When a civilization extends to the stars, so do their rules. A structure emerges to prevent conflict. Laws bind a star-bound society together. The duty of enforcing these laws falls to the space cop. They interpret the laws and apply them to any given situation. Their jurisdiction is as vast as their starships can travel. The space cop delivers space justice...at least this concept is the image broached by the makers of science fiction film and television.
Attaching the adjective "space" to a noun makes almost any notion speculative. Current space law is based on treaty and basically states that no single entity governs space. An overly reductive view would be that there are no rules in space because they are unenforceable. Therefore, science fiction film and television have a broad domain in which to wonder how a codified space law would work and how a space cop would enforce it. These portrayals range from the intellectual to the gladiatorial. If science fiction entertainment features space travelers (possibly bald or android) sitting in comfortable chairs and debating, it is more intellectual. If its characters discharge shotguns and disintegrate in laser grids, it is more gladiatorial. Both forms address issues of space justice in different ways.
These science fiction issues include thoughts on how to create a law that is applicable to widely disparate people, separated by light years and culture. Science fiction stories about space cops utilize contemporary allegory to discuss space justice. They raise questions about the ambiguity of morality, the fickleness of sovereignty, and the contention between emotion and restraint.
Law enforcement and protection in a space faring society necessarily require technological superiority. Enforcing a law in a society is an imposition, especially if the enforced are distinct from the enforcers. Using superior technology to impose an ideal is conquest. The space cop runs the risk of imposing their will on a people and becoming a type of space god.
In the popular science fiction franchise Star Trek, starship crews operate in a space navy known as Starfleet and under an interplanetary government known as the United Federation of Planets. These crews are hybrid marshal-explorers, assisting member planets while expanding the bounds of knowledge through deep space discovery. They enforce the laws of the Federation and keep the peace. In their travels, these crews encounter different cultures with varying levels of technology. For those possessed of less complicated technology, the Starfleet crews hold tremendous power.
Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry recognized the dangers of this power when creating the Original Series in the late 1960s. Being a former Los Angeles police officer, he understood the need for restrictions and checks on authority. In the franchise, he explored how these boundaries would apply to Starfleet crews with a Federation law known as the Prime Directive.
The Prime Directive exists in Star Trek lore as both a precept of Starfleet (General Order 1) and an important principle in the Federation Charter. It states that Starfleet crews are forbidden to interfere in the domestic affairs of any star system for any reason. This rule particularly applies to societies that have not achieved faster than light, or Warp, technology. It is a strict law, enforced to the utmost, to prevent the emotional entanglement of crews in other societies. There are many items in space to upset a Starfleet officer -- perverse from their point of view. The Prime Directive is meant to keep crews from promoting their morality and culture, forcibly or not, on developing worlds, non-aligned planets, and even member systems. One culture is not to be held in higher regard than another. There is to be no ranking of societies based on superiority and inferiority. It is similar to the concept of self-determination loosely espoused by real world organizations such as the United Nations and the historical League of Nations.
Gene Roddenberry and the writers of the Star Trek series show how Starfleet crews struggle with this admittedly important and clear cut rule. Crews feel that the stringency of the law cannot possibly apply equally in all situations. They view the Prime Directive as a Prime Suggestion. Many episodes and movies in the Star Trek franchise deal with violations of the Prime Directive. There are 13 episodes of the Original Series, 13 episodes of The Next Generation, 7 episodes of Deep Space Nine, 20 episodes of Voyager, 3 episodes of Enterprise, and 2 Star Trek films (First Contact and Insurrection) about skirting the Prime Directive.
These episodes have Starfleet crews understanding that the Prime Directive is important but violating it anyway. In the different Star Trek series, the crews of the different Enterprises encounter Nazi planets, gangster planets, genocide, slavery, forced drug addiction, forced prostitution, civil warfare (Klingon and otherwise), and other striking cultural differences. To a Starfleet officer, these differences are offensive to their sense of morality, and justice dictates that they right a perceived wrong. Doing so violates the Prime Directive. Disagreeing does not give a crew the authority to determine the course of a civilization. Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise-D gives one of his rousing philosophical speeches on the topic thusly:
"The Prime Directive is not just a set of rules. It is a philosophy -- a very correct one. History has proven again and again that whenever mankind interferes with a... civilization, no matter how well intentioned that interference may be, the results are invariably disastrous."
Still, Roddenberry and the Star Trek writers allow their characters' emotions to trump the restriction. To a Star Trek character, the Prime Directive is burying one's head in the sand when confronted by difference. It tells a crew to walk away from a difficult situation. They are trained with certain beliefs, and the Prime Directive tells them to abandon these beliefs. This difficulty is the struggle between duty and emotion. Again, Captain Picard philosophizes about the struggle in a speech: "...the Prime Directive has many different functions, not the least of which is to protect us. It keeps us from allowing our emotions to overrule our judgment."
