Well his argument was not that Data was a stupid ole robot ,but whether Data could be labeled as a person or better a sentient lifeform.Maddox point was that he thought he was not and if that was the case Data would be reduced to an object or a piece of property in which case Data would become a property of Starfleet , and would have to do anything they wanted him to including being disassembled so that Maddox could study his mechanics and programming so more Datas could be made .

LOL. I know his actual argument, I was just wondering how Maddox could have been old enough to be on a Federation council 30+ years prior to the episode. I'll just chalk it up to longer human lifespans - so while Maddox looked in his mid 40s at most, he was actually in his 60s at the time.

Or maybe ....Maddox is an androïd as well!

Ha! I think you've nailed it. He wanted to be the only sentient android in Starfleet. He jelly!

The measure of a man= Length times diameter plus weight over girth divided by the angle of the tip square ((Lxd)+M/G) / < αt² (According to Randy Marsh South Park Colorado ))

Some time ago, on imdb, I mentioned that Melinda Snodgrass who wrote this episode, had also published a series of "space law" stories under the main title "Circuit." I read them many years ago, and enjoyed them a lot. Those interested in the subject should look for them.

Also I checked the wiki article on her again, and saw this more-recent addition:

Snodgrass helped recover a version of the award-winning The Measure of a Man (Star Trek: The Next Generation) by saving an old VHS cassette. This allowed a new version to be re-constructed from existing film shots, and an extended cut with 13 minutes of additional footage was released in HD in 2012.

First off, how did they "lose" anything so recent? And how would they have existing film shots to re-create it? Odd sounding story, to say the least.

But anyway, I wonder if I've seen that episode already, somehow? Probably not. But it also sounds worth looking for. And maybe some of that additional material involves the Maddox issues?

Edit: Oh, I see. The extended version was made part of the season 2 Blu-ray set. So that's one place to find it, at least. The extended version is said to be 57 minutes so there's really no way it could ever air in that form. Except maybe in a 90-minute time slot with a lot more other stuff added to fill the rest.

They never explained this in detail but thanks to medical science the average age has gone up. Remeber Dr McCoy visited the Enterprise on the TNG. The average age for retiremnet in the Federation for humans is 90 and lifespan is roughly 150.

To give credit where credit is due: Robert Heinlein wrote a story in the 1940s called "Jerry Was a Man", about a court case to determine whether an artificially created "man" was entitled to human rights.

@Moonglum9 said:

Great episode. Best one of the first two seasons, but one thing is a bit strange. Maddox was the only person to oppose Data's entrance into Starfleet, but if I'm not mistaken, Data has said he's been in Starfleet for over 30 years. Maddox seems like he would have been awful young to be on some important council. Maybe that's why he was the only one to object, he was 8 years old and his argument against Data was merely "Nuh uh! He just a stupid ole robot!"

Could Maddox have been a child genius at the Daystrom Institute when he was asked for his advice? Or did he just look younger?