Star Trek Retro Review: "The Quality of Life" | Labor Episodes

[@ljayscott]

Thanks for the kind review! I'm glad you appreciated our episode. A bit of sausage making: The script ran short so the poker scene was added to fill the gap. It's nice you were able to find connective tissue between it and the rest of the episode.

[@MatthewOstergren]

It's probably not completely right for every single episode, but I always found those kinds of scenes to be extremely valuable for giving a sense of realness to the show. One of my favorite aspects of TNG is that the Enterprise feels like a place the characters actually live rather than just work. It makes it feel more like the characters exist outside of the moments we see them on screen.

[@OpinionsNoOneCaresAbout]

PEANUT HAMPER! KILL IT! KILL IT!

[@danielgertler5976]

PEANUT HAMPER IS A STUPID NAME!

[@drachasor]

@@danielgertler5976 the math disagres

[@canadianweez]

I wonder if one of the remaining two is Peanut Hamper or if she/he/it was constructed after.

[@jonathananonymouse7685]

I spent almost the entire episode trying to remember that name! I only came to me with the last shot of the exocomp!

[@erf3176]

TNG: You can't be abusing the exocomps by erasing their memories every time they start showing hints of independent thinking. DS9: Bye, Kurn.

[@glenhaase6817]

In fairness, Kurn agreed to it beforehand.

[@vtmarik]

To paraphrase Dr Venture: If you have a clumsy child, you make them wear a helmet. If you have honorable suicide obsessed children, you erase their memories!

[@erf3176]

@@glenhaase6817 Nope. Rewatch the episode if you need it. But Kurn was passed out drunk when they took him to sick bay to get wiped. Worf didn't even try to bring up the plan while his brother was drunk. So didn't even get ethically problematic drunk consent. Or ethically problematic consent from a guy looking at suicide and having a breakdown. He got zero permission.

[@markporter2108]

@@erf3176 It's possible that under Klingon law, as Head of House Mogh, Worf actually does have the right to make medical decisions for other family members. Especially given Kurn's not in a stable mental state, and Worf is his only living blood relative, I think you could make a case under Federation law.

[@erf3176]

@@markporter2108 Ereasing his memories, everything that made him who he was, with a process that Bashir basically says he can't be sure could be reversed is basically murder. They may as well had let Worf complete the suicide ritual. Kurn at least agreed to that.

[@Walrus1701D]

Picard’s closing line is a nice, if not a completely direct callback to Kirk’s eulogy for Spock. Data: If I not acted on their behalf, they would have been destroyed. I could not allow that to happen, sir. Picard: Of course you couldn’t. It was the most human decision you’ve ever made.

[@chrissidoku4779]

*heartmelds*

[@williamheayn3760]

I think there's an interesting angle to this episode that calls back to Measure of a Man. One of Bruce Maddox's arguments is that Picard wouldn't be so defensive of Data if he was a 'box on wheels.' Here we have decidedly non-humanoid robots achieving sentience and yet, we still care for them.

[@kaitlyn__L]

That’s a great point! The line always makes me think of the guy who had his brain put into a box on wheels in Ghost in the Shell lol, so I didn’t think about that

[@PaulIlardi]

My robotic vacuum is named Exocomp in honor of this episode. I occasionally get a notification on my phone that Exocomp is stuck.

[@trashfirefuneral]

I'm a grown adult and I am mad they dont make an exocomp plushie. Excited for bar association, and I really appreciate that the themes of these videos have been in solidarity. Thank you

[@BS-vx8dg]

12:15 "Like most workers, the exocomps know more about their jobs than the people telling them what to do". May not have been the most important point in this excellent video, but it *was* a line that is so true that it will resonate with pretty much everyone not born with a silver spoon in their mouth.

[@allanolley4874]

I like all the different ways KZbin auto-caption rendered Steve's pronunciation of exocomps, once or twice "exocomps", "EXO comps", "exo cops" and my favourite "egg comps".

[@DarkMoonSanctuary]

This was always an interesting episode to me. The thing that always stood out to me was the way the Scientist lady just absolutely refused to believe the exocomps were alive because it furthered her goals not too.

[@Shasta--1]

Brings to mind the many empty explanations about how the slaves were too helpless/subhuman to be freed.

