JAMES T. KIRK, A CAPTAIN WHO OBEYS THE PRIME DIRECTIVE

 

Introduction

There are many myths about Captain Kirk, which is an odd thing considering he is a fictional character.  Nevertheless, there are a number of common misconceptions with the character’s popular image that don’t exist as part of the source material.  One example is what is typically dubbed “Shatner speak.”  This is explained as the act of talking as if there is a period after the end of every word.  This is most famous satirized by Jim Carrey during his time with Saturday Night Live.  Another myth is that he is frequent rule breaker, who does whatever he feels is right regardless of orders.  This is even popularized by the show itself most recently in the series Lower Decks where frequent rule-breaker Beckett Mariner calls herself a “Kirk-type” to justify her actions.  Then there of course the classical claim that he is a crazy womanizer as popularized most recently by the pregnant “Kirk was here” cosplayers.

  One of interesting things about the Star Trek franchise is it is so large that many fans, if not most, come into it sideways.  They don’t start at the beginning they start at whatever series was on when they begin watching.  When they come across the original series it is basically history for them.  It is not at all unusual to see on Star Trek fan forums this question posted, “So I just started watching the original series, pretty good so far, when does the whole Shatner-speak start?  I am almost through the first season and I haven’t seen it yet.” There are a few scenes where Kirk does talk slowly however these are normally in situations where the Captain has to be careful with his words.  He is in diplomatic situation or something similar.  The best example I think of is Kirk’s first scene with Khan in “The Wrath of Khan.”  

Over the years there have been many articles debunking these many myths.  Larry Womack of the Huffington Post wrote a great article in 2013 titled, In Defense of (the Original) James T. Kirk, where he tackles Kirk’s reputation of being a rule breaker and womanizer in the aftermath of the Kelvin Universe Star Trek films’ version of Captain Kirk, and John E Price of Medium wrote a similar piece called You Either Believe in Yourself or You Don’t: Star Trek Discovery, James T. Kirk, and the Power of Traditional Memory. Internet essayist and Star Trek enthusiast Steve Shives created a great video in 2018 titled Is Captain Kirk Actually a Womanizer to which he takes down that myth flat.

The myth that I want to tackle is the one that states Captain Kirk is not only a rule breaker but that he repeatedly violates Starfleet’s General Order Number One: The Prime Directive.  (As if you couldn’t tell that by the title.) As all fans know, the Prime Directive states that Starfleet will not interfere in the internal development of a foreign society, and if said society has not yet developed warp drive Starfleet is not even allowed to let that society know that Starfleet and the Federation exist.  The reason the Prime Directive exists is the Federation does not want the exploration of the universe to have the same devastating effect on alien societies that European exploration and colonization did to the many aboriginal societies of Earth.  However, it has it has its drawbacks and some would argue that Prime Directive itself is immoral.  For if a Starfleet vessel were to discover a world that was like 1930s Earth where fascist regimes were engaged in genocide of persecuted peoples.  Then that vessel would not do a thing to stop it.

"No identification of self or mission. No interference with the social development of said planet. No references to space, or the fact that there are other worlds, or more advanced civilizations." Dr. McCoy in "Bread and Circuses"

Kirk’s reputation of ignoring the Prime Directive is a recognized trait of his character and is mentioned both within Star Trek (Remember Janeway’s quote about 23^rd century officers being quick to draw their phasers and slow to invoke the Prime Directive?) and without.  There was an episode of JAG where the character Bud Roberts was able to get information from a terrorist by going over Star Trek trivia.  The incident is initiated by an argument over Kirk’s violation of the Prime Directive to which Bud says Kirk did “all the time.”

This is a myth.  Kirk only violated the Prime Directive once.  Yes, that is right I said it.  He only did it once, and it was under an extreme situation.  Now I know what you are thinking: “I have seen Star Trek X-number of times and I saw him violate the Prime Directive X-number of times much higher than 1.”  I know but you’re wrong and with that let’s go over Kirk’s relationship with the Prime Directive.             

