The Commander is a physical representation of a dream - an idea, conceived of by the mind of a man. Its purpose: to serve human needs and interests. It’s a collection of neural nets and heuristic algorithms; its responses dictated by an elaborate software written by a man, its hardware built by a man. And now… and now a man will shut it off.
I am the culmination of one man’s dream. This is not ego, or vanity. But when Dr. Soong created me, he added to the substance of the universe. If, by your experiments, I am destroyed, something unique, something wonderful will be lost. I cannot permit that. I must protect his dream.
A single Data - and forgive me, Commander - is a curiosity. A wonder, even. But thousands of Datas - isn’t that becoming… a race? And won’t we be judged by how we treat that race?
Consider that in the history of many worlds, there have always been disposable creatures. They do the dirty work. They do the work that no one else wants to do because it’s too difficult or too hazardous. And an army of Datas, all disposable… You don’t have to think about their welfare, you don’t think about how they feel. Whole generations of disposable people.
Now, the decision you reach here today will determine how we will regard this… creation of our genius. It will reveal the kind of a people we are, what he is destined to be; it will reach far beyond this courtroom and this… one android. It could significantly redefine the boundaries of personal liberty and freedom - expanding them for some… savagely curtailing them for others. Are you prepared to condemn him and all who come after him, to servitude and slavery? Your Honor, Starfleet was founded to seek out new life; well, there it sits! - Waiting.
It sits there looking at me; and I don’t know what it is. This case has dealt with metaphysics - with questions best left to saints and philosophers. I am neither competent nor qualified to answer those. But I’ve got to make a ruling, to try to speak to the future. Is Data a machine? Yes. Is he the property of Starfleet? No. We have all been dancing around the basic issue: does Data have a soul? I don’t know that he has. I don’t know that I have. But I have got to give him the freedom to explore that question himself. It is the ruling of this court that Lieutenant Commander Data has the freedom to choose.
That said, it also has Picard saying this line, which is pretty damn rich coming from him-
Starfleet is not an organization that ignores its own regulations when they become inconvenient.
My Bachelor’s thesis in philosophy was on whether a sufficiently sophisticated AI should be given human rights. I spent over a year laboring on that thing.
Then several years later I’m watching TNG and this episode comes on and Picard had the exact same arguments as me. It made me regret not getting into Star Trek back in uni.
This episode is by far my favorite for many reasons. It opposes the idea of people as property. It establishes Data as more than a quirky idea and firmly grounds him as a character. Also,something that I think is often avoided in discussions of this episode is that it shows Riker has an immense amount of loyalty and respect for Picard. He is willing to literally disassemble his friend in order to carry out his duty (even though it visibly upsets him). Even though a lot of the dialogue is poor (let’s be honest here that is 90% of Trek), the overall writing is brilliant.
There are so many good lines in Measure of a Man…
That said, it also has Picard saying this line, which is pretty damn rich coming from him-
My girlfriend is just about at that episode. I genuinely cannot wait to see her reaction to it and talk about that episode with her.
She is still very bummed about Yar though.
I’m still bummed about Yar and it’s been 30 years.
That’s understandable.
My Bachelor’s thesis in philosophy was on whether a sufficiently sophisticated AI should be given human rights. I spent over a year laboring on that thing.
Then several years later I’m watching TNG and this episode comes on and Picard had the exact same arguments as me. It made me regret not getting into Star Trek back in uni.
That line always give me chills. It’s gotta be in my top ten favorite quotes in all of trek
This episode is by far my favorite for many reasons. It opposes the idea of people as property. It establishes Data as more than a quirky idea and firmly grounds him as a character. Also,something that I think is often avoided in discussions of this episode is that it shows Riker has an immense amount of loyalty and respect for Picard. He is willing to literally disassemble his friend in order to carry out his duty (even though it visibly upsets him). Even though a lot of the dialogue is poor (let’s be honest here that is 90% of Trek), the overall writing is brilliant.