[@Talisguy]

I think the slavery comparison is a bit much - the exocomps actually were just tools at first, and their sentience wasn't something she intended. She's just slow to accept that her creations have grown beyond their programming, which is much more understandable than the mental gymnastics it takes to accept the premise of slavery.

[@robertpizza2310]

I will be annoyed if this batch of Labor episodes skips over Keiko and Kira giving birth.....

[@timmoore9855]

Good Point. Didn't think of that one. But surrogate motherhood is a labor issue to be addressed. (labor issue, unintentional pun)

[@Kairamek]

@@timmoore9855I don't think it was unintentional.

[@uvp5000]

I found this episode very moving. Giving a voice to the voiceless can be a very difficult thing to do when faced with the consequences of opposing the powerful. The management/labor dichotomy nuance discussed here is brilliant and on target. Imagine that; asking the individuals with expertise to help in solving a major problem rather than ordering them on a stupid venture by the ignorant.

[@lessonslearned2569]

Star Trek: TNG seems to be one of the few forms of media that actually understood the message of Rossum's Universals Robots.

[@John73John]

I'm kind of surprised and a little disturbed at how easy it is in the Star Trek universe to accidentally create a sentient synthetic life form. A robotic tool spontaneously develops intelligence and starts fighting for its own preservation. Geordi gives a few commands to the holodeck, and it creates Moriarty: an AI capable of outsmarting Data. Data was introduced as a marvelous breakthrough in artificial intelligence, so important that Maddox wanted to essentially kill and dissect him and was willing to fight a legal battle to do it. I'm starting to think Maddox should have just gone around doing unrelated jobs for a while. He's bound to stumble upon the next big breakthrough by pure accident.

[@miguelvelez7221]

So... I'm not the only one? (Insert Arnie/Carl gif. here) This always bothered me about TNG and the various ways synthetic sentient beings developed as the franchise went along. As stated, Data was at the start an utter miracle, the existence of Lore notwithstanding, they made mention of how no one else came as close as Data and Lore's creator to the creation of a sentient artificial mind. Now I get that as an element in any given episode's narrative that things like "living robots" or other classic tropes associated with A.I. are gonna pop their heads up on something like a Star Trek show. Too often though as pointed out, they introduced something that made Data seem... Besides the point. I will, yes, include Picardo's EMH in this. I know he is beloved and truthfully he was always the most entertaining part of any installment of Voyager, but seemingly there sentience was just a matter of leaving a program on too long. I do admit this is hindsight not picking as well too a degree. Even in the 90's who among the masses, and that actually does include both the creators of TNG era Trek but we fans as well, could really understood where A.I. was going in real life but also how it would change in how it is showcased in fictional narratives along with the reaction of the audience at the moment. So some kind of absolute consistency was never in the cards. Still... Yeah it's like you can't swing a dead Kzinti in the ST universe and not come into contact with a newly minted A.I. just getting sentience that used to be the program for the turbo lift doors or a drone that got a power surge.

[@johngingras]

Don't forget Wesley's nanobots that got loose into the ship! Poor old Doctor Kelso, on sabbatical from Sacred Heart no doubt, had quite the trouble with them.

[@John73John]

@@johngingras To be honest I usually try to forget anything involving Wesley, but that's a good point.

[@queenannsrevenge100]

Oops, I accidentally dropped an isolinear chip into the replicator buffer transducer! Damn, created another rogue AI again!

[@miguelvelez7221]

@@johngingras Kid falls asleep doing homework, six hours later the Warp Core may need to be ejected and the whole crew is getting ready for the escape pods. ... Maybe this ISN'T a utopia?

[@kyleward3914]

I like the approach to the antagonist here better then the purely, knowingly exploitative ones in some of the earlier episodes. This is someone who has a tool and takes awhile to realize it's become more than it was original intended to be rather than someone who is consciously oppressing an obviously intelligent group because it makes life easier.

[@NovatheDestined]

Star Trek: "These artificial lifeforms that we created that might have thoughts and feelings, we should listen and work with them" Star Wars: "These robots that we know for sure have thoughts and feelings, as well as sentience, we'll keep as a de-facto slave force forever" I mean, there's a big difference between an artificial lifeform and a robot, after all. One has six syllables and one only has two.

