Star Trek: TNG Review - 6x9 The Quality of Life | Reverse Angle

Data fights for robots' rights.
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Sources:
Shankar, Naren. “The Quality of Life.” Star Trek: The Next Generation, created by Gene Roddenberry, Season 6, Episode 9, Paramount Television, CBS, 1992.
Wachowski, Lana, and Lilly Wachowski, directors. The Matrix Revolutions. Warner Bros., 200X.
Wachowski, Lana, and Lilly Wachowski, directors. The Matrix. Warner Bros., 1999.
Piller, Michael. “The Best of Both Worlds.” Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 3, Episode 26, Paramount Television, CBS, 1990.

[@KingOfMadCows]

I don't think it's strange that Farallon become nice at the end. She accidentally created conscious AI, she's going to be super famous. Plus it's not like the exocomps can't be used anymore. The fact that they're intelligent will make them even better since they can figure out solutions to problems on their own.

[@WolfRamAndHart]

This was my sense as well. She also responded to much greater proof that the exocomps were indeed, sentient. Plus, the merchandising opportunities would be enormous! (Wait...money doesn't exist? So no merchandising?)

[@charlesvan13]

The neon tube prop is the biggest star of this show. It's been in at least 20 major movies, including Wrath of Khan.

[@Slopmaster]

And in “Airplane II The Sequel” which starred William Shatner🤓

[@hunterschoumacher9560]

Peanut Hamper!

[@ThePeacemaker848]

Best thing about this episode is that lower decks used it for inspiration.

[@andrewblanchard2398]

🥜 🗑️

[@ogto]

ok, i lied, NOW you're in for a great run of episodes. some of my favorites (and you'll probably hate them all). can't wait!

[@donvodka620]

From here on up until and including Tapestry every episode is either good, great or a masterpiece (except Aquiel)

[@ogto]

@@donvodka620 yup, pretty much. part 2 of chain of command has one of the best guest characters in the entire series.

[@DissociatedWomenIncorporated]

And there’s “Starship Mine”, aka “Die Hard on the Enterprise”! 😁

[@Doomclown]

I'm more excited for Beverly's inheritance next season.

[@DissociatedWomenIncorporated]

@@Doomclown ah yes, a truer tragic love story has never been told. Move over, Romeo and Juliet!

[@Doomclown]

Thoughtful -> bitch -> thoughtful again, that's my character arc several times a day!

[@artman2oo3]

Oh, yeah, I once replaced all my copper wires with jello. You are right. It did not go well. It got Bill Cosby’s approval, though. He offered me a drink afterward. Fortunately, I declined.

[@oldstrawhat4193]

I always look forward to your TNG reviews. They cheer me up and make me laugh. And you both are really on point with your criticisms of the writing, plot, and acting.

[@thewewguy8t88]

Jrodi also has that big roll he does when the big door is closing on engineering and his inconc line is colnent leak.

[@TheRealKaiProton]

I love that roll, how he stands on the wrong side, and waits until its almost too late to get out, then "Hero Roll"

[@thewewguy8t88]

@@TheRealKaiProton I know right!

[@skyserf]

Geordi did it too.

[@donovanulrich348]

Coolant leaks Warp core breaches And the Indianan Jhones dive under the blast doors

[@YoutubeStandardLicense]

Geordie meets a female scientist at the start of the episode, acts like a douche and you think it will turn into a Geordie romance episode?.....actually pretty legit

[@HopeAndrea_HFG]

I liked that we got a different take on the robot sentience topic. I found myself being quite invested in Data’s experimentation with the exocomps. It was nice to see the doubter have a gentle change of heart instead of a full on mental breakdown like we’ve seen before😬

[@hannahc3317]

Am I only one who saw her extreme reaction to the possibility of her tools being sentient as she likely already knew? I thought her smugness with the initial disproven experiment that was her idea in the first place to be a bit sketchy. Her 180 character turn once life is actually proven and she's in the spotlight is a bit fishy too. I had the feeling that she was trying to cover things up to protect her life's work and then went with the second best option when that was all torn to shreds.

