Discovery Made Star Trek’s Prime Directive Even More Complicated
By JEREMY MATHAI
Despite the Prime Directive being an unbreakable rule, "Star Trek: Discovery" jumped at the chance to completely upend it in the final season’s sixth episode, "Whistlespeak."
"Star Trek" characters have gone against the Prime Directive before, when necessary, but "Discovery" chose to take a more interesting route on its way to a familiar destination.
Rather than make excuses or search for a loophole, Michael Burnham took responsibility for intentionally violating the order and accepted the consequences that may fall her way.
In doing so, the episode firmly, and perhaps controversially, supports the idea that saving lives fully justifies the breaking of Starfleet's most sacred rule.
Previously, characters who broke the Prime Directive gave a logical justification or pointed out some ambiguity that allowed them to skate by on technicalities.
The writers in this latest episode, however, broke the creative rules to maximize drama and added a fascinating new wrinkle to the franchise's long-standing tradition.