Despite all of Captain Picard's speeches about the Prime Directive's importance, he violates it nearly as many times as Captain Kirk (which is a lot). He has a tendency to argue passionately for a cause and then do the exact opposite. He lets his emotions control him but attempts to justify his actions through logic. Picard is repentant when violating the Prime Directive and has to convince himself that it is valid to violate the first rule on the first page of the rulebook.
In the eighth episode of the first season of The Next Generation ("Justice"), Captain Picard decides to interfere in a sovereign society and bypass their laws for his own purposes. On a planet populated by scantily clad people known as the Edo, the inept child-genius Wesley Crusher unintentionally falls into a flower bed. Unfortunately for the clumsy child, these flowers are in a randomly enforced crime-free zone. Wesley commits a crime by falling in the flowers, and the only sentence available on the planet is death. He is taken to be tried and executed by the laws of the Edo. The Edo ensure peace on their planet in this fashion. Edo citizens are afraid of committing crimes with capital punishment as a the ultimate deterrent. Picard does not agree with this legal system, especially when it affects one of his crew.
Picard debates with himself and his crew on the validity of violating the Prime Directive in this situation. He does so in comfy chairs. The Prime Directive is clear that Picard is not to interfere in the legitimate legal system of an independent people. Picard avoids this issue by a matter of semantics. He declares that the legal system is illegitimate. He deigns that the Edo are wrong and imposes his moral perspective. He rescues Wesley with the implied threat of arms and makes a passionate argument. He states that Draconian laws are unjust and invalid. He says that laws must be flexible or they are wrong. He argues against both the Edo and the Prime Directive with these statements. He is trying to convince himself that he is right. He has his doubts. Captain Picard lives by Picard's Law: do whatever Picard wants and feel bad about it later.
Roddenberry and the Star Trek writers ask, "How can Starfleet claim to be the purveyors of galactic justice when they cannot even follow their own laws?"
Where Star Trek is about the emotionality of space justice, the 1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Still portrays a balance between emotion and logic in enforcing space laws. Klaatu is emotional, and Gort is logical.
Klaatu is an ambassador from an unnamed space society, and Gort is a giant, sentient, robot space cop. Klaatu is the diplomatic lead on the mission while Gort is the security chief. Klaatu and Gort travel to Earth to welcome humanity into the unnamed space society. Their acceptance into galactic civilization is triggered by Earth reaching the nuclear age. They have achieved a level of technology that allows first contact to be made. It is similar to the Vulcans arriving peacefully on Earth in Star Trek: First Contact and greeting Dr. Zefram Cochrane. (Although it may actually more like the violent Mirror Universe introduction from the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part 1").
Unfortunately, the first contact goes wrong as there is no eminent figure to greet the alien visitors. A misunderstanding while attempting to hand over untold volumes of knowledge causes the human military to accidentally shoot and wound Klaatu. Gort reacts in a way that any good cop would when his friend has been shot. He disintegrates several people and vehicles with his laser eye. Earth fears an alien invasion. The misunderstanding deepens and emphasizes the problems of enforcing space law across disparate cultures. Gort performs well given the dire circumstances.
Gort is a space cop by design. He is sculpted to appear like a motorcycle cop. He has the helmet, the riding boots, and tight fitting, brief underpants of a motorcycle cop (see: CHiPs). Gort is also specifically constructed to enforce space law. Yet, he is not unyielding in his duty like an early model Robocop or Judge Dredd. There is only one objective for Gort: keep the peace. Peace is tantamount. His species of android is tasked with preventing interplanetary conflict. As Earth has nuclear weapons, they pose a threat to interplanetary peace should they prove warlike. By shooting Klaatu, they prove that they are.
Considering humans shoot the diplomatic lead of the mission, incarcerate the diplomat, attempt to immobilize Gort, and try to steal the technology of Gort's spacecraft, Gort is remarkably restrained. He does not go on an immediate rampage. One would expect Gort to speak in the language that the locals know: War. Gort shows reserve and refrains from going to war with the humans. For now.
Humanity is now subject to space law. Under space law war is illegal. Violation means immediate the destruction of Earth by Gort or another space cop. Death is used as the ultimate deterrent. Captain Picard objects to laws being absolutist, and this law is remarkably rigid. There are no warnings should you violate the law. When one becomes a threat to galactic peace, one simply explodes. Space society, space justice, and space cops are vehemently against war in any form.
Humans may object to this severe law that is enforceable against them. They do not ask to be fall under space law. From the human perspective, these aliens invade and impose their morality with threats of global annihilation. This is the perspective of the Edo being visited by Captain Picard. It is conquest by superior technology. It is clear these aliens probably have no restrictive Prime Directive like Starfleet (or they do and are violating it, like Starfleet). From the perspective of the space society, humans are a threat and a preemptive strike is necessary to ensure galactic peace.
