Star Trek: The Next Generation
"The Schizoid Man"
Air date: 1/23/1989
Teleplay by Tracy Torme
Story by Richard Manning & Hans Beimler
Directed by Les Landau
Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan
The Enterprise comes to the aid of terminally ill scientist Dr. Ira Graves (W. Morgan Sheppard), in the hopes of documenting his as-yet-unrevealed scientific discoveries before he dies. Graves, however, takes a very specific interest in Data and spends his final hours with the android. Data subsequently begins exhibiting strange behavior, the most amusing of which is the delivery of a ridiculous and indulgent eulogy for the recently departed Graves ("To know him was to love him, and to love him was to know him").
The plot is obvious to us, but not to the Enterprise crew: Graves, utilizing his own scientific breakthrough of combining the human brain and computer data storage, has transferred his consciousness and knowledge into Data and is vying for total control of Data's mind. The crew slowly begins to realize that Graves has somehow hijacked Data's personality. One major clue might be Graves'/Data's verbally expressed jealousy concerning Graves' assistant Kareen (Barbara Alyn Woods), and the ever-increasing size of Data's ego, which, by definition, should be nonexistent. I was amused by much of the Data/Picard interaction: Watching Data's sly insubordination and condescension toward Picard is a source of much of the episode's fun.
The episode's Serious Human Theme is whether this man Graves can retain his humanity now that he has superior android strength and mental abilities. And can he plausibly love Kareen, whom he previously admired without revealing his feelings on the account of their age difference? The other question is about Data's rights as a person, which Graves has usurped by hijacking his body. I like that the episode ends with a battle of reasoning between Graves and Picard, and that Graves proves Picard's point and is smart enough to fully realize that what he's doing won't work. But overall this is sort of an obvious storyline, and one that doesn't exploit its themes for what they're worth.
Previous episode: Loud as a Whisper
Next episode: Unnatural Selection
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43 comments on this post
Wed, Jul 4, 2012, 3:24pm (UTC -6)
Fri, Dec 21, 2012, 10:34am (UTC -6)
The rest of the show was just the way you described it Jammer: Obvious.
@ Rachel: Yeah, characters are probably the best of TNG. Being episodic doesn't help the grand-plot and its own age doesn't help the Fx either, but we'll always have the lovable crew.
Thu, Jan 24, 2013, 9:00pm (UTC -6)
Tue, Mar 26, 2013, 6:57pm (UTC -6)
I enjoy this episode a lot; I find Graves a compelling character, especially as played by Spiner. I'm really impressed by the way Spiner makes Graves arrogant and condescending without ever (to me) repeating any of the same notes he hits on with his performance of Lore, who is *also* arrogant and condescending. The difference, I think, is that despite Graves' bitterness he does not have nearly as deep a well of anger at rejection that Lore has, and is capable of and genuinely feels a love that we know Lore does not. As with Jammer I like very much that Graves turns himself in after Picard talks to him (and he sees the effect of having an android body).
I have been trying to figure out why this episode works better for me, ultimately, than another random body-swap plot (ala, say, Voyager's "Vis a Vis"). Some of it, I think, is that Graves does have a personal connection to Data, as his "grandfather," and while that connection is a little more tenuous (and Graves has his own reasons for pushing Data to calling him grampa -- to get Data to trust him!), there is something touching in seeing Data hijacked by the person who inspired his own creator, and in a creator taking over someone who is in some senses his own creation. I wouldn't actually trade "Brothers" for this, but *this* episode would be better, on this level, if it were *actually* about Soong rather than a guy *like* Soong, because the personal element of a guy wanting to end up in the android body *he* created, and his realization that that cannot be, is probably the thing that makes this episode work emotionally for me, and it would work a lot better if it were a guy who *actually* created Data.
Finally, the episode probably cheats a bit by having Graves accept that he has to give up his body because Data is too strong and will cause a bunch of accidents. That is an important issue, but before he started hurting Kareen's hand in the last act that wasn't really even on the table. The central questions here are about (im)mortality and whether people have a right to use their own creations (offspring?) to further their own identity. That is mostly what Picard is arguing -- that Data is a person and that he shouldn't have his identity erased. For the episode to work thematically on a higher level, I think Graves would have to accept that Data is his own person and not just a machine, rather than just that the robot body is too strong for Graves to handle. On the other hand, I can understand why the episode didn't go there -- since Graves, as written before the last act, doesn't strike me as the type to readily accept Data's right to existence. There is still a bit of a characterization gap (for me) in Graves accepting that he has to give up Data's body to prevent more accidents from piling up -- couldn't he have just reduced Data's strength, or something? -- but mostly the characterization feels right, which is to the episode's credit, even if it means that the episode feels unsatisfying thematically.
