Great episode. It's called one of the top 10 must-see episodes and also the very first good episode of the series, and I'm apt to agree. When watching this episode there are moments when I forget that I'm watching something from the second season.
Okay, I'm going to get the most obvious plothole out of the way - In the first episode of the second season, Dr. Pulaski notes that Data's Starfleet service record states that he is alive. Because of that, the events of this entire episode should never have been an issue to begin with... he can't be determined to be property if he's alive. But I for one am glad that they forgot about that conversation. It was a topic that kept coming up indirectly like when they wrote Data as assuming that he was chosen for dangerous mission because he is an expendable machine. They'd even directly brought up the rights of an android before when Dr. Graves claimed he had more of a right to exist than Data because Data was a machine. Even though he obviously couldn't have made it this far in Starfleet if he weren't thought of as a sentient being, the matter still needed to be addressed on the show, as a kind of closure to all of the hinting around that the writer's did in regard to Data's nature from the very first episode when Riker expresses concern with the fact that he is a machine. It would've been harder to allow the character of Data to grow without this episode in place.
The first poker game! I often repeat the phrase, "they didn't know how popular this would become," but in this case it's the truest statement. Not only did it bond the characters and give us many humorous moments, it was also one of the most effective set-ups for many shows and if you put them all together, you can see just how the characters change and grow throughout the series. Another "first" that O'Brien is involved in, although I don't think he ever turns up at another one. Data's first experience with poker was used later in this episode to debate with Commander Maddox personally about how studying his technical design may not be enough for Maddox to safely experiment with him without doing irreparable damage.
But first thing's first. They're doing routine crew rotations at a star base when Picard runs into an old friend and adversary who is the head of the new JAG office. (Judge Advocate General) The two things that bother me are the way time was wasted on their history together. She unsuccessfully prosecuted Picard once and although I could buy that they have a mutual respect, it's not without the silly flirting that the writers thought was so necessary to every episode at the time. I'm also bothered by the fact that she was talking about "making law." That's just so typical of how liberals in this country think... That the Judicial branch alone makes law because they use the Supreme Court to nullify the three branches of government system and overrule and marginalize the sovereignty of the states so often and just force law down the country's throat. It's fully supported by those that wrote this as you can see when she speaks of making law as an admirable and noble pursuit, but as the episode progresses you can see just how dangerous it is in the way they pick apart poor Data and the implications that would go along with him being declared property. Liberals are so stupid.
Anyway, we meet the overzealous Commander Bruce Maddox who has studied all of Dr. Soong's work and is completely obsessed with studying Data. He designs to take Data into his custody, dismantle him and attempt to create more androids. This is a really good reason why this episode needed to happen. Even though Maddox is portrayed in a slightly "mad scientist" kind of light, the fact that Data is supposed to be a feat of induplicable engineering and perfectly unique is something that somebody would've realistically taken an interest in long before he made the rank of Lt.Commander on a starship and had free reign to live his life as he chose.
There are so many good points made in this episode regarding human rights and slavery. They determine that Data is property of Starfleet so he cannot refuse to comply with Maddox's experiments. It's a mark of how new the show was and how new all the characters were to each other that the writer's even considered writing Picard as seeing some reason in his experiments doing over all good. But it was just a launching point for more wonderful reasoning and debate. I would love to go over every point and show every video clip, but that would take all day. I'm just reviewing here, so suffice it to say that the many back and forth exchanges that went on throughout the episode is what made it a great episode.
It's not until Data chooses to resign from Starfleet to avoid the problem altogether that Maddox cries "mommy!" and forces a litigation over the matter. Because Captain Louvois is understaffed she can use enlisted officers as advocates choosing Picard as Data's advocate and Riker as the prosecutor. A little simplistic and with obvious dramatic intent, but it worked very well in this episode. Riker basically couldn't refuse because without the trial she would've had to find in favor of Maddox by default.
The trial was the best part of the episode and I wish so much that it could've been longer. If they'd trimmed some of the history of Picard and Louvois at the beginning they could've put more into the trial. It's not entirely credible as a legal procedure, but neither are a lot of Law and Order episodes. Both sides of the issue are handled brilliantly and fairly. This is a demonstration of some of the first truly excellent writing that they did. And no one can fail to feel as sorry for Riker as when he does his job as a prosecutor so thoroughly that Maddox's side of the argument doesn't even seem evil or unreasonable to a certain extent. The scene where he learns of Data's off switch and smiles in triumph because he'd found what was certainly a winning piece of evidence and then his expression immediately becomes one of sickness and sorrow because he's knows he's destroying a friend is one of Riker's best moments to my mind. Great acting by Frakes.
They also take a piece of that horrible episode The Naked Now and use it for some good. It added depth to Data that surprises those who are determined that he is merely a machine to learn that he had a relationship with a woman. Although in the aforementioned episode it was a crass, one night stand, it is indicated here that they perhaps did speak of their brief encounter and had come to some kind of mutual understanding of what it meant to them in each of their lives. And that Data must have confided in someone after her death in order to understand it all further. It was respectful to the character of Tasha; more respectful than the death they wrote for her. And it's just one of the many tools of Picard's strategy of such a compelling defense that would sway anyone in his favor.
I have to conclude with Picard's closing arguments that follow his cross examination of Maddox. If spoilers are what you're worried about, then you shouldn't be reading reviews anyway, lol. Like I said... it starts to float away from the reality of what a legal proceeding would be like, but it's a fantastic climax with a lot of heart and a sense of finality on the subject of Data as a machine.
This gets the highest rating I've given yet in the first or second season: four and a half of five stars. It really is one of the best episodes of the series.
No comments:
Post a Comment