For those of you here who think the prime directive is flawed, or could be adjusted.
What do you agree with, how would you change what you disagree with, and why?
For those of you here who think the prime directive is flawed, or could be adjusted.
What do you agree with, how would you change what you disagree with, and why?
I mean, the fundamental problem with “Dear Doctor” is that it completely misunderstands every point that it’s meaning to make. Phlox may as well have said he was refusing to treat the Valakians because God told him not to. Evolution doesn’t have a will. It didn’t “want” the Menk to take over the planet any more than it “wanted” the dodo to go extinct. While this might have been what happened if Enterprise had never come by, if it’s right to help save the Valakians if there had been no one else to replace them, then it’s also right to save them as they live alongside the Menk.
Yes, evolution doesn’t have a will, but it’s a natural process that just goes, and speaking about “will” here is just a some euphemism for not wanting to interfere with natural process. The episode was supposed to really show the problems and dillemas that led to form the Prime Directive, and aside of what we think about Phlox decision, it does it’s job.
The problem is that there’s nothing inherently special or good about natural processes. Why should they want to avoid interfering with them?