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Alien Non-Interference Clause: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|''As the right of each sentient species to live in accordance with its normal cultural evolution is considered sacred, no Star Fleet personnel may interfere with the healthy development of alien life and culture. Such interference includes the introduction of superior knowledge, strength, or technology to a world whose society is incapable of handling such advantages wisely.''|'''General Order no. 1 (the Prime Directive)''', ''[[
Even without ever having met a real culture from outer space, mankind has experienced firsthand the sort of disaster that can come from [[First Contact]] between a technologically-advanced society and a technologically-primitive and/or culturally-different one. Case in point: much of the European age of exploration and colonization included a great deal of war, exploitation, cultural assimilation (both forced and not) and even genocide across Asia, Africa, Australia and the Americas, including cultures that, according to modern research, may have been more advanced than we once believed.
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== Comicbooks ==
* From [[Marvel Comics]]: The Watchers have an "observe, don't interfere" law in place (thus their species' [[Planet of Hats|name]]). Eventually revealed to be the result of accidentally destroying another species by giving its members advanced scientific knowledge way too soon.
* In the ''[[Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire
** Also the Teleporter considered humans to be animals because they couldn't teleport, though he did indeed interfere.
* In ''[[He-Man and
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* [[Orson Scott Card]]'s later (chronologically) books in the ''[[Ender's Game]]'' series, ''Speaker of the Dead'' and ''Xenocide'' mostly, have had this rule put in place by the Starways Congress years after the obliteration {{spoiler|(almost)}} of the Buggers in the first book, and grown-up Ender's writing ''The Hive Queen'' about what they were really like. But after Ender gets involved in affairs between the humans and the ''pequeninos'' ("piggies") on his new home of Lusitania, it's discovered that the piggies want spaceships, and to become space explorers themselves, in spite of not having passed a lot of technological milestones such as electricity. This causes considerable commotion among the xenologists, and causes them to realize the dark side ("Human superiority first!") of the trope.
** The pequeninos' attempts at jumping a few branches up the [[Technology Tree]] is later described as a sentient species (the piggies) exercising their rights ''as'' a sentient species to engage in trade and commerce with visiting extra-terrestrials (humans) for the betterment of piggy-kind.
* ''[[
** [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|The Ellimist]] and [[Eldritch Abomination|Crayak]] also have rules about when they can and can't interact with other species, but for a different reason: the Ellimist wants to spread life and freedom, Crayak wants to spread genocide, and any open conflict between them would literally destroy both of them and everything else in the universe. Essentially, they're in a Cold War-style standoff, which is why they each either have to agree to let the other work openly or else act subtly enough to keep the other from knowing.
* By ''[[
* [[Elizabeth Moon]]'s ''[[Remnant Population]]'' has "The People", [[Starfish Aliens]] who until events in the book, unwittingly share their planet with human colonists. After some humans try to land new colony ships on their nests (and get killed for it), they seek out and find Ofelia, the [[I Choose to Stay|willing last human]] of a failed colony hundreds of miles away, who kept the colony's tech running for her own use. Unaware of the non-interference rule (which exists even though humans have never met another intelligent species, as they made many assumptions about what aliens will be like), Ofelia has to show and explain things like electricity to The People, initially so their curiosity doesn't kill them with a high voltage current. But it turns out The People are ''extremely'' intelligent and hungry for knowledge, to the surprise of all and the chagrin of the human officials and scientists who get sent to "undo the damage" (some with good but misinformed intentions and some crossing the line into "keeping the humans in charge").
* Much of the [[Strugatsky Brothers]]' [[Noon Universe]] novels revolve around various aspects of an [[Alien Non
** ''[[
** ''[[Prisoners of Power (Literature)|Prisoners of Power]]'' revolves around a civilian protagonist unadvertedly crashing on a [[Diesel Punk]] world rife with pointless nuclear warfare. He single-handedly forms a plan to overthrow the government and their means of [[Mind Control]]... and coincidentally ruins the plan of undercover Earth operatives to solve the planet's issues in a far safer and more gradual way which, however, is implied to take decades if not centuries.
