"lol, when do you think he's gonna realize that it's not real"
"give it one more mission"
"Don't break the Prime Directive," the instructors say, and all the cadets nod, and then as soon as they get put in command of anything bigger than a flatpack IKEA shuttle they hit a situation where they don't have an option to do Not That
If you ever don’t want to do something, and you can’t Captain Speech your way out of it, just put on your best serious face and say, “that would violate the Prime Directive”
“But captain, Harry Kim has worked admirably for seven years without so much as a promotion. The least you could do is attend his clarinet concert.”
“Can’t. Prime directive.”