13 Times Star Trek Broke Its Own Prime Directive
6. The Cloud Minders - Original Star Trek
Gene Roddenberry was a genius in a lot of ways but hoo boy did he have a lot to learn about class disparity.
The Enterprise lands on the planet Ardana, where the rich live in almost absurd luxury, while the lower class citizens called Troglodytes have to eke out a living on the planet's barbaric surface, toiling away in the mines to earn a living.
Kirk, taking issue with this, intervenes because what else did you honestly expect Kirk to do at this point? The episode then takes the easy way out with this little tale of haves and have-nots by revealing that the mines have been producing a gas that's driving the workers insane. Kirk then drags down the boss of the miners into the mines themselves, exposing him to the horrible conditions and driving him half insane from the gas to show him what his workers experience every day.
This of course violates the prime directive something fierce, but hey, class disparity is immediately resolved for everyone forever by just showing the oppressed people's bosses what they're doing to their workers as if they aren't already aware. Makes it easy!