Star Trek:TNG "Measure of a Man" (S2E09)

1092 Views 8 Replies 5 Participants Last post by mattack, Nov 12, 2011

doom1701

Discussion Starter · Nov 6, 2011

OAD: 2/13/1989

OK, let's get the elephant in the room out of the way first. This episode had what I feel is the worst reuse of an existing model or effect in the show's history. I know people complained about Spacedock in the Binar episode, but this was a hundred times worse, IMO. The Regula station was pretty small, and the size of many of it's design elements (or those of the Dockyards station that it started out as) were very pronounced. While it often bugged me how so many planets were "Starbase XYZ", I would have much rather seen a planet used than the reuse of the station from the movies.

OK, that's done. Now for the story. I'm torn on this one. If I ignored logic, it was pretty good. Data may have crossed the "emotions" line, but not so much that it detracted from the story. Riker's conflict was good--another interesting use of the most versatile character in Star Trek.

But this is a story that shouldn't have been able to happen. Data had been an officer for 20 years (give or take) at this point. He had multiple commendations, and had served on many ships in many different functions. At no point in the past had anyone asked the question "Is this guy sentient or not?"

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LoadStar

· #2 · Nov 6, 2011

Well, one thing that can be said about the starbase, it was at least a reasonable scale overall, certain design elements notwithstanding.

Yet another rather obvious redress of the Battle Bridge set. I can see why they eventually had to build a new battle bridge... there was nothing left of the old one by the time they needed to use it again.

We have yet another hideous admiral's uniform in this episode. They just aren't getting any better by this point, are they? It's amazing how long it took them before they finally came up with something tolerable. This one was probably my least favorite of them all, with the possible exception of the mock admiral's uniform with the garish braid that Q wore in "Hide and Q."

I didn't get why they had to rush to have a hearing. Having Data report to Maddox wasn't time sensitive... they could have just put the transfer orders on hold until a proper hearing could be held, with proper representation. It was also a very short hearing... Data was questioned and crossed, then Maddox was questioned... and that's it? Reality would suggest that this should be a fairly elaborate set of hearings with a long list of expert witnesses on both sides.

That said, on an emotional level, this was an amazing episode, and I still consider it one of my favorite episodes. Riker, Picard, even Louvois and Guinan all put in amazing performances in this episode. The only weak part was Maddox, who was a ridiculous caricature. He was a mustache short of being a mustache-twirling bad guy.

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doom1701

Discussion Starter · #3 · Nov 6, 2011

I actually liked this Admiral uniform a lot better than the Season 1 uniform. It wasn't great, but I thought it was better. The problem with this one was the stocky little dude they stuffed into it; all together, he looked like some sort of Admiral Muppet.

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Fish Man

· #4 · Nov 7, 2011

Definitely one of my favorite episodes. Crappy cheap sets and models notwithstanding, the story was awesome!

Melinda Snodgrass was my favorite ST:TNG writer, period. And, I love that I actually got to tell her that to her face at a convention circa 1990.

IMHO, Data's "lack of emotion" was as much BS as Spock's, and Ms. Snodgrass even indicated that she also had this opinion in her presentation at that convention.

Generally, I think this episode defined Data as a character, way more than any other. It's one of my favorites because in this episode, Data became a three dimensional, well rounded, well defined character, really for the first time in TNG.

One minor quibble. They gave a non-actress a major role here, (Amanda McBroom as Phillipa Louvois) and she was alright, but frankly, the role could have used a better actress. (Triva: Amanda McBroom's main occupation is as a songwriter. Her most famous hit song being "The Rose".)

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doom1701

Discussion Starter · #5 · Nov 11, 2011

Figured I'd bump this since not all the usual suspects have commented on the (only 2) episodes this week. Since I got them started early, maybe people thought I forgot.

But for a real comment--I'm surprised I didn't realize that the "courtroom" was the battle bridge set on the first run. It was painfully obvious this time; so obvious that it almost felt like they just pushed some stuff out of the way and threw in some tables.

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DougF

· #6 · Nov 11, 2011

I didn't notice the set. I watched it earlier this week before reading any comments here. I probably would notice it now, though. The re-use of the Regula model was painfully obvious, but that's budget stuff.

This one is pretty good. Liked it back then and I think it holds up pretty well.

Something that sticks out for me upon rewatching is Data's line about Maddox being the only one who opposed Data's entry into the Academy. Wasn't it established later that Data had been to the Academy over 20 years prior to the events of the show? Maddox doesn't look old enough to have been in that position over 20 years before.

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doom1701

Discussion Starter · #7 · Nov 11, 2011

DougF said:
Something that sticks out for me upon rewatching is Data's line about Maddox being the only one who opposed Data's entry into the Academy. Wasn't it established later that Data had been to the Academy over 20 years prior to the events of the show? Maddox doesn't look old enough to have been in that position over 20 years before.

I thought about that when I looked up the background on Data for my first post. None of the major sites have a birthdate for the actor that played Maddox (Brian Brophy). But he certainly didn't look old enough to have been in Starfleet for 20 years.

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LoadStar

· #8 · Nov 11, 2011

doom1701 said:
I thought about that when I looked up the background on Data for my first post. None of the major sites have a birthdate for the actor that played Maddox (Brian Brophy). But he certainly didn't look old enough to have been in Starfleet for 20 years.

And if you think about it, he would have had to have been in Starfleet rather longer than that. He would have had to have been at a high enough rank or position of authority 20 years ago to have a relevant voice to be able to oppose Data's entry into the Academy.

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mattack

· #9 · Nov 12, 2011

One of the best Trek episodes of any series!

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