So, in other words, there are enough things that *almost* work in this episode that make me imagine it could have been genuinely great. But they don't quite connect, and what we're left with is an engaging and entertaining hour with a great performance by Spiner at its centre. Not a bad showing, but a missed opportunity. 2.5 stars sounds about right.
Wed, Sep 11, 2013, 10:09pm (UTC -6)
- More Data humor. The eulogy was a classic. The beard at the beginning was pretty good too (and worked as an in-universe way to reduce suspicions about Data's erratic behavior). And Data's question to Geordi after coming back to normal is a third area.
- Brent Spiner's great acting, as others have mentioned. He really sold the idea of being Graves.
- It sort of felt like a Season 1 episode, but well executed. Introducing the long-distance transporter, for example, worked to add a greater feeling of depth to the Star Trek universe, adding a new application of an existing technology. The plot was a high-concept, engaging sci-fi plot, but one that the writers knew how to deal with. The episode didn't really feel dragging to me, and plotted out well. For example, they didn't bother to make much of a mystery of Data's weirdness; we knew from the beginning that it was Graves. And Picard et al's responses were far more realistic here than in Datalore.
- Picard's arguing with DataGraves. We got a sneak preview of Measure of a Man, just without the legalese. Seeing Picard's passionate defense of Data here makes the later episode even better.
- Graves, despite being the antagonist, was not a cartoon villain like Lore was. He willingly gave up his control of Data, and never really meant any harm to anyone.
As for the ending, I agree somewhat with William that it was too contrived around the "accidents" aspect. The somewhat comes from the fact that they showed other reasons as well, even if it wasn't overtly mentioned. The love interest already rejected him, and Graves was clearly depressed when Picard went to talk with him. He was also showing the same mental instability he had when he was human, which he may not have enjoyed. And, of course, there was Picard's passionate arguing for Data's rights (again, Graves is not an evil person), which may have gnawed at him. So I can see Graves volunteering to give up Data's body for multiple reasons; unfortunately the accidents aspect is only one of them.
Fri, Mar 21, 2014, 6:32am (UTC -6)
I liked Picard defending Data's rights as a sentient life form, too, a subtle little piece of continuity that will be picked up again soon in the episode 'The Measure of A Man'
Tue, Jan 20, 2015, 3:57am (UTC -6)
Sun, Apr 26, 2015, 5:22am (UTC -6)
I suppose his naivete is just part of what makes him human.
Sat, Jul 25, 2015, 11:17pm (UTC -6)
Sun, Aug 23, 2015, 2:28pm (UTC -6)
But as a means having a bit of fun with Data's character, this works perfectly, from the "if I stroke my beard thusly" intro to the "did I win" conclusion. It hits some serious beats too - Graves' assessment of Data's existence as a "walking purgatory - neither dead nor alive" gets to the heart of Data's quest for humanity. And for Graves to eventually realise he had given up his humanity to prolong his existence gives the ending additional weight. 2.5 stars.
Wed, Sep 23, 2015, 3:38pm (UTC -6)
Wed, Mar 16, 2016, 4:59pm (UTC -6)
Wed, Jul 27, 2016, 4:03pm (UTC -6)
Thu, Oct 20, 2016, 8:01pm (UTC -6)
While the answer was obvious, and it may have taken a little longer for Picard to put 2+2 together than I would have hoped, I do like that the climax of the story renders that little mystery rather superfluous; the issue isn't figuring out that Graves has usurped Data, but rather the moral implications of this act. As Graves puts it, he is human and Data is a machine. Legally speaking, he's probably not wrong. This is a taste of the ethical problem more fully explored in Measure of a Man. But it's only a taste. And ultimately Graves' decision to just pull the plug, just like that, seems far too easy.
This episode has its moments, but they are only moments.
