# Great (lesser known) Trials in Science Fiction **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 27, 2005, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-lesser-known-trials-in-science-fiction/296465 "2005-03-27T16:17:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![NoCoolUserName](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5fc32e/32.png) [@NoCoolUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoCoolUserName)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-lesser-known-trials-in-science-fiction/296465/41 "2005-03-28T06:06:06Z")
Don’t remember title or author\* but I do remember a plot where an enhanced Chimp is on trial to determine if he’s entitled to the protections of a “person.” Written in the 60’s and the civil rights theme is overpowering. \*Glad to be able to be of so much help. 🙂 I’m sure someone will be along shortly to remind me. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-lesser-known-trials-in-science-fiction/296465/42 "2005-03-28T06:10:17Z")
> [@Snooooopy](#): > > One of the segments of the film _Heavy Metal_ involved a trial. LAWYER: Stern, the prosecution’s got ya dead to rights! Yer guilty as a cat in a goldfish bowl! The best we can hope for is to get ya buried in secret so yer grave don’t get violated! CAPTAIN STERN: I told you, Charlie, I got an angle! Always loved that exchange. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-lesser-known-trials-in-science-fiction/296465/43 "2005-03-28T06:11:49Z")
> [@NoCoolUserName](#): > > Don’t remember title or author\* but I do remember a plot where an enhanced Chimp is on trial to determine if he’s entitled to the protections of a “person.” Written in the 60’s and the civil rights theme is overpowering. “Jerry Was a Man” by Heinlein. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-lesser-known-trials-in-science-fiction/296465/44 "2005-03-28T06:57:17Z")
Fantasy genre, but Piers Anthony has several trial scenes in the Xanth series that, similar to the OP’s example of the judge being able to read emotion, utilises the special circumstances of a magical world to add an interesting element to the proceedings. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-lesser-known-trials-in-science-fiction/296465/45 "2005-03-28T10:44:24Z")
> [@NoCoolUserName](#): > > Don’t remember title or author\* but I do remember a plot where an enhanced Chimp is on trial to determine if he’s entitled to the protections of a “person.” Written in the 60’s and the civil rights theme is overpowering. > > \*Glad to be able to be of so much help. 🙂 I’m sure someone will be along shortly to remind me. > [@BrainGlutton](#): > > “Jerry Was a Man” by Heinlein. See post #5! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-lesser-known-trials-in-science-fiction/296465/46 "2005-03-28T11:13:57Z")
Eric Flint and Dave Freer’s The Rats, the Vats, and the Ugly has three courts martial which provide a lot of the focus for the action of the story. Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot I think had a trial scene in one of the stories, too. Mike Resnick’s Second Contact begins with an officer being charged with murder, and the book focuses on the defense counsel’s struggle to prove the officer’s version of events. I can’t recall whether there’s actual trial scenery, but the fact of the trial is central to the book. ---
**Author:** ![Eolbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@Eolbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eolbo)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-lesser-known-trials-in-science-fiction/296465/47 "2005-03-28T12:58:42Z")
Taylor’s trial for heresy in Planet of the Apes ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-lesser-known-trials-in-science-fiction/296465/48 "2005-03-28T13:09:47Z")
> [@](#): > > Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot I think had a trial scene in one of the stories, too. Right title, wriong story and author. And I’m surprised no one else mentioned it. Eando Binder’s original short story **I, Robot** featured a robot on trial for killing its creator. A biog part of the issue was whether a robot even had a right to a trial. The storty was made into an episode of the original _Outer Limits_, then redone for the reincarnated _Outer Limits_. Despite the TV endings, Adam Link (the Robot) went on to other things. The short stories were collected as the book **Adam Link – Robot**. (“Eando Binder” was the pen name of the Binder Brothers, Earl and Otto – hence “E and O” Binder.) ---
**Author:** ![Elysian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c77e96/32.png) [@Elysian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elysian)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-lesser-known-trials-in-science-fiction/296465/49 "2005-03-28T14:57:06Z")
I found a few books by David Gerrold, a series starting with _Jumping off the Planet_, which have trials in them. Has anyone read these books? Are they worth searching for? How are the trials written, are they realistic? ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-lesser-known-trials-in-science-fiction/296465/50 "2005-03-28T15:12:06Z")
Lloyd Biggle Jr.'s _Monument_ has some trial scenes in it when the natives of a planet are attempting to save it from being despoiled. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-lesser-known-trials-in-science-fiction/296465/51 "2005-03-28T15:37:01Z")
