Friday, May 15, 2020

Star Trek: The Measure of a Man

Episode: "The Measure of a Man"
Series: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Season 2, Episode 9
Original Air Date: February 13, 1989

Image result for the measure of a man star trek
via Memory Alpha
Commander Bruce Maddox (Brian Brophy), a cyberneticist, has come aboard the Enterprise with the intention of stealing Data away so he can dismantle him for study.  Data attempts to resign from Starfleet in order to decline the transfer order but Maddox fights it.  In a legal hearing with the JAG - Captain Philippa Luvios, another old flame of Jean Luc's - Picard argues for Data's rights as a sentient being to make his own choices.  As second-in-command, Riker is assigned to argue for Maddox, an awkward position to say the least.

"The Measure of a Man" is a popular choice for all-time best lists and has, in fact, been called TNG's first truly great episode.  It is certainly one with reach beyond Star Trek.  The parallel drawn to human slavery provides a provocative historical perspective, of course.  Additionally, the story has been referenced in real-world computer ethics academia.  Within big-franchise sci-fi, I perceive influence - from Data in general and from "The Measure of a Man" specifically - on The Clone Wars.  As I have written before (here, among several posts), the most interesting stories in that series revolve around the plight of the clone troopers themselves in their complicated relationship with the Jedi who lead them.  The issues are rarely if ever confronted as directly as they are regarding Data but the moral tension is implied throughout.  Perhaps the episode "The Deserter" relates most closely.

As for being the best so far, it's a strong candidate but not a slam dunk for me.  In "Elementary, Dear Data," I find Moriarty to be a more appealing adversary than Maddox and nothing in "The Measure of a Man" offers the same visual dazzle as the Sherlock Holmes-scape of the earlier story.  However, this week's episode presents the strongest statement yet for the moral compass of TNG - certainly compatible with TOS's but different in important ways.  With the more developed principal characters, TNG allows for a deeper exploration of the challenges for the individual in a pluralistic society.  Data's arc has, to this point, brought the most opportunities for such questions but we've seen it with others, too: Worf reconciling his Klingon identity with the life he has lived among humans, Geordi's conflicted feelings about his disability, Deanna's choice to keep her baby as well as her sense of responsibility to her family and culture, Beverly's parenting challenges and so forth.  For TOS, the moral dilemmas generally revolve around confronting the new.  In TNG, while we still get the awkward alien encounters from time to time, the more interesting stories involve our heroes' struggles with more personal matters.  While the specific threat to Data's autonomy is new in this story, the prejudices behind it are not.


Game Notes

The story opens with a poker game, the first of many over the TNG run.  These games offer important character insights and critical lessons for Data in understanding human nature.  This time, Data falls for a bluff by Riker, greatly confusing for our favorite android.



Acting Notes

Image result for amanda mcbroom
via Memory Alpha
Amanda McBroom (Captain Luvois) was born August 9, 1947 in Woodland Hills, California.  While she has numerous acting credits, she is more accomplished as a musician, especially as a songwriter, particularly as the writer of "The Rose," the Bette Midler classic.  The song brought a Golden Globe award for McBroom and a Grammy for Midler:


8 comments:

  1. I kind of remember this episode.
    My wife and I are thinking about picking up the free preview month of CBS All Access to watch Picard, which makes me want to go back and watch this, but I just can't fit it in.

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    1. So much to watch. Plus, the books I want to read. And the games I want to play. And the drinks I want to mix. And I should really get outside once in a while...

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  2. Interesting. I like the challenges so many have had living with us.
    parsnip

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    1. This story definitely leaves one much to think about.

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  3. For several years after first watching "The Measure of a Man" I truly hated Bruce Maddox. I seriously felt the character was on par with other fictional bad guys like Khan and the Borg.

    I just couldn't see how anyone would not view Data as a sentient lifeform. Somewhere along the way I realized that in the real world we were still overwhelmed with people who view certain others as less than fully human.

    The point in the episode that really hit hard was Picard and Gunian talking about slavery. As a reluctant southerner, I am extremely sensitive about how forced bondage is viewed.

    My one criticism of the episode and TNG in general, is that they always seemed to be behind the curve when it came to looking at the ethical dilemmas new technology presented.
    With the accelerating advancement of real life AI, I can almost see this something akin to "The Measure of a Man" happening this century. Which means by the 24th century Data's legal standing would be well established.

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    1. A reluctant southerner... I laughed at that. I am more a quasi-southerner who has mostly lived in denial. I grew up in Maryland, a slave state and still segregated up to the 1960s. I went to school in the era of busing. But my part of Maryland still doesn't think of itself as southern, even though the M-D Line is right there and we're on the southern side of it...

      I see your final point. However, I think sci-fi - good sci-fi anyway - is as much a metaphor for the present as it is a vision for the future. It would be silly for the audience or creators to imagine that technology and culture would advance in exactly the ways set out in the story. And, in the real world, every step forward is met with fierce resistance and often, the resistance controls the narrative. See: Trump supporters. Will we truly be any more enlightened in centuries to come? One hopes but one doubts.

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  4. I loved this episode. It is always interesting to see Riker and Picard set against each other, because even though they're great friends and colleagues, they will both perform to the best of their abilities.

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    1. Absolutely. On top of everything else, this is a great Riker episode.

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