13 Times Star Trek Broke Its Own Prime Directive

Many in the fandom find the prime directive to be at best overly restrictive, and at worst, so broad that it's impossible to tell what would and would NOT be a violation of it. but every now and then, the writers find a way to show the audience that it's really for the best that a rule like this be in place.

In the episode Who Watches The Watchmen, Picard discovers a scenario that the prime directive was fundamentally designed to make sure didn't happen. A primitive civilization discovers a federation observation team talking to Picard and immediately start worshiping the Enterprise crew as gods. Because according to all cheesy television shows, all developing civilizations are stupid across the board.

While this isn't necessarily Picard's fault - he tried to shut off the transmission before anyone saw him on the hologram screen but just didn't make it in time - his attempts to minimize the cultural contamination only end up making things worse. While everything does get resolved by the end, the prime directive is about as shattered as a stain glass window that's been pelted by rocks.