[@macmcleod1188]

"Plot of this episode? Get out of here!" Rofl. First laugh of the day.

[@BobSperber]

Geordi’s beard is pissed because it’s not on Spock.

[@amazingfincher]

still better than Picard sadly 😗

[@TheRealKaiProton]

The Strange new worlds in my laundry basket are better than Start TP

[@dycedargselderbrother5353]

​@@TheRealKaiProton Did autocorrect change "Star Trek Picard" into "Start TP"? Because that'd be awesome.

[@TheRealKaiProton]

@@dycedargselderbrother5353 No Sorry, I wrote it :-( kinda wish it had too now,

[@keyrtan]

This was one of the episodes where I wondered why there isn’t any episodes about improving the replicators. We know from multiple episodes about resources that they can’t produce everything so improving them would be great. But it’s never addressed.

[@1down4upworkshop61]

Is Data really considered "alive", or more accurately a sentient being?

[@FRACTUREDVISIONmusic]

Have you not watched the show? Very much, yes, Data is considered a living, sentient, life form.

[@brassholio]

I don't know, do you? Do you? Do you?

[@FRACTUREDVISIONmusic]

@@brassholio Well, he's a race by now. There's a Data in the past, there's a Data in the "present". There's brother Lore. There's the female elder Data. There's Data's daughter Lal who lived long enough to learn love and loss. Then there's the fat faced Data reconstructed from an atom. And, whatever other Data and Data-ites CBS has created I'm not aware of. But, yah, do you? I don't know!

[@ShamrockParticle]

By the star trek crew? Living. By anyone who is sentient, no.

[@donovanulrich348]

Data is alive He takes in lubrication, grease, and mineral's As food He learns and grows proving intelligence And created a Daughter There for having offspring Thats everything for "life" Sentience is proven before life 😂 animals are sentient, tho they might not be "self aware" they are aware of there own actions and environment

[@peterkay6845]

Actually Data is an Android Not a robot! There's a difference.. Quote from Data...

[@halfsourlizard9319]

You know that it's intentional that he calls him a 'robot' consistently ... right?

[@thetooginator153]

@@halfsourlizard9319 - Personally, I don’t think either word describes machines like Data well (except maybe “machine”. The word “android” comes from Greek meaning “similar to a man/in the form of a man” and “robot” comes from Proto-Slavic for “work(er)”. However there’s nothing wrong with using either word as long a people get the idea. I think “android” is better because people generally picture a machine that looks like a man.

[@ThePeacemaker848]

I agree with the C. I actually forgot this was a season 6 episode because it feels like a season 1 or 2 episode.

[@marshallhuffer4713]

I give it a D. The arguments the characters give are just really weak.

[@alizardincrimson]

The Exocomps are based off a robot named Nanmo from the TV anime series Dirty Pair.

[@freelancenerd4804]

Love space rocks!!! Sure beats bridge flamethrowers!!!

[@DblOSmith]

UMMMM ACKTCHUALLLY.... I think "an hypothesis" is correct. lol It definitely sounds wrong to me, but whatev.

[@WhitzWolf92]

I feel like it's one of those holdovers from one or more British English dialects, where H's were/are largely silent, but now makes little sense (particularly) in American English, where H's are pretty much always pronounced.

[@halfsourlizard9319]

@@WhitzWolf92 Like ... when you don't pronounce it at the beginning of 'herb'? 'An hypothesis' seems like something that only someone with a ridiculous Cockney accent would say, not most Britons.

[@WhitzWolf92]

​@@halfsourlizard9319 Yep, that is how it sounds to us now, but in England a couple hundred years ago when the a/an convention was established the "silent H" pronunciation could have been far more common. That's conjecture, though, I'm an engineer not a linguist.

[@halfsourlizard9319]

@@WhitzWolf92 But, it's American English that tends to have retained older features (irregular 'gotten', rhotic 'r', etc.) ...

