Debate

A debate was an argument between two or more individuals. Formally, a debate was a structured argument in which each participant tried to convince the audience of the side on which they argued, though the term could be used more informally to refer to any argument.
In 2268, the crew of the underwent a harrowing experience involving a computer known as the M-5 multitronic unit. Afterwards, Doctor Leonard McCoy commented that compassion was the one thing that computers never had and which perhaps kept men ahead of them. He asked Commander Spock if he cared to debate that point, but Spock countered that he simply maintained that computers were more efficient than Humans, not better. ()
In 2365, when Captain Jean-Luc Picard asked Commander William T. Riker if the members of the Bringloid V colony were willing to leave their planet, Riker replied that they were, but he was having a little debate with the colony's leader, Danilo Odell. Picard replied that there was no time for this and to initiate the transport. ()
In 2366, Lieutenant Commander Data was sent to the planet Tau Cygna V to convince the planet's population to evacuate before they were slaughtered by Sheliak, who intended to kill them all if they did not leave. When Gosheven called a meeting to discuss the matter, Data asked to speak, but Gosheven told him to leave. Data then asked if his position was so weak that it could not withstand debate and another attendee, Haritath, said that Data should be allowed to speak. ()
When Norah Satie was a child, her father Aaron Satie would pose a question every night at the family dinner table for debate. She and her big brothers would wrangle the question, with Aaron serving as the referee and keeping time with a stopwatch to help them learn brevity, but not letting them leave until he felt they had completely explored the issue. Norah Satie admitted to Jean-Luc Picard that she had trounced her brothers more than once in those debates, her father loving it when she would nail one of them with some subtle point of logic. ()
In 2368, when Worf told Keiko O'Brien that it was not a good time to deliver her child, she replied that it was not open for debate and the baby was coming whether he liked it or not. ()
In 2375, a group of genetically enhanced individuals, , Lauren and Patrick snuck Sarina Douglas aboard Deep Space 9 in the guise of Starfleet officers. When their ruse was discovered, Doctor Julian Bashir, who was genetically enhanced himself, argued to Captain Benjamin Sisko that they had meant well in bringing Douglas aboard for treatment of her catalepsy. He told Bashir that they were not there to debate Federation policy toward the genetically enhanced, but ultimately agreed to allow Bashir to go ahead with the treatment and to himself convince Starfleet not to pursue any charges. ()
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Category:Communication