But by the time of Star Trek: Voyager, set a century later, the directive is said to have had 47 sub-orders. When articulated in the original series, the Prime Directive was a simple statement of just three sentences. It may have come from the Vulcans, who held off contact with Earth until humans had developed their first warp drive. "The Prime Directive is a complete rip-off of United Nations Article 2," says Nossal, a specialist in international relations.Īs for the evolution of the Prime Directive of Star Trek's fictional world, the origins are less clear. It was the beginning of the modern nation state and the basis of the United Nations charter some 300 years later.
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In it, the powers of Europe agreed to respect each other's territorial integrity and the right to determine their own destiny within their borders. Its roots go all the way back to the Peace of Westphalia, signed in 1648 to end both the Thirty and Eighty Years' wars.
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THE DIRECTIVE, OF COURSE, was not entirely Roddenberry's invention. "There's a lack of imperialism or colonialism about the Prime Directive." "This was sort of a late-'60s fantasy," says Nossal. To Americans and post-imperial powers in Europe at that time, the notion that it was possible to go into other countries without changing them was irresistible.īack in the 1960s, Canadians, with their relatively new invention of Peacekeeping troops, also needed to believe that the Prime Directive was possible, and maybe even part of our utopian future. Likewise, cities such as Bangkok and Hong Kong were forever changed by the influence – and desires – of American soldiers on R and R from the Vietnam War, Nossal says.Īt the time of the original series, the United States was entangled not only in Vietnam, Nossal says, but getting criticism for its activities in Latin America as well. The love of blues, country, and rock 'n' roll music in Britain, for instance, is largely attributed to the influence of North American soldiers stationed there during World War II. Their spending habits will alter the priorities of the local economy, and any cultural icons they bring with them – books or music or requests for food from home – will inevitably influence local customs. "Anything you do outside your borders is going to have an impact," he says.Įven tourists visiting a country, spending money and talking to the locals will have an impact, Nossal points out. "It allows you to believe the best of yourself," he says. The Prime Directive is a reflection of that desire. In fact, he adds, any person or country active on the world stage wants to believe it's possible to go into another society and not change it. However uncomfortable Americans get with their country's interventions in other countries, Nossal says, they always want to believe that they could interact with other societies without having a negative impact. "The Prime Directive has always been a bit of fantasy," he says. Then, at the Star's request, he sets about analyzing it. "We have to be careful not to overanalyze what started out as entertainment," the head of the politics department at Queen's University cautions. "That sounds very much in sync with the Federation's Prime Directive. "Whether you're happy about it or not, the Obama foreign policy, at least for now, emphasizes cross-cultural exchange and eschews imperialistic swagger. "With the wilfullyhegemonic Bush administration now gone, the tenets of Roddenberry's fictional universe feel very much in step with current events," he writes. President Barack Obama's foreign policies to the Prime Directive.
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"We're all Trekkies now," Newsweek magazine declared in a cover story in which Trek fan Steve Daly compares U.S.
#Original prime directive rpg movie
And, just as Americans were looking for a way out of Vietnam when Star Trek came into being, they are looking for a way out of Iraq as the franchise is reborn this weekend.Ī prequel to the 1960s TV series, the new Star Trek movie opened Thursday to rave reviews and huge box office to a world looking for simple solutions to complex problems.
#Original prime directive rpg series
Penned by series creator Gene Roddenberry and inspired by his own distaste for the Vietnam War – which was raging when the original series went to air four decades ago – the Prime Directive is a tempting antidote to the interventionist years of the Bush administration.īut would the show's high-minded philosophy lead to utopia or make things even worse in the real world?Īs Captain Jean-Luc Picard warns in the quote below on the right-hand side of this page, and Iraq bears out, intervening in the affairs of another society for any reason soon gets messy. As plot device and foreign policy, the Prime Directive is proving undeniably seductive, especially these days.