Star Trek: 15 Most Culturally Significant Episodes

What does it mean to be alive? What constitutes sentience in the universe? Who are we to define the rights of those we do not understand?

Such are the questions posed in this courtroom drama episode of the Next Generation, with Data effectively being put on trial represent not just his own existence, but the existence of any like him who would follow.

Is Data alive? Or is he property, simply because he was built rather than born?

The world is achieving more and more innovations in terms of robotics and perhaps someday sooner rather than later, this is a question that is going to have to be asked. Here, Data's lack of emotion is exactly the foil that is needed for the heightened emotion on show from all around him.

Maddox is of course the symbol of the system not caring for the rights of the workers, while Picard is the passionate hero. Riker is the unwilling participant in the subjugation of those like Data and Phillipa is tasked with making one of the farthest reaching decisions in Federation history.

In the end, the court rules in favour of Data but this is not as all-encompassing as it could be. The Voyager episode Author, Author touches on the same theme, though in that case there is definitely not a confirmation of the Doctor's rights as an artificial being.

Even in the Star Trek universe, not all being are created equally.