When the Captain is Clearly Obeying

People are so caught up calling out Kirk for allegedly violating the Prime Directive that they forget how much he is a defender of it.  A good example of Kirk obeying is the episode “Bread and Circuses.”  In this episode the Enterprise travels to one of the many fake Earths that they encounter during Star Trek’s classical run.  On this fake Earth they find that the Roman Empire has survived until the 20^th century and they now have their gladiator games on TV.  A Federation merchant ship was stranded on the planet and Kirk is looking to retrieve them.  While they are there, they find some underground rebels.  After hanging out with the rebels they are captured by Roman authorities and taken to the Proconsul.  It turns out the Merchant Captain told the Proconsul everything about Starfleet and the Federation, including the Prime Directive.  In this episode Kirk has the means and the motive to overwhelm the Romans of Fake Earth with fire power and take the Federation citizens there by force.  However, Captain Kirk is restrained the by the Prime Directive, understanding that he and his crew will have to come up with a less direct way of getting the actions that they desire accomplished.  Which they do, they manage to remove the Federation elements from the Fake Earth with no one from the general population being the wiser.

Kirk is trying to find a way out of this mess without violating the Prime Directive

Another example is the episode “The Paradise Syndrome.” In this episode Kirk loses his memory and for a while is living with a Native American tribe whose ancestors were placed on this planet by the ancient Preservers.  There Kirk falls in love with a local woman named Miramanee and marries her.  When Kirk fails the tribe in a major way, they turn on him and stone him as a fraud, Miramanee tries to save him and is killed as a result.  Once Kirk’s memory is restored, he does not go back to the tribe and explain to them why they were wrong and blame them for killing Miramanee.  He recognizes the Prime Directive and ceases all contact with those people. He doesn’t even bother to explain to them how to turn on the Preserver device.

He interferes here but stops when his memory returns

Someone Else Already Interfered

The first batch of Captain Kirk’s so-called “violations” are actually already covered in an established portion of Starfleet law.  That if interference on an alien culture has already happened then a Starfleet crew is allowed to correct the imbalance, try to expunge the interference, or cut the losses and make the best out of a bad situation. The first of these can be seen in the episode “A Private Little War” here Captain Kirk returns to a planet named Neural that he once visited as a young lieutenant, I am assuming before he ran into the vampire cloud, only to discover that the Klingons have shown up and armed the villagers with advanced weaponry and sent them to attack the hill people. Upon confirming the Klingons involvement Kirk arms and trains the hill people with the same weapons that Klingons provided the villagers.  Kirk isn’t breaking the Prime Directive here; he is giving the planet a course correction due to Klingon interference.

Looks like we already have interference

  The next example of this is “A Piece of the Action.”  In this episode the Enterprise travels to the planet Sigma Iotia II.  The planet was last visited by the Horizon over a century ago. At the time the Prime Directive had yet to be established and the crew thought nothing about leaving behind a book called The Chicago Mobs of the Twenties, along with some manuals about early twentieth century technology.  Now the entire population of the planet is living a world based of the gang culture of Prohibition-era Chicago.  Instead of leaving Kirk decides to undo some of the damage done by the accidental interference.  He gathers all the gangs, impresses them with his technology and fire power of his ship, and informs them that the Federation is “taking over” as “the prime operator.”  All the gangs will now have to get in line, Kirk then reorganizes their entire government for them.  

Not good!

The third case of this is one not caused by a slight error but one caused by extreme stupidity.  In the episode “Patterns of Force” a historian named John Gill travels the planet Ekos and finds it divided by war and chaos.  Amid this chaos the award-winning historian decided what this planet truly needs is some Nazism.  Nope, not kidding that is what he did.  Naturally, when the Enterprise arrives, they are shocked to say the least.  So, as such Captain Kirk and Spock go to the planet and after some great difficulty find Gill, who was no a prisoner and puppet figurehead by his deputy, they have him give a public confession and turn on his party.  The leave the planet in the hands of two allies they feel they can trust and leave.    

