"Court Martial" (season one, episode twenty; production code: 015; 2 February 1967): Wikipedia-link.
Commentary: The central conflict of "Court Martial" is still relevent to us here in Anno Domini 2026, man versus machine: Captain Kirk insists he acted properly, but the Enterprise's computer records show that he acted negligently. In the end, it turns out that Kirk was set up by the man his actions supposedly killed, the Records Officer who also modified the Enterprise's computer to produce the incriminating records.
Also interestingly, the Starfleet brass, here in the person of Commodore Stone, tries to sweep the matter under the rug, asking Kirk to set down & accept a desk job in exchange for not being punished for his supposed negligence. Kirk, insistent that he did nothing wrong & unwilling to relinquish his command, demands a full court martial. A different form of man versus "machine."
"Court Martial" is a fascinating counterpoint to "The Measure of a Man" (The Next Generation; season two, episode nine; 13 February 1989), in which it is established, somewhat farcically, that the android Data has all the rights of privileges of any other sapient lifeform & cannot be considered the property of Starfleet. Farcical, because by this point Data is a commissioned Starfleet officer, holding the rank of lieutenant commander & serving as the second officer of Starfleet's flasgship, the Enterprise-D. How could he have studied as a cadet at Starfleet Academy if he wasn't already regarded as a sapient lifeform? Ship's computers & tricorders don't go to Starfleet Academy. Those devices aren't commissioned as officers in Starfleet. It's preposterous beyond the suspension of disbelief that these matters weren't already adjudicated, at least implicitly, anytime in the twenty-seven years between Data's discovery on Omicron Theta & "The Measure of a Man." But I digress.
Kirk's attorney, Samuel T. Cogley, delivers a brilliant & impassioned plea on behalf of his client's humanity:
"And I repeat: I speak of rights! A machine has none, a man must! My client has the right to face his accuser and if you do not grant him that right, you have brought us down to the level of the machine. Indeed, you have elevated that machine above us."

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