Star Trek: Picard carries a lot of baggage from The Next Generation days, but one elusive character looms over the series.

“Measure of a Man” is proving to be a huge building block for Star Trek: Picard. The episode takes place in the second season of The Next Generation and highlights the importance of duty, but also standing up for what is right and just.

Playing out against the current political climate, “Measure of a Man” seems to be a fantasy. A place where arguments are heard, deliberated, debated, and then decided based on facts.

The events of this episode are sewn into Jean-Luc Picard. When audiences catch up with him nearly 30 years after the trial that occurs in the episode, the same arguments are happening on a much larger scale. Picard finds himself facing the implications of one man’s work yet again in a new age.

The first we hear of Bruce Maddox’s involvement is through Dr. Agnes Jurati when she reveals that she was pulled out of Starfleet by Maddox to work alongside him. The cybernetics division of the Daystrom Institute is on display in the premiere of Picard.

But the research facility that was once thriving and building and producing androids, is now stripped bare. You wouldn’t even know that any work was being conducted at the facility without meeting a researcher on their coffee break.

The implications of the Mars attack echo in the lab. Following the synthetics going rogue, everything except theoretical work is banned. Maddox took off. There is a void in the research, except for one theory of his — making an organic android from the “essence” of Data.

This of course was something that was deemed impossible both by those in and outside of the lab. When Data sacrificed his life for Picard, all of his neurons went with him. There was nothing left to replicate. But Data and Maddox were close for two people once at extreme odds.

Let’s dive into the man whose name is all over the place in the first two episodes: Bruce Maddox.

Picard: Who is Bruce Maddox?

Bruce Maddox appeared in exactly one episode of The Next Generation. How does one person, from one episode, make such an impact? The first moment that Maddox appears, you can hear it in his speech that he is very grounded in the belief that Data is a piece of property that he believes he has a right to seize.

When explaining the procedure, Maddox begins, “Ever since I first saw Data at the entrance evaluation at the Starfleet Academy, I’ve wanted to understand it. I became a student of the works of Doctor Noonien Soong, Data’s creator, and I’ve tried to continue his work.”

It.

For the remainder of the episode, Maddox refers to Data as “it.” Something other than himself. A toy for him to pick apart and reconstruct for the betterment of Starfleet.

“If I am permitted to make this experiment, the horizons for human achievement become boundless. Consider, every ship in Starfleet with a Data on board. Utilizing its tremendous capabilities, acting as our hands and eyes in dangerous situations.”

Maddox pleads his case for taking Data as property as logical, closer to man than machine in his own methods. But he must argue his case more strongly in order to override regulation. In their first meeting in the episode, Data reveals his own logic to Maddox. He is not opposed to the idea, but he cannot in its current state support the decision for Maddox to act on instinct rather than by the rules.

“That while I believe it is possible to download the information contained in the positronic brain, I do not think you have acquired the expertise necessary to preserve the essence of those experiences. There is an ineffable quality to memory which I do not believe can survive your procedure.”

The “essence” of Data as Picard and Jurati refer to it in Star Trek: Picard episode 1 is something that he fears will not be preserved.

The “essence” that does survive in some form or another is what eventually allows Bruce Maddox to carve out his own sector of the Daystrom Institute and bring aboard the best minds to keep Data’s legacy alive. But he needed to be swayed, challenged by the very thing that he believes he holds power over.

The great Data question

The episode opens with a game of poker. As the bets move around the table, Riker adds more and more to the pot, ultimately winning the hand with nothing more than a two of spades. Data, confused by the outcome of events, asks how Riker was able to keep betting knowing that he had nothing of value in his hand. Instinct.

Data may know the rules, the mechanics of the game, but the reality he experienced does not reflect the parameters he expected. But a part of Data behaves in ways that are not expected. This proves Picard’s point, but also supports the fear of the Romulans and the Federation: Even though androids are programmed by humans within a set of pre-specified boundaries, they can step outside of them and do the unexpected.

Such as find meaning in a piece of metal awarded to Data for service. Or a photographic reminder of an acquaintance. Or taking the action to destroy oneself in preservation of one friend when his life could arguably be more useful.

In Star Trek: Picard episode 2, we get a closer look at the android F8 and what actually happens moments before he joins the others in taking down the defense system of Mars. There is a glitch in the system, an override. These were not beings making decisions for themselves, but they were hijacked. Just as a human could be subject to making choices based on prejudices fed to them through outside forces, androids, too, can become susceptible to infiltration.

No one man is stronger than an android. And no android is infallible.

What does this mean for Dhaj and Soji? Soji remains under observation by the Romulans, but if word of her identity gets out, she is likely to become the target of many parties in the universe. Luckily, Picard is on her side. He fought for Data’s right to be a free person once, and he will not let that effort be in vain.

“Now, sooner or later, [Maddox] or others like him will succeed in replicating Commander Data. And the decision you reach here today will determine how we will regard this creation of our genius.”

Picard uses these words in his closing argument. The world is a different place from the one that existed when this ruling was made. But how will the future handle the presence of sentient machines in light of the attacks? Limits on the creation of new life have been stripped away. But the regulation of lives already brought into the world — that of Soji — is on the line.

“[The ruling] could significantly redefine the boundaries of personal liberty and freedom, expanding them for some, savagely curtailing them for others. Are you prepared to condemn him and all who come after him to servitude and slavery?”

This is one of Picard’s great speeches in the series. It is also the one that not only leads to Data’s right to choose his own future, but the one that changes Maddox from using the word “it” to regarding Data as “he.” It is an applied pronoun, but one that better suits the man that this crew keeps in their company.

It is going to be interesting to not only track the path of Bruce Maddox and how he arrived at the creation of Dahj and Soji. Through unpacking his research, perhaps we can get a better sense of what value and purpose he thought these organic beings will bring to the world. Are they an example of his genius, an honor for his friend, or a test of the limits of his craft?

Whatever his purpose, the respect he shows Data by the end of the episode is sure to have guided his intentions rather than his own hubris.

Star Trek: Picard will release new episodes on CBS All Access in the US on Thursdays, on CTV Sci-Fi channel in Canada on Thursdays, and on Amazon Prime elsewhere on Fridays.

If you want to check out “Measure of a Man,” you can stream the episode on Netflix and CBS All Access.