Prime Directive in the Phantom Zone.?

Question

For all you Nerds out there:
Since Krypton didn't really have warp-drive (as far as we know--since Kal-El seemed to be the only one sent out of there), would a Federation ship be prevented from interacting with people on the planet? How about the Phantom Zone? Can it be considered warp-drive-type device?! It is a gateway to another dimension, so would that qualify as "advanced" travel?
Just late at night...wondering...

Answer 1

As one nerd to another, it is an absolutely valid question, so don’t worry. Hmm. Excellent idea! It should have been possible for Jor El to think of this. Since the model rocket he built would only hold one person, he could have sent his wife Lara (she weighed less) with a Phantom Zone projector. Once she reached Earth and gained super powers, she could easily have used the PZ ray to release Jor, Kal, and anybody else he thought of saving at the last minute!!!

Now, why didn’t Jor El think of that?

I know, it would have take then story in an entirely different direction. DC wiped out Daxam for that very reason, and revised their whole 30th century Legion of Super heroes, because if everybody on every planet started to have some super power, it makes you start to wonder, what’s wrong with Earth, that we didn’t all get one. It would totally unbalance all their stories, to have a planetful of supermen running around. (Although, the Green lantern Corps did successfully have thousands of heroes with the exact same powers, so I guess that could work, too.)

Getting back to the Phantom Zone, Zor El and Alura (Supergirl’s parents) projected themselves into the Survival Zone, which was similar to the Phantom Zone. (This was the old, Pre-Crisis Supergirl; her parents went to live in the minaturized bottle-city of Kandor, which was restored to its normal size only a short while before Crisis on Infinite Earths. One of the saddest scenes in all of comicdom was when Superman had to bring her body back to her parents and break the sad news to them.)

They managed to contact Supergirl by telepathy or something, so she could get them out years later. (Imagine the shock of having your parents back, just as you remembered them from when you were a little girl, no older than they were, and only a few years older than you are now…! That must have been strange!)

Distance doesn’t seem to apply in the Phantom Zone, though there are distant parts of the universe where it does seem to overlap with normal space. For example, notice that though Krypton was light years from earth when it exploded, the PZ inmates seem aware of what was going on on Earth, without having to scan all over the universe and look for where the son of their hated enemy, Jor El went.

[And, it is not a fact that Krypton had no warp drive technology. It is generally understood that either they used warp drive tech to send Kal here, or the ‘birthing matrix’ he was in was a form of suspended animation. Otherwise, he would long since have grown, aged and died (even if he had enough supplies not to starve) during the trip here, at sub-light speeds!]

But, getting back to the Phantom Zone! (Will you stop with these endless distractions? Sorry!) In the story about the Superman-Flash race, where the Phantom Zone inmates tried to escape, they were on or near a distant plant where the sun was toridal (doughnut shaped) and they didn’t mention having had to ‘travel’ anywhere to get there. (Of course, some may not consider this story canonical, sinc eit was one of the inevitable inconclusive races. Flash won this one, after they were stripped of their powers and reduced to crawling.

So it does indeed seem (to me, anyway) that 1) distance does not exist as we know it in the Phantom Zone and 2) it doesn’t matter where you are inserted into it, you can be released at another point 1n space, even on far removed from your insertion point. We know that the inmates communicate by means of telepathy, so perhaps it is only their minds or souls that are trapped there; perhaps their bodies are simply destroyed, and reconstituted later when they are extracted.

Gee, I wonder whether Superman could have sent the bottle city of Kandor to the Phantom Zone and then retrieved it full sized…? If distance as we know it does not exist there, why should size…? But that is a matter for another Question.

30 JAN 07, 1442 hrs, GMT.

Answer 2

A Federation ship could interact with the people from Krypton due to the fact that their technology was far superior to the Federation.

In fact, although it seemed they did not have warp drive capability, this was only because their society as a whole did not encourage space travel as seen in the film Superman I.

As for the Phantom Zone being a warp drive type device, I would say that it could be better described as worm hole technology. In fact, a Star Gate would be a better description of the way the Phantom Zone could be accessed.

So yes, this could also be considered advanced travel as well. However, who would want to live in the Phantom Zone when only the criminal element is sent there? Has to be a reason they are sent there, eh?

Answer 3

It's my understanding that Krypton had some Faster than Light technology (they'd have to for Kal-El's ship to make it Earth.)
It was just a VERY VERY isolationist culture.
There are some problems with the DC and Star Trek universes being compatible. (Superman and the JLA fighting Khan Noonien Singh in present day on Earth for one! Interesting fight idea but they aren't compatible, Superman could catch the Botany Bay at any time and bring them to justice. Maybe they had Kryptonite on board, but then Green Lantern could get them.)
But the Prime Directive would have allowed contact with the Phantom Zone inmates in my opinion. It would not have allowed them to be released. Also common sense kind of prevents the release of General Zod, Ursa and Non.
Interesting question.
I've always wondered how Palpatine and the Emperor would have fared against Kryptonians.

Answer 4

properly, the proper directive of Messianic Judaism is "... love Adonai your God with all of your coronary heart, innovations, and being ... and also love your neighbor as your self." This comes from the Sh'ma (Deuteronomy 6:4-9) as well as Yeshua's (Jesus') words to His talmidim (disciples). You ask an truly thoughtful question. i might want to ought to say that i attempt to do this stuff because they are commanded by technique of God. they do no longer come without delay. that is mostly a war, yet consisting of his Spirit helping it is going to develop into extra reachable over the years.