Worf's foster brother violates the prime directive when he attempts to save a small village on a pre-warp planet from being killed, against Picard's wishes. In the end, the village is safely transported to a new world, but one of the villagers commits suicide when he learns the truth about space travel.
This episode is abominable. It's not that it's not well-made; it's simply morally wrong.
Picard learns that an entire pre-warp civilization is going to be destroyed, and Nikolai Rozhenko pleads with him to save merely one village. Picard firmly denies the request, coldly replying that the prime directive dictates that they cannot save an entire world without "interfering."
It's said in this episode that the principle of the prime directive is indeed principle for the sake of principle, and that this is a good thing.
This isn't just an outrage for reasons of moral disagreement; it's completely inconsistent with Picard's character. All the way back in Season 1's "Justice," Picard violates the prime directive in order to save Wesley Crusher's life. He even gives a speech about how laws cannot be absolute or they are unjust. He states that in situations involving the sanctity of life itself, exceptions to the rule MUST be made. Later, in "The Drumhead," it is said that Picard has already violated the prime directive nine times. But he won't do it here, to save the last remnants of a race?
It could be argued that Picard's actions here are genocidal. If there was ever an argument for the humanistic scientific elitist corruption of the Federation, this is it. A rule created to preserve life becomes so strict that it nearly annihilates that same life. Picard should be outraged at this, but here he's more upset that his ship is inconvenienced by a dozen passengers for a couple of days.
I motion that this episode be stricken from the record, effective immediately.
No comments:
Post a Comment