Title: The Measure of a Man
Airdate: 2/13/1989
Plot Summary
While taking a break at a Starbase, Data is ordered to transfer to the station to be studied and dismantled by Commander Bruce Maddox. Data doesn’t want to do it as there is a possibility that he could be damaged or destroyed in the attempt. Maddox believes that Data has no more rights than a ship’s computer, forcing Picard to challenge the orders in a court hearing that will determine Data’s status as a sentient being.
Make It So
Picard is magnificent in this. His argument at the end is amazing and compelling. Patrick Stewart has shown he’s a good actor in this show, but here he gets a script that really allows him to shine and show what a master he is. You can’t look away.
Number 1
Riker has to prosecute against Data. He puts together an excellent case. After his argument, which he knows is good, he looks like he’s going to be sick. Frakes does a great job in this episode and I feel like his performance is overlooked. He really plays the conflict within himself well.
Fully Functional
Data of course is at the center of all this but is somewhat passive, as it’s really Picard that has to fight for him. But he has some moments. Talking about poker with Maddox, asking Picard why all personnel aren’t required to get VISORS like Geordi if they improve eyesight, and at the end he tells Maddox to keep in touch as he still finds what he proposes intriguing.
Today Is A Good Day To Die
Worf gave Data a novel at his going away party.
Phase Inducers
Geordi is clearly upset and disappointed at how Data is being forced out of Starfleet.
Counselor Cleavage
Troi is at Data’s going away party but doesn’t say too much.
Doctor Not Bones
Pulaski is an experience poker player. She also is going to have an argument with Worf on how Klingons did not make the novel he gave Data better.
Shut Up, Wesley
Wesley tells Data that he’s missing the point of unwrapping a gift when Data explains he can reuse the packaging. Data then just rips it in half hilariously.
Guinan?!
Guinan talks with Picard during the recess and helps him understand that this ruling is much bigger than just Data’s rights.
Canon Maker
The poker game makes it’s first appearance, though I believe this is the only time we see Pulaski and O’Brien in the game. Riker shows he’s a great player and Data has a lot to learn, though he does have his trademark poker visor.
We find out that Picard went through a court martial after the loss of the Stargazer. It sounds like it was a lot more intense than a typically routine hearing would be, thanks to Phillipa Louvois.
The Admiral says that for 500 years ships that have been named “Enterprise” have been legends. This would take us back to the 1800s. There was indeed a sailing ship named Enterprise.
Data has Tasha’s holo-portrait. It’s a nice call back.
Data would continue to communicate with Maddox. Maddox for his part in Picard season 1 has completely changed his attitude towards Data and androids in general. About the only thing I could stomach of that season.
Canon Breaker
The only thing I could find wrong here was the process details of the trial, Riker not cross-examining Maddox among other things. Really a nitpick more than anything.
While I try not to reference NuTrek, I cannot let it pass that Picard season one showed a lot of androids were constructed and they were treated pretty shabbily. Which pretty much disrespects everything this episode accomplished and it was the moment I went from disliking NuTrek to being completely offended by it. This was too big of an episode to be shit on like that and that was the moment (for me) NuTrek was irreparably damaged and broken beyond all repair.
A Little Bloody Nose
No deaths.
Technobabble
If only Maddox understood the electron resistance across neural filamint links, this might have never been an issue.
Data’s off-switch makes a re-appearance, and it appears it’s fairly easy to remove his forearm.
Please Repeat Your Communication
“Your Honor, Starfleet was founded to seek out new life; well, there it sits! – Waiting.” – Picards final words in his final summation of his defense of Data.
Library Computer
Regula I spacelab makes another appearance. Man that station got around.
The episode was released with an extra 13 minutes on blu-ray, I’ve embedded the missing scenes here on a video I found on youtube. Most of which I think are unnecessary but the extended conversation at the end with Data and Riker was really needed. I also liked Picard trying to convince Data and Data using the VISOR argument extended version here.
Removing Maddox showing up at Data’s going away party was a good choice. Keeping that would’ve turned him from antagonist to asshole and it wasn’t necessary.
I Know That Guy:
Amanda McBroom plays Captain Phillipa Louvois with just the right amount of sass and seriousness. She makes a great foil for Picard and it’s a shame we didn’t get more of her. She’s more known as a songwriter, having written the title song for Bette Midler’s The Rose. She’s done a lot of guest shots in a lot series as well.
Clyde Kusatsu plays Admiral Nakamura. We’ll be seeing him a couple more times in the future. Like the poker game, he’ll be in the series finale. Of course he’s a well known supporting actor in a ton of stuff. He seems to have made a career out of being a recurring guest star on a number of shows as well.
Brian Brophy plays the snotty Commander Bruce Maddox. He seems to have mostly fallen out of acting since 2004. While he has a lot of credits, the biggest one I could find was a parole board member in The Shawshank Redemption.
What It Means To Be Human – Review
This. This is the episode where The Next Generation emerged out of TOS’s shadow. This was the first time it became it’s own show, worthy of all the respect it would get over the next few years, and continues to receive.
What’s even better is that the seeds of this story were already being laid down. First we have Elementary, Dear Data where Pulaski bets Geordi that Data doesn’t have that quality of life that allows for imagination and innovation. The bet was never actually settled, but the fact that the computer ended up creating a lifeform when the parameters were to create an equal of Data seemed to have answered that anyway.
Then we have The Schizoid Man, where Graves doesn’t treat Data as alive and Picard has to fight for Data’s right to his own body and life. Graves says Data’s a machine while Graves is man, therefore Graves gets to live. While Graves was only convinced to leave because he realized he was losing control, Picard’s argument was for Data’s right to exist.
This all culminates in this episode and what an episode it is. The dialogue just crackles, from Picard and Lovois’s banter at the start of the episode, to the courtroom drama at the end. Data’s moments with Maddox, Picard, and even Riker for the coda are all spectacular.
Riker is just put in the most unenviable position. He does his duty and it really works him over. Data letting him know that he understands and is grateful for what he went through was icing on the cake.
Through it all is Picard, coming to terms with what Starfleet was going to do. This wasn’t just about Data’s rights, though it certainly was the most urgent matter at the moment. It was the realization that if he believed that Data was alive, which he did, then letting Maddox do this would create a race of living things that would be turned into slaves. It’s not that we shouldn’t create more androids, it’s how we will treat them if we do.
Once he understood that, his mission was clear. His final speech to court was pitch perfect. Even better, some of this will be revisited in future episodes.
We even get the poker game. I really can’t talk up this episode enough. It’s probably a top-5 of TNG and probably a top-10 of all of Star Trek. It’s just that good.