* Amy Thomson's ''The Color of Distance'' and ''Through Alien Eyes'' have humanity making first contact with a technologically primitive society of froglike aliens called the Tendu. They have little technology, but they do have impressive medical abilities; they can physically modify creatures, including themselves and humans, and heal just about anything. Humanity has to make reparations for burning down an important chunk of rainforest before they knew the Tendu were there, but they can't violate the protocols in doing so, to the Tendu's frustration; they know what humans have and are fascinated by it. When one of the Tendu decides to come to Earth, he responds to some of the doubts by saying that he, too, will abide by the protocols, and not teach humanity anything that it's not ready for.
* Also in ''[[Darkover]]'' by [[Marion Zimmer Bradley]]: The humans have a directive never to interfere in the business of aliens, not even if the conflict seems as meaningless as the question [[
* In [[
* In [[Ursula K. Le Guin|Ursula Le Guin]]'s Hainish Cycle, first contact teams are often sent to rather primitive planets, and many such civilizations are incorporated in the [[The Federation|interstellar civilization]] - since it believes that even [[Space Amish|non technological races]] have a lot to contribute (arts or philosophy). However, there is an embargo on teaching technology without authorization by the government. The ''Planet of Exile'' demonstrates the point when a human is wounded by an enemy dart, and must be careful, since while the natives use no poisons, the Earth [[Lost Colony]] does, and the used darts are sometimes fired back.
* In the [[
{{quote| '''President:''' The Federation Council has agreed to waive the non-interference directive.}}
** That almost-casual statement is the President telling Kirk that the PRIME DIRECTIVE IS GONE.
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== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[
** One ''[[Star Trek:
** In some instances, though, there have been [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]] who use a similar rule on the Federation protagonists, just to point out how douchey it looks when you're on the short end of it. Big example being "Prime Factors" in ''[[Star Trek: Voyager
** And then there are the time when they do finally feel justified in breaking the rule such as in the TOS episode where it is discovered that the Klingons have been arming one of the tribes of a primitive planet. Kirk feels its their obligation to offer the competing tribe a similar level of weaponry to defend themselves. In this case, its more of an extension of the existing Cold War metaphor the Klingon-Federation conflict already represented.
** By the time of ''[[Star Trek:
** And ultimately, we learn that the Federation's prime directive is derived from the Vulcans, who would not have made [[First Contact]] had they not observed humanity's first warp drive flight.
** Disturbingly invoked (and possibly incorrectly at that) in an episode of ''[[Star Trek: Voyager
*** Also seen in TNG "Pen Pals". Apparently, extinction is part of a culture's "natural development."
** In the TNG episode "Symbiosis", the Ornarans are suffering from a fatal disease and are dependent on medicine provided by the Brekkians, but this has lead to the Ornaran society falling apart, while the Brekkians have become so wealthy from the profits that they have centered their entire society on exploiting the Ornarans. It doesn't take long for Dr. Crusher to realize the disease was cured ages ago, and that they were suffering from the withdrawal symptoms; she wants to put an end to this, but Capt. Picard points to the Prime Directive, saying they cannot interfere.
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** Epsilon III was declared off limits to all (episode "A Voice In The Wilderness") because the technology of the giant computer contained there would give any one race that got it an unfair advantage.
** After the Vorlons had left the galaxy, a number of people attempted to travel to Vorlon to lay claim to the advanced technology there; all of them got shot down. Lyta explains that humanity was not presently meant to have Vorlon technology and won't be for about a million years.