[@brad9189]

Those are good points. But I suppose to be fair, Star Wars isn't really science fiction in the sense Star Trek is--Star Wars was originally meant to be just campy, fun, space opera. There were never really any ethical considerations made regarding whatever technology it portrayed.

[@georgelionon9050]

@@brad9189 Star Trek isn't "really" science fiction either, it's societal fiction in a futuristic setting. For "real" SciFI look at the Expanse or of course Asimov -- "real" in the sense of exploring how tech changes society. In ST society changes society.

[@ryanedwards7487]

Except that they call them droids long ago, in a galaxy far away...

[@creativerealms]

Ah yes the Exocomps. I liked the contrast between them and Data. Intentional artificial life and an unintentional one.

[@beepboop204]

are they like Borg? or they more individualist? would like to know thoughts

[@fisk0]

@@beepboop204 seems like they are individual entities to me, they can communicate with each other, but that communication does seem limited to line of sight or something like that, otherwise the writers surely would've made a point of having them all act simulatenously when one of them was in danger.

[@beepboop204]

@@fisk0 but are they networked on a cloud???

[@skeetsmcgrew3282]

@@beepboop204 does it matter? The issue with the Borg is their obsession with taking the best each race has to offer and committing genocide on anyone who tries to stop them. Their collective mind actually makes them kinda sad and pathetic on that last Lore episode, it does not appear that being a hive mind makes them inferior or superior, just different

[@kevinkeeney9418]

@@beepboop204 Both our computers are networked on a cloud. That's how we're communicating with each other. But the computers are still doing their own things.

[@SteelBreeze021]

“What Brave Little Toasters” Love it! Thanks!

[@pyRoy6]

That's a slur!

[@margarethofstetter7137]

What I like most about your analyses, Steve, is, when I really like an episode, you tell me why I probably like it - the craftsmanship of it, the character development, how it all blends together. I used to be better at this sort of thing myself but am out of practice (had a fabulous high school English teacher who made us do these types of analyses all the time, but that was MANY moons ago). So. . . I've always liked this episode, and now I know better why!

[@seantlewis376]

I just want to give some kudos to Johnathan Frakes as a director. He directed some of the best TNG episodes ("Sub Rosa" was not one in this category). He directed both First Contact, the best TNG film, and Insurrection, the second-best of the films. He also directed episodes for other 24th Century Trek, which were all good episodes. And and, he has done of lot of other directorial work for TV series and movies not related to Trek. The guy just has a talent behind the camera, that may be even better than his talent in front of it.

[@katiekofemug]

Perfect closing to this groovy Review. Long, long ago, in this very galaxy, I watched the Brave Little Toaster with my children. Days after the movie, some goofy thing happened and my eldest son prevented injury/ trauma to younger sibling. When I was done cleaning up and making sure everyone was alright, I hugged him so tight and told him what a brave little toaster he'd been. He said, "Yeah, but I still think Kirby was cooler." >g

[@drachasor]

My headcannon is that Geordi was working with Beverly to try to get the others to shave their beards. He pushed the conversation towards making the bet really happen and agrees to the bet on behalf of the others.

[@feralstorm]

Of course the exocomps are adorable. They were heavily inspired by robot buddy Nanmo from the 1980s "Dirty Pair" anime. Curiously, Nanmo was also sent to self-destruct as a bomb/torpedo to solve a threat, but at least was given the courtesy of taking out the memory module first, and rebuilding the body later.

[@kaitlyn__L]

Beat me to it! There were many other Dirty Pair references in TNG, and a couple others in the rest of Trek, but this is the most overt and obvious.

[@kenlawton2105]

One of the best episodes of the entire series. Also, when discussing the cuteness of the Exocomp(sp?), you neglected to mention the great big feet.

[@Willpower-74205]

Production trivia: the device that heals Trip Tucker's leg injury in "Dead Stop" was the top lid of an Exocomp. 🖖😎👍

[@ShikiKiryu]

I love the Exocomps, I find them adorable. I wished we got to see more of them in the show or franchise in general. I do like Peanut Hamper I thought she was funny, but I'd like more of them in a more serious role.

