My wife and I are rewatching The Next Generation and just finished Measure of a Man, the episode in season 2 in which Data’s personhood is legally debated and his life hangs in the balance.
I genuinely found this episode infuriating in its stupidity. It’s the first episode we skipped even a little bit. It was like nails on a chalkboard.
There is oodles of legal precedent that Data is a person. He was allowed to apply to Starfleet, graduated, became an officer and rose to the rank of Lt. Commander with all the responsibilities and privileges thereof.
Comparing him to a computer and the judge advocate general just shrugging and going to trial over it is completely idiotic. There are literal years and years of precedent that he’s an officer.
The problem is compounded because Picard can’t make the obvious legal argument and is therefore stuck philosophizing in a court room, which is all well and good, but it kind of comes down to whether or not Data has a soul? That’s not a legal argument.
The whole thing is so unbelievably ludicrous it just made me angrier and angrier. It wasn’t the high minded, humanistic future I’ve come to know and love, it was a kangaroo court where reason and precedent took a backseat to feeling and belief.
I genuinely hated it.
To my surprise, in looking it up, I discovered it’s considered one of the high water marks for the entire show. It feels like I’m taking crazy pills.
True. Although half the new characters were scrapped, or had their storylines ignored.
Picard’s two Romulan… maids? Estate managers? went nowhere and disappeared
Space Legolas went nowhere and disappeared
Soji went nowhere and disappeared
Raffi is there still, but her entire story arc got scrapped I believe? They were going for a “I’m a recovering addict and I want to reconnect with my son and his pregnant spouse”, and then it just completely disappeared as a plot line.
Seven is there, but I think you can go into S3 and just think “oh, Picard and Seven know eachother. I guess that makes sense actually.”
It certainly helps to have seen the previous seasons, you’re right. I’m pretty sure they reference that Picard is technically an android once, which would be a wtf moment if you’ve not seen season 1.