As an additional criticism, I found the character of Kareen immensely tiresome. How many of these superfluous female characters are we going to keep running into? Does every old scientist have a beautiful young assistant / wife intensely devoted to him, but utterly vapid and clueless? It's like a repeating motif in Trek.
Thu, Oct 20, 2016, 10:32pm (UTC -6)
To know those vapid and clueless assistants, is to love them. And to love them - you wish.
Fri, Oct 21, 2016, 9:27am (UTC -6)
Thu, Feb 9, 2017, 7:56pm (UTC -6)
Data's eulogy of ... well, of himself.... was possibly the most hilarious moment in all TNG. Sometimes when I'm alone, I grin uncontrollably just thinking about it. Sometimes when I'm not alone, I make the mistake of thinking about it and I grin uncontrollably again. Then people ask me what the hell I'm thinking about. And I'm kind of at a loss for how to explain it.
Wed, Mar 1, 2017, 4:35pm (UTC -6)
OK: it did pick up but I am beginning to realize that there is a rather large hole in the show-the empty space where there should be some acting ability and I am afraid that the hole resides in Brent Spiner.
Seriously: whoever decided this guy could act his way out of a paper bag?
Transferring one's mind to a computer with dissatrous consequences was old when they did it in Doomwatch in the early seventies with Patrick Troughton in W. Morgan Shepherd's shoes
The comic eulogy that seems to have found favour was pure Arnold Rimmer from Red Dwarf except that Red Dwarf's writers would have made a better job of it.
I give this a generous 1.5 stars and would rather forget it.
Tue, Apr 25, 2017, 5:28pm (UTC -6)
I compare the ending here to "Elementary, Dear Data" as Picard confronted Moriarty and it could have gone wrong depending on how the writers wanted to end it. In this episode, it's simply that Graves realizes what's right and wrong and that's about it. Pretty predictable. Maybe another ending is the crew zaps Data and Graves' consciousness is lost.
I didn't mind the episode but it's nothing special or original. Liked the acting by Spiner and the actor who played Graves added some levity but this episode doesn't give anything more than TOS versions of this theme. 2/4 stars.
Mon, Sep 25, 2017, 8:29pm (UTC -6)
Sun, Nov 5, 2017, 6:09pm (UTC -6)
Liked the Data/Grandpa dynamic
The episode was so quintessential 1980s And I loved every minute of it
Liked Dr Selar—enjoyed suzie plakson more as selar then k’ehleyhr
And all the ‘Data’ scenes giving attitude to everybody was entertaining
Mon, Nov 6, 2017, 10:57pm (UTC -6)
Fri, Feb 2, 2018, 9:40pm (UTC -6)
I wish Lt. Salar had been a semi-regular.
Tue, Mar 13, 2018, 6:16pm (UTC -6)
This was in interesting story about Data and how his mind works. I liked the way Data’s behaviour changed from plausibly having been affected by prof. Graves’ (his “grandpa” :-)) death to a mix of insane and Graves’. The prof. uploading himself to the Enterprises’ computer was also a nice tough. What would it be like to move from a frail and sickly old man’s body to an android with superior health and strength and a star ship’s computer? Also an interesting question: DOES Graves have to right to take over a “machine” (Data) in order to keep living?
A few random observations:
1. Data’s beard - and Deanna’s reaction - hilarious!
2. Captain Picard stayed remarkably calm and patient with Data. Others would not stay that calm.
3. TNG looks dated? A little. DS9 and Voy. too. And just look at TOS! Now that is dated.
will keep commenting,
Peter Swinkels
Tue, Mar 13, 2018, 6:18pm (UTC -6)
Wed, Mar 14, 2018, 2:29am (UTC -6)
p.s.,
While imho Graves doesn’t haven’t the right to “kill” Data (his ego) who is Picard to tell him that “every man has his time”?
Tue, May 22, 2018, 5:33pm (UTC -6)
Wed, Sep 26, 2018, 4:51am (UTC -6)
What I can say about this ep is, I knew right away that something was wrong with Data when he came out of the room where dead Graves was. This ep was not funny, it was a pathetic way to use android Data in such a way. Graves had to be insane to cook up the IDEA of becoming Data in order to finger a young human girl. THAT IS WHAT IT WAS ABOUT.
Most old men would not hold back, they would simply say Kareen, I love you, etc. and so on, will you marry me. Who knows, she might have said yes. They worked together for years.