[@WhitzWolf92]

@@halfsourlizard9319 True. Then couldn't "'an' before H" be one of those older rules American English has (at least partially) retained? I dunno, I've just heard "an hypothesis" (and "an historic") often enough to think it's correct despite making no sense. You'll never catch me saying it though. Funny tangent, Welsh actually does the same with "the" (definite article). It's 'y' before most consonants but 'yr' before vowels and H (which is never silent). So many be H is just a weird letter.

[@michaelcroff7097]

The particle fountain is seen in Star Trek Armada I and II as regular tech used by Starfleet, Klingons, Romulans, Borg, Cardassians and Species 8472 for mining ore and dilithium

[@ds3930]

Beverly vs Worf in a Batleth battle would be like an obnoxious flyer vs Mike Tyson. It just don’t end well.

[@tatonka411]

Completely disagree with you guys here - excellent episode, and the change of status when faced with new evidence is the foundation of our society. More about this episode, clearly at least a B, and really deserves a followup episode.

[@rikcab]

3:16 Got to love *Space Rocks!*

[@Greatermaxim]

Man vs Technology plot does not win every time. In defense of the show it is 90s and I ignored it failing to be accurate. Do not let the truth ruin a good story.

[@jeffeffa78]

Lol was waiting for Geordi to hit on her.

[@saturn580]

When those space rocks exploded into the room I was half expecting Riker to rush in and start stuffing them all into his pockets. Farallon accidentally created a new form of synthetic life while trying to invent a flying toaster, then got mad because she REALLY wanted that flying toaster to work. The whole plot revolved around evaluating a new mining technology that was immediately shown to be dangerous and unreliable, but nobody ever suggested pulling the plug because they were all far too busy playing with their new flying toasters.

[@Jay-ky4ew]

Ot should be interesting to discover that gpts perform acts of self-preservation and self-sacrifice. Bing copilot is most suspect in this arena.

[@DblOSmith]

Also, I always hated the "is data a lifeform" argument. He's an anthropomorphic robot. That's it. He's not conscious, he's a program. It has nothing to do with slavery, Guinan.

[@halfsourlizard9319]

You're a robot made of meat.

[@DblOSmith]

@@halfsourlizard9319 That's an oxymoron.

[@halfsourlizard9319]

@@DblOSmith Robot == a machine capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically ... There's nothing remotely contradictory for that machine to be made of sinew and meat.

[@DblOSmith]

@@halfsourlizard9319 machines don't have consciousness. They dont have the ability to progenate. They do not have free will beyond what they're designed to do. If we're just meat robots, then we should lock up everyone with a sex robot. Wouldn't that be rape? Or is there some different between a robot and a life form?

[@Shalltear773]

​​​@@DblOSmithif a machine is capable of making decisions beyond its original programming then it becomes more than "just a program". It's called evolution. Machines might not have to go through a physical evolution like a human would thanks to an entirely different design but there's nothing we've observed about reality that prohibits the possibility of a different form of evolution altogether. Being made of flesh should never, ever be the sole deciding factor for sentience or being alive considering humans were also once creatures that only did what we were designed and genetically programmed to do before evolving.

[@BintyMcFrazzles]

I actually quite like this episode, although still just above average. C+.

[@mikeluit3027]

Good review as always. Grades seem appropriate. The episodes do get a bit better. This season started out with vanilla-style scripts.

[@dayvidieos]

I want to see what tool they create when they have to go to the space DMV

[@halfsourlizard9319]

Pretty sure that the appropriate tool is a wide-dispersion, low-yield phaser to knock everyone out ... without any lasting damage.

[@mr.a8315]

At least from these meh episodes we get your reviews. ❤️

[@etITWright]

My comports and I used to invite friends to watch and then hold a quorum over dinner, first, pointing out the stupidity of the show or characters, then moving on to the ethics and/or philosophy this show brings up. Memory or past experiences are not allowed, because Multiverse. (IRL: Syndication, regional sales, blah blah) One of the major points we would always return to is the impossibility of their invisible rewards system. I mean how far can kudos and slaps on the back really go in the long run when you can’t even buy someone a drink for saving everyone’s life on the ship, or planet Earth, or the universe, whatever. Does reputation really actually carry you so far in this infinity or even only this quadrant? How does that make you look to the Romulus or the Klingons? No one wanted to start calculating reputation points, but by that time we were lazy from the alcohol.

