Dr. Rozhenko wants to Protect the Boraalans (Dr. Rozhenko Worf's foster brother)

Star Trek The Next Generation Season 7 Episode 13 Homeward

[@oldtwinsna8347]

Jean-Luc seems to have forgotten about this incident of ordering the death of a planet-full of Boraalans later down the road: Picard: "The Federation does not get to decide if a species lives or dies!" Admiral Clancy: "Yes, we do. We absolutely do."

[@robertszekely8686]

I have to agree with Dr. Rozhenko. This episode shows that the Prime Directive is not always the correct way of handling things. It could definitely use some amendments.

[@mikebasil4832]

Quite a few Star Trek episodes have made that point. It would certainly be more realistic if the Prime Directive wasn’t dramatized as a forced morality. Especially because forced moralities can get very depressing in the Star Trek universe.

[@tarn1135]

To what point? Where does interference end or start? Who decides which species to save? You’d have individual starship captains decide which planets or spieces deserve to live or die? How about a tribunal that judges which villages get to live or which planets based on current to that day lines are drawn on a map? Simplistic argument to a complicated question. Yes everyone deserves to live in the broadest, most altruistic universe but that one doesn’t exist. Take the idea of this and put is back to the dinosaurs and the meteor that wiped them out. If the aliens could’ve diverted that rock, humans wouldn’t exist (to my understanding) so by interfering you do t know what would or wouldn’t happen. Way back in the 80’s there was a (I’m guessing now forgotten) a Star Trek story that suggested that the reason the Klingons had warp drive was because humans either left warp tech or the Klingons stole it and there by caused the Klingons spread out their warmongering ways out. And it’s the reason the prime directive was created in the first place. Maybe I’m misremembering it but it makes sense in a lot of ways. Throughout human history anytime an advance society introduced that tech on less advanced society bad things happened almost always war and death followed.

[@robertszekely8686]

@@tarn1135 You make a some good points to this situation. Yes this is a complicated question . I'm not saying otherwise. It may seem to you like a simplistic argument to say amendments are needed, but I am not making an argument. All I am doing is giving a "simple" suggestion to this situation which would include amendments to the Prime Directive.

[@MB-te9xw]

@@tarn1135 I would assume interference would only be allowed in a situation where annelation of race is a certainty from a outside force

[@teleportedbreadfor3days]

No it doesn’t. If anything, it shows why the Prime Directive is a necessity even during what seems like its lowest point of application to those who don’t fully understand its importance. One of the villagers realized where they really were and committed ritualistic suicide.

[@SmackheadGaming]

*Entire planet suffocating to death* Picard - "Put it on screen 😈" What an evil bastard

[@dunbarf2413]

🤣😂

[@Josh23761]

Dr. Rozhenko might've left the bridge slow, but that's because Dr. Rozhenko don't move for nobody.

[@jonathanmyers2867]

Dr. Rozhenko: The village will need a new chronicle. Someone has to begin it. My child will need a father. My place is here. I'm finally taking responsibility. Lt. Worf: You were never good at drawing. How will you keep a chronicle? Dr. Rozhenko: I learn quickly. Lt. Worf: Then perhaps there is hope.

[@izzy7225]

Dr. Rozhenko hated comlinks. He wouldn't have one in his lab. He used to get all his transmissions second hand, then you'd have to hail those people back from an outside comlink. There were officers, that's all they did, all day long they'd take care of Dr. Rozhenko's transmissions.

[@Josh23761]

Underrated comment.

[@psytrancedj]

"Dr. Rohzenko might have moved slow, but it was only because Dr. Rohzenko didn't have to move for anybody."

[@jasonpate7900]

Paul Sorvino? Awesome!

[@robertszekely8686]

RIP Paul Sorvino

[@jasonpate7900]

@@robertszekely8686 RIP Paulie

[@RoxanneSharbono-mb8ol]

This is one instance where star trek is exposed as a nightmare.

[@Hubbs10]

I love this episode. Great points made by really great actors talking about important things. Great selection.

[@DamnMyNickIsTaken]

This episode is so incredibly fucked up on so many levels. Picard is playing god here. From the perspective of a mortal being, the Boraalans are fellow mortals. Aiding them would be the normal thing to do. Respecting the prime directive would be doing so in a way that doesn't tip them off to alien interference. By sitting on your high throne up in orbit and watching an entire planet die is nothing less than playing god. Just let this sink in. The bridge crew just watched billions(?) of people to die, but when it's one single one of their own they move heaven and earth to save them. This episode pretty much shows, to me, that the prime directive is exactly about playing god, not about preventing it. It's about elevating yourself and your own above others by a standard that you have picked yourself, instead of treating others with compassion and understanding.