Yep, Rachel, Data ought to have keep out switch to prevent the any one from tampering with him. BUT, remember how Dr. Crusher and Geordi screwed him up so he could not prevent them from ooooh and aaahing while wearing those game glasses in The Game? Soong never really thought ahead. He was selfish.
Since I might never get to IN THEORY, that woman wanted a man to sit and hold her hand day in and out and always pamper her. When it didn't work out, she ran. OK>>>>>>Data wrote a program for her. All she could do in the end was boo hoo that he had no human feelings. My God almighty and @%$&()^$%%^ he was a ROBOT of sorts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why in the %^))##@ was she in Starfleet? She had absolutely no brains to work in space and repair the ship. That is the problem with a lot of the characters in the Trek universes. Do any one of you guys or girls think you would be chosen for a space journey[? ] if you were brainless looking for mr good bar crap brains?
Stop dissing Wesley. If anyone has a brainy child they are always proud of them. Would you murder your child if it had an IQ of 550? I wouldn't.
Fri, Oct 26, 2018, 4:21pm (UTC -6)
Tue, Mar 5, 2019, 10:20pm (UTC -6)
and how did Data start feeling emotions if his "base model" doesn't allow it...I wont reveal a spoiler..
The best part of this was Data's acting and the line "to know him is to love him is to know him" or did I get that backwards.
I guess 6/10 for Brent Spiner (meaning it should have been a 4/10 episode)
Thu, Jun 27, 2019, 12:26pm (UTC -6)
Thu, Aug 22, 2019, 6:56pm (UTC -6)
More talk about what it means to be alive, as Graves refuses to go gently into his grave.
I wonder what the idea of the Vulcan doc was. Pulaski could easily have played that part. Were they considering replacing the doc yet again?
Average ep that rises above average due to Spiner.
Fri, Mar 20, 2020, 12:07pm (UTC -6)
It marks the exact spot where TNG started its rapid rise from that mediocre-to-bad TOS spin-off, to one of the best shows ever made.
In the course of just 4 weeks - from Schizoid Man on January 23, 1989, to The Measure of the Man on February 13, 1989, TNG took a motley crew of interesting individuals and knitted them together into a family we love to this day, 30 years later!
How? Like the song says,
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got til its gone
In Schizoid Man, we almost lose Data. He develops a personality. He develops a sense of humor. All of it is alien. All of it is imposed upon him by his “grandpa”. But all of it has the effect that at the end of the hour, when Data speaks again in his natural - but what we had always thought of as an annoying way - it comes as a giant relief! Thank god, Data is back!
Data becomes a member of the family. Think: only 3 episodes ago Geordi & Data almost destroyed the ship via a holographic Moriarty, and only 3 episodes before that, Data was a serious annoyance to Picard in “The Neutral Zone” in bringing three dead 20th century people onboard and bringing them back to life.
And now, and ever after The Schizoid Man, Data is family.
The next episode, Unnatural Selection, makes Polaski a crew member - again because we almost lose her to, well, old age.
The episode after that, A Matter of Honor, strangely makes Worf a family member in the most unique way possible - by sending Riker off to serve on a Klingon ship. This episode defines Klingons for the next 10 years - right through the end of DS9! That is an insane legacy for just 1 hour of TV.
And finally, the fourth in the string of four defining episodes is Measure of a Man, one of the greatest Star Trek hours ever made.
TNG would never be just a show after these 4 hours of TV in just 4 weeks.
I’m not sure how many of you remember the day in 1989 when The Schizoid Man aired? The President had just changed - the first such change in my lifetime. For everyone born in the prior 8 years, we had only ever known 1 President. And now there was a new one. It was truly a new era. Quickly the Berlin wall would fall. The Cold War would be over. We would go to war in the Gulf (the first time). These were rapid changes in America and the World, and TNG was along for the ride.
That ride became our ride with the four episodes starting with The Schizoid Man. Thank god.
Fri, Mar 20, 2020, 12:20pm (UTC -6)
Yes, TNG season 2 has some of the best episodes of the series: "The Measure of a Man", "Q Who?", "Elementary, My Dear Data", "Contagion" - but it also has some of the worst: "Samaritan Snare", "Shades of Gray", "Manhunt".
