This is a really good episode. A good Data episode. And I think it was more effective as a "human rights" episode than The Offspring which was technically pointless due to Measure Of A Man as well as the episode Evolution in which the nanobots that Wesley is experimenting with gain a consciousness. This one seems more believable. I always loved it when Star Trek improved on and perfected earlier concepts.
It starts with a poker game to kill off some time. Geordi's trying a beard again (Burton grew it for his wedding) and Crusher is teasing him and Riker both and bets a change of her hair color against the shaving of their beards, but they're interrupted before anyone can win or lose. It's a funny scene. At least back then it was, but when I look around at the way men have been emasculated in society, I can't help but think that this sort of thing has contributed to it. It also would support my belief that the giant grizzly beards that are fashionable today have come about because that's the only part of their manhood that men have left in society anymore. So, the Enterprise is going to a planet to evaluate the Tyran Particle Fountain that can be used for mining. The whole project is behind schedule, over budget, and full of complications. Geordi is talking to the head of the project, Dr. Farallon when they have a malfunction in the power grid. It looks like another set back that could take months to recover the power on, but Farallon has a unique tool that she's invented. It's called an exocomp. It's a "smart" tool that adapts to different situations.
The exocomps are cute and that's probably by design. They remind me of a little wind up bowling ball with feet I used to have as a kid. Anyway, she sends the exocomp into an access tunnel to repair the power grid before the station could shut down and cause the long delay. She brings it on board and explains how she modified a servo mechanism to replicate tools and gave it an ability to learn similar to Data. Everyone is very impressed with the little droid, but not so much with the particle fountain. It's becoming a money pit, as it were. But Farallon suggest using the exocomps to speed up the process and Picard approves after Geordi and Data testify to its usefulness. On the station with Farallon, Data puts it through the paces and discovers that it can preform 14 tasks in less than an hour that would've taken two engineers over nine hours to do. Everything is working out just fine.
Then one of the exocomps appears to malfunction. They send it into a plasma conduit and it returns before the repair is complete. Farallon tries to send it back but the exocomp blocks her commands and overloads her controller. Then the conduit explodes. When they examine the exocomp they find that it had shut down and burned out the control pad but that it also increased its number of circuit pathways by a large amount. Farallon tells them that this happens from time to time and they become totally useless so she has to erase and reprogram them. Data notes that the added circuitry wouldn't interfere with the existing circuitry but Farallon gives up based on previous experience. Geordi makes an offhand comment that it was almost as if the exocomp knew the conduit was going to explode. This prompts Data to runs some tests of his own. He discovers that it's working now. Its logs revealed that it burned out its own command circuitry and then repaired itself later when it was safe aboard the Enterprise.
Farallon spends time with Geordi trying to understand Data's fixation on the exocomp while Data goes to Beverly to discuss what the definition of life is, especially as it pertains to him as an android. It's a wonderful conversation as they discuss several factors that go into determining what makes something alive. Many of the factors can also be applied to fire which Beverly points out is a chemical reactions, whereas several of them do not apply to Data who is considered alive. It's a great thinking scene. Much more intelligently written than the drama that was written for Evolution and The Offspring. They hit on self preservation being a determining factor, and this gives Data the information he needs to make a moral judgement. He goes to the station and asks Geordi and Farallon to stop using the exocomps because he believes they are alive. In a staff meeting he tells them about the repairs that the exocomp made to itself after the explosion and submits that it was displaying self preservation. Farallon is outraged at this notion even though she's talking to a living machine. She reluctantly agrees to preform an experiment with the exocomp to see if it is showing intelligence. They send it into a Jeffries Tube to repair a small breech and then simulate a plasma cascade failure which would cause an explosion if it was real. The exocomp turns to leave but then goes back to resume the repair and doesn't leave even at the point where the simulated failure would've destroyed the tube. It comes back only after she calls it back. Data is perplexed and Farallon feels validated and storms off, still insulted by the whole rigamarole. Data stays to preform the test again. He repeats it 34 times with the same result. On the thirty-fifth time Crusher comes by to talk to Data. As they discuss the exocomp, he fails to call it back out of the tube. Then it comes out by itself. The tool on the end has changed too. It is a tool for repairing the cascade failure signal. It knew all along that it was a false signal. This confirms Data's theory.
Meanwhile Picard has gone down to the station with Geordi to see how the particle fountain is coming along when things go badly. They get a radiation leak and the station becomes very unstable. Farallon and all of her team are able to transport back except for one who is killed from an explosion. The radiation spikes so high that they can't transport Geordi and Picard now. Geordi puts up a temporary force field around the particle fountain but it won't last long. On the Enterprise they discuss options. A shuttle craft would take too long. A modified torpedo to interrupt the fountain would work, but the modifications would take too long. Farallon suggests using the exocomps down to interrupt the stream by beaming them into the stream and exploding them. Since even she can't deny they have self preservation instincts now, she admits that those command circuits would have to be disabled. Riker okays it, but then they discover that the transporter controls have been locked out by Data. Riker pulls Data into the ready room fully prepared to court marshal him for risking Geordi and Picard's lives. Data offers to go down himself and fix the problems but Riker won't allow that either since the radiation would hurt Data's positronic matrix. Data points out that it is his choice and that the exocomps aren't being given a choice. So, Riker decides that perhaps they can be given that choice. Farallon reconnects the appropriate circuitry and Data types in the commands giving them the option to shut down. Instead, they reprogram Data's commands, demonstrating that they've created an alternative plan based on their vast knowledge of the station. They are beamed down and begin to try to distort the frequency of the stream. When Picard and Geordi see this they move to assist them with the consoles. They finally distort the stream enough to be able to beam the crewmen back.
They immediately try to beam back the exocomps, but they can only bring back two. One had to stay to keep the frequency distorted. Their solution was better - only one exocomp sacrificed instead of all three. It's kind of sad to see the cute little exocomp destroyed, but although these bots are aware, they don't have personalities. It's what they were trying to do with the nanobots in Evolution except you get to see their logic process in action. Farallon agrees to study the exocomps as intelligent beings rather than using them as tools. They use the word "exploiting" but that's harsh since the exocomps' solution to the fountain problem seemed to indicate a cold intelligence. They understood before they were sent down that sacrificing one part of the device that they were collectively forming would be necessary and had no problem implementing this plan. It ends with Data defending his actions by making a reference to Measure Of A Man when Picard had defended Data's rights as a living being. It's a nice little ending.
It puts one in the mind of Short Circuit, except the exocomps weren't upwardly mobile and human-like. Frakes directed, and it was very well executed. It was a good, solid episode with nothing to complain of. Four stars.
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