Measure of a Man was pretty early, season 2 maybe? Pretty sure it was before this one. In any case, yeah I had the same thought. How many times has an organic person been taken over and done something terrible? Picard was a Borg, those weird worm things that infiltrated star trek, those ghosts that take over Troi, O’Brian and Data (again!), etc. Lower Decks has an episode where Merriner thinks Boimler’s girlfriend is too hot for him and spends the entire show trying to figure out what kind of creature she is or alien influence she is under. So yeah, common star trek trope.
Presumably cooler Star Fleet heads prevailed and realized this situation with Data was no different so he isn’t inherently any more risky than any other sentient being.
Measure of a Man was pretty early, season 2 maybe? Pretty sure it was before this one. In any case, yeah I had the same thought. How many times has an organic person been taken over and done something terrible? Picard was a Borg, those weird worm things that infiltrated star trek, those ghosts that take over Troi, O’Brian and Data (again!), etc. Lower Decks has an episode where Merriner thinks Boimler’s girlfriend is too hot for him and spends the entire show trying to figure out what kind of creature she is or alien influence she is under. So yeah, common star trek trope.
Presumably cooler Star Fleet heads prevailed and realized this situation with Data was no different so he isn’t inherently any more risky than any other sentient being.