Star Trek’s Prime Directive Makes No Sense In TNG Season 1

The Prime Directive is meant to be Star Trek’s most important rule, but its use in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 1 does not always make sense. General Order 1, AKA the Prime Directive, serves as Starfleet’s policy of noninterference, stating that no Starfleet officer can interfere with the technological progress or social development of an alien civilization. The Prime Directive would eventually come to prohibit any interference in a civilization that had not yet achieved warp travel. As the commanding officer of the USS Enterprise-D, Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) did his best to adhere to the Prime Directive, but the exact nature of the rule had not been fully established in TNG season 1 and its application is inconsistent at best.