Star Trek did not hit the ground running and season one was something of a bumpy start. Perhaps for this reason there are few episodes of note until season two where at episode nine we have “The Measure of a Man". It’s hard to explain the magnitude of the situation to someone who hasn’t seen the series up to this point but I will try.
Data is an android character that we as an audience see develop into very much more than that for the first and part of the second season. By the time that this episodes rolls around he does not feel like an unemotional machine, but a living breathing part of the crew. It’s a sudden and harsh jerk of a realization when cyberneticist Commander Bruce Maddox arrives and wants to take data apart to better examine the technology that makes him possible. The catch is that in Data’s opinion the techniques that Maddox wants to employ would very like kill the essence of what makes data him or in his words: “That while I believe it is possible to download the information contained in the positronic brain, I do not think you have acquired the expertise necessary to preserve the essence of those experiences. There is an ineffable quality to memory which I do not believe can survive your procedure. ” A refusal from data elicits and order from Maddox which in turn causes Data with much trepidation to resign from Starfleet. It is at this point where things get interesting to me. Maddox claims that Data is property and therefor not permitted to resign.
Captain Picard requests that Starfleet Judge Advocate General for the twenty-third sector, Captain Philippa Louvois, make a ruling that Data is indeed a sentient being and therefore not the property of Starfleet. She refuses to make the ruling without a trial however and because of being understaffed Riker, second in command of the Enterprise, must be the prosecutor and attempt to have Data ruled as property. The case goes somewhat poorly for Picard, the defense, for the first part. During a recess he talks to Guinan, Whoopi Goldberg’s character, and there is this almost magic crystallizing moment when everything is put into perspective. One Data viewed as a tool was sensible, it fit, two even, a hundred, but when you think of the research Maddox wanted to do, creating a entire race of androids born into what amounts to slavery, the decision becomes monumental. The gravity of the situation causes the judge to falter, and she simply cannot and will not condem and entire sentient race to slavery.
There are many more small but important niches to this story. Riker forced to try prove that his friend is less that human and doesn’t deserve to have control over his own life is gut wrenching. In the end it is clear that Riker can almost not bear to look at himself and Data says to him “your action injured you--and saved me. I shall not forget it." It is a great example of the sheer selflessness of Data and also how much he had come to mean to his human companions. There is also a sense of helplessness before Guinan helps to clarify things that makes for great entertainment. Most of all what this episode did for me though is taught me that even a small injustice or decision can have huge repercussions in my own life and the lives of the people around me.