Klaatu attempts compromise but is eventually shot again. He tells a woman, Helen Benson, to speak the words "Klaatu Barada Nikto" to Gort. Contrary to popular belief that these words do not deactivate Gort like he is a machine. The words are in fact a go-code to engage humanity. Gort springs into action, rampages through the streets of Washington, D.C., and rescues his compatriot from the humans.
In 1951, The Day the Earth Stood Still's pro-peace message is interpreted as being unpatriotic due to the then ongoing Korean War. The film itself is an allegory for all wars. Both sides refuse to admit wrongdoing, communication breaks down, peace fails, and the world reaches the brink of conflict. In this situation, Gort, as the police officer, acts as a mediator and keeps the peace. He stands and stares at the world and decides at which time to apply pressure to prevent the destruction of Earth. It is his job to burn Earth to a cinder, and he does not look forward to doing so. Klaatu is emotional, and the humans are emotional. Gort remains stoic and makes the logical decision to not detonate Earth today -- even though he legally can under space law.
Klaatu tells the humans that their potential has forestalled their destruction. He tells Earth to become peaceful or risk another visit from Gort. The final words Klaatu speaks to humanity are "The decision rests with you." A choice between peace and death is no choice at all. Kumbayah or else.
The 2005 film adaptation of Douglas Adams' radio play/book/television series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy portrays a completely unemotional and uninterested form of space law enforcement. The Vogons are space bureaucrats and are tasked with enforcing the laws of the galactic government. They are single-minded in their enforcement as they are bureaucrats. Rules are rules because they are meant to be followed. No exceptions. This strict following of rules leads to the destruction of Earth by a Vogon Constructor Fleet (a feat Gort is unable to accomplish).
The actual beat cops/soldiers of the Vogons are large, lumbering brutes with laser cannons mounted on their chests. They are simple minded and accept law as dogma. They follow orders because they cannot think of a way to refuse. They show no emotion or second thought. To the Vogon space cop, the force of law is actual force. When confronting a criminal, they shoot first and ask questions never. They fire repeatedly and mindlessly until ordered to stop. Many of their own fall due to ricochets. Their favorite phrase is "resistance is useless." They are mentally more robotic than Gort and slightly more effective in doing their job.
In this satirical manner, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy shows a society obsessed with law enforcement. Space law is space justice by dint of there being no interpretation. The law is jokingly shown as black and white for the purposes of illustrating the negative effects of such a system. However, a strictly bureaucratic system in the context of galactic law enforcement is not necessarily a bad thing. Bureaucracy is shown in the film to be an adequate way of governing broadly different worlds. Sure, the society is stagnating, but it functions day-to-day. Plus, excellent poetry is produced. Star Trek and The Day the Earth Stood Still show how emotion complicates space justice for a space cop. Simplicity is good enough for Vogons and good enough for government work.
The following sentence contains a preface. As strange as the this sentence may sound, Sean Connery in Outland is a combination of Vogons and Captain Picard. Sean Connery is federal space marshal William O'Neil. He is assigned to a mining installation on Jupter's moon Io and is instantly recognizable as a space cop. He wears a badge, carries a gun, and is in space. Because the film is a space Western, morality and space law are black and white like the Vogons. O'Neil knows who is a criminal and how to deal with them. The Picard aspect comes from the character's strong emotion to do what is right. The rigidity of purpose and the capriciousness of emotion are partners in a Western.
O'Neil enforces the law definitively. He uncovers an illegal operation and becomes the target of a corporate assassination squad. There is no debate of morality when people are aiming to eliminate O'Neil. He understands the situation is kill or be killed. He takes on all comers and enforces space law with a frontier efficiency. His emotion drives him to fight, and fighting means enforcing the law. The two aspects of space justice complement each other with Sean Connery.
Simply, Sean Connery embodies Space Justice.
Science fiction film and television map the broad ideas of how a space cop would operate. Makers of science fiction hypothesize on the application of space law in a variety of situations. When space society develops, some of the thinking on how to enforce its laws is already done. Science fiction may not accurately predict future conditions, but it shapes perception as a form of entertainment. In the future, a person asks a child what they want to be when the grow up. The child responds, "Sean Connery." This answer means that they want to be a space cop... or an Immortal. But there can only be one of those.
"Simply, Sean Connery embodies Space Justice."
Sums up the whole article right there ;)
Amen.
It's impossible to rule a society if space travel itself is too easy and uncontrolled. Any criminal can go outer system, and space being what it is -mind blowingly immense- : he can get away, and autority be damned !
I really enjoyed reading the arguments about the Prime Directive within Star Trek. Having never watched an episode of the show, I had no idea that it went into such deep philosophical notions. However, I have to agree with the Prime Directive's overall conclusion. Who is to say what is the right way for any group of people to live?
(That said, I know that the second a person's life was on the line and I could save it, I would be violating the Prime Directive without a second thought.) An interesting paradox.
Oh well, at least Data remains undamaged.