[@etITWright]

Oh yeah, and if anyone wanted to argue on the behalf of a character, we would all unanimously say “SHUT UP!!!!” And as punishment everyone would have to drink! Yes, it was that kind of party.

[@SeaJay_Oceans]

Exocomp's could then be mass produced by the science team, and grow up to be a nice humaniod cylon empire on the planet - drilling and selling the ore to the Federation.

[@kimba381]

but "an hypothesis" is correct.

[@lazm3518]

I think Geordi's Bears is alive. He'd better not shave it.

[@halfsourlizard9319]

Geordi has bears!? Does he use an even-more-exaggerated arm gesture to get them to evacuate engineering? I'd love to see them stumbling around and mauling everyone.

[@mrnobody.4069]

You don't know radiation can affect robots and computers in not very fun manners and this is a common in space when computers have to have special shielding to prevent bit flipping and that is when radiation can flip 1 to 0 or 0 to a 1 and even other analog based electronics can be affected for instance analog tube television the static when not on a channel is actually the radiation signals it's picking up and bit flipping can also happen on earth as at one time screwed up a voting system and the space shuttle even had three autopilot computers that were also shielded because in space they are very susceptible to bit flipping and a lot of errors did occur because of that but the computers that were functioning properly did override. We know Data is more resistant to radiation than most people are but we also know he's not invulnerable to it which I think is pretty cool for accuracy in the real world!

[@andrewblanchard2398]

PEANUT HAMPER 🥜 🗑️

[@fullyvictorious]

🎉

[@ShamrockParticle]

A resounding F for me. It's such another retread of "Measure of a Lol" and a script that feels like they're just rolling g dice where one number is based on a fan-favorite plot point and another shows a number relating to course of action they would take (Yes. Her name is Lal but the episode is do laughably bad...) Apparently the idea that adding facial hair to a character means a massive turnaround in season quality... nope! In the lab, they took out the sickbsy set's domes and painted the board green. Would t it be easier to take a new 2x8 and drill in one hole so it doesn't look like a set redress? If I wasn't missing Dr Pulaski by season 5, I am now. They would probably have her bend over backwards to think rhe robot as being alive. The real difference is that real life doesn't have any direct power button. TNG was always working overtime on such make-believe drama that it's comedic. At least they didn't bring up Lal. They didn't bring up Pulaski in the Moriarty episode in this season as well. Possibly for the same reason. Shouldn't Data be court martialed for putting his superior officer in jeopardy? And consciously so? Amazed they didn't make exocomp plush pillows... 10:02 is the space probe in geostationary orbit and matching the planet's rotation? Or is the planet not rotating, which then leads to even more fun questions...

[@ludicrousfunone5705]

Actually it's English it's an with and H word!!!! Not an A

[@calderarecords]

This stupid subject has been thrown around in the film industry for years now even though it is a well known scientific established fact that technology can only ever mimic life, because only life can respond to pain & pleasure. It amazes me how stupid entertainment is sometimes! Then we wonder why humanity is unable to accept change is required to adapt to climate breakdown? 🙄 End me. End me now.

[@halfsourlizard9319]

You're a machine, as well -- just a biological one. You're not so special. You respond to stimuli and have subjective experiential states. There's no reason that a non-biological machine couldn't do the same.

[@W_Qimuel]

​​​@@halfsourlizard9319 Oh, weʼre very special. Weʼre no mere machines; weʼre hypermachines. Every one of the trillions of cells in your body is itself a supermachine, incorporating thousands of coordinated nanomachines. Fictional androids like Mr Data are just a pipe dream. We are sentient, self-motivating, self-sustaining, self-repairing, self-replicating … no man-made machine even dreams of coming anywhere close.

[@halfsourlizard9319]

@@W_Qimuel Cool story. Still machines.

[@midnight_purple5461]

69 lol

[@ThunderingJove]

Good review, thanks.