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On 4/6/2020 at 2:26 PM, BTGBullseye said:

The false part was that he had already violated the Prime Directive by saving them in the first place. It's well established that a distress call always trumps the PD.

 

After that, he has to do everything he can to have his presence have the least possible impact on the culture, not cause events to continue as closely as possible to what they had been. That meant that he had to send the drugs, because not doing so would actively put the Federation into their history books as "the bad guys that made us suffer" instead of as a footnote of "this one ship saved our crew, and then left". It's not just about making things continue as if they had never been there at that point, it's about having as little impact on the culture as possible.

I'd say we're in debatable territory here.  If they really wanted "little impact on the culture as possible", then they should have sent back the drugs AND the ship parts so everything is as it was or sent NEITHER.

There's certainly the argument to be made that Starfleet is walking away with things neutral, they gave them back what was theirs + nothing more, but they also changed the course of history for the culture significantly by sending back the drugs.  That's a very LARGE impact on how the development of their culture is going to unfold than if they had not sent back the drugs.

Consider this:

Scenario A - sent the drugs + the parts:

That would have kicked the can down the road, but had almost no change to the culture.  You can argue the Federation would have artificially prolonged their unsustainable path, but the inhabitants may all but forget about The Federation and it would just delay things, not change the change the course of history drastically.  Culture contamination would be very minor.  Hell, this was what Picard was originally going to do anyway!  He didn't seem to think it was a violation of the Prime Directive initially!

Scenario B - withhold everything:

This could create resentment towards the Federation, but that would likely be overshadowed by their larger problems, namely everyone going into withdrawl.  Once they recovered, that might even lead to greater respect for the Federation after realizing they saw what they did not.  Cultural contamination would be minor, but likely insignificant.  This is pretty much the exact outcome that would occurred had the Enterprise not shown up + 4 extra people live and can say The Federation sucks.

Scenario C - What Picard did:

Creates a massive power play for the drugs that DRASTICALLY changes the history of the planet.  Moreover these are events that WOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED if Starfleet hadn't intervened.  Cultural contamination wouldn't be linked back to Starfleet, but it would still be extreme.  It would be like if aliens came to Earth and escalated the Cuban missile crisis, but did it in such a way we never knew they were here.  Sure, they didn't spread their culture, but they totally screwed with development in an extreme way and led to way more people dying.

On 4/6/2020 at 2:26 PM, BTGBullseye said:

The false part was that he had already violated the Prime Directive by saving them in the first place. It's well established that a distress call always trumps the PD.

 

After that, he has to do everything he can to have his presence have the least possible impact on the culture, not cause events to continue as closely as possible to what they had been. That meant that he had to send the drugs, because not doing so would actively put the Federation into their history books as "the bad guys that made us suffer" instead of as a footnote of "this one ship saved our crew, and then left". It's not just about making things continue as if they had never been there at that point, it's about having as little impact on the culture as possible.

I'd say we're in debatable territory here.  If they really wanted "little impact on the culture as possible", then they should have sent back the drugs AND the ship parts so everything is as it was or sent NEITHER.

There's certainly the argument to be made that Starfleet is walking away with things neutral, they gave them back what was theirs + nothing more, but they also changed the course of history for the culture significantly by sending back the drugs.  That's a very LARGE impact on how the development of their culture is going to unfold than if they had not sent back the drugs.

Consider this:

Scenario A - sent the drugs + the parts:

That would have kicked the can down the road, but had almost no change to the culture.  You can argue the Federation would have artificially prolonged their unsustainable path, but the inhabitants may all but forget about The Federation and it would just delay things, not change the change the course of history drastically.  Culture contamination would be very minor.  Hell, this was what Picard was originally going to do anyway!  He didn't seem to think it was a violation of the Prime Directive initially!

Scenario B - withhold everything:

This could create resentment towards the Federation, but that would likely be overshadowed by their larger problems, namely everyone going into withdrawl.  Once they recovered, that might even lead to greater respect for the Federation after realizing they saw what they did not.  Cultural contamination would be minor, but likely insignificant.  This is pretty much the exact outcome that would occurred had the Enterprise not shown up + 4 extra people live and can say The Federation sucks.

Scenario C- What Picard did:

Creates a massive power play for the drugs that DRASTICALLY changes the history of the planet.  Moreover these are events that WOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED if Starfleet hadn't intervened.  Cultural contamination wouldn't be linked back to Starfleet, but it would still be extreme.  It would be like if aliens came to Earth and escalated the Cuban missile crisis, but did it in such a way we never knew they were here.  Sure, they didn't spread their culture, but they totally screwed with development in an extreme way and led to way more people dying.

