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

• Blooper: Whoopi Goldberg had a memorable one from this episode; in the speech where she alerts Picard to the possibility of future artificial intelligences being enslaved:
  Consider that in the history of many worlds, there have been creatures who are disposable. They are the people who forget...what the fuck they're talking about...
• Creator's Favorite Episode:
  • Marina Sirtis cited this as her favorite, commenting, "It was perfect Star Trek. A riveting story, great performances and a moral issue to think about".
  • It's probably no surprise that Brent Spiner also picked this as his favorite as well.
  • Rick Berman cited this as one of his favourites.
  • Michael Piller named this as one of his favorite TNG episodes, "because they had remarkable emotional impacts. And they genuinely explored the Human condition, which this franchise does better than any other when it does it well."
• Edited for Syndication: When this episode is shown on BBC America, it ends with Data formally refusing to undergo Maddox's procedure. Cue triumphant music — and forget Maddox's Character Development, as well as the reconciliation scene between Riker and Data.
• Executive Meddling: Gene Roddenberry initially didn't want to do a Courtroom Episode, as in his vision of 24th century humanity no-one ever committed any crimes, and thus there would be no need for a formal legal system. Melinda Snodgrass won him over by pointing out that even if there really wasn't any crime in the show's setting, some form of legal system would need to exist to deal with things such as arbitrating civil disputes or dealing with situations that have no legal precedent.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The Season 2 Blu-Ray release has an extended version thanks to writer Melinda Snodgrass having the only recording in existence of these extra scenes from a tape of a rough cut of the episode.
• Prop Recycling: The model of Starbase 173 was a reuse of the orbital docking platform model from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which was also famously used as space lab Regula I in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
• Recycled Set: The courtroom set was a redress of the battle bridge set (which itself was a redress of the Enterprise bridge from the first four movies). The set featured a map of the galaxy previously seen in "Conspiracy" and a chart showing the current location of twenty-four starships.
• Referenced by...: Young Sheldon: In "An Ugly Car, an Affair and Some Kickass Football", as they watch this episode, Sheldon explains to Wayne that Data is an android who wants to be human. Not that Wayne cares one way or the other.
• Write What You Know: Writer Melinda Snodgrass drew from her own experience as an attorney in writing the episode.