Memes for Nerds

@Toadman005 Ive not watched much Next Gen stuff, but I remember you posting that one particular episode was the GOAT. Share the link/episode name?
 
Hard2Bluff said:
@Toadman005 Ive not watched much Next Gen stuff, but I remember you posting that one particular episode was the GOAT. Share the link/episode name?
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Are you sure I wasn't mentioning Deep Space 9? it's my favorite show of all time. More than Game of Thrones, or Firefly, etc.

As for TNG, I absolutely adore the episode Lower Decks, but to appreciate it, you have to already have enjoyed all 7 seasons of TNG leading up to it, to see the main cast/crew from a different perspective, and life on the enterprise from a different lens.

As for what I feel is the best TNG episode? For me, it's "Measure of a Man". The premise is this: Data, the Enterprises's android, is unique among Stafleet and arguably it's (Starfleet's) most invaluable and irreplaceable asset. He serves on the enterprise as second officer. (for context, he's very much the Spock of TNG.Only, inversely to Spock, who sought the Vulcan logic lineage over his human heritage, Data, despite being vastly superior to any biological life form, seeks to be more human.)

In the episode, a high brass engineer of Starfleet/the Federation arrives on the Enterprise with permission to dismantle and reverse engineer Data, so that he/Starfleet may decipher with intent to replicate Data's components (specifically his positronic neural network compution - his brain) to greatly benefit Starfleet and mankind. The drawback? Well, Data would be destroyed, dead. Data is, obviously, not inclined to agree to his own destruction, but, the engineer's argument is, Data is Starfleet property. He's not a person. He's equipment. Technology. Nothing more. He has no say in the matter. And one very special android's existence and loss does not take precedent/priority over the potential groundbreaking discoveries his dismantling would possibly yield. Picard argues that Data is a sentient being, and as such has bodily autonomy, and basic human rights (despite not being human). He argues the engineers arguments are akin to slavery and ceremonial execution.

An Admiral is called in to convene a trial, to hear the opposing arguments and merits of both stances. Picard acts as Data's counsel, arguing for his legal status freedom to choose. Riker, the Enterprises first officer, is ordered to argue on Starfleet's behalf. He has to try and defend the position that his friend is nothing more than advanced technology that, while unique, would be far better suited to being dismantled for the potential of being replicated, than merely existing. He has to prove his friend is nothing more than a computer in a human looking shell. Both sides make compelling, logical, ethical, honest arguments.

I won't spoil it for you, but its Star Trek at it's best...two opposing arguments, neither right, nor wrong, with no good or bad guy, just an intellectual argument that leaves it to the viewer to decide.

 
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