt of a member of sentient species from the Gamma Quadrant that is bred to be hunted. In the end, Sisko does allow [[Miles O'Brien (Star Trek)|Chief O'Brien]] to assist the hunted being to escape from his captors to continue the hunt.
*In the episode "[[The Circle (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)|The Circle]]", the government of the planet [[Bajor]] experiences an internal, civil war-like conflict. Starfleet Commander Benjamin Sisko's superior orders him to evacuate all Starfleet personnel from the station, noting, "The [[Cardassians]] may involve themselves in other people's civil wars, but we don't."
* In the episode "[[In the Pale Moonlight]]", Sisko and [[Elim Garak|Garak]] plant evidence to force the Romulans to enter the [[Dominion War]] under false pretenses, with full knowledge and approval from Starfleet Command, despite this violating the Prime Directive's edict of not interfering with other cultures or civilizations. Participation in the war by the Romulans resulted in massive military and civilian casualties within Romulan society.

==== ''Voyager'' ====
*In the ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' episode "[[The Omega Directive]]," an exception to the Prime Directive was introduced. Starfleet's Omega Directive authorizes a captain to take any and all means necessary to destroy Omega particles including interference with any society that creates them.
*In the episode "[[Infinite Regress (Star Trek: Voyager)|Infinite Regress]]", Naomi Wildman informs Seven of Nine that she was familiar with the Prime Directive including all 47 suborders.
*In the episode "[[Natural Law (Star Trek: Voyager)|Natural Law]]," Chakotay and Seven of Nine encounter a primitive culture protected by an energy barrier that they crash a shuttle into which protects the culture from the rest of the planet's more advanced inhabitants. Although the two try to avoid contact, the natives encounter and help an injured Chakotay and start mimicking the pair and collecting shuttle debris as jewellery. After Seven manages to use the shuttle's deflector to lower the barrier, ''Voyager'' is able to beam out all of the loose technology and minimize the Prime Directive violation. However, this leads to another issue when the other culture on the planet -- who have achieved spaceflight and openly engaged in friendly relations with ''Voyager'' -- seek to use the downed barrier to explore the previously blocked portion of their planet and civilize the natives. While such an idea has its benefits and detractors, Janeway cites the Prime Directive as the reason for taking down the barrier. In response, the natives knock out ''Voyager's'' transporters and actively try to force the crew to leave the deflector behind, forcing Tom Paris to destroy it with the ''Delta Flyer'' instead. However, Seven worries that as her deflector modifications were already scanned, they may be replicated in time to take down the barrier again.
*In the episode "[[Endgame (Star Trek: Voyager)|Endgame]]" the Future Admiral Janeway warns the present Captain Janeway against holding on to the "Prime Directive" when the Future Janeway goes back in time to change history by having Voyager get back to Earth in only 7 years instead of 23 years.

==== ''Enterprise'' ====
*Filmed between 2001 and 2005, ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' (''ENT'') is a prequel to ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' (''TOS''), set before the implementation of the Prime Directive. The first-season episode "[[Dear Doctor]]" sees the ship's doctor [[Phlox]] struggle with the ethics of providing a cure to a pre-warp species with a deadly disease. Captain [[Jonathan Archer]] notes that as humanity grapples with their newfound reach, they will have to develop "a doctrine, something that tells us what we can and can't do out here, should and shouldn't do."<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Ultimate Star Trek and Philosophy: The Search for Socrates|publisher=John Wiley and Sons|year=2016|isbn=978-1-119-14602-5|editor-last=Decker|editor-first=Kevin S.|location=Hoboken, NJ|editor-last2=Eberl|editor-first2=Jason T.}}</ref> 
*Additionally, the ''ENT'' episodes "[[Fight or Flight (Star Trek: Enterprise)|Fight or Flight]]" and "[[Civilization (Star Trek: Enterprise)|Civilization]]", make reference to a [[Vulcan (Star Trek)|Vulcan]] policy of non-interference, a possible model for Starfleet's Prime Directive.

==== ''Discovery'' ====
*In "New Eden", the second episode in season two of ''[[Star Trek: Discovery]]'' aired in 2019, the away party is selected and briefed to ensure that their interactions with humans from pre-warp capable Earth does not interfere with their development. The regulation is exclusively referred to as General Order 1. Captain [[Christopher Pike (Star Trek)|Christopher Pike]] later breaks the Prime Directive to reveal the truth to one of the locals in exchange for a World War III era helmet camera, but the man promises to keep quiet about it to his people. Commander Michael Burnham argued to Pike that the helmet camera and the answers it might contain to solve the mystery, was more important than the Prime Directive, and that one would have to be sacrificed to uphold the other – and only the captain could make that choice.
*In "Whistlespeak" of season five, the ''Discovery'' encounters the Halem'nites, a pre-warp, pre-industrial society that is protected by a [[Denobulan]] weather tower which shields the only habitable part of the planet against sandstorms and generates rain. The Denobulans had installed the weather tower and four others like it in secret and masked them as mountains in order to avoid breaking the Prime Directive. However, the other four failed and the last one is failing, leading the Halemn'ites to build a whole religion around them. While Captain Michael Burnham and Lieutenant Sylvia Tilly at first discreetly infiltrate the locals, allowing Burnham to repair the tower in secret, Tilly's life is put in danger when the Halem'nites prepare to sacrifice her as part of a ritual to bring rain. Burnham expressly chooses to violate the Prime Directive to save her friend, arguing that Tilly and a local named Ravah should not suffer a pointless death and, without learning how to properly maintain the tower themselves, the Halem'nites will eventually go extinct.

