Data Prevents the Conquest of Paradise

            …in what they dimly realized was the land of Paradise…but all they ever found was half

a world of nature’s treasures and nature’s people that could be taken, and they took

them, never knowing, never learning the true regenerative power there, and that opportunity was lost.  Theirs was indeed a conquest of Paradise, but as is inevitable with any war against the world of nature, those who win will have lost – once again lost, and this time perhaps forever.

- Kirkpatrick Sale, The Conquest of Paradise

This passage, as fitting as it may seem, doesn’t record the tragic events hanging in the balance of Jonathon Frake’s Star Trek: Insurrection.  Rather, this passage records the events of Christopher Columbus’ voyage to the new world and the atrocities committed upon his arrival.  The settlement of the peaceful Ba’ku, a paradise by most standards, is threatened by the Son’a: former members of the Ba’ku colony who are in cahoots with the Federation.  Sale, and many scholars, assess that one of humanity’s main attributes that harbors the capacity for evil is obedience.  In Insurrection, Frake rewrites history and the powers that be in his film are challenged (as the title appropriately suggests).  What makes this film compelling is not simply that an insurrection occurs, but that a human insurrection is incited by a single android.  Picard’s crew on the Enterprise shed their human skin of obedience and fight to preserve paradise due to the rebelliousness of Data. 

The base of Data’s character draws from Isaac Asimov’s depiction of robots.  Not only does he possess a “positronic net” based on Aismov’s “positronic” brains, but Data is instilled with the Three Laws of Robots:

I.               A robot may not injure a human being by action or inaction.

II.             A robot must obey human orders, except when they harm.

III.           A robot must protect its existence, while maintaining the above.

0.              (Sublaw) A robot may not harm humanity by action or inaction.

Data, as we learn after he undergoes diagnostics, was not malfunctioning at the beginning of the film.  After discovering the holodeck and being shot, he resorted back to his purely moral functioning.  As a result, he fought the Son’a and the Federation, revealing their presence to the Ba’ku and to those aboard the Enterprise. 

What is fascinating about this film’s dealing with androids is that it negates the premise of most films we’ve observed thus far.  While the action of the film is often incited by androids breaching the laws unknowingly or by breaching them due to the ambiguity of robotkind and humankind, the action is incited in Insurrection due to the android’s strict adherence to the laws and their apt application. 

What is troubling about the film is that even in the distant future, amidst exponential technological advances and an exponentially greater understanding of the universe, humanity maintains its humanity.  Humanity remains imperfect, and it is perplexing and paradoxical that consistently imperfect beings can craft beings that surpass them in many human aspects.  Yet it also seems to make sense that through their consistent imperfection they strive to achieve something greater, as we see on the harmonious utopian society established by the Ba’ku.