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I remember a scene in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, where Data and Picard are discussing Data and humanity. In particular, whether Picard would have a moral obligation to upgrade himself with e.g. prosthetic eyes better than human eyes, to execute his Starfleet duties to the best of his ability?

Is this part of The Measure of a Man?

2 Answers 2

33

You are correct, it is The Measure of a Man. Data is being asked to submit to a dangerous procedure for the benefit of Starfleet, and questions why biological beings are not subjected to this.

From http://www.st-minutiae.com/academy/literature329/135.txt. Note: the final conversation (as shown in @PeterSabers answer) differs slightly from the original script.

                  PICARD
          It's precisely because you are
          a Starfleet officer that they can.
          We take an oath to serve. In this
          case this is the form your service
          is taking.

                  DATA
          Sir, Lieutenant La Forge's eyes
          are far superior to human
          biological eyes, true?

                  PICARD
          Yes.

                  DATA
          Then why are not all human
          officers required to have their
          eyes replaced with cybernetic
          implants?

  Picard is utterly at a loss for words. We can see the
  confusion on his face as he struggles for an answer to
  this unanswerable remark. Data rises with great
  dignity.

                  DATA
              (continuing)
          I see. It is precisely because
          I am not human.
10

Are you talking about the scene in this very badly named video?

It's from "The Measure of a Man", yes.

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  • 8
    It's not only badly named, it's ironically named considering the entire episode is trying to answer the question of whether or not Data is property or not.
    – corsiKa
    Jun 24, 2015 at 17:03
  • 1
    I consider it badly named because in Star Trek, especially TNG, characters don't "own" each other, they educate. Data doesn't own Picard, he discusses a hard topic with him
    – Petersaber
    Jun 24, 2015 at 21:32
  • 1
    @Petersaber - To some people in this world, every discussion, every debate, every polite conversation, is a battle they must win.
    – Robotnik
    Jun 25, 2015 at 1:05
  • It might be considered wonderfully named. It doubles the meaning of "defeats" with the irony of the question of the whole episode about ownership of Data Jun 25, 2015 at 4:05
  • 2
    To me it's just childish. "Pwned!". But that's just my opinion
    – Petersaber
    Jun 25, 2015 at 5:59

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