Wiktionary
n. An order or mission which presents the overriding control over a course of action.
Wikipedia
In the fictional universe of Star Trek, the Prime Directive is the guiding principle of the United Federation of Planets. The Prime Directive, used in four of the five Star Trek-based series, prohibits Starfleet personnel from interfering with the internal development of alien civilizations. This conceptual law applies particularly to civilizations which are below a certain threshold of technological, scientific and cultural development; preventing starship crews from using their superior technology to impose their own values or ideals on them. Since its introduction in the first season of the original Star Trek series, it has served as the focus of numerous episodes of the various series. As time travel became a recurring feature in the franchise, the concept was expanded as a Temporal Prime Directive, prohibiting those under its orders from interfering in historical events.
Prime Directive is a role-playing game set in the Star Trek-derived Star Fleet Universe. The game has gone through two different incarnations.
Prime Directive may refer to:
- Prime Directive, the guiding principle of Star Trek's Starfleet;
- Prime Directive (role-playing game), by the Amarillo Design Bureau;
- Prime Directive (album), an album by the Dave Holland Quintet;
- Prime Directive (Star Trek novel), by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens;
- Prime Directive Records, a record label;
- A fake working title of the Transformers (film series).
Prime Directive is a 1990 novel written by Judith and Garfield Reeves Stevens.
Prime Directive is an album by jazz bassist Dave Holland's Quintet released on the ECM label in 1999.
Usage examples of "prime directive".
In hindsight, perhaps I did not uphold the Prime Directive, despite my best intentions.
When the Klingons had a civil war, we stayed out because of the Prime Directive.
The last thing I need is a run-in with a board of inquiry over the Prime Directive.
I found it hard to understand his hatred, but the humanoids told me now that many men had required drastic treatment by brain surgery, drugs, and hypnosis to make them happy under the Prime Directive.
He says he had hoped to change the Prime Directive without wrecking all the black things.
Your Prime Directive states that you must not interfere with the natural order of societies.
I have no problem saying that I believe the Prime Directive is the pinnacle of human arrogance.
I imagined it seemed quite unfair to anyone caught on the receiving end of a Prime Directive problem, for instance.
And, because of the Prime Directive, I am the only one on the ship forbidden to visit the planet!
And, in fact, what you did may not have been to the letter of the Prime Directive, but it was definitely in the spirit.
If that's the case, then I'd be violating the Prime Directive by refusing to fulfill that destiny, since I'm already a part of their culture rather than something on the outside interfering with it.
Surely the Prime Directive released her from any obligation to intervene.
We simply can't, and there's no way to dodge the Prime Directive on this one.