2.9 — “The Measure of a Man”

2.9 — “The Measure of a Man”

Plot: Following a game of poker, the Enterprise docks at Starbase 173 for a port call and crew rotation. There it receives a visit from Commander Maddox, who wants to disassemble Data and download his memory into a positronic brain. Data objects on the grounds that Maddox’s knowledge is incomplete and his research methods risk destruction of his consciousness. Maddox asserts that the knowledge to be gained outweighs the risk, and claims that Data is a thing and the property of Starfleet, and therefore lacks the right to refuse the procedure. Picard advocates for Data with the Judge Advocate General for the sector, Philippa Louvois, who is a former flame of Picard’s and his prosecutor at the court martial following the destruction of the Stargazer. She appoints the senior ship officers to serve as advocates, and soon Picard is pitted against Riker at a hearing to determine whether Data has sentience. 

 *Thoughts:* A very strong episode. I took three pages of notes.

First, the poker game. Data, Data, Data. It is highly illogical to fold for one bet at the end of a poker hand. At this point, the pot has grown to 110 credits, and it only costs you 10 to call Riker’s final raise. With pot odds of 11-1, the chance that Riker is bluffing needs only to exceed 8.3% for a call to be correct. Since this is television, the chance that Riker is bluffing is approximately 1012%. Since you say you read all available poker treatises prior to the game, I can only assume that the works of Sklansky and Malmuth do not survive to the 24th century.

Riker does have a good poker face. His inflection on the line “Are we playing or not?” suggests that Jonathan Frakes has real world green felt experience.

The poker scene and references to Picard “buying” dinner raise questions about commerce and money in the future. Like, I thought there wasn’t any? For the moment, I’m glad they brushed this question aside in favor of drafting a  great script (which will hopefully point the way to many more of this caliber).

The reference to the Stargazer court martial hearkens back to 1.9, “The Battle.” The notion that Picard would have fallen into a love/hate affair with his prosecutrix suggests hitherto unexpected pools or recklessness and impulsivity. I’m glad the show seems to be embracing Philippa’s assessment of Picard as a “pompous ass.” It’s more interesting than making him a paragon, which may have been Roddenberry’s original intention for the character.

Dr. Soong’s first name, Noonian, summons thoughts of Khan Noonian Singh. Speaking of allusions, the term positronic brain comes, of course, from Isaac Asimov’s Robot series.

What’s great about this episode? For one thing, the pace. For once, they have more material than they can easily fit in without resorting to filler. So the pace is quick, with each act break moving the action in an unexpected direction.

It’s also crucial that Maddox is correct, from his point of view. Riker is able to argue his side without insulting his or our intelligence. The space station model (repurposed from Star Trek II) adds great production value. Moreover, they are not afraid (this time) to take a good premise and complicate it with factors like Picard’s frisson with Louvois, or by pitting Riker against Picard in the courtroom. And, however improbable the affair seems (maybe it preceded the court martial?), Louvois and Picard’s relationship still seems more plausible, well-rounded, and adult than Kirk’s relationship with his prosecutor Areel Shaw in the excellent “Court Martial.”

Another aspect of this episode which I appreciate is that it treats Starfleet as a real thing, something that one might transfer within, or resign from; something with regulations that are serious, and procedures that might ruffle feathers now and then. We need more of this.

Is Data carrying a torch for Yar? The scene in his quarters where Data summons her image is now my favorite Denise Crosby scene of the series (unfortunately for Crosby, it appears to be just stock footage from “Skin of Evil”). The design of the portrait projector prop is elegant and perfect.

Every ship in Starfleet having a Data on board would seem more appealing, were it not for Lore. Doesn’t Lore prove that Data is capable of having emotion? The fact that Data objects to the experiment almost proves it by itself.

No dress uniforms for the hearing? No fair. I have to wear ties when I go to court.

I like Patrick Stewart’s style of delivery at the hearing. He’s used to performing Shakespeare, so he trusts his text, and does not need to saw the air while delivering lines like “Children are created from the building blocks of their parents’ DNA. Are they property?” There was a point during the hearing where I wondered, is this the moment where Picard tricks Maddox into revealing that he himself is an android? No cheap tricks like that here.

It’s a good question whether the ship’s computer should have the standing to object to a refit, or at what point that would come about. Does the Horta have rights? The single-celled organism from “The Immunity Syndrome?” The androids from “I, Mudd?” It occurs to me that if Data truly is property, Maddox is in danger of making an awful waste of that property.

I admire the very specific mannerisms that Brent Spiner has worked out to show us Data thinking and processing information. I do wonder what emotions are like for the character (so does Troi in a deleted scene–see below). His conduct in this episode is always logically supported, but the support has the flavor of rationalizations used to paper over a raw emotional need. A very human quality. Spiner may not be quite as fascinating as Leonard Nimoy, but his performance is intriguing.

At the end, when Data tells Riker there is no need to apologize, we get a classic Riker smirk. Oh, for those lost days from Season One where it seemed like smirks were growing on trees!

My Blu-ray remastered season two set has a longer version of this episode, with 13 minutes of extra footage cut from the televised episode. Almost invariably, the scenes and extra dialogue that were cut should have been, and the episode is much better without them (especially for the sense of pace created, but also because some of the cut material is awful). There is one exception, a short dialogue scene between Riker and Troi, standing off to the the side during Data’s resignation party: 

RIKER: Does Data have… do you feel anything?

TROI: I can sense nothing from Data. But that doesn’t prove anything. There are many minds from which I can read no meaning.

RIKER: Well he must be more than software, nets, chips.

TROI: It is possible that Commander Maddox is correct, that we’re anthropomorphizing Data, assigning to him responses and emotions that he may not have.

RIKER: I’m not sure I see that as a problem.

I wish they could have fit this in. Riker’s conduct vigorously defending Data in Louvois’ office shortly after this exchange speaks well for his character. This cut scene contains the only dialogue for Troi in the whole episode. Nevertheless, Marina Sirtis very generously identified “The Measure of a Man” as her favorite TNG episode on Twitter in 2013, as pointed out by Wikipedia.

Writer Melissa Snodgrass (her first script ever) says that her concept for the episode was the Dred Scot decision in space. Dred Scot is an 1857 U.S. Supreme Court case in which the court was called upon to determine whether a runaway slave is a person or property. The court, infamously, got it wrong. The final episode reminds me most powerfully of Inherit the Wind (1955).

Sure, Warp 6 of 6.

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/The_Measure_Of_A_Man_(episode)