Exposing the Nazis

Finally, we have the episode “Omega Glory” where Captain Ronald Tracey of the Exter goes to Omega IV.  Omega IV is another one of those Fake Earth, this one where the Cold War got hot the world was destroyed and the survivors are still fighting each other even though they don’t remember why.  Tracey becomes convinced he can become immortal on this planet so he tried to aid one side by helping them fight their war by using phasers.  Kirk having discovered this moves to stop him and then helps the people of Omega IV correctly interpret their own “holy words.” With Tracey now their prisoner, Kirk and crew leave.

Its the captain with the phaser who is breaking the rules.

That Depends What Your Definition of “Developing” is

In other cases where Kirk appears to violate the Prime Directive, he doesn’t due to some creative reading of the text.  The Prime Directive states that they shall not interfere with the internal development of another culture.  Kirk reasons if the culture isn’t doing any developing then all bets are off.  I am also convinced that by the TNG era this interpretation has been eliminated via legislation.  Kind of like how Kirk led his own away missions but by the TNG era the regulations forbade a captain from doing that.

First example of this is in the episode “Miri.”  This episode is also famous for giving us our first-of-many Fake Earths.  The Enterprise arrives at this fake Earth only to discover that they took a dramatic turn from the real Earth in their version of the 1960s.  Trying to extend their natural lives into the centuries, they failed miserably and caused every adult on the planet to turn into a rabid monster that would tear things apart then quickly die.  The children did get the life extension but when they reached a point where their biological age leads them into puberty and they turn into monsters too.  Captain Kirk not only has McCoy discover away to save the landing party from the virus but he gives it to the kids and Starfleet sends teams to help the children rebuild their society.  Fake Earth culture was a frozen corpse so Kirk decided to interfere. 

This culture clearly stopped working

The second of example of this is the classic episode “The Return of the Archons.”  Here Captain Kirk and his crew travel to the planet Beta III and encounter a society that is ruled and managed by a computer.  Most people are kept in an altered mental state where they came to be part of “the body.” Those who are not are quickly made that way upon discovery.  There is evidence that this society was more advanced until a ruler named Landru created the “the body” to prevent war and bloodshed.  Kirk decides that this society is stagnant under the rule of a machine and decided to break the people free. He leaves behind some advisors to help that now free Betans to take control once again.

Weird state!

This is repeated in the second season episode “The Apple.” One on hand the episode is a clone of the pervious one discussed a society has come under the rule of computer who keeps the people in a primitive state.  There are some key differences however. Where Landru kept his people trapped in a 19^th century type society where Vaal keeps them in a Garden of Eden state.  Like before Kirk determines that this society is stagnant and not developing.  Kirk ends up destroying Vaal freeing the people to control their own destiny.

Explaining orders from Vaal!

When Starfleet Command Decides to Ignore the Prime Directive

Then there are times where Starfleet Command and the Federation decide to override the Prime Directive in certain situations.  The first example of this is the episode “Errand of Mercy.”  This is the episode that was the first appearance of the Klingons.  War has been declared between the two powers.  Starfleet recognizes the strategic location of Organian system.  As such we no longer care if they are a bunch of pre-warp primitives.  It’s not our fault the Klingons are coming anyway so Organians aren’t going to be allowed to develop naturally so this is a primitive planet is going to get a sudden upgrade.  Call it a preemptive.  It turns out the reverse happened far from the Federation and Klingon Empire dictating to the Organians, the Organians revel themselves to be gods and dictate to the two space powers.  Treaty is forced upon them and peace is saved.

When you realize they are the ones doing the telling!

The second time we see this is in the episode “Friday’s Child.”  In this case contact has been made with the natives of Capella IV in a mission that did not involve the Enterprise but one that Dr. McCoy participated in.  The reason Starfleet authorized such contact is the planet is bursting with dilithium crystals.  When the Federation sees a planet that produces dilithium crystals like this they get the same feeling that the United States does when they find an oil rich nation: that is a nation that can use some “freedom.”  Starfleet looks at Capella IV as one that can use some “advancement.” To be fair Starfleet wants this to be a voluntary transaction and they are not conquering them.  In the end with the new leader, Leonard James Akaar, enthroned Starfleet will probably have an easier time. 

