Are there any Trek episodes where they enforce the Prime Directive to protect a developing world within Federation space from an external influence?
The Prime Directive is that the Federation won’t interfere with the development of a pre-warp society.
It is NOT foreign policy that they try to enforce against other warp-capable civilizations.
A couple that come to mind is VOY “False Prophets” where they expel a couple parasitic Ferengi or ENT “Civilization” where warp-capable aliens are causing toxic pollution in a pre-warp society.
ENT “Civilization” where warp-capable aliens are causing toxic pollution in a pre-warp society.
I'm going to turbo nitpick here. That episode took place before the Prime Directive was written, so it can't be held up as an example of how the PD is treated.
The Prime Directive is that the Federation won’t interfere with the development of a pre-warp society.
While warp capability (or a rough equivalent) is the prerequisite for first contact, the Prime Directive is broader, forbidding intervention in the internal affairs of any non-Federation civilization.
It is NOT foreign policy that they try to enforce against other warp-capable civilizations.
But this is not about foreign policy! This is about developing planets within Federation space. Federation space is a specific region of the Alpha and Beta quadrants and I'm assuming may refer to both members and non-member worlds within that region.
The only reason I ask is because the Fan page for the Federation says they enforce the prime directive on any invaders in fed space. I think False Profits is probably the only example that I can think of! Enterprise is pre-federation and pre-prime directive unfortunately.
Literally watching False profits as this comes up.
In false prophets, were they in federation space? In civilization did the federation exist?
No they weren't. Janeway really stretched the Prime Directive to fit what she wanted to do.
She reasoned that the ferengi were stuck in the delta quandrant during negotiations facilited by the Federation, so therefore the Federation had caused the cultural contamination, so therefore going down to the planet to clean it up was actually following the Prime Directive.
Weren't they working against the prime directive? Otherwise they wouldn't have beamed them back down after beaming them up. They had to trick the ferengi into leaving of their own accord... well the accord of the mob burning them in a pyre, but still.
The whole plan was to convince the Ferengi to go along with leaving in a way that fulfilled a local prophecy and supposedly did the least lasting cultural damage.
In the minds of the Voyager crew they were upholding the Prime Directive by minimizing/reversing the cultural damage which Janeway reasoned could be traced back to the Federation's fault.