When EXACTLY did Janeway violate the Prime Directive?

Tabitha

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Visiting various bboards and general keeping half an ear to the ground has led to my noticing that people tend to rant on about how Janeway will break the Prime Directive without batting an eyelid, but I have only recently come to realise that I don't know what they are referring to.

The only point I can remember Janeway really breaking it was when she offered those Hunter-types (name escapes me and internet connection too slow to go looking) the holodeck technology as a truce/peace offering.
I think Starfleet would surely let her away with that one, but what are all the other gross violations that trek fans complain about?

Inquiring minds want to know!
 
How much time have you got to spare while we list them?

The Prime Directive or General Order #1 is the non-interference with the normal development of any culture or society.

This directive is supposedly more important than the protection of spaceships or members of Starfleet. Losses are tolerated as long as they are nessesary to observe this directive.

Taken literally, Janeway broke that order almost every other week: everytime they traded technology with aliens, or visited low-tech planets.

In fairness, they were in a difficult situation for a Federation Starship, and I think she always meant to do the right thing. Unlike Kirk, who deliberately made up his own rules as he went along.
 
I think the term to use in court is 'Liberal with the Interpretation'.

Otherwise her getting upon her high horse for Equinox would be very two faced.

It all pales into insignificance with End Game.
 
Fair enough, Endgame was a bit ridiculous, I certainly can't imagine any previous Star Fleet captains taking this action. It has just occurred to me that Janeway's actions were similar to Chakotay and Kim's in the season five episode (can't remember the eps name) where the rest of Voyager crash landed and died on that ice planet.

Don't you think that Voyager was probably fairly discriminating in its choice of trading partners. We rarely had episodes in later seasons that suggested the ship was running low on supplies, forcing them to trade with relatively primitive cultures.
And where exactly does the line get drawn? Surely it would be possible to trade with a less advanced culture without revealing the extent of their scientific advances.
 
Well first I should note that I am a HUGE Janwayite, and love everything about the Auburn Hair Queen... :D :D :rolly2: :rolly2:

but saying that the holodeck technology given out in "The Killing Game Part 2" to the Hirogen proberly is her only real violation. But then again, it was done under duress, if she didn't give it out, her crew what be systematically murder and killed, so she literally had a Solomon's Choice type decision, and she had to choose the lesser of two evils, and personally I think she did the right thing by giving out the technology to save the lives of her crew.

The situation in Endgame is a bit different. It is obvious that Admiral Janeway was a little bit insane, (heck after all that happened to her, who wouldn't be)? But Admiral Janeway, is NOT Captain Janeway, she is just a possible future version, which now would likely not eventuate... So we cannot charge Captain Janeway with breaking any future crimes, as the time line changed to the point where the future crimes didn't happen (yes - temperal mechanic gives me a headache...) ;)
 
Originally posted by Draco Weyr
personally I think she did the right thing by giving out the technology to save the lives of her crew.
I agree - and don't forget that giving the holodeck technology to the Hirogen could also be regarded as an altruistic action that would aid not only her own crew, but also all the other potential 'prey' out there too. Helps push the argument in Janeway's favour IMO.
 
If you take that, there is the knock-on effect of giving Hirogen holographic technology. The creation of a holographic race that were persecuted by the Hirogen and she helps rescue.

If she is not damned by the first act, then she is sailing very close to being so by the second. It is a position which I suggest the Prime Directive would have been drafted to prevent?
 
^Janeway was just caught in the ultimate Catch 22 - damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Kirk, Sisko, Picard et al also ended up at sometime or another in a Catch 22 situation, so I don't know why Janeway is always picked on.
 
Catch 22 is the perfect way to describe this situation - how else could she have gotten out of it?
It seems to me that she had no choice whatsoever, that the only alternative was for Voyager's crew to get wiped out and for the Hirogen to continue preying on anything they could find.
 
Some of the number of times Captain Kathryn Janeway has broken the Prime Directive:

Caretaker
In this, let us remember that the Prime Directive states that interference with the natural development of any race which possesses a lower level of technology than the Federation is strictly forbidden. Had Captain Janeway not interfered, the Kazon would have taken possession of the Array, this being the natural course of events for their race given the circumstances. Captain Janeway's destruction of the Array was therefore a clear violation of the Prime Directive. Captain Janeway's claim that by destroying she was protecting the Ocampa is mere fabrication, as we have seen.

