The Measure of a Man (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

"The Measure of a Man"
Star Trek: The Next Generation episode
Data's sentience is judged.
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 9
Directed by	Robert Scheerer
Written by	Melinda M. Snodgrass
Featured music	Dennis McCarthy
Production code	135
Original air date	February 13, 1989 (1989-02-13)
Guest stars
Diana Muldaur - Dr. Katherine Pulaski Amanda McBroom - Capt. Phillipa Louvois Clyde Kusatsu - Adm. Nakamura Brian Brophy - Cdr. Bruce Maddox Whoopi Goldberg - Guinan Colm Meaney - Miles O'Brien
Episode chronology
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List of Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes

"The Measure of a Man" is the 35th episode of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. The ninth episode of the second season.

Overview

Commander Data must argue for his right of self-determination in order not be declared the property of Starfleet and deconstructed in the name of science.

Plot

While the Enterprise is docked at Starbase 173 for routine maintenance, cyberneticist Commander Bruce Maddox pays Lieutenant Commander Data a visit, wishing to better understand how Data's creator, Dr. Noonien Soong, was able to overcome certain problems in designing and constructing Data's positronic brain. It quickly becomes clear that Maddox has an ulterior motive of storing Data's positronic brain in the Starbase mainframe computer and shutting down and disassembling the android to learn how to recreate Soong's technology (though Maddox promises to restore Data after the analysis is complete). Data, aware of the delicate nature of this procedure and to prevent damage to himself, refuses to succumb to Maddox's desires, forcing Maddox to turn to Starfleet to order that Data submit himself to "experimental refit". Captain Picard stands up for Data, while Data believes the only way to avoid the order is to resign from Starfleet. Maddox, however, points out that Data is the property of Starfleet and not a sentient being, and as such Starfleet need not permit him to resign.

Picard requests Starfleet Judge Advocate General for the 23rd sector, Captain Philippa Louvois, to hold a hearing to determine Data's legal status. Louvois agrees. However, as her office is understaffed at the moment, she drafts Commander Riker to represent Maddox's interests, and the position that Data is the property of Starfleet and therefore without the broad array of human rights accorded in the United Federation of Planets, and Picard to represent Data's interests, that Data is a sentient being with the choice to resign from Starfleet and to refuse to undergo Maddox's procedures. Riker, forced to prosecute against Data to prevent a summary ruling against him (to ensure the issue is accorded due process of law), enters the same argument Maddox had made years before, where Maddox was the sole dissenting vote as to Data's petition to attend Starfleet Academy and pursue a Starfeet commission.

Picard initially finds Riker's prosecution difficult to challenge. However, during a recess, Picard talks to Guinan who suggests that regardless of whether Data is a machine or not, Maddox's goal is tantamount to sanctioning slavery. Picard uses this to defuse Riker's arguments when the court reconvenes. The discussion of Data's sentience turns to metaphysical matters. Picard points out that Data meets two of the three criteria that Maddox uses to define sentient life. Data is intelligent and self-aware, but Picard asks anyone in the court to show a means of measuring consciousness. With no one able to answer this, Louvois acknowledges that neither she nor anyone else can measure this in Data (nor in any other person present) and, as such, Data, as a matter of law, is a sentient being. She therefore rules that Data has the right to choose. Upon the court's ruling, Data formally refuses to undergo the procedure.

After the hearing, Data tells Maddox that his research remains intriguing to him and offers to help Maddox understand his workings better in less risky experimentation. Maddox, for his part, refers to Data for the first time as "he" rather than "it". Later, in the Observation Lounge on-board Enterprise, Data finds Riker, who is ashamed of having to argue against his friend in the hearing. Data cheers him up by telling him that his action was an act of self-sacrifice that gave Data the chance to win his freedom, and stated that had Riker not done so and refused to participate, Louvois would have been forced to render a summary judgement in favor of Maddox. Data summed it up by stating, "That action injured you and saved me. I will not forget it."

Notes

• Entertainment Weekly named this episode the sixth best of the series.

• This episode marks the first appearance of the rare "Interim Admiral's Uniform" seen only in Season Two of the Next Generation series. The uniform had been created to replace the unpopular first season Admiral uniforms and rank insignia and introduced a new system of rank pips within rank boxes. The rank boxes were worn vertically and were replaced in the third season by horizontal boxes and the Admiral uniform used for the rest of the Next Generation series.

• Data's "off" switch which was first introduced in "Datalore" is seen again in this episode.

• Data eventually succeeds in replicating himself, although only for a time, in "The Offspring".

• The encounter between Tasha Yar and Data from the "The Naked Now" episode is mentioned briefly here and so is the vow Data made with Tasha never to mention it.

• Director Robert Scheerer: "It is indeed my favorite show. I guess you would have to say that what I enjoyed is the dilemma that they're put into, especially Jonathan and Patrick having to deal with Brent not as a dear friend but as someone whose worth has to be resolved. And Jonathan had to take the other side. It was all just beautifully crafted. It was not typical episodic television and had a great deal to say about man, humanity, what our problems in the world are today and hopefully what we can do about it in the future."

• Writer (though not of this episode) Maurice Hurley: "Stunning. That's the kind of show you want to do. You get one of those shows done and you say, 'OK, good, we got that one done.' I thought Whoopi's place was good in that. She's a wonderful actress."

• Steven Pinker in an article for the Mind & Body special issue of Time (January 18, 2007) on "The Mystery of Consciousness" makes references to this episode.

• Over the course of the fourth season episode, Data's Day, Data narrates a personal log entry that he intends as a letter to Commander Maddox.

References

• Star Trek The Next Generation DVD set, volume 2, disc 3, selection 1.

External links

• The Measure of a Man at the Internet Movie Database
• "The Measure of a Man" at TV.com
• The Measure of a Man at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• The Measure of a Man at StarTrek.com
• The Measure of a Man rewatch by Keith R.A. DeCandido