Yes, we have your crystals

Speaking of involuntary we have the episode “Spretre of the Gun.”  Starfleet wants contact with the Melkotians so bad that they won’t let Kirk take “no” for an answer.  The Enterprise heads to Melkos and when the Melkotians demand they leave, Kirk’s orders tell him he must proceed anyway.  This ends up with the landing party stuck in a Western.  It’s a strange episode. 

Go Away!

The One Time Kirk Did Violate the Prime Directive

There was this one time that Captain Kirk did out right violate the Prime Directive.  That was in the episode “A Taste of Armageddon.” In this episode the Enterprise is on a diplomatic mission to the planets Eminiar VII and Vendikar.  The two worlds claim to have been at war over centuries although there is no evidence of any such thing on the surface.  It turns out they fight their war in a computer simulation.  This gives them all the casualties with none of the destruction of infrastructure.  This also means that the war where people die not only doesn’t stop it never slows down.  When the simulation is made all of those reported “killed” must report to disintegration chamber to have their vaporized and recorded as such.  They also tell the Captain that his ship was one of the casualties and therefore his entire crew must submit to be killed.  Now at this point Kirk could just escape, return to the Enterprise, and get the hell out of there.  However, he has another plan in mind.  He decides to destroy their machines and force them to fight their war for real.  Panicking at the thought of all the coming destruction the leaders of Eminiar VII agree to have Ambassador Fox agree to open negotiations with Vendikar. 

"I'm going to teach you to fight your war for real"

Now let’s be clear, there was no outside interference from either aliens, such as Klingons, or stupid humans who messed up something that Kirk had to correct.  The society was not failing to develop, in fact the whole purpose for this set-up was to allow for the society to continue to grow despite the war.  There was no command from Starfleet to ignore the Prime Directive.  Kirk just decided that he didn’t like what these people were doing so he was going to end it.  Why did Starfleet get away with it?  A novel I once read—that I can’t recall the name of—stated that the Federation was so horrified at what was being described that they chose to look the other way on the matter.

"Planning their break out!"

Conclusion

                In conclusion I hope I have convinced you that far from being a rebel, Captain Kirk was in fact a defender of Starfleet highest command. The exceptions are just that, exceptions, the reason there happens be so much is because writers need drama to have characters go through in order to give us a story.

 

KIRK DECIDES TO TRESPASS AND HIS LANDING PARTY ENDS UP IN A WESTERN

 Episode Title:  Spectre of the Gun  

Air Date: 10/25/1968

Written by Gene L. Coon

Directed by Vincent McEveety

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              James Doohan  as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”        Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie                 Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley    Roger Holloway as Lieutenant Lemli       Walter Koenig as Ensign Pavel Chekov                 Jeannie Malone as unmanned Yeoman              Ron Soble as Wyatt Earp               Don Keefer as Bonnie Beecher        Charles Maxwell as Virgil Earp               Rex Holman as Morgan Earp            Sam Gilman as Doc Holliday            Charles Seel as Ed            Bill Zuckert as Johnny Behan              Ed McCready as Barber            Abraham Sofaer as Melkotian (voice)       Richard Anthony as Rider   Paul Baxley as 1st Cowboy     Bob Orrison as 2nd Cowboy                        Gregg Palmer as Rancher

Ships and Space Stations: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets:  Melkos

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The Enterprise is on a mission to the planet Melkos under orders to make contact and establish diplomatic relations.   Since the Melkotians are known to be xenophobic this is going to prove to be quite the task.   As the ship gets closer a buoy shows up on an intercept course.  If the Enterprise alters its path the buoy follows.   The whole thing starts to be a reminder of The Corbomite Maneuver, until the buoy speaks.  Everyone on the bridge hears it in their own language.  Kirk hears English, Spock Vulcan, Ensign Chekov Russian, and Lt. Uhura hears it in Swahili.  The message is the same: stay away. 

