History Headscratchers / StarTrekTheNextGenerationTechnology

** After watching the episode again, I think the show actually hints at an explanation. Notice which station Data is using when he does all this. He's not sitting at Ops, or one of the command consoles, or even the bridge engineering station like you might expect; he's using Science I. That's ''exactly'' the station you'd want to use if you were trying to screw with the ship's sensors. Data did something to the internal sensors that made the computer think that Picard really ''was'' on the bridge.

*** All this is true, but it does make you wonder: shouldn't the creators, all seasoned TV writers, have thought through these issues in advance and left out the separation idea entirely? It's just funny the way the pilot uses it like it's going to be part of the show's brand identity (look what we can do that the original ship couldn't) but which largely, for a host reasons, sits on the shelf unused.

[[folder:Ferengi pirates on old Bird-of-Preys are dreadful as a Borg Cube]]

** "A Fistful of Datas" is perhaps even more egregious, since the holodeck malfunctioning seems to be accompanied by communication failing for no obvious reason. But this has to happen, because otherwise they can ask for a beam-out and call it a day.[[/folder]]

*** I thought that was an obvious bit of horror actually, you'll notice that the Federation is actually quite [[FantasticRacism Fantastically Racist]] against any and all artificial life. Oh, not silicon based life that "evolves" naturally, those guys are perfectly fine. But any created form of life, well, it took Picard talking to [[MagicalNegro Guinan]] to realize that their plans for Data in "A Measure of a Man" amounted to mass slavery. What scares me the most about that episode is that the JAG, in a ''court of law'', says that the real question is whether Data has a soul. I thought the Federation was secular? It doesn't help that every interaction The Doctor ([[Series/DoctorWho not that one]]) had with Starfleet in general in ''Voyager'' involved him having to ''prove'', and not easily, [[UnfortunateImplications that he was a sentient being with rights.]] ''And they didn't even rule that he was!'' The amount of times I've heard "He's just a hologram" gives me a chill. The main Computer of a ship, or most Holograms above a certain level of complexity would easily pass a Turing Test. It's almost as if the Federation tried this, and realizing that all their technology was proven sentient by this test, [[MovingTheGoalposts they designed a harder test.]] They are very deathist as well, considering the ease with which most of their technology would enable biological immortality. They seem to de-age people on a regular basis.

** It's less that her technology is necessarily more advanced; it's just that she's applying it in ways that Starfleet doesn't expect. Perhaps "more innovative" works better than "more advanced." Hardly the only episode where Enterprise security looks horrendous, but at least there's a little bit of a justification this time.

** There were other forms of AI, but Star Fleet didn't have the technology to build an android as sophisticated as Data.

*** The episode says that the Acts of Cumberland ("passed in the early twenty first century," so any day now!) provide legal precedent for Data being understood as property of Starfleet. Just how is not explained, but at least there's HandWave. It opens a host of question of its own, not the least how statues passed on Earth well prior to the Federation's foundation provide precedent to anything...

*** A salvage expedition legitimately owns all the '''things''' it finds. But Data ain't a thing, he is a person. Owning people is wrong. Fed had already recognized Data as a citizen, he went to the Academy, he was commissioned an officer, he was awarded medals and now the evil Fed wants to cancel his citizenship on a whim. They did the same in [=DS=]9, Eddington wanted an illegal search versus Cassidy. Sisko: You can't conduct an illegal search against a Federation citizen. Eddington: She ceased to be a Federation citizen when she sold medical supplies to the Maquis.

* In "The Mind's Eye," why are Geordie and Data test firing the suspicious phaser rifle in the engine room, where they're surrounded by critical equipment? ''Enterprise'' has a small arms range that has appeared on-screen on at least two occasions. They also have a central armory--''also'' seen on-screen--which probably has a facility specifically designed for the maintenance, diagnosis, and repair of the ship's inventory of phasers. Even failing that, ''Enterprise'' has a number of science and engineering laboratories, one of which ''must'' be better suited for what they're doing. Instead of using any of those facilities, however, they inexplicably decide that the best place to examine and repeatedly fire the rifle is about 20 feet from the warp core; thereby maximizing the possibility of blowing up the whole ship if something goes wrong.