Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series)

The Quality of Life (1992)

Brent Spiner: Lieutenant Commander Data

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Quotes 

• [last lines] 

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Something more, Mr. Data?

  Lt. Commander Data : Yes, sir. I thought you might want to know why I was willing to risk your life for several small machines.

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : I think I understand the predicament you were in. It could not have been an easy choice.

  Lt. Commander Data : No, sir, it was not. When my own status as a living being was in question, you fought to protect my rights. And for that I will always be grateful. The exocomps had no such advocate. If I had not acted on their behalf, they would have been destroyed. I could not allow that to happen, sir.

  Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Of course you couldn't. It was the most human decision you've ever made.

• Lt. Commander Data : I am curious as to what transpired between the moment when I was nothing more than an assemblage of parts in Dr. Soong's laboratory, and the next moment, when I became alive. What is it that endowed me with life?

  Doctor Beverly Crusher : I remember Wesley asking me a similar question when he was little, and I tried desperately to give him an answer. But everything I said sounded inadequate. Then I realized that scientists and philosophers have been grappling with that question for centuries without coming to any conclusion.

  Lt. Commander Data : Are you saying the question cannot be answered?

  Doctor Beverly Crusher : No - I think I'm saying that we struggle all our lives to answer it, that it's the struggle that is important. That's what helps us to define our place in the universe.

• Lt. Commander Data : [to Dr. Crusher]  You said earlier that I am unique. If so, then I am alone in the universe. When I began investigating the exocomps, I realized that I might be encountering a progenitor of myself. Suddenly the possibility existed that I am no longer alone.

• Lt. Commander Data : I have observed that humans often base their judgments on what is referred to as instinct or intuition. Because I am a machine, I lack that particular ability. However, it may be possible that I have insight into other machines, that humans lack.

• [Data enters sickbay when Dr. Crusher is treating her arm after a fighting lesson with Worf] 

  Lt. Commander Data : Doctor... Are you injured?

  Doctor Beverly Crusher : Only my pride, Data.

• Dr. Farallon : [referring to Data]  I have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for Dr. Soong's accomplishment. But his intention was to create an artificial life form. *I* created the exocomps to be tools. And there is a big difference between Data and a tool.

  Lt. Commander Data : Doctor, there is a big difference between you and a virus. But both are alive.

• Doctor Beverly Crusher : [on the definition of life]  The broadest scientific definition might be that life is what enables plants and animals to consume food, derive energy from it, grow, adapt themselves to their surroundings, and reproduce.

  Lt. Commander Data : Hm... And you suggest that anything that exhibits these characteristics is considered alive?

  Doctor Beverly Crusher : In general, yes.

  Lt. Commander Data : What about fire?

  Doctor Beverly Crusher : Fire?

  Lt. Commander Data : Yes. It consumes fuel to produce energy, it grows, it creates offspring. By your definition, is it alive?

  Doctor Beverly Crusher : Fire is a chemical reaction. You could use the same argument for growing crystals, but obviously we don't consider them alive.

  Lt. Commander Data : And what about me? I do not grow; I do not reproduce. Yet I am considered to be alive.

  Doctor Beverly Crusher : That's true. But you are unique.

  Lt. Commander Data : Hm... I wonder if that is so.

• Lt. Commander Data : It is true I am acting on my personal beliefs. But I do not see how I can do otherwise.