One thing that's interesting here is that season 2 is the last season for Maurice Hurley and his team who produced some really wild episodes and left in the midst of some scandals and a Writer's Strike midseason in 1988. Luckily, Piller assumed Hurley's role and the show became much more consistently good. Piller also introduced the open submission script policy which brought some of the best TNG episodes.
Sat, Jun 13, 2020, 9:35pm (UTC -6)
It also borrows important elements from TOS' Return to Tomorrow, 1. the instrumental use of an android to house the immortal soul and 2. the horror felt at the slightest idea of being put into android housing by the love interest, which amounts to the rejection of the old mentor.
There is also a strong resemblance of these themes to those in the 1932 film The Mummy, written by John Balderstone...although none of Balderstone's mystical transmigration / reincarnation ideas make it into the 24th century, Ira' dreams going down in flames is very much a redux of what happens to the old mummy.
I can't say for certain that the borrowing was consciously done. I simply note how much the dead Ira in his capsule resembles the mummy in his defaced anthropoid coffin, and ponder the similar ring of the names "Ira Graves" and that assumed by 1932's mummy, once brought to life-"Ardath Bey".
Fri, Aug 21, 2020, 11:57pm (UTC -6)
Mon, Aug 24, 2020, 12:01am (UTC -6)
Wed, Mar 17, 2021, 9:32pm (UTC -6)
Sun, Apr 18, 2021, 4:18pm (UTC -6)
Sat, May 8, 2021, 4:21am (UTC -6)
The theme of Data's personhood is, of course, handled much better in Measure of a Man just a few episodes later, and honestly, only really gets a few lines here. It's certainly not what changes Graves' mind - even at the end, he sees nothing wrong with overwriting Data.
Honestly, the whole idea that he would give up the body because he hurt a few people is absurd - the will to live is a powerful motivator, and is something that had consumed him for years (hence his "put my mind in a computer" research, which must have been a long term goal). Data is my absolute favorite TNG character - indeed, one of my all time favorite characters in anything - but if I was facing death, and could escape into his (superior) body, I think it very likely I would be willing to erase Data to live. It's just not believable that a couple of oopsies would make Graves give up like that.
Narratively, it might have been more viable to do something that caused Data to be the dominant personality, with Graves the one tucked away. This would give us back Data (all hail the mighty Reset button), but could open up future plot points involving Graves impacting Data's behavior in some way.
There's some excellent humor in this episode - Spiner must have had a lot of fun whenever he got to break the rules of Data's character like this. The eulogy and insubordination were both enjoyable, if overdone. The "stroke my beard thusly" bit was actually the highlight for me, and the final throwaway line was a perfect ending.
A passable hour of entertainment, but lacks the depth it wants to pretend it has, and is resolved far too easily, simply because they wrote themselves into a corner and needed Graves to have a change of heart - they didn't even understand how he did it, so there was little to no chance to UNdo it. Then again, maybe that's for the best - if he didn't give Data up, we may have been forced to watch Wesley suddenly become a cybernetics expert for an episode.
Thu, Jul 1, 2021, 2:07am (UTC -6)
The 3rd of 4 episodes that contains strong Data-centric themes. The producers obviously thought that exploration of an android’s potential was where they needed to go with TNG, at least for a while, perhaps while ratings improved?
An enjoyable episode though the science is total baloney. Data has no enzymes or hormones therefore cannot feel genuine emotions, i.e. Graves’s. It would have been better science if they’d explored Graves’s reaction to finding himself in a body that could not ‘feel’, which would have been purgatory for such an egocentric man. He could still have exhibited the very entertaining insubordination towards Picard, but then might have portrayed puzzlement and confusion. He would also have tried to express his former feelings for Kareen but experience a partial circuit burnout as a result of failing to feel what his mind was telling him he should feel. But perhaps that would have been too subtle!
Interesting to see the Vulcan doctor. I can’t remember - does she reappear?
WORF: (great camera angle of the bridge): “Our records show that only she and Graves are inhabitants of the planet, sir”
RIKER: “Then what scared her?”
PRODUCERS: “Patrick, just turn slowly and hold an enigmatic expression for 10 seconds while we zoom in - we’ll fade to titles here.”
Yes, 2.5 stars seems fair.
Thu, May 4, 2023, 3:11pm (UTC -6)
Thu, Aug 17, 2023, 3:50pm (UTC -6)
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