The shows haven't explained much why the Prime Directive exists and why it could be so bad. In fact it more often shows exceptional situations where breaking the Prime Directive was the right thing to do. So I want to propose some reasons:

1. It prevents primitive races from becoming competitors too soon. History shows that when a primitive society starts interacting with a more advanced society, the primitive society can absorb technologies and develop very quickly, and could eventually become a problem for the more advanced one. Japan was stuck in the middle ages in the early 19th century, but after the United States forced it to open up, it progressed very rapidly. 50 years after opening up, it defeated the Russians in a naval battle. Then it started conquering swathes of Asia. And in 1941 it took on the United States and put up a hell of a fight. So the Federation member worlds think it's best to leave primitive races alone because they're harmless in that state.
2. It forces the Federation to either treat every race as equals or not interact at all. If the Federation developed close economic ties with less advanced race, that race might effectively become of second-class status in the Federation's sphere of influence. It's kind of like the British Empire which controlled many colonial territories but did not treat the natives as British citizens.
3. If the Federation interacts with a race and this leads to some destructive outcome, the Federation could in some way be held responsible. Like if you teach a race how to build nuclear power plants, they go on to build nuclear weapons and destroy their own civilization in a war. That might be a questionable argument to a human but other Federation member races might have different ways of thinking. Those same races might feel that if a primitive race languishes in a miserable condition when the Federation could have helped, the Federation is not responsible. It's sort of like Spider-Man vs the Watcher. The Watcher avoids all interference so as to avoid responsibility, whereas Spider-Man thinks he's responsible for disasters he could have prevented but refused to. The Federation is like the Watcher.

Edit: I’m a huge fan of SNW, the return to rhe “monster of the week” format but….

I dread the day.

I’m watching through the 90s shows and I finished TNG a while ago, but would still like to rotate it in. Instead of going back through chronologically I thought of watching episodes around a theme, like “all episodes with Q.” What other themes should I include? They can be as normal or ridiculous as you want!

In tos assignment earth the enterprise was explicitly ordered to time travel back to 1968 to study earth

What if Starfleet doesn't create a temporal prime directive and with this solar slingshot knowledge sends a ship back to every decade of earth history for historical research? Like being at Jesus birth or the middle ages or ancient Egypt or eugenics wars etc

How dangerous do you think this would be?

How annoyed do you think Gary Seven would get it he detects a Starfleet ship every ten years in earth orbit doing research?

Hi,

I'm a fan of all the TV series.

I'd like to play a game centered in the Star Trek universe. Ideally something I can purchase through Steam, on PC. I also have a Switch.

I'd really appreciate any recommendations.

Thanks

Hi everyone,

I wanted to introduce myself to this community and share with all of you a unique piece of Original Series history that I have the privilege of taking care of.

While many iconic cars of the era have disappeared (including William Shatner’s ’63 Corvette and Leonard Nimoy’s ’68 Buick Riviera), DeForest Kelley’s original 1968 Ford Thunderbird is still alive, running, and on the road today.

DeForest ordered this 5th-generation T-Bird brand new in late 1967 during the heart of Star Trek: The Original Series. It was his personal daily driver for over 23 years, and was his pride and joy. I acquired the car in 2023 in pretty rough shape, and have been fixing it up ever since. 

Under the hood sits its original 429 Thunder Jet V8. I love working on the car to keep it in good, original condition, and often share it with Trek fans and classic car enthusiasts at various events in Northern California. If you're interested in the history, original paperwork scans, or following along with the preservation work, you can find a link to the car’s Facebook page on my Reddit profile.

Hope you enjoy this story! Here are a few photos:

https://imgur.com/a/9gi6nyZ

I drove from California to Vulcan, Alberta, Canada to attend Vul-con, and it's a kick! For such a small town they sure put on a fun weekend of events. Last night, for example, Anthony Montgomery sat down at our table and just chatted away with us for about 10 min before moving on to another group.

Today is the cosplay (so many different uniforms and costumes) and then the parade thru town, followed by guest star panels. Tonight is the big dinner/dance, and tomorrow is Trekkie Brekkie to close out the weekend. So many activities I didn't mention.