Jetrel
Captain Janeway allowed a known war criminal of a race with a lower level of technology than that of Voyager use of the Sickbay and the transporter. Her logs indicate that she sympathized with him, as he was trying to undo damage he had done, but the fact remains that she aided and abetted a criminal and violated the Prime Directive.

Prototype
The Voyager crew beamed aboard a deactivated robot and Janeway allowed Torres to try to reactivate it, using Federation technology. Once revived, the robot insisted that Torres build a prototype power module for the construction of additional units. Belatedly Janeway insisted that this was a violation of the Prime Directive, but the robot kidnapped Torres. Once aboard their ship Torres created the power units they needed, only to destroy them when she found out their true plans. The fact that the technology was destroyed does not excuse the original Prime Directive Violation.

Basics
By surrendering Voyager to the Kazon rather than destroying her, Janeway not only violated the Prime Directive by placing all of Voyager's technology in the hands of the Kazon, but conducted herself in a way unbefitting an officer, showed her unfitness for command and aided and abetted the enemy.

Swarm
Captain Janeway willfully invaded an alien realm of space and proceeded to destroys hundreds, if not thousand of their vessels - thus changing the balance of power in that section of space, ignoring the rules and culture of a sentient alien race and breaking the Prime Directive.

Scorpion
Captain Janeway made a deal with the Borg, confirmed enemies of the Federation, to help them destroy an enemy of their own in exchange for free passage through their space. Her reason for striking this deal is quite clear: passage through this particular area of the Delta Quadrant was the shortest route to the Alpha Quadrant. Going around Borg space would add decades to their journey. Although the deal Captain Janeway struck with the Borg did gain them the passage they needed, the Borg subsequently turned on them, becoming once again the enemy of Voyager. In addition, Janeway made a powerful enemy of the species she helped the Borg to defeat: a species the Borg designate 8472. This incident once again brings into question Captain Janeway's fitness for command as well as her original decision to strand her ship and crew in the Delta Quadrant, not to mention she broke the Prime Directive once again by interfering in the cultures and problems of Species8472 and The Borg - her decision to help the Borg led to millions more races being assimilated(as seen in 'Hope and Fear') and several thousand alien cultures ceasing to exist.

Demon
Captain Janeway allowed a pre-sentient lifeform to sample the Voyager crew's DNA. The pre-sentient "silver blood" lifeforms became humanoid as a result, and quickly mimicked the crew's mannerisms, memories, and technology. The Prime Directive is designed to prevent interference with the development of lifeforms less advanced than those of the Federation. Most often, alleged violations of the Directive arise from technology transfer or the exposure of pre-warp civilizations to the existence of alien life. The violation here, in many ways, is much more severe, as the evolution of an entire species, not merely the development of a civilization, was irrevocably altered by Janeway's callous actions. Indeed, there is anecdotal evidence, not corroborated in Voyager's logs, indicating that these lifeforms came to believe that they were in fact Voyager's crew, and they all died in a futile attempted to return to Earth. If true, this underscores the importance of the Prime Directive and the terrible consequences that can result when it is violated.

The Killing Game
On several occasions, Captain Janeway improperly gave Starfleet technology or technological assistance to Delta Quadrant races. In the best-documented incident from this time, on or around Stardate 51710, Captain Janeway gave Federation holodeck technology to a race called the Hirogen. Three years later, it was discovered that Hirogen abuse of that technology resulted in the creation of a sentient and violent breed of hologram. Those holograms subsequently killed several sentients. In a documented conversation taking place on or around Stardate 54300, it was revealed that trading technology for supplies had in fact been standard operating procedure aboard Voyager for some time. Not every incident is fully documented in the ship's log, but a pattern of improper trade and its often dire consequences is easily seen in the record.

