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.
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.