Headscratchers / Star Trek: The Next Generation S2E9 "The Measure of a Man"

• You'd think that Data's sentience would be a subject that would be brought up upon Data joining the Academy to begin with. Quite frankly, it doesn't say a lot for Starfleet that this hearing even happened in the first place. The episode notes that Maddox (on the board which decided whether his application was accepted), opposed Data joining on exactly this reasoning, moreover, yet apparently the others didn't examine it further or officially declare that he was a sentient being then.
  • It’s not explored until arguably with the Admiral regarding Lal, but there may have been ulterior motives— that Starfleet brass actually DID consider Data to be a toaster and simply wanted this advanced Soong android asset under their control. If that’s true, Maddox may have actually been the only one honest in his intentions. That would also be consistent with a computer nerd completely missing the subtext of what was really going on.
  • You also might wonder why Picard didn't ever think to look up the other people on that board for their rationale for judging Data to be a life form.
  • Bureaucracy and red tape in action - Starfleet didn't mind having Data join the organization, meaning that he was under their purview. After all, it was a Starfleet ship that discovered Data in the first place, so they were pleased to have him as a part of the organization, probably at least in part so that they could do as Maddox tries whenever they so chose. But, once he decided to act against their wishes, well, he's a toaster, disassemble him.
  • Honestly even more so than the academy (Which one might argue was the only way to give a machine like Data the "information" it needs to do its job), an even more damning piece of evidence that Starfleet has already ruled Data to be a human is that Starfleet gave Data ranks, promotions, and commendations, which it plainly does not give "objects". To take Maddox' own point "Imagine if the Enterprise's computer could just quit" - "Imagine if someone gave the Enterprise's computer a rank and authority over most of the ship's personnel. Coz that's what by Maddox' own logic what Starfleet did.
• You'd think that Maddox would get punished in some way for trying to force Data to undergo a potentially lethal medical experiment without consent.
  • Maddox was going through official Starfleet channels to achieve his goals, so legally there was nothing to punish. In all likelihood, had he successfully gone through with the personnel transfer and Data continued to object to the procedure, Maddox would have just made the same arguments about Data being Starfleet "property" to rule such objections meaningless, but would have already deprived him of a crew that considered him truly sentient and would willingly mount a defense; with a ruling that Data is "a toaster," ethical concerns about dismantling him without his consent would be equated to a child tearing apart a doll without its "consent." And as Guinan forced Picard to realize, Starfleet would have considered it in their best interests to allow Maddox to go through with his research, and would have folded easily had Jean-Luc not raised a formal objection as his superior officer.
    • The problem is that his crime falls under the civilian courts, which wouldn't care about Starfleet's precedent due to the obvious bias involved, including Riker being forced to serve as the prosecutor.