A hearing determines whether Data is Starfleet property or a person.
Commander Maddox of the Starfleet Cybernetics Institute arrives with orders to dismantle Data in order to study how he works and build more androids. Data refuses to go, and a formal hearing is convened to decide whether he has the right to choose, or whether he is property of Starfleet.
Riker is forced to argue against his friend, while Picard defends Data, with Guinan providing a key insight. The episode is widely considered one of the finest hours of the series and a defining story for Data's character. It is a courtroom drama about rights, personhood and the danger of creating a class of beings without freedom, and it establishes a powerful theme that returns again and again.