Written by Chris Snelgrove | issued
One of the strangest and most memorable early episodes Star Trek: The Next Generation In “Samaritan’s Trap”, the Enterprise-D crew learns that no good deed goes unpunished. They rescue the relatively primitive Pakurd aliens with their ship, only to discover that the slow-witted aliens are dangerously villainous and have kidnapped the ship’s chief engineer. There’s so much going on in this wild episode that you might not notice anything odd. The whole plot is huge Violation of the Prime Directive regarding aiding primitive Pakurd aliens.
Violation of key directives in Samaritan Snare
“Samaritan’s Trap” seems to describe the Pakkuldeans as being a pre-warp civilization and therefore very primitive. However, later episodes and movies (including some great ones) first contact The film emphasizes that the Federation seeks to avoid contact with alien cultures until they develop warp technology, effectively making them part of the galactic community.
Communication with the Pakurd would therefore be a violation of the Prime Directive, and the Enterprise’s crew may be making matters worse by repairing the ship and even providing advanced technology.
As the crew of the Enterprise discover in “Samaritan Snare,” the Pakkuldians are effectively dangerous scavengers, taking advantage of their helplessness (and sounding very slurred every time they try to communicate). ) and secure aid from other alien cultures.
In this case, the aliens kidnap George LaForge, who was initially sent to their ship to help with basic repairs. They try to force him to make weapons for them, but the alien always does the same thing to others it encounters, and like some sort of backwards Borg wannabe It turns out that he steals technology to make himself stronger.
Riker and LaForge are both very smart boys, so they come up with a clever bluff to beat Pac Red and save the day. But the problem is that most of these events in “Samaritan’s Trap” could have been avoided by Starfleet officers following their own Supreme Directive. The Paculdians were a pre-Warp civilization, and while it’s never completely clear how this particular group arrived in space in the first place, Federation regulations ensured that such primitive aliens It is clear that this should be avoided for fear of cultural contamination.
Prime Directive changes in Star Trek
Now, the most obvious answer as to why this major violation of the Prime Directive remains in the finished episode is that Star Trek’s writers and producers still haven’t yet navigated exactly how that directive would work. That means things may have changed since Kirk’s time. They still had quite a bit figured out by season 2 next generationThis is why Wesley Crusher infamously references the Klingons joining the Federation in “Samaritan Snare,” a historical event later revealed to have never actually occurred. .
bad writing
Another possible reason for this error in the Prime Directive is that (as Trek writer Dennis Russell Vail later pointed out) nearly all of Samaritan’s Trap is driven by a “stupid conspiracy.” That’s what it means. It makes little sense for the Enterprise to send its chief engineer to fix the galactic car problem, and it makes even less sense for Riker to completely ignore Troi’s warnings that La Forge is in danger. Probably.
Picard also wants heart surgery at the starbase, but violating the Prime Minister’s Directive is a drop in the bucket of stupidity because, as Bailey said, “no one was qualified to be in charge of the surgery if it failed at all.” It’s nothing more than that.
This wasn’t Star Trek’s first major violation of the Prime Directive, and it certainly wasn’t the last. But “Samaritan’s Trap” is such a goofy and fun episode that casual fans tend to overlook its obvious plot problems. But we’re not… As the Pakreds say, “We’re looking for plot holes to get us out!”
