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.
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.