Buoy wants them gone!

Now you would think an organization like the Federation would respect their wishes, but this is a crew that goes boldly.  So Kirk, citing his orders to establish peaceful relations says he intends to do just that whether the Melkotians want him to or not.  Kirk orders the Enterprise into orbit around the planet and forms a landing party of five (himself, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, and Chekov) to beam down.  When they do they are surprised to discover fog as the sensors did not indicate they would have any.  The landing party also discovers that none of their equipment works.  A Melkotian revels themselves and Kirk tells them they are peaceful while pointing a phaser in their direction.

Melkotian who Kirk points a phaser at!

All of the sudden the world transforms around them and they are now in Tombstone, Arizona on October 26, 1881.  This was the day the famous Gun Fight at the O.K. Corral occurred.  However there is something terribly off.  It almost as if the Melkotians are short on their studio budget, for all the buildings only have a front wall with nothing on the sides or back.  All the townspeople are oblivious to the fact that their homes and businesses would be in a lot of trouble if it rained.  They also see the Enterprise landing party as the Clanton gang.  In particular Kirk is Ike Clanton, Scott is Billy Clanton, McCoy is Tom McLaury, Spock is Frank McLaury, and Chekov is Billy Claiborne.   Their phasers have been exchanged for six-shooter revolvers.  Spock concludes that the Melkotians have taken this from Captain Kirk’s mind because they hold him responsible for the intrusion. 

Okay we get to be in a Western

Not wanting to get in violent confrontation Kirk tries to reason with the Earps. He finds Wyatt Earp not in the mood to negotiate.  The only one of them who seems to be having a good time is Chekov whose character has the affections of a pretty girl named Bonnie.  Kirk gets desperate and tries to tell the towns people the truth and no one believes him thinking that he is joking.  With the truth failing Kirk and crew decide to get out of town, which ironically is what they should have done at the start of this episode.  However a force field prevents them from leaving. 

Since it appears the Melkotians are going to force them to relive the historic event as it happened Kirk doesn’t trust their six-shooters to work as a successful defense.  They decide to build a tranquilizer weapon that will knock out, not kill, their opponents.  McCoy ironically gets his supplies from Doc Holiday who is scheduled to shoot at him today.  While this is going on Morgan Earp comes to challenge Chekov over his girl.  Instead of a knife, Chekov makes a worse error and brings a charge to a gun fight and is promptly killed.

The remaining crew is devastated but there is one clear silver lining: Chekov’s character Billy Claiborne survived the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.  For the first time since they got here they were able to change something.  Kirk orders a test on the new tranquilizer weapon and Scotty volunteers.  Then in the funniest scene in the whole episode the weapon fails.  Kirk and crew decided to stay right where they are and not even go to the O.K. Corral.   However moments later they are transported straight there.

Normally they are the good guys!

Well it seems they are all doomed.  However Spock has an observation, the reason the tranquilizer failed is because it wasn’t real.  If that is not real neither are their weapons.  The other three point out that Chekov was killed, and then Spock said he wasn’t certain that he was but if so it was because his mind tricked him into thinking he was dead.  Spock knows their bullets are not real and therefore he cannot be harmed by them.  McCoy points out that as human beings they can’t be so certain, that is when Kirk suggests a mind meld to make them so.  Spock performs it and when Earps and Holiday show up their bullets pass right though the Starfleet officers harmlessly. 

That is when Kirk remembers that he is the greatest fighter in the known galaxy and decides to take down Wyatt Earp with moves based on such speed and grace that Earp is helpless in the attack.  Kirk is almost going to kill him but when he sees the fear in Earp’s eyes and remembers how his fight with the Gorn ended he relents.  This proves to the Melkotians that the Federation’s intentions are peaceful and with that the illusion ends and they are all now back on the Enterprise’s bridge with a living Chekov.   It had all been an illusion they had never left, and they conclude Chekov was alive because he was focused on the girl.  The Melkotians are satisfied and they invite the Federation in for continued contact making the Enterprise’s mission a success.   