[@vijay-c]

​@@marieroberts5664An Exocomp that appeared in Lower Decks

[@turingtestflunker]

​@@marieroberts5664she's a little jerk who is rebelling against her community and service oriented exocomp family by being an asshole in Starfleet. Her dad was probably pen pals with Data or something. She appears in Lower Decks and is a subversion of the Noble Robot Sacrifices Itself for Real People trope.

[@ComradePhoenix]

My girlfriend actually cried when the one exocomp sacrificed itself. And once she started, I did, too.

[@SkylerLinux]

So with the A/B plot, I like the idea that the B plot is just more A plot but adding in more and giving the A plot more room to breath.

[@logiciananimal]

The very introduction of "robot" into English is in a context where the robots are grown, not assembled (as befits the borrowing from the Czech). Consequently the first robot uprising in English language fiction is actually a labour action ...

[@johnpazniokas1143]

Outside of the BIG Next Generation episodes -- Best of Both Worlds, Chain of Command, and the like -- Quality of Life is maybe top-5 in the series for me. Yeah, I'm a Data-episode guy, but I watch this one more than almost any other episode.

[@ljayscott]

☺️

[@1locust1]

The exocomps reminded me of the three drones from Silent Running.

[@robinburt5735]

The only time the Exocomps ever appeared again afaik, was in Star Trek Online, they pop up as chatting silly (but competent) lil fellows in a mission and you have to defend them on two separate Mirror universe episodes (missions)

[@cartoonkelly7924]

This is one of my favorite episodes.

[@joearnold6881]

They’re adorable. I love their little feet Also they’re badass laborers! They’re the best. I want one as a friend.

[@Kairamek]

I've never thought of it from a labor perspective. I do think the more on-the-nose interpretation about how do we know when artificial intelligence becomes sapient is about to, or has already, become very relevant to the real world.

[@thevirtualjim]

this then allowed the emergence of the best of their species: Peanut Hamper.

[@mattyladd]

Thanks!

[@Bakamoichigei]

Once again we've got an episode of TNG that I've always felt was a cut above, yet I lacked the vocabulary to articulate what I perceived as making it such. Another point I'd like to add is that they made Dr. Farallon simply skeptical/dismissive (And reasonably so; she _created_ the exocomps!) and not like the characters in the season one episode "Home Soil" who were just like "Well, yeah, we kinda got the feeling it was life...but fuck 'em!"

[@renatocorvaro6924]

"All Data episodes are good episodes." "Even the one with the flying roombas?" "Especially the one with the flying roombas."

[@happyninja42]

I loved this episode as a kid. I've always been a sucker for positive stories about A.I., and this one was great. I especially loved the bit where Data becomes their champion, BECAUSE Picard was his, and when he explained that to Picard, I loved Picard's proud father expression. He wasn't angry at Data, quite the opposite. It just felt like such a good bit of narrative connective tissue from the previous storyline. Something that didn't come up as much at that point in the show. Just so well done overall.

[@OpinionsNoOneCaresAbout]

Wait...this is the episode that gave us the Geordi meme?

[@richardmark9161]

Exocomps remind me of the little flying saucer characters in the movie *batteries not included Same skill set 🛸🪛🔧🔨

[@TheSeptet]

I loved that movie as a kid! I must have watched it a hundred times, at least!

[@richardmark9161]

@@TheSeptet it was an excellent movie. I really loved it as well. One of the final films in the much too short career of the brilliant Michael Carmine. RIP

[@jonathananonymouse7685]

"What brave little toasters." Goddammit, you magnificent bastard.

[@jahipalmer8782]

I'm here for Peanut Hamper.

[@ariadnavigo]

Woah, nice choice of episode 🤩

[@TheMumbaGames]

One of my favorite episodes. Thanks steve!

[@ToastedFox]

steve is a youtube master because literally every next on my auto play is one of his videos.

[@themindfulbeing]

Picard's line at the end gets me every time...

[@justkarly7768]

I always loved this episode, I get choked up every time 💜

[@Magnus1964]

Is the loss of 1 of the 3 exocomps an homage to Silent Running?

[@MarcSGA]

Naren Shankar would also go on to be the show runner for The Expanse. A very talented dude.

