Nah, it’s a pretty consistent issue with the writing in SNW, honestly. And it’s not like they had another option, given that the show is very early in the timeline and the lore is all set.
The problem is wanting to do Measure of a Man around this idea for the character in the first place. It didn’t fit but they went for it anyway. They could have come up with a different, interesting sci-fi setup, but they just had to be referential. Which, admittedly, does seem like an issue with how the show is conceptualized, at least as of S2.
Very easy fix: Data is captured by people on a planet who argue that they can keep him because he isn’t alive. The Enterprise crew has to work within the system because blah blah Prime Directive or treaty negotiations or whatever.
Hard disagree. The entire point of the episode is reflecting on how “we” (as in, presumably the US, which is what the Federation has always been a stand-in for) dehumanize people for convenience. Very much in the first person. There’s a reason it’s Goldberg making the slavery argument and not, say, Troy.
If you turn it into something that happens to a different, less “evolved” society it suddenly is no longer a metaphor of acknowledging the faults it suddenly isn’t self reflection and instead becomes gloating about how the US fixed racism.
So yeah, no, it’s pretty fundamental to the point that it’s Starfleet’s legal system that is threatening to dehumanize a sentient being, and not anybody else’s.
All fair. My guess would be Kurtzman and the suits at Paramount not wanting to “shake the apple cart” more than necessary.
Nah, it’s a pretty consistent issue with the writing in SNW, honestly. And it’s not like they had another option, given that the show is very early in the timeline and the lore is all set.
The problem is wanting to do Measure of a Man around this idea for the character in the first place. It didn’t fit but they went for it anyway. They could have come up with a different, interesting sci-fi setup, but they just had to be referential. Which, admittedly, does seem like an issue with how the show is conceptualized, at least as of S2.
Very easy fix: Data is captured by people on a planet who argue that they can keep him because he isn’t alive. The Enterprise crew has to work within the system because blah blah Prime Directive or treaty negotiations or whatever.
Suddenly the whole episode works.
Hard disagree. The entire point of the episode is reflecting on how “we” (as in, presumably the US, which is what the Federation has always been a stand-in for) dehumanize people for convenience. Very much in the first person. There’s a reason it’s Goldberg making the slavery argument and not, say, Troy.
If you turn it into something that happens to a different, less “evolved” society it suddenly is no longer a metaphor of acknowledging the faults it suddenly isn’t self reflection and instead becomes gloating about how the US fixed racism.
So yeah, no, it’s pretty fundamental to the point that it’s Starfleet’s legal system that is threatening to dehumanize a sentient being, and not anybody else’s.