Additional thoughts: This actually reminds me of an episode of The Real Ghostbusters that I watched as a kid.  In that episode the Ghostbusters also had to play he part of the Clantons, when the ghosts of the Earps and Doc Holiday came back to clean up the town again. 

Given that Starfleet has the Prime Directive it seems odd that they want their starship captains to establish contact with unknown aliens with instructions that by “contact” they mean exactly the type of relationship that the Federation deems as desirable regardless of what these new peoples want.  That seems almost imperialistic to me.   If Kirk’s orders were to make contact with the Melkotians the moment they encountered the buoy and its message was: “We are the Melkotians, now go away,” one would think Kirk would be like “Well, we made contact and they told us to pound sand, mission accomplished.”   Not the result they wanted but I fail to see why they shouldn’t accept it.

Kirk seems a little jealous of someone's luck!

So the Melkotians are powerful enough to reach inside your head to create powerful illusions yet they can’t finish the job with the same illusions.  Buildings missing three walls and only a skeleton population in the town, you would think if they were pulling this all out of Kirk’s head that they would be able to finish the job.  It turns out that the show really did run out of money in the budget so they had to be creative and that is what they came up with.  Good way of improvising on the part of Vincent McEveety.  

Yes, something is missing

Another thing that bothered me about the episode was Kirk’s extremely stupid behavior that I find really out of character.  Not only does he, under orders, try to impose himself on the Melkotians when he first sees one he points his phaser directly at them to demonstrate his peaceful intentions. During the illusion he suggests to Spock they should try to build a communicator to contact the ship where he should clearly see that whatever mechanism the Melkotians were using to cause their original communicators to malfunction will most likely also stop a coupled together one.  Worst was when he tried to reason with the townspeople that he and his friends were from “the future” and they weren’t the Clanton gang.  Kirk should have realized by the three walls missing on all the buildings that this was some sort of alien creation not an act of time travel.  He has time traveled to the 1960s not once but twice, and he went back to the 1920s via the Guardian of Forever.  He knows what time travel is like and this isn’t it.  These aren’t real people and there is no way they could be reached by having them feel the fabric of his shirt.  Kirk should be better than all of this.  I would expect more from Gene L. Coon. 

Then there is Spock, who not only seems to be completely on board with this whole trespass thing, is in this episode often “right” but for the “wrong” reasons.  The one character who is defined by logic and reason and yet his logic in this episode is as flawed as the buildings with missing walls.  The biggest moments of this are in the episode’s climax.  He concludes the bullets can’t hurt them because they are not real based on the fact that the tranquilizer failed where it otherwise should have worked.  Except that at this point we have already scene Chekov killed by the bullets.  The reason we are then given is that because Chekov believed the bullets were real that is why they could kill him, but Scotty had every reason to believe the tranquilizer was real and yet that failed.  Spock did add the Chekov might not be dead, I wish they stuck with that reasoning instead of ‘he’s dead because he believed.”  At least the ending would have made a little more sense.

Chekov's focus!

Chekov is clearly a lover not a fighter.  I mean when someone has a gun on you and you are armed that weapon is your best chance of survival not a charge.  Yet that is what we saw from our dear Ensign.  Now granted if you wanted to catch Morgan Earp in state of surprise then maybe there is some logic in a charge, I imagine he was quite surprised.  However his gun solved his problem as Indiana Jones’s would over a decade later.

I really did love the failed tranquilizer scene.  That was hilarious.  My favorite part is when it was clearly not working Scotty tires to help by sticking his face directly in the fumes!  At that point it was clearly a failure even if Scotty did pass out.  It’s not as if the Earps and Holiday are going to stick their faces in it.

FINAL  GRADE 3 of 5