[@Strive1324L]

Paul Sorvino, my favorite Paulie! (SLAP) Yeah? Yeah?

[@christopherkraft1327]

Yet another episode that clearly points out that the prime directive has flaws!!! 🖖

[@mikebasil4832]

The Prime Directive, even for its understandable foundations, is a man-made law and can therefore be subject to man-made errors. Particularly the conditioned belief that it must always be right. Many man-made laws in our world today continually face this problem. So it certainly made good Star Trek drama when handled properly, which sadly wasn’t always the case.

[@michaelmatheny3927]

This show did so much right. I'm talking about it's casting, here. -And throughout it tenure. It's great character actors like Paul Sorvino, here.

[@SierraSierraFoxtrot]

I think the prime directive was written intentionally badly by Roddenberry, to allow for these problematic situations.

[@cleekmaker00]

Roddenberry didn't even come up with the idea. It was Gene Coon, the Producer who came up with the idea. Everyone has their own bent on what the Prime Directive should represent.

[@mikebasil4832]

Dr. Crusher makes the best point that they would be interfering either way. Best to honour the natural laws of the universe by asking ourselves what nature would truly thank us for. Saving a world should certainly qualify.

[@RA10H56]

Great observation! He didn't want any hostility or drama between the crew, but gave them a naturally antagonistic relationship with a law...just brilliant

[@kev3d]

@@mikebasil4832 Nature on the whole seems rather ambivalent about suffering of any kind, don't you think?

[@mikebasil4832]

@@kev3d Noted. Ever since Dr. Phlox in Dear, Doctor so pragmatically said that we should just let nature make the choice, I knew better than to blindly accept the Prime Directive as an absolute. My point is that if nature gave us the instinct to intervene on behalf of those who are suffering, then as Deanna once asked: “If there is a cosmic plan, are we not a part of it?”

[@mikebasil4832]

A gross violation of the Prime Directive is a way too extreme expression and especially for Picard, given all the exceptions to the Prime Directive that he himself found the moral courage to make.

[@CKM-gf3ik]

You would think all those years growing up with Nikolai he would have learned the greatest lesson from his brother, Never rat on your friends and keep your mouth shut. Clearly he did not.

[@GODCONVOYPRIME]

Nikolai was right.

[@mikebasil4832]

I’m glad that he was proven right and found a solution.

[@davidhabert]

@@mikebasil4832 Yeah, but sadly the cost was quite high, one of the inhabitants who discovered that he was on the Enterprise holodeck committed suicide. He couldn't live with the knowledge that his race was being relocated to another planet, because his own planet was dying.

[@thedavecorp]

DAMN the Prime Directive.

[@denisgauthier9191]

*wants to

[@Nyx773]

*wants

[@supaspydamn]

So he doesn't just do mafia movies 🤯

[@dreadfulspiller8766]

He also played the televangelist in Oh God.

[@Josh23761]

He's in a lot of comedy as-well, even today. During the time this was made though I think he wasn't known for Goodfellas, which began an entirely new type cast for him.

[@davidhabert]

Here is something you may find slightly surprising. He also appeared in seasons 2 and 3 of Law and Order. He played a detective called Sergeant Phil Cerreta.

[@tubenachos]

Paul Sorvino! His daughter is smoking 🚬 hot 🔥

[@dolyharianto]

Just realized it's Paul Sorvino from Goodfellas.

[@jessiejenkins6213]

Which Seasons-Episodes-Movies Are In Michael Dorn as Worf from Star Trek (Franchise) - Starfleet Uniforms (Division Colors/Rank Pips), Hairstyles (Hair Changes), & Klingon (Forehead/Baldric Changes) List is?

[@DraxxDarlok]

In this case Picard's invocation of the Prime Directive to disallow Dr. Rozhenko to return to the surface is not very bright. It wouldn't matter if they just outright revealed themselves to the Boraalans because they had already made the conscious decision to let them die, so it's irrelevant if their culture is affected. Their - culture changed or not - will die with them.

[@joseajohnson5722]

Which Seasons-Episodes-Movies Are In Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi from Star Trek (Franchise) - Starfleet Uniforms (Division Colors/Rank Pips), Hairstyles (Hair Changes), & Jumpsuit/Unitard (Color Changes) List is?

[@novaterra973]

Ah yes, this episode. A precursor to Dear Doctor. 'Prime Directive is a quasi-religious, infalliable dogma', probably the worst creative decision Roddenberry made.

