En Garde: The Oath That Turns Friends Into Adversaries
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Riker interrupts Picard's fencing and refuses to spar, reframing the moment as preparation for a graver 'real contest'—the legal battle over Data—shifting play into prosecution. The casual exercise snaps into charged focus as duty displaces camaraderie.
Riker frames the conflict as professional performance: though Data is the subject, their personal conduct will be judged, and he reveals he was forced into this role and will give it his fullest effort. Duty hardens into a promise that friendship cannot easily soften.
Picard slowly parses Riker's meaning with pointed, rhythmic blades; Riker warns he will do 'everything within your power and within the boundaries of the law' to win, and Picard answers that he will too—an explicit mutual pledge to fight, even at great cost. The exchange crystallizes the coming courtroom collision into a personal vow.
Picard drives his fencing opponent across the room in a burst of controlled force, then Riker exits—physically separating himself as he departs to enact the grim duty he's sworn to perform. Movement converts intent into impending action: the contest leaves the gym and heads toward the courtroom.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Controlled and resolute on the surface; morally engaged and quietly ferocious—Picard converts personal hurt into procedural rigor and stern resolve.
Picard is actively fencing with his opponent while turning his barbed, measured lines toward Riker. He uses the bout's momentum—slashes and a final drive that sends his opponent across the room—to punctuate his rhetorical dismantling of Riker's moral position.
- • To frame the dispute as an institutional, adversarial process rather than a personal quarrel
- • To test Riker's commitment and force him to publicly own the consequences of prosecuting Data
- • To signal that he, too, will fiercely contest whatever legal battle emerges
- • That the adversarial process is the proper place to settle disputes and reveal truth
- • That Riker's obligation to Starfleet will shape his actions, but moral accountability still matters
- • That disciplined action and rhetoric can shore up a moral and legal defense for Data
Absent physically; the dialogue implies a calm dignity and quiet vulnerability through others' words rather than Data's own expression.
Data is not physically present but functions as the contested object of the exchange; his status and rights are argued over aloud, making him the implicit, vulnerable third party whose fate the two officers now rhetorically contest.
- • To have his status fairly assessed by the legal process (inferred)
- • To preserve his operational integrity and continued service (inferred)
- • That personhood and rights should be adjudicated through reasoned legal processes (inferred)
- • That others will represent and argue his status in forums where he may or may not be afforded full agency (inferred)
Externally composed but inwardly pained; duty-locked resolve masking guilt and the knowledge that his actions will hurt a friend.
Riker enters the gym, declines to fence, and calmly admits he has been compelled into the prosecution. He vows to give his best effort—everything within the law—to win the case, then exits, leaving the pledge hanging between friendship and duty.
- • To fulfill the orders and role assigned to him by Starfleet with professional integrity
- • To maintain a boundary between personal friendship and his legal/professional responsibilities
- • To reassure himself and others that he will act within the law despite personal cost
- • That he has been forced into this role by higher authority and has limited options
- • That the legal process will require strong, professional advocacy which he must provide
- • That doing his duty can be morally defensible even if personally painful
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Enterprise gymnasium's marked fencing strip is the physical stage for this encounter. What is normally a place for ritualized physical discipline becomes a theatrical arena where professional loyalties and legal obligations are publicly rehearsed and tested.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Riker's vow during the fencing confrontation to do everything within the law presages and leads to his hard prosecutorial act in court—the removal of Data's hand and powering him down."
"Riker's vow during the fencing confrontation to do everything within the law presages and leads to his hard prosecutorial act in court—the removal of Data's hand and powering him down."
"Riker's vow during the fencing confrontation to do everything within the law presages and leads to his hard prosecutorial act in court—the removal of Data's hand and powering him down."
Key Dialogue
"RIKER: "I've been forced into this, and I have only one option. To give this my best effort.""
"PICARD: "Everything within your power and within the boundaries of the law... to win!""
"PICARD: "So am I.""