In the Star Trek:TNG episode “The Drumhead”, A crewperson was found to be part Romulan, but not guilty of whatever crime it was. [http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/library/episodes/TNG/detail/68496.html](http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/library/episodes/TNG/detail/68496.html) It had a great Picard quote about evil not always the twirling-mustache kind, but that the more evil evil is cloaked in good. Brian ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-lesser-known-trials-in-science-fiction/296465/52 "2005-03-28T16:13:58Z")
> [@Elysian](#): > > because Data being a person would also be fiction, wouldn’t it? No. The question was not, is Data a legal entity that we refer to ficticiously as a “person”?, but instead was, is Data a human being that’s made out of something other than flesh? Corporate and other juridical persons are not actually people. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-lesser-known-trials-in-science-fiction/296465/53 "2005-03-28T16:25:45Z")
Say, don’t forget Asimov’s story (and the later novel and even later movie) **Bicentennial Man** , in which Andrew repeatedly goes to court to have himself declatred “human”. (Unless someone already posted this and I missed it) And I, for one, think **Bicentennial Man** was a fairly decent flick. God knows it “felt” more like an Asimov film than **I, Robot**. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-lesser-known-trials-in-science-fiction/296465/54 "2005-03-28T16:32:41Z")
The big problem I had with **Bicentennial Man** was that US (and presumably world) society was all Anglo-Saxon for the next 200 years. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-lesser-known-trials-in-science-fiction/296465/55 "2005-03-28T16:32:58Z")
Following up on Sage Rat’s mention of Xanth, one trial that definitely occurred in Xanth was that of skeleton Grace’l Ossein (for not acting scary in a bad dream for a troll) in _Heaven Cent_. And in his Apprentice Adept series (last book, _Juxtaposition_…no, do NOT tell me there were books after that) Stile was place on trial on Photon for wanting to marry the robot Sheen, or something like that…don’t recall the precise charges. ---
**Author:** ![shadowfax33](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@shadowfax33](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shadowfax33)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-lesser-known-trials-in-science-fiction/296465/56 "2005-03-28T20:08:35Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > In the film _Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country,_ Klingon Chancellor Gorkon is assassinated during a peace negotiation, and Kirk and Spock are accused of the crime, convicted in a Klingon court, and sentenced to a labor camp. IIRC, it was Kirk and McCoy who were tried. Spock eventually engineered their rescue. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-lesser-known-trials-in-science-fiction/296465/57 "2005-03-28T21:54:39Z")
Dammit, I thought I might be the first one to get _Monument_ … The last episode of the incredibly awful _Space Rangers_ has one of the eponymous Rangers on trial for a murder he didn’t commit. One episode of Gerry Anderson’s _UFO_ was titled (aptly) “Court Martial”, with SHADO Colonel Paul Foster on trial for espionage. And there was that particularly harrowing episode of Terry Nation’s _Survivors_ called “Law and Order”, in which the small community of plague survivors have to deal with the aftermath of a murder. (And, with regard to Data’s trial - isn’t the question of whether or not an entity is legally a “person”, one that you should probably settle _before_ you give said entity a _commission in the flippin’ military?_ If Data is a Starfleet officer, he has all the_rights_ and responsibilities thereof - end of discussion.) ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-lesser-known-trials-in-science-fiction/296465/58 "2005-03-28T22:16:56Z")
In _The Transformers: The Movie_, both Kup and Hot Rod were put on trial by the Quintessons. They were judged “Innocent” and then sent to their doom to the hungry Sharkticons below. They escaped. ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-lesser-known-trials-in-science-fiction/296465/59 "2005-03-28T22:33:28Z")
I can’t recall if it was in I, Robot or was one of the other robot stories, but there was a court scene in _Galley Slave_, in which a professor accuses a robot editor of intentionally inserting errors into his latest book. Going back to Star Trek, Kirk vs. The Gorn was a sort of trial. Also, there was a Klingon trial in a Next Generation episode, in which Worf is put on trial for something his father was accused of. It was a good story, because Worf knew his accuser’s father had actually done it, but he let himself lose the trial to protect his brother and the Klingon-Federation alliance. In a later episode, Worf gives the accuser a terminal case of Bat’leth poisoning (in response for other nasty things this guy did). The accuser’s sisters are disposed of in one of the movies, which rather fittingly ended the original traitor’s bloodline. Klingons love stories like that. [Actually, I think I now remember an episode in which Duras has a son, who petitions a Klingon court to restore his families honor. He didn’t win. Don’t recall the kid being offed, so I suppose there may be one dishonored soul left in the family.] ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-lesser-known-trials-in-science-fiction/296465/60 "2005-03-28T23:03:18Z")
> [@Steve Wright](#): > > Dammit, I thought I might be the first one to get _Monument_ … I’m just glad I’m not the only one here to have read it! Biggle doesn’t show up on a lot of lists, but I’ve always liked him. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-lesser-known-trials-in-science-fiction/296465.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-lesser-known-trials-in-science-fiction/296465.md?page=4)