Dragon's Teeth
Captain Janeway ordered her crew to revive a race called the Vaadwaur, who were found in suspended animation on a devastated planet. The Vaadwaur had in fact been a violent, predatory race that had been defeated and nearly wiped out by its victims centuries earlier. As a result of Janeway's actions, several Vaadwaur vessels escaped to threaten that area of space once again. Sworn testimony from Ambassador Neelix and Crewman Annika Hansen will demonstrate that Janeway did not wait for a historical records search to be completed before having the Vaadwaur revived. That search revealed the true nature of the Vaadwaur, but by then it was too late to prevent their reintroduction into the Delta Quadrant.

Riddles
Captain Janeway negotiated with members of a paranoid and xenophobic race called the Kesat, offering them tactical data on neighboring races in exchange for information needed to treat Commander Tuvok, according to sworn testimony by several members of Voyager's bridge crew. While Voyager's log indicates that a deal was not in fact struck, Janeway's willingness to make such an arrangement demonstrates a disregard for sentient life and for Starfleet's principle of non-interference. A Starfleet Captain has a duty to protect the members of his or her crew but not at the expense of innocent sentients.

The Voyager Conspiracy
Captain Janeway ordered her crew to assist an alien named Tash in building a "subspace catapult," which was subsequently used by Voyager to travel several thousand light years closer to home. The crew used Starfleet technology and methods to build the catapult, but Janeway did nothing to prevent the catapult and its component Starfleet technology from falling into the wrong hands after leaving it behind.

Live Fast and Prosper
Captain Janeway discovered that the complete contents of the Federation database had been stolen from the Delta Flyer. While Voyager's crew apprehended the thieves, who were impersonating Federation representatives, Voyager's log shows that Janeway made no effort to determine whether that data had been passed to others, creating the possibility that the Delta Quadrant could now be awash in Federation knowledge and technology.
 
^to be even handed, can you also produce a list where Kirk, Picard and Sisko broke the Prime Directive?
 
surely there is not a thread long enough to post. I recomend just listing when she didnt break the prime directive its easier. Janeway brakes the prime directive because her PR people told her it will sell more auto biographies when she retires.:D
 
I know this is going to sound strange but I thought the prime directive only applied to dealing with the natural development of pre-warp civilisations. I mean, if it meant any race that wasn't at the Federations level or above then that would seem really strange to me.

I mean the Vulcans *supposedly* gave us the idea of the Prime Directive yet weren't they violating it when they came to Earth, given your interpretation of what a violation is?

Remember how relieved Picard was in Insurrection when he found out the Baku had already achieved warp technology?

In that case, Janeway only violated the prime directive if her actions interfered in the natural development of a pre-warp culture. Now, I don't like Janeway and I honestly hated most of Voyager but I have to jump onto this and kinda defend her.
 
I know this is going to sound strange but I thought the prime directive only applied to dealing with the natural development of pre-warp civilisations. I mean, if it meant any race that wasn't at the Federations level or above then that would seem really strange to me.

I mean the Vulcans *supposedly* gave us the idea of the Prime Directive yet weren't they violating it when they came to Earth, given your interpretation of what a violation is?
You are correct about the stipulation being pre-Warp cultures, but that is a grey area too. Does that exclude the Kazon, who seemed to have stolen their technology? Or the Ferengi who bought their technology?

It does remove a few from janeways7's charge sheet though.

I don't think the Vulcans were meant to have given us the idea of the Prime Directive, though they wouldn't contact us until they saw we have Warp technology, and so deemed us fit enough and to be of a sufficient technology. In Enterprise it seemed to be something that Archer was formulating in his head himself, pre-Federation. I think that would have been something we saw had the series continued on.
 
I don't think the Vulcans were meant to have given us the idea of the Prime Directive, though they wouldn't contact us until they saw we have Warp technology, and so deemed us fit enough and to be of a sufficient technology. In Enterprise it seemed to be something that Archer was formulating in his head himself, pre-Federation. I think that would have been something we saw had the series continued on.

Oh, I thought T'Pol actually said that the Vulcans have a law about interfering in less developed cultures. That's where I got that they gave us the Prime Directive, but you're right, Archer himself was slowly changing his own ideas about space travel and the like.

If the series had continued we would have seen a more gradual build to federation policies. Oh well.

I also agree with the other things you said, there are definately prime directive grey areas that means the rule is quite difficult to define.
 
Yes, they did -- and I can only imagine what that must have done to the local economy, after the immediate problems of thirst were assuaged.
 

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