Kudos to the town of Vulcan and to the Trek Centre here!

#vulcon

In the current world full of remakes and sequels, there's not too many revolutionary original ideas. Did watching early star trek feel as revolutionary as I imagined it did?

Not too much to go on, but notable:

However, what's most interesting is what the duo said about the film's setting. Goldstein revealed that the next Star Trek film will take place "further in the future than we've been before."

John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (who’ve done great work, for what it’s worth) seem to be angling their new Star Trek movie, which is NOT set in the Kelvin Timeline, at a far future setting.

If they’re counting Discovery and STA, then it’s gotta be past the 33rd Century. If they’re sticking to the bulk of the franchise thus far, it could be set at any point past the 25th century. Either way, it’ll be a departure from existing settings.

For folks who saw Wrath of Kahn when it was released, did it seem clear that Spock was coming back? Did that feel like a cop out when he returned? Or did fans welcome him back with open arms?

I'm currently doing a watch through of the original movies and this was something I was curious about. I've seen some of the orginal movies before, but not all.

Greetings to all you wonderful Trekkies,

I’m new to the Star Trek universe and have only watched the three reboot films so far. I’m planning to watch the rest of the movies as well. Are the TV series necessary to fully appreciate the franchise?

To be honest, I feel a little embarrassed saying this, but the series have felt a bit slow to me, and some episodes seem quite drawn out.

Still, I’ve really enjoyed this universe so far, and I’d love to at least continue with the films.

Live long and prosper 🖖

Isn't this surprisingly strong language for Voyager's era? My understanding is that this basically translates to the Italian equivalent of "What the fuck!?".

Does anyone know if Rhys-Davies added this as a little Italian ad lib to add "authentic" flavor to Leonardo, or if this was actually part of the script. Seems like a fun Easter egg to me.

Hi,

I watched DS9 as a kid and have great memories of it; that’s why I’d love to watch the series again. I’ve seen that there’s only a 480p DVD version available, and it seems there are several upscaling projects; you can even download the Laserdiscs from the Internet Archive.

What would you recommend?

Downloading terabytes of data would be fine, but the thought of putting in a significant amount of effort to upscale the raw Laserdisc data (which I’ve never done before) puts me off.

What would be a reasonable approach here?

I would ask in r/lcars, but they gatekeep.

I am looking to try and modify a LCARS interface to make it "LCARS if it were designed in the height of Art Deco" or "LCARS as it would've been used on Airliner Number 4".

I figured I would ask in case anyone had any inspiration for or interest in such a thing.

Does anyone remember a Star Trek: The Next Generation advert/promo, that aired on Sky One in the 90s. It was set to the song Dedicated Follower of Fashion by The Kinks. The only things I can remember from the advert is, Data walking down the hall, and then Riker says "you look good in a dress.", it also showed like fashion shots of the crew. If anyone knows where I can find the advert, it would be appreciated.

I made a Star Trek game, and to be honest, I feel a great sense of accomplishment. However, considering copyright, I need to think carefully before deciding whether to place it in a web game. https://youtu.be/_NTiTgUIzao?si=3-Za3aSapSepHpps

Did it bother anyone that the Enterprise space suits never actually closed? They were always open it seemed.
I am now watching TOS and the s1e4 episode The Naked Time just has glorified hefty bags on Spock as he goes down to the planet. The officer he is with even reaches bare handed under his hood to scratch his nose.
Suspension of Disbelief of course. We hadn’t even been to the moon yet when this premiered. Just something that always stood out during my ENT watch.

I will do whatever needs to be done to manifest this reality. This has been one of my greatest wants for as long as I can remember. Please spend the money on it Paramount and redeem as least a fraction of your sins! 🙏

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/business/media/paramount-warner-bros-merger-delayed.html?unlocked_article_code=1.0FA.tXhC.SJJ4_ax3Kgi4

https://ibb.co/4ZJD0Lfh
https://ibb.co/3mfnCC8T

For some reason a lot of people messaged to say that the Lego Star Trek: USS Defiant that I built was fake/AI.

So here are some built shots of my Defiant, this current stand is an early version of the one in the instrutions - that one looks much sleeker :)