** On the other hand, in the ''[[Crusade]]'' spin-off series, Captain Matthew Gideon would launch a full spread of modified probes (uploaded with considerable information about Earth and the Interstellar alliance) at a pre-hyperspace planet at the end of ''Visitors From Down the Street'', which abounds in ''[[The X-Files|X-Files]]'' [[Shout-Out|references]]. The ''Excalibur'' picked up two agents from an alien world who are looking for proof of a government cover-up. They show pictures of Mount Rushmore and old Earth blimps. They also dress in Earth fashions from 200 years go (ie: from the time period at the time of the show's shoot). One of them can ''[[Aliens Speaking English|speak English]]'' because of information stolen from the conspirators. [[The Reveal]]: Years before, the government had found itself in a time of social unrest similar to [[The Sixties]]. Upon discovering Earth broadcasts, they used them as part of a truly [[Magnificent Bastard|Magnificent]] conspiracy; manufacture appropriate "evidence", then dispatch [[The Men in Black]] to suppress it. The resultant subculture of [[Conspiracy Theorist|Conspiracy Theorists]] absorbed the government's critics and kept them wasting their time [[Agent Mulder|chasing "aliens"]] rather than [[La Résistance|engaging in civil disobedience]]. ''[[No Delays for
** One minor race that embraced the idea was featured in a single episode, and everyone they met reacted with abject horror at their callousness. Other than using the word "inferior" instead of "less advanced" it was basically the original Prime Directive.
** The Interstellar Alliance has rules about not monkeying about with the cultural and internal affairs of its members, but it also has a Declaration of Principles that all of those members have to sign, so we can be fairly certain none of them have anything really obnoxious in their culture (like killing people for stepping in the wrong field).
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* The races of the ''[[Stargate]]'' universe vary in their approach to this. The Tau'ri (Earth humans) reject it and hold it as their duty to help humans and less advanced, non-hostile races on other worlds. They draw the line at giving up advanced military technology (most of the time), especially when it's obvious that doing so would be detrimental. The Tollan follow it strictly after their neighboring planet self-destructed because of technology they were given. The Asgard generally don't share their tech, but make numerous exceptions for the Tau'ri because they're friends. The Ori and the Goa'uld flaunt their tech and meddle all the time, posing as gods to less advanced civilizations.
** In addition, in one episode Stargate Command discovered an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. They asked the Asgard for help, but the Asgard refused on the grounds that their treaty with the Goa'uld prohibited averting natural disasters. When SG-1 proved that the asteroid had been sent ''by'' the Goa'uld, the Asgard immediately provided help.
** There's also the Ancients, who turn out to have [[Ascend to
** Of course, the real reason the Ancients are such [[Neglectful Precursors]] are because the power we see on the rare occasions they cut loose means they are capable of solving the plot in ten seconds flat. The Ascended Prime Directive is how the writers got out of painting themselves into the corner with finally revealing who the Ancients are (presumably, when all we knew about them was "once upon a time, someone built awesome tech, and then the Goa'uld ganked it," the writers ''didn't'' have in mind a race that was ''nigh-omnipotent and still present.'') They could [[Stargate SG-1
** In ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' a coalition of various Pegasus Galaxy civilisations ''wish'' that Humanity had one of these. They capture the Atlantis team to put [[Humanity
* In ''[[Doctor Who]]'', the Time Lords adopted an official policy of neutrality and non-interference, acting only as observers save in cases of great injustice, after granting advanced technology to the Minyans who then destroyed themselves in a series of nuclear wars. Which is not to say they always adhered to it...
** Or in the Doctor's case, ever. He at least tends to limit his involvement to "stop the threat of the week, then hop back in the TARDIS", and isn't too keen on the idea of, say, 21st century Britain having particle guns. In ''Aliens of London'', he tells Rose that he can't get involved in [[First Contact]], because it's something humans have to do on their own. Once he realizes the aliens are a ''threat''...
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* In ''[[Spacetrawler]]'' "Dark Planets" home to sapient life with no significant space presence are not supposed to be contacted. The system is still ripe for exploitation: species can be declared non-sapient for spurious reasons like ''bad fashion sense'', and species who do achieve space travel immediately become fair game for any other species to conquer.
* [[Deconstructed]] in ''[[Quentyn Quinn Space Ranger]]'' [http://www.rhjunior.com/QQSR/00029.html here].
* Deconstructed even further in ''[[
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