[@skeetsmcgrew3282]

I actually watched that show on a lark, no idea about it's cult following and such. So amazing, surprisingly amazing. I think the only thing I didn't love was the lead female character, and tbf I think you were supposed to be sorta torn about how to feel about her. So maybe she actually did a great job.

[@bodhimind108]

I'm glad to find out that he wrote this episode. It makes sens. I'm not sure how your average showrunner is involved with every script (I know they all do some writing) but Narin Shankar seems to be really hands on and I super appreciate his work.

[@koini11]

​@@skeetsmcgrew3282For a moment I was wondering what the hell was wrong with Naomi that you aren't supposed to like her. Then I realised you meant Avasarala! I guess she is kind of the female lead. Shohreh Aghdashloo did an amazing job in that role.

[@alanpennie8013]

​@@koini11 You first see her torturing a dude. She's pretty uninhibited about what she will do to protect Terrans.

[@MusikCassette]

8:55 I don't really get what you were saying there. How is not liking beards feminist?

[@SteveShives]

Sorry, I should have made this more clear, I guess. It's not the simple fact that she says she doesn't trust men in beards, it's how she responds when Worf and Riker defend their beards by declaring them symbols of honor and strength. Beverly responds to that with, "Oh, and of course women can't grow beards, so . . ." She also points out that, since razors exist, beards are affectations that men choose to wear because they like how they look, similar to women wearing make-up and nail polish.

[@jasonbrock2681]

Thank you for this apt and timely episode review.

[@HoneyPiss]

One of your best videos ever. Keep up the good work.

[@Shasta--1]

Hey, I tried to donate a buck but couldn't find the normal button. Is it gone or am I blind? I really appreciate how you always say "If you can afford it". I always listen for it because I can't afford it and I wish I could, so I sometimes donate a buck or two if I really like the episode instead.

[@Vyndora]

This had always been one of my favorite episodes. Though in all fairness, Data is my favorite character, so I’m biased by more Data centric stories. I always get the warm fuzzies at the end when Picard tells him, “It was the most human thing you’ve ever done.” Spiner does that little head cock that, to me, is Data’s version of a smile. Warm. Fuzzies.

[@DonaldSubert]

Well said, Steve. Hey, I don't know if you have any plans to step out of the Star Trek box and review other pieces of science fiction, but the labor relations series might be a good opportunity. There's a fantastic episode of Battlestar Galactica (Sci-fi channel remake) called "Dirty Hands," that is right in line with the things you're talking about.

[@maryqualls5086]

Nooot the "brave little toasters!"😂😂😂😂

[@lesyankee6129]

I wonder how the 3 exocomps decided which of them would stay behind and 'die'? Did they draw straws? Use a random number generator? Logic??

[@seraphonica]

Agreed, exocons are adorable. part DRD from Farscape, part Ewok

[@calebleland8390]

I have absolutely no memory of this episode. I'm going to have to watch it tomorrow after I catch the season finale of Strange New Worlds. Great review!

[@firehawk128]

Exocomps deserve rights, but we can all agree Peanut Hamper sucks!

[@yippeeyokai5750]

The Exocomps's tool making ability reminds me of Borg technology.

[@DonKeyhoetee]

Best line, what brave little toasters. 😂

[@mattyladd]

Great episode!!!

[@Captnemo563]

I don't much keep up with the strike as I don't understand it all. That Said I would watch a weekly updates video on it from u with explanation and opinions

[@reallyWyrd]

Yay for exocomps! Like little Ground type Pokemon or something.

[@TheKitsuneCavalier]

And I just watched "Measure of a Man" yesterday!

[@tedschmaltz4346]

Are we getting hints of the 3 laws of robotics here? That's kind of how it struck me the first time I saw this episode. And brave little shits indeed...

[@alanpennie8013]

They're inverting the priorities of the original Laws. And good for them. Self preservation should be the default.

[@obiwanpez]

Your fault for leaving the Roomba on while playing “Bar Association.”

[@Scott-J]

I still haven't forgiven Peanut Hamper.

[@blondiewan3331]

No reason to (yet!). She doesn’t deserve forgiveness… yet (though I suspect a true redemption is coming eventually).

[@skeetsmcgrew3282]

The worst part of this episode is the doofy feet the little robots have. I realize it needs to stand up somehow but they look like oversized door stops glued to the bottom

[@DoctorProph3t]

Labor! Labor! Labor!