On 4/6/2020 at 2:26 PM, BTGBullseye said:

The false part was that he had already violated the Prime Directive by saving them in the first place. It's well established that a distress call always trumps the PD.

 

After that, he has to do everything he can to have his presence have the least possible impact on the culture, not cause events to continue as closely as possible to what they had been. That meant that he had to send the drugs, because not doing so would actively put the Federation into their history books as "the bad guys that made us suffer" instead of as a footnote of "this one ship saved our crew, and then left". It's not just about making things continue as if they had never been there at that point, it's about having as little impact on the culture as possible.

I'd say we're in debatable territory here.  If they really wanted "little impact on the culture as possible", then they should have sent back the drugs AND the ship parts so everything is as it was or sent NEITHER.

There's certainly the argument to be made that Starfleet is walking away with things neutral, they gave them back what was theirs + nothing more, but they also changed the course of history for the culture significantly by sending back the drugs.  That's a very LARGE impact on how the development of their culture is going to unfold than if they had not sent back the drugs.

Consider this:

Scenario A - sent the drugs + the parts:

That would have kicked the can down the road, but had almost no change to the culture.  You can argue the Federation would have artificially prolonged their unsustainable path, but the inhabitants may all but forget about The Federation and it would just delay things, not change the change the course of history drastically.  Culture contamination would be very minor.  Hell, this was what Picard was originally going to do anyway!  He didn't seem to think it was a violation of the Prime Directive initially!

Scenario B - withhold everything:

This could create resentment towards the Federation, but that would likely be overshadowed by their larger problems, namely everyone going into withdrawl.  Once they recovered, that might even lead to greater respect for the Federation after realizing they saw what they did not.  Cultural contamination would be minor, but likely insignificant.  This is pretty much the exact outcome that would occurred had the Enterprise not shown up + 4 extra people live and can say The Federation sucks.

Scenario C- What Picard did:

Creates a massive power play for the drugs that DRASTICALLY changes the history of the planet.  Moreover these are events that WOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED if Starfleet hadn't intervened.  Cultural contamination wouldn't be linked back to Starfleet, but it would still be extreme.  It would be like if aliens came to Earth and escalated the Cuban missile crisis, but did it in such a way we never knew they were here.  Sure, they didn't spread their culture, but they totally screwed with development in an extreme way.

On 4/6/2020 at 2:26 PM, BTGBullseye said:

The false part was that he had already violated the Prime Directive by saving them in the first place. It's well established that a distress call always trumps the PD.

 

After that, he has to do everything he can to have his presence have the least possible impact on the culture, not cause events to continue as closely as possible to what they had been. That meant that he had to send the drugs, because not doing so would actively put the Federation into their history books as "the bad guys that made us suffer" instead of as a footnote of "this one ship saved our crew, and then left". It's not just about making things continue as if they had never been there at that point, it's about having as little impact on the culture as possible.

I'd say we're in debatable territory here.  If they really wanted "little impact on the culture as possible", then they should have sent back the drugs AND the ship parts so everything is as it was or sent NEITHER.

There's certainly the argument to be made that Starfleet is walking away with things neutral, they gave them back what was theirs + nothing more, but they also changed the course of history for the culture significantly by sending back the drugs.  That's a very LARGE impact on how the development of their culture is going to unfold than if they had not sent back the drugs.

Consider this:

Scenario A - sent the drugs + the parts:

That would have kicked the can down the road, but had almost no change to the culture.  You can argue the Federation would have artificially prolonged their unsustainable path, but the inhabitants may all but forget about The Federation and it would just delay things, not change the change the course of history drastically.  Culture contamination would be very minor.  Hell, this was what Picard was originally going to do anyway!  He didn't seem to think it was a violation of the Prime Directive initially!

Scenario B - withhold everything:

This could create resentment towards the Federation, but that would likely be overshadowed by their larger problems, namely everyone going into withdrawl.  Once they recovered, that might even lead to greater respect for the Federation after realizing they saw what they did not.  Cultural contamination would be minor, but likely insignificant.

Scenario C- What Picard did:

Creates a massive power play for the drugs that DRASTICALLY changes the history of the planet.  Moreover these are events that WOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED if Starfleet hadn't intervened.  Cultural contamination wouldn't be linked back to Starfleet, but it would still be extreme.  It would be like if aliens came to Earth and escalated the Cuban missile crisis, but did it in such a way we never knew they were here.  Sure, they didn't spread their culture, but they totally screwed with development in an extreme way.