a chief objective, goal, or requirement; a rule or law that overrides or guides other rules or laws; (specif.) a rule forbidding interference in the affairs of less developed planets or cultures
Popularized by the television series Star Trek.
The prime directive of all working-class groups—unions, political parties, social organizations—is to keep this Nation from embroilment in a new holocaust.]
‘I prefer to run my own business, and support my own family, and take care of myself.’ ‘That is impossible, under the Prime Directive…. Our function is to serve and obey, and guard men from harm. It is no longer necessary for men to care for themselves.’
All of a sudden the Prime Directive was repealed… ‘Under no circumstances whatever may the Patrol or any unit thereof kill any intelligent being.’
What had made the robot, whose prime directive was never to harm human life, kill?
Spock: Captain, our Prime Directive of non-interference. Kirk: That refers to a living, growing culture. Do you think this one is?
It’s added up a few scanty observations—and clicked to the conclusion I’ve violated the Prime Directive!
They’d seen thousands of them on planets that the Prime Directive had forbidden them to touch.
Attention to the Prime Directive meant trying not to come stomping through people’s backyards with a veritable army.
She knew that with the same bone-deep certainty she had had when she had stared in the face of the Prime Directive and decided to strand her people in the Delta Quadrant rather than take the easy route home.
Though the ship was beyond salvage, in accordance with the Prime Directive no trace of it could remain on this world.
It was one thing to, well, bend the Prime Directive a bit.
It’s safe to say that the closest Lexx will ever come to a Prime Directive is that, no matter how dire the situation, Stanley Tweedle shall not lose his hat.
My species is driven to learn and to understand. Which means asking questions regardless of what your Prime Directive says. We will try to adjust our questions, but these issues do not grant you the right to eliminate one of my kind. As I stated before, our key Prime Directive is that human life is precious. And your own. All sentient species hold a special relationship within the galactic empire.
antedating 1956
Poul Anderson, "The Live Coward"
The OED has later cites from Star Trek, and other, non-sf, sources.
Last modified 2021-09-09 12:37:34
In the compilation of some
entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries
in OED.