Diplomacy Collapses — Gosheven Silences Data; Sheliak Expel Picard
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Picard and Troi confront the Sheliak on their ship, pleading for more time to evacuate the colony.
The Sheliak dismiss Picard's arguments as 'gibber' and abruptly transport him and Troi back to the Enterprise, signaling diplomatic failure.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Angry and alarmed at Gosheven's violence; resolutely pragmatic as she tries to repair Data and salvage momentum.
Ard'rian hosts the meeting, backs Data's argument, rushes to check Data after he is struck, and produces an electronic scanner to diagnose him — protective and technically engaged, she moves from organizer to first responder.
- • Keep the evacuation discussion alive and support Kentor's leadership.
- • Diagnose and revive Data so his persuasive function can continue.
- • Technical competence can avert disaster.
- • Collective survival requires challenging destructive authority.
Impressed then frightened — easily swayed by displays of force and social cues from local leaders.
The assembled colonists respond with initial interest to Data's neutral briefing but recoil and disperse after Gosheven disables Data, their wavering loyalty tipping back toward traditional authority.
- • Maintain community stability and avoid internal conflict.
- • Follow trusted leaders to reduce personal risk.
- • Collective consensus matters more than individual argument.
- • Obedience to established leaders preserves safety and order.
Impersonal and authoritative — represents corporate jurisprudence rather than individual feeling.
Addressed by Picard as 'Director', this Sheliak authority functions as the implied legal arbiter of the exchange; the interaction demonstrates the Director's institutional posture even if direct speech is indistinct from the Voice.
- • Maintain legal primacy and proceed with contractual enforcement.
- • Prevent diplomatic delay by asserting procedural dominance.
- • Corporate directives are the ultimate determinant of action.
- • Diplomatic entreaties cannot supersede formal statute.
Defiant and authoritative, projecting control; his action masks fear of losing status and of outside interference.
Gosheven enters the room, confronts Data, and deliberately touches Data with an electronic prod; he frames the action as enforcement of local will and orders the crowd to disperse.
- • Reassert tribal sovereignty and maintain communal obedience to his leadership.
- • Stop evacuation momentum that would undermine his standing and decisions.
- • Local tradition and my authority must trump outside influence.
- • Visible force is an effective means to maintain social order.
Defensive and concerned — torn between cultural pride and the shock of seeing an outsider violently shut down.
Haritath voices cultural preference for self‑reliance, reacts with alarm and rhetorical disbelief when Data is shut down, revealing defensive loyalty to local autonomy and fear at violent enforcement.
- • Preserve the colony's independence and legacy of self‑rule.
- • Avoid hasty decisions that feel imposed by outsiders.
- • Self‑reliance is a crucial part of community identity.
- • Outsiders (and their solutions) risk eroding local values.
Uncertain but resolute — buoyed by responsibility yet dismayed when social pressure reasserts itself.
Kentor, after wavering, pledges tentative support for evacuation and worries aloud how to sway Gosheven; he listens as Gosheven arrives and watches momentum collapse after Data is disabled.
- • Convince influential colonists to back evacuation to save lives.
- • Leverage his local respect to shift popular opinion against Gosheven's stance.
- • People follow respected local figures; leadership can change outcomes.
- • Safeguarding the community may require confronting entrenched authority.
Coldly satisfied and procedural — operates without empathy, treating humans as objects under contract.
The Sheliak Voice issues precise, statutory declarations aboard the alien chamber — cites treaty clauses, dismisses human argument as gibberish, and orders immediate removal before activating the transporter to expel Picard and Troi.
- • Enforce the Treaty terms as written and proceed with removal.
- • Eliminate exceptions or delays that would impede Sheliak corporate action.
- • Treaty law is absolute and overrides appeals to sentiment.
- • Species that do not conform to legal categories are expendable under corporate prerogative.
Frustrated and indignant — morally outraged at the Sheliak's dehumanizing language and constrained by legalistic impasse.
Picard materializes aboard the Sheliak ship, speaks with procedural courtesy, argues for extra time to secure evacuation resources, and is met with cold statutory refusal before being abruptly transported back to the Enterprise.
- • Negotiate a delay so Starfleet can mount an orderly evacuation.
- • Protect Federation citizens and assert diplomatic norms.
- • Law and negotiation can buy time to save lives.
- • Opponents should be reasoned with unless force is the only recourse.
Impartial and analytical in delivery; rendered passive and incapacitated after the prod — a silent casualty of human politics.
Data calmly presents evacuation options to the colonists, using factual persuasion; he is abruptly struck by Gosheven's prod, emits sparks, stiffens and powers down, becoming inert and ending his persuasive influence.
- • Persuade colonists through factual, no‑pressure explanation to accept evacuation.
- • Protect colonists' well‑being by offering Federation assistance options.
- • Clear information empowers rational choice.
- • Noncoercive presentation is the most ethical way to influence human decisions.
Concerned and focused — attempting to interpret and soften the Sheliak response, privately unsettled by their contempt.
Troi accompanies Picard aboard the Sheliak vessel, offers cultural and psychological reading, tries to frame humans as non‑interfering, and watches Picard's entreaties collapse under Sheliak legalism.
- • Translate Sheliak rhetoric to find an opening for tolerance.
- • Support Picard's appeal with psychologically informed argument.
- • Understanding cultural cues can create room for negotiation.
- • Psychological framing can humanize diplomatic interlocutors.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Gosheven's electronic prod is the instrument of coercion: he slams it into Data's casing, producing blue sparks and forcing an immediate shutdown. Narratively it converts political disagreement into physical intimidation and marks the breakdown of peaceful persuasion.
The Sheliak transporter functions as an extrajudicial enforcement device: after legal pronouncements it activates to forcibly dematerialize Picard and Troi and deposit them back on the Enterprise, symbolizing diplomatic nullification and escalating the crisis.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Ard'rian's living room is the intimate civic forum where persuasion met tradition; its domestic clutter and photos anchor community memory even as it becomes the stage for Gosheven's violent reassertion of authority and the scene of Data's incapacitation.
The Sheliak ship interior is an alien, courtroom‑like space where law is literalized; it provides the setting for the hyper‑legal pronouncements that dismiss human appeals and for the transporter that expels Picard and Troi.
The Enterprise orbit functions as the immediate destination and operational hub after Picard and Troi are expelled; the ship is the logistical backbone that must mount the rescue and the moral staging ground reacting to diplomatic collapse.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Data and Ard'rian's mobilization against Gosheven leads directly to Gosheven's violent counterattack using the electronic prod."
"Data and Ard'rian's mobilization against Gosheven leads directly to Gosheven's violent counterattack using the electronic prod."
Themes This Exemplifies
Thematic resonance and meaning
Key Dialogue
"GOSHEVEN: "I've killed no one. I've merely shut down a machine.""
"SHELIAK: "Section five hundred and one, paragraph seven hundred and sixteen, subparagraph five -- unwanted lifeforms inhabiting H class worlds may be removed at the discretion of the Sheliak corporate.""
"PICARD: "They are not vermin! They are citizens of the Federation and I will not permit this travesty!""