More generous than me. Okay, that's probably bit harsh but this episode is just lame. The teen angst in it is too much, the "creature effects" just terrible and the story just uninteresting.
Just. Ugh.
Measure of a Man is, however, a fantastic episode and deserves the highest rating on whatever scale you're on. It's the epitome of the best of Trek period.
I have always had the quibble on one thing though:
So Data was discovered by Starfleet explorers and, presumably, made the personal choice to go into Starfleet. We know that he had to go through the academy and "learn" rather than just being thrown on a ship to do his job so that right there should show that Starfleet saw Data as a sentient being that could make choices for himself and didn't see him as "property." So if Data could elect to enter Starfleet it seems reasonable he could elect to leave it.
Maddox wonders where Data's rights "end" and his own rights begin, saying that he has the "right" to do his cybernetics work and that trumps Data's own rights to exist/choose his own career path.
Maddox must have had some
incredible credentials that matched or rivaled Dr. Soong's. We saw humanoid androids a lot in TOS but they were little more than considered mechanical machines with no sense of self or sentience. Data was special in that he was an "artificial life form" who, even before the official ruling, displayed signs of sentience. Data is very, very unique and that it was the culmination of one man's life's work to achieve Data and that he's the only known sentient android (other than Lore, of course) this suggests what Soong did was very, very, very hard. So it's sort of incredible that this young guy in Starfleet thinks that not only he can achieve what took Soong a lifetime to do (and his family generations to do when you add ENT into the mix) but easily duplicate it without "harming" the original and Starfleet
agrees! That's sort-of incredible to me.
Also I'm not sure I fully understand what sort of arguments Riker was going for in the arbitration. The argument seems to be one of asking if Data is "alive" or the "property of Starfleet" (although what we know about Data at this point suggests there's no reason for them to assume ownership over him). Riker's argument amounts to "Look at him! He's a machine and... different!" But doesn't seem to really offer an argument on why Starfleet would assume ownership or control over Data given what is known about him. He shows that Data is strong, his arm can be removed and can be turned off?
Certainly somewhere in space there's a species that is strong, has easily removed limbs that can be reattached/regenerated and enters a hibernation stage that can easily be induced. Hell
any species in the galaxy can be "turned off" with a stun-gun, drugs, or other means.
So what, exactly, was Riker's argument in the context of the trial? Yeah, Data's a machine that fact was known and not in dispute! The question is whether or not Data was
property and had the ability to choose for himself. Picard delivers a great speech for sure that strikes at the very heart of everything Trek stands for but he also could have done this:
"Data, how did you come to be in Starfleet?"
"I was found, turned on, went through the academy and then worked my way through the ranks over the course of the last 20 years."
"Were you forced to do this?"
"No."
"Were you taken apart, studied, scrutinized, or simply placed on a ship to do a specific task immediately after being discovered?"
"No."
"Have you ever seen a piece of machinery, a computer or other hardware in Starfleet awarded medals, made to go through training programs, promoted, transfered or spoken to in the familiar?"
"No."
"Your honor, I rest my case. Data has never been treated as property, thus he
isn't property."