==== ''Prodigy'' ====
* The villain of the first season, the Diviner, came from the future. In his original timeline the Vau N'Akat saw the arrival of a Federation ship to its planet. This divided their society between those who wanted to join the Federation and those who refused, and the ensuing civil war destroyed them. The Federation refused to take sides in the civil war. The Diviner considered it a subtle act of aggression and jumped to the past, the series' present, to destroy the Federation before it makes first contact with his people.
* In "First Con-tact," a holographic version of [[Kathryn Janeway]] informs the young crew of the USS ''Protostar'' of the Prime Directive before they attempt a first contact mission. However, captain Dal R'El is tricked by his old Ferengi mentor DaiMon Nandi, resulting in a disastrous first contact. Although the crew returns what Nandi stole, Janeway furiously berates them as not only was the Prime Directive broken, but the way that things went down will have a negative impact on any possible relations that the race that they had met will have with outsiders going forwards.
* In "All the World's a Stage," the crew of the ''Protostar'' meet a civilization, the Enderprizians, that experienced massive cultural contamination due to a visit by the USS ''Enterprise'' around a hundred years before. According to the locals' history, the ''Enterprise'' detected a danger to the Enderprizians that Ensign David Garrovick volunteered for a solo mission to address without breaking the Prime Directive. However, Garrovick crashed and was saved by the locals with his presence, technology and stories leading to them basing their whole culture around Starfleet and the ''Enterprise''. One local, Doctor Boons (named after Leonard McCoy's nickname of Bones), reveals that Garrovick had told the people about the Prime Directive and that they weren't ready for the Federation or their technology, but the Enderprizians saw the Federation and its ideals as something to believe in. The ''Protostar's'' meeting with the Enderprizians is treated as second contact rather than a Prime Directive violation. In the season finale, an Enderprizian is seen in a Starfleet class, suggesting that they ended up making more official contact with Starfleet in the end.
* In "Brink," The Doctor mentions that sending the ''Protostar'' crew to Solum wouldn't technically violate the Prime Directive or ''Voyager's'' direct orders as the crew are not Starfleet personnel. However, when Gwyn asks to rescue her father Ilthuran -- the present day version of the Diviner -- Commander Tysess worries that doing so would be taking sides in the brewing civil war which the Prime Directive prohibits. Janeway agrees to allow the rescue, pointing out that nothing prevents them from granting Ilthuran [[political asylum]], particularly as he is the best hope for a peaceful resolution to the conflict. While Janeway states that Starfleet will disavow their actions if they're caught, she allows ''Voyager'' to supply the crew with various technologies for their mission.
* In "Touch of Grey," despite Janeway previously declaring that the ''Protostar'' crew would be disavowed if they were caught, she personally leads Chakotay, The Doctor and [[Wesley Crusher]] to rescue them. As civil war breaks out on Solum, just like it did in the future that the Diviner came from, Gwyn asks Janeway for help in saving her homeworld which would be taking sides and thus violating the Prime Directive. Rather than staying out of it like the Federation did in the Diviner's future, Janeway instantly agrees to help, having been reminded that boldness isn't only for the young.
* In "Ouroboros, Part I," ''Voyager'' and the ''Protostar'' engage Asencia's forces to buy time for the ''Protostar'' crew to enact their plan. While the battle results in the defeat of Asencia and the favorable end of the civil war, the Federation's direct role is minimal, limited primarily to ''Voyager'' and the ''Protostar'' engaging Asencia's fleet which is in the middle of launching to attack every major Federation outpost across three quadrants. Like in "Brink," the forces sent to the ground who take direct part in Asencia's defeat are non-Starfleet personnel. In the following episode, Janeway leads official first contact between the Federation and the Vau N'Akat which Gwyn had previously tried and failed to establish.

==== ''Strange New Worlds'' ====
* In "Strange New Worlds", the first episode of season one of ''[[Star Trek: Strange New Worlds]]'', Captain Pike reveals the ''Enterprise'' to a society that has reverse engineered a matter-anti-matter reactor as a weapon after witnessing the Battle near Xahea. However, the Federation Council could not address how the weapon was created because the Battle near Xahea was classified information, which prevented them from charging Pike with violating General Order 1. The Federation Council is also considering renaming General Order 1 as the Prime Directive, which Captain Pike says will "never stick".
* In "Among the Lotus Eaters," Pike orders the removal of a radioactive asteroid from the surface of the planet Rigel VII. Spock argues that they are violating the Prime Directive, but Pike counters that the asteroid's effects were stunting the growth of the local civilization and as such, they are merely setting things right rather than interfering which Spock concedes is a logical argument.

==== ''Picard'' ====
*In "Vox," [[Geordi La Forge]] mentions that Starfleet had raised the wrecked saucer section of the [[USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D)|USS ''Enterprise''-D]] off of the surface of Veridian III following the events of ''[[Star Trek Generations]]'' in order to avoid breaking the Prime Directive due to the pre-warp civilization living in the star system. This allowed La Forge the chance to spend twenty years secretly rebuilding the ship.

==== Films ====
*In the feature film ''[[Star Trek: Insurrection]]'', Picard violates orders to protect the rights of a planet's population when he feels an admiral is breaking the Prime Directive.
*In the feature film ''[[Star Trek Into Darkness]]'', Captain Kirk violates the prime directive by saving Spock's life while attempting to stop an active volcano that threatens the native inhabitants, and then by exposing the ''Enterprise'' to those inhabitants. As punishment, Kirk is removed from command of the ''Enterprise'' and demoted to first officer instead. Initially, his punishment was to be sent back to Starfleet Academy, but Admiral Pike intervened on Kirk's behalf. The subsequent actions of [[Khan Noonien Singh]] lead to Kirk being reinstated soon afterwards.