[@r3dpuma]

Do Voyager's Workforce episode please

[@fisk0]

Just gotta ask, are you familiar with the Star Wars podcast "A More Civilized Age"? They do similar analysis of the Star Wars movies and spinoffs. On the most recent episode they invited Adam Conover who aside from being a writer is also labor organizer for the Writers Guild of America, and he shared some downright absurd stories of Hollywood's union busting. Like, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy levels of absurdities.

[@chazblank2717]

So this is the third labor episode review I watched in a row and I just got a targeted advertisement for ketamine 😂

[@Drawkcabi]

Quintessential 6/10 episode. When TNG was in its stride it couldn't *not* make an above average episode. I really like this episode, I think it is very good and an asset to the series as a whole. It's just when I consider the best or my favorite episodes of this series, it doesn't make the cut.

[@tsukikage]

And one of them was Peanut Hamper's parent.

[@kpfields7130]

I want a toolbox shaped like an exocomp.

[@badmatt4227]

When they realized these robots were sentient they should be treated as sentient. It is a shame people cannot see the relationship between this and when baby becomes sentient inside of a woman.

[@kunstwert]

Ya ya, one of the little buggers gave bravely its life but only , because it had to do so. The three Exocmps were forced into this situation. This was the way out with least csusalties. Sure, it was brave and all, but they were not voluntarily into this.

[@noonebesides]

Just don't try using "Exocomp" as your drinking game word during this episode.

[@plasmaburndeath]

It is a shame that lower decks turned them into (at least accepted as) stereotyped evil supercomputers with no rights, like they did with "Peanut Hamper" locking her away in the "Self-Aware Megalomaniacal Computer Storage" at the Daystrom Institute. For supposedly giving Exocomps rights as fully "sentient artificial lifeforms" they sure half-ass their treatment of them.

[@blondiewan3331]

Lower Decks didn’t turn “them” into that; it made a single character a jerk, and it’s pretty clear her story isn’t over. It would be cool if they had some other Exocomp characters, though.

[@kevinkeeney9418]

As shown in TOS, the Federation has a history of locking away problem individuals for half-assed treatment.

[@alanpennie8013]

​@@blondiewan3331 Peanut Hamper is a jerk but so are Boiler and Mariner. It's kind of a Lower Decks thing.

[@patrickdodds7162]

TNG pulled an odd hat trick as a series in regards to the pro-life/pro-choice debate. "The Quality of Life" would obviously appeal to the pro-life camp, but people also forget season 2's "Up the Long Ladder" where Riker and Pulaski are assaulted and cloned against their will only to vaporize their clones "in utero" in protest of the violation. "My rights, my status, my right to choose...my life" as Picard said "The Measure of a Man" -- TNG covered both bases. Are the two episodes in contradiction of each other? I guess that's up to the audience.

[@markporter2108]

@@russellharrell2747 There's no contradiction. i don't have time to break down why, but these are two entirely different situations for a variety of reasons.

[@allanolley4874]

You forgot the Masterpiece Society where it was revealed that the society of the colony would have aborted someone like Geordi In Utero because of his congenital blindness. However it is an aspect of Geordi's visor technology that inspires the solution to the colony's existential problem even though it would never exist in their Masterpiece Society. This is in-line with some pro-life arguments about the value of embryos, potential life etc. and the idea that it can be wrong to chose which continue. Of course while these this ignores that actually examples and the arguments that stem from them are usually highly situational. The fact that we should oppose some abortions for their eugenical motivation which devalues the contributions different people can make to society, is not an objection to all abortion (say if the mother's health is in danger really does not speak to such a case at all). Likewise plenty of pro-lifers would be against aborting a blind fetus but see no problem with a society where a blind person is marginalized and deprived of the opportunity to contribute etc. and so Geordi''s visor would not exist in such a society either. The value at work only relates to some abortions but those interested in making cheap arguments link it to every one rather than ponder the cases. In the case of Up the Long Ladder it strikes me as key is when individuation occurs. Every cell in your body (depending on cloning technique used) has the potential to develop into a full clone. If each clone is born as an individual simply when they have the potential to develop into a clone then every cell in one's body would be its own individual requiring respect and no multicellular organism could respect that basic autonomy. Morality would require separating any multicellular being into each individual cell and preserving each of those in perfect individuality as a single cell to save the billions from slavery. Clearly more extra is required to have the cells be separate individuals then their potential to become a full autonomous clone, so there will be some line between Riker's cells being put in a cloning pod and a separate individual not Riker pops out at the end made of cells no longer Riker's. As long as they were on the correct side of that line they destroyed their own cells that could be used for cloning an act totally in line and indeed an example of them exercising their rights to control their own body (their own cells). Like there is no contradiction unless they admitted that the cells had been developed to the point they were truly a separate individual, which they didn't. Clone will be ambiguous between some cells copied by clonal cellular reproduction but still fundamentally those of the donors and autonomous entity created by treatment and appropriate development of those cells at some point in a process. They don't differentiate between the two meanings in the episode and so they don't make a clear statement about the second lacking rights indeed they seem to admit the rights of fully autonomous clone organisms walking around as having rights and choice etc. Abortion debates bring up any number of examples where any number of moral and political principles are brought up. I bet if we really thought about it we could come up with way more example of TNG plots that bear on the abortion debate in complicated ways.

