Episode of the Week: 2x09 "The Measure Of A Man"

After Skin of Evil, there wasn't a single moment in the entire series when I thought that any of the main cast were ever in any peril.

Maybe you can look over http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Skin_of_Evil_(episode)#Reception, and tell me why the producers would have pulled a stunt like that again. Start with:

 

I just read Snodgrass's original script for Ensigns of Command. Very good, but I liked the episode as aired better. The romantic part didn't feel like it fit. Hrathans were changed to Sheliak, a change I liked.

Interestingly, the coolest parts of that episode were not explicitly in the script:

"That was the stun setting.....this is not." and Picard checking the Enterprise plaque for dust. The conclusion with Data and the aqueduct was much better in the episode I thought.

Snodgrass's legal background lent itself to some good episodes involving laws and treaties. As good as The Drumhead was, I bet she could have made it better.

 

Really? I didn't think that at all, quite the opposite. The only real minor flaw in the episode is the Picard/Guinan scene imo, because it's somewhat heavy handed & a little hard to swallow that he'd be fighting for someone's liberties & not have thought of what taking someone's liberties would ultimately mean, second class citizenship & possibly slavery

Granted though, it's a futuristic sci-fi, so you can buy into him being evolved enough to have let that slip by him... I guess. Plus, it was wonderfully performed by Stewart & Goldberg, so that kind of makes up for it being the "Hard sell" of the script

Certainly doesn't diminish it's brilliance as an episode on the whole though. It's the 1st truly great episode they made