My wife and I are rewatching The Next Generation and just finished Measure of a Man, the episode in season 2 in which Data’s personhood is legally debated and his life hangs in the balance.

I genuinely found this episode infuriating in its stupidity. It’s the first episode we skipped even a little bit. It was like nails on a chalkboard.

There is oodles of legal precedent that Data is a person. He was allowed to apply to Starfleet, graduated, became an officer and rose to the rank of Lt. Commander with all the responsibilities and privileges thereof.

Comparing him to a computer and the judge advocate general just shrugging and going to trial over it is completely idiotic. There are literal years and years of precedent that he’s an officer.

The problem is compounded because Picard can’t make the obvious legal argument and is therefore stuck philosophizing in a court room, which is all well and good, but it kind of comes down to whether or not Data has a soul? That’s not a legal argument.

The whole thing is so unbelievably ludicrous it just made me angrier and angrier. It wasn’t the high minded, humanistic future I’ve come to know and love, it was a kangaroo court where reason and precedent took a backseat to feeling and belief.

I genuinely hated it.

To my surprise, in looking it up, I discovered it’s considered one of the high water marks for the entire show. It feels like I’m taking crazy pills.

    • scrion@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      2 months ago

      Oh, please skip it. I watched the first season and I wish I could erase that experience from memory.

    • paddirn@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      2 months ago

      Red Letter Media did some youtube videos on all the Picard seasons, you’re much better off just watching them talk about it than actually watching Picard itself. Season 3 is supposedly better, but still not great.

    • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      2 months ago

      Picard was fumbled hard overall.

      They had some concepts that could’ve been deeply interesting, such as [SPOILERS] a dead Borg Cube in Romulan space, being studied by the Romulans, and looking for Bruce Maddox, the scientist who wanted to study Data in Measure of a Man (S1), Q dying and wanting to engage with Picard before he goes (S2), but they did a really bad job.

      Season 3 is a lot better. A lot of the sound and cinematography is great, it feels more like a Star Trek film than a TV show in terms of how it’s presented. That in itself isn’t a good thing or a bad thing, but I personally liked it.

      It’s a bit fan-servicey - there were times when I liked that, but also times I rolled my eyes. I’d say Season 3 is worth watching, and you’ll either like it or you won’t. Thankfully, the show pretty much resets itself for season 3, and you don’t really need any info from Seasons 1/2 going into it.

      • MudMan@fedia.io
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        2 months ago

        In S3 Picard and Bev Crusher at one point sit down to ponder whether to torture or execute a prisoner and decide to go for it.

        Yeah, no. It’s not AS bad… but it’s bad.

      • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        2 months ago

        Season 2 can absolutely be ignored entirely going into season 3, which is good because season 2 is complete garbage. And that annoys the hell out of me because it’s the one with Q, Guinan, and even a brief appearance of Wesley.

        • jpreston2005@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          2 months ago

          I watched, and really enjoyed Season 1, even with its flaws. I started season 2, and turned it off after I think an episode. I don’t know if they changed writers or what, but something about it was just too stupid. If I remember correctly, they brought back some person that died, or someone did something unforgivable in season 1 and then they’re back on the squad for… reasons? I dunno, it was so jarringly stupid I stopped watching a show based entirely on my favorite Star Trek captain. If your show, about Picard, turns off hardcore TNG fans… then, what are you even doing?

          Though I’ve heard that season 3 is good multiple times now, so perhaps I’ll try to reengage

          • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            2 months ago

            You should watch season 3. The only things to know about season 2 is that they wrote off all but 1 of the new characters, and that it’s entirely unimportant for season 3.

      • HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 months ago

        yeah, each season is pretty much self-contained, but it helps to have watched the previous ones the new characters so you can appreciate their story arcs.

        • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          2 months ago

          True. Although half the new characters were scrapped, or had their storylines ignored.

          Picard’s two Romulan… maids? Estate managers? went nowhere and disappeared

          Space Legolas went nowhere and disappeared

          Soji went nowhere and disappeared

          Raffi is there still, but her entire story arc got scrapped I believe? They were going for a “I’m a recovering addict and I want to reconnect with my son and his pregnant spouse”, and then it just completely disappeared as a plot line.

          Seven is there, but I think you can go into S3 and just think “oh, Picard and Seven know eachother. I guess that makes sense actually.”

          It certainly helps to have seen the previous seasons, you’re right. I’m pretty sure they reference that Picard is technically an android once, which would be a wtf moment if you’ve not seen season 1.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 months ago

      The final season of Picard is terrific. The others are not so good. But you kind of have to watch the others to understand some of the things in the final season.

      It’s mostly just a TNG reunion though.