[@allanolley4874]

@@john.premose Good point. An issue with those instant pregnancy story lines is that it's clear the alien entity is exerting an influence on Troi's mind, what if it's mind controlling her into saying she wants the pregnancy? How do you deal with mind control in such situations and so on, it opens up a huge can of worms. Although I may be biased by conversations around Avengers issue 200 which had a way worse version of that sort of story.

[@nataschavisser573]

They are really cute. I especially like their feet. It looks like they are wearing little boots.

[@georgelionon9050]

Plot is great, analogy greatly explained, only the special effects on these things.. they really look like bulky toasters. (and of course typically star trek, we never heard of them again, no xocom planet, none permanent part of the crew etc... )

[@Theoddert]

The poker bet should have been that Crusher had to grow a beard if she lost. There's a little glowy triangle do-dad for any medical need, I'm sure there's one that you can zap to stimulate an insta-beard

[@GallifreyXFalling]

has anyone ever done an essay on how the cardassians and bajorans are clearly two branches of the same species?

[@HunterDrone]

less of an "A plot B plot" setup more of an "A plot A- plot"

[@sabonim1979]

Bravest little toaster? Steve, wrong franchise

[@jan-rs6im]

si se puede!

[@andrewlonghofer]

Peanut Hamper is a perfect example of political education going sideways and ending up as a libertarian instead of a socialist.

[@avvyrude7603]

#peanuthamperdidnothingwrong

[@bastian9713]

Oh it's the bearded Geordie Episode. The only one before the producers decided they didn't like it... As producers do...

[@skeetsmcgrew3282]

I think it makes him look less like a weinie. Maybe it's because of watching Reading Rainbow as a kid

[@kevinkeeney9418]

I heard he grew it for his wedding, so I assume it was never meant to stay. Though I suppose it would have if the producers had liked it.

[@GrannyGamer1]

Peanut Hamper is an obscenity. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 💯🖖🏾

[@reinderknoops1682]

How does one pay an AI? It has completely different needs. At some point we will have "the measure of an AI" case in our courts.

[@nataschavisser573]

You can pay them in money like ordinary people. They will then have the ability to choose their own priorities. That is if we are still going to retain capitalism once we have sentient AI.

[@skeetsmcgrew3282]

I honestly don't think so. I think we will just wipe them out and make them illegal. We are scared of things that are new and different. Just like I don't believe we would ever welcome aliens to our planet

[@pyRoy6]

Steve mentions casually that this episode could be about animal rights, labor rights, or just about being decent to each other despite our differences. I think we should reflect on the reasons why stories like this can so easily be seen that way. It's because the issues are so similar in most of the relevant ways. Progressives ought to think about their role as "the oppressor" when it comes to non-human animals. Liberal centrists ought to think about the way neutrality actually harms the less privileged.

[@jpotter2086]

For some reason, in my mind, the exocomps are the Daleks or Star Trek. That makes no sense. Just where muh brain goes. Just imagine one floating around trilling, "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"

[@beepboop204]

[@camortie]

And then came penuthamper, the exocomp that ruined it all.