6 Ups & 5 Downs From Star Trek: Discovery 5.6 — Whistlespeak

Just to confuse things for you, this final entry is both an UP and a DOWN, neither, and somewhere in between. That it is somewhere in the centre is no doubt appropriate, as that's where the Captain who defies THE rule this episode sits.

Let's start with the DOWN so we can end on an UP.  In Whistlespeak, once the planet Halem'no — with its pre-warp, pre-industrial civilisation — had been identified as the location of the next clue, Captain Burnham made it clear that the Prime Directive was, therefore, a concern. Later, when Burnham and Tilly are down on the surface tending to the rather sick Halem'nite with dust in their lungs, Burnham is insistent that they cannot break Starfleet's number one rule. When it did come to crossing that moral line by the end of the episode (which I happened to agree with), it all felt just a tad too telegraphed, and at the same time, not entirely earnt.

We know in the past that certain captains have so doggedly adhered to Starfleet's highest order that they have been willing to let entire civilisations perish (*cough Picard *cough*). In fact, Captain Picard was so well known for his diatribes on the subject that Doctor Crusher once had to insist, "Please, no lectures about the Prime Directive" (presumably temporal, in this case, in Star Trek: First Contact).

Here, I think it is safe to say that Captain Michael Burnham made the right choice to save Tilly and the young Halem'nite from certain death in the tower, even though that meant breaking the Prime Directive. High-minded moral imperatives are all well and good, but not if no-one's around to see them through. Plus, as Burnham herself said, the technology on Halem'no was going to fail one day, wiping out the civilisation with it. They might as well act now and save as many lives as possible.

Credit also goes to the conversation between Burnham and downwardly careered (but still awesome) Commander Rayner. It is a Number One's job to keep the Captain in check, and to provide a counterbalance and counter-opinion should the need arise. That is precisely what Rayner does, without over-stepping the mark, when he reminds Burnham, "You'll be revealing yourself to a pre-warp civilisation" and that, "We're going to have to answer for the Prime Directive violation." Once Burnham has made her decision, however, Rayner rightly knows that the debate is over. He does his job and follows orders. "Aye, Captain. Stand by."

Now, I think there might be quite a bit of paperwork to fill out!