Louvois's Ruling — Data Declared Starfleet Property
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Picard delivers Louvois's ruling—Data is declared Starfleet property and cannot resign—cutting straight to the legal blow; Data processes the reduction of his options and responds with bleak, measured irony.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Uneasy and contemplative; absorbing a formative lesson about law, authority, and friendship aboard the Enterprise.
At his bridge station and observing silently; Wesley stands as an attentive, younger witness to the legal and moral stakes unfolding aboard the ship.
- • Learn from the senior officers' handling of the crisis
- • Support the crew's moral stance in ways appropriate to his rank
- • Understand the implications for Data as a crewmate
- • Senior officers will model the correct ethical response
- • This is an important learning moment about institutional power
- • Personal loyalty matters in command decisions
Calm and alert; loyalty to duty and to the captain governs his outward composure though he registers the seriousness inwardly.
Stationed on the bridge and present as part of the silent audience; Worf's stoic posture lends ceremonial gravity and implied readiness to protect crew and order.
- • Maintain alert readiness to act on orders
- • Support the captain's authority
- • Protect the crew and preserve ship security
- • Duty and order are paramount
- • The captain's decisions should be supported
- • Threats to crew safety must be answered decisively
Determined and authoritative on the surface; privately uncomfortable and earnest when offering personal legal representation, masking concern for Data and the ship's moral standing.
Seated at his desk with the reader, Picard reads Louvois's ruling aloud, paces, refuses passive acceptance, announces a hearing will be convened, and awkwardly offers to represent Data — converting institutional process into a personal pledge.
- • Inform Data of Louvois's ruling clearly and without equivocation
- • Prevent Data's involuntary submission and secure a hearing
- • Reassure Data personally by offering representation
- • Preserve legal and moral precedent for the crew
- • The spirit of the law can and should be invoked to protect individuals
- • Captain Louvois, despite legalism, will entertain a hearing's moral question
- • He personally has a responsibility to defend his officer
- • Procedural redress (a hearing) can correct bureaucratic overreach
Resigned but composed; uses ironic detachment to register the gravity of the threat while placing unequivocal trust in Picard's advocacy.
Enters from the turbolift, listens to the ruling, replies with a dry, bleakly ironic summation of his narrowed options, and accepts Picard's offer with explicit confidence — registering resignation mingled with trust.
- • Clarify the personal consequences of the ruling
- • Identify who will act on his behalf
- • Protect himself from forced disassembly if possible
- • Entrust representation to someone he believes will defend his interests
- • Commander Maddox is the practical threat who may disassemble him
- • His legal status is in dispute and needs adjudication
- • Picard will act responsibly to defend his interests
- • Logical appraisal is the appropriate response to existential threat
Quietly observant with an undercurrent of apprehension; his loyalty to both Picard and Data is present but unspoken.
Positioned at his main bridge station, Riker is present but silent in the Ready Room doorway/adjacent bridge area, observing the exchange with professional reserve and concealed personal conflict.
- • Remain prepared to follow Picard's orders
- • Assess how the ruling will affect the ship and crew
- • Protect crew cohesion and minimize escalation
- • Chain of command must be respected even during moral dilemmas
- • This dispute will soon require formal action
- • Picard is the proper person to lead the response
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Picard's desk serves as the physical and symbolic center of the exchange — a place from which authority is spoken, papers are handled, and the awkward offer of representation is made; it frames the intimacy and gravity of the confrontation.
The formal printed ruling (Louvois's document) is the textual source of the declaration that Data is Starfleet property; its cold prose is the catalyst for the moral response and the promise of a hearing.
Louvois's Ruling Reader rests on Picard's desk and functions as the mechanical mouthpiece of Starfleet's bureaucracy; Picard uses it to render the formal ruling aloud, lending the pronouncement procedural authority and emotional chill.
The Forward Turbolift Doors enable Data's entrance into the Ready Room; their opening marks transition from ship routine to intense personal-business, signaling the shift from corridor anonymity to the focused moral confrontation.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Main Bridge functions as the observational vantage where Riker, Wesley and Worf remain at stations; it provides a disciplined, procedural backdrop and reminds the scene of wider ship operations even as a legal crisis folds into private space.
The Captain's Ready Room is the intimate, authoritative chamber where Picard receives and responds to institutional mandates; it concentrates the episode's moral and legal stakes, framing a private conversation that has public consequence.
The Enterprise Turbolift is the transitional route that brings Data from the ship's circulation into the Ready Room; its brief confinement and mechanical sounds mark Data's movement from public to private sphere.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
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Themes This Exemplifies
Thematic resonance and meaning
Key Dialogue
"PICARD: Captain Louvois has issued a ruling that you are the property of Starfleet Command. You can't resign."
"DATA: I see... from limitless options I am reduced to none, or rather one. I can only hope that Commander Maddox is more capable than it would appear."
"PICARD: No, you're not going to submit. We're going to fight this. Captain Louvois may be overly attached to the letter of the law, but she has not forgotten its spirit. She's convening a hearing and we are going to lay the question of your legal status to rest once and for all."