Well, what did the captain used to say?:

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.

Kirk was busy violating the Prime Directive in more ways than one!

The Prime Directive, for those who don’t know:

“No identification of self or mission. No interference with the social development of said planet. No references to space or the fact that there are other worlds or civilizations.”

Ahh…science fiction, where art imitates life in parallel universes…