Personally I would probably put “Devil’s Due” at number one, but I realized not everyone can have such a refined taste in Trek.
Personally I would probably put “Devil’s Due” at number one, but I realized not everyone can have such a refined taste in Trek.
Measure of a Man was groundbreaking but feels pretty dated to watch. Back when it aired, the idea that sentient AIs should be treated as humans was far from the mainstream. Today, we’ve seen so many sympathetic robots in pop culture (including, of course, Data) that the situation is reversed: the arguments aired against Data in this episode seem shockingly bigoted.
Imagine if the plot contrived to make Riker get up in front of the court to argue for slavery – even if he’s clearly labelled as playing devil’s advocate, it feels beyond the pale.