[@max__pain]

It was probably based on historical accounts of how first contact among human cultures often led to conflict and other disasters. Cultures with more advanced tech will often overwhelm the less advanced ones and lead to their obliteration, or religious worship of the more advanced

[@novaterra973]

@@max__pain I mean, yeah, that's how it worked in TOS. From TNG and onward, however, the attitude basically became "We won't lift a finger to help pre-Warp civilization because it's better to let them go extinct than risking possibly disasterous first contact."

[@cleekmaker00]

@@max__pain It was a response by Gene Coon, the Producer as an allegory of the Vietnam War, and "reflected a contemporary political view that US involvement in the Vietnam War was an example of a superpower interfering in the natural development of southeast Asian society; the creation of the Prime Directive was perceived as a repudiation of that involvement."

[@williamr1088]

There are parts of the Prime Directive that I 100% Disagree with. This is one of those moments. The Enterprise D became involved the moment they reached Orbit above the Boraalan planet. "If an infant is trapped in a burning car, do you try to help or find someone who can help? Or do you stand there and watch? Not knowing what the consequences would be, whether or not it would ultimately be worse? Do you get involved, or allow the child to burn to death? Bonus question: If you chose the latter, do you tell your friends while the baby is screaming that it was the only moral choice?" - Charles Sonnenburg The other is their involvement against the Maquis who are Human yes but not Federation citizens. The Maquis have every right to defend their homes from Invaders just as the Federation defends it's homes from the Borg. The Cardassians thrive on war and conflict as they have admitted by Damar during Damar's resistance speech. Let's not forget that the Cardassians willingly joined The Dominion along side the Breen to help destroy the Federation, Maquis, Romulans and Klingons and they planed to destroy or worse enslave Earth. The whole Maquis/Federation debacle was ridiculous. What really annoys me is during Voyager when Voyager gets a communication from Starfleet and Vice Admiral Hayes wants to know the status about the Maquis serving on her ship even Captain Janeway was annoyed by that question because Janeway considers them as her crew and not maquis. Janeway is right Hayes is a windbag. Another part of the Prime Directive that I disagree with is their abjection and discredit of Dr. Kila Marr for destroying the Crystalline Entity when she was 100% correct in Destroying it and by doing so saving Billions if not Trillions of people. What would the Federation do if the Crystalline Entity made a B-Line directly to Earth or Vulcan? Is the Federation really going to allow the Crystalline Entity to destroy Earth or Vulcan? Is one Crystalline Entity worth Trillions of lives? For the Crystalline Entity I quote Spock “The Needs of the Many Outweigh the Needs of the Few or one.”

[@cgmason7568]

The prime directive, "not a military", no warships were all incredible stupid decisions

[@wandajackson2900]

Which Seasons-Episodes-Movies Are In Levar Burton as Geordi La Forge from Star Trek (Franchise) - Starfleet Uniforms (Division Colors/Rank Pips), Visor (Eye Changes), & Facial Hair (Beard Changes) List is?

[@utubercouchvegetable2172]

Whose here in 2064?

[@gainsandglory6808]

Picard L

[@MrCrazyrob666]

Don't make a jerk out of me, just don't do it... just don't do it. Now I want to talk to you about Riker, you have to watch out for him. He's a good first officer but he's wild, takes too many chances.

[@ralphangioli4852]

The Ferengi came into the Ten Forward joint that one night and no one’s seen him since.

[@ilttpvvm]

I’m sorry, but I can’t accept that we have have to condemn an entire civilization to death just because they are not as technologically advanced as we are.

[@jime6688]

Triumph LOVES his pants. They are just irresistible!

[@gerardcousineau3478]

No honor

[@scotthullinger4684]

TNG is surely one of my favorite Trek series, but this particular episode left a lot to be desired. Rather forgettable. I passed the point LONG ago when I considered that the Star Trek writers can do no wrong.

[@jameshaywood878]

it's stupid that they come up with these big ideas, without considering the cost, is everything done for free in the future, is there no money.

[@milleniumpimpcane]

There is literally no money. No costs.

[@Bruced82]

@@milleniumpimpcane In the federation, the Ferengi, and others still do.

[@chuckliquor3663]

The prime directive is a perfect example of how a secular society will go wrong without the "lord of spirits" as the guiding moral principle.

[@cgmason7568]

I hate TNG so so much

[@2EKgn16]

Yet here you are...compelled to watch and comment. Welcome!

[@torlekjpec5708]

TNG is a mixed bag in between how STO DS9 and VOY are. But it makes it interesting how the morality of the cast changes based on the writer of the script is. (Later the season of TNG generally better)

[@Fry09294]

Lmao