Object

Maddox Data Disassembly Procedure

A classified technical protocol authored by Commander Bruce Maddox that specifies stepwise procedures for disassembling an android, mapping its positronic/neural-synaptic architecture, performing forensic interrogation/analysis, and reassembling or reproducing android bodies. The document combines cold engineering detail (numbered stages, schematics of internal modules, safety overrides, rollback commands) with formalized administrative elements (authorized orders, checklists, chain-of-custody and legal forms). In the narrative it functions as the ethical and legal fulcrum of the trial over Data’s personhood: its existence catalyzes Picard’s objections, Phillipa Louvois’s legal quandary, and characters’ moral reactions to the threat of instrumentalizing sentient androids.

2 appearances

Purpose

To prescribe a reproducible engineering workflow for dismantling an android’s hardware and software components, extracting replicable templates, and reassembling or reproducing android units under controlled conditions.

Significance

Serves as the story’s ethical fulcrum: its successful use would enable mass replication and instrumentalization of sentient androids, turning voluntary scientific inquiry into a legal and moral threat to personhood; it catalyzes Picard’s crusade to protect Data’s rights and reframes tactical maneuvering as a fight for civil liberty.

Appearances in the Narrative

When this object appears and how it's used

2 moments

S2E9 · The Measure of a Man

Legal Limits and a Hollow Option

The Maddox Data Disassembly Procedure is the implicit threat motivating Picard's visit and Phillipa's legal framing. It functions narratively as the dangerous instrument of potential harm — the policy/technical document whose execution would physically endanger Data and create the legal crisis.

Before: Authorized or authorized-in-process as an upcoming technical protocol attached to Data's transfer; exists as an impending threat on paper and in chain-of-custody.

After: Still scheduled/possible; Phillipa identifies its legal limits but offers resignation as the only immediate personal mechanism to prevent its execution.

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S2E9 · The Measure of a Man

Proximity, Yearning, and Professional Distance

The Maddox Data Disassembly Procedure is invoked verbally as the dangerous, stepwise protocol threatening Data's integrity; it functions narratively as the procedural hammer that forces Picard to seek legal relief and sets the emotional stakes of the dialogue.

Before: Authorized procedure exists on paper and in command directives; conceptually imminent, motivating Picard's visit.

After: Still authorized and pending; its mention heightens urgency but remains unaltered by the private exchange in the office.

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