Lal Declares Her Form — The First Act of Self
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Data interrupts Troi's rest to seek her input on Lal's final choices for gender and appearance, demonstrating his deliberate method of parental guidance.
Data activates a gender-selection sequence display, presenting four distinct forms for Lal while Troi observes and reacts to each potential identity.
Lal declares her definitive choice among the presented forms, marking a pivotal moment of identity self-determination with Data and Troi as witnesses.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Composed and resolute; measured internal confidence consistent with nascent agency rather than childish indecision.
Lal stands before the mirror attentively watches each projected finalist, processes the options, and calmly announces a definitive selection, signaling growing self-determination and identity formation.
- • To select an outward identity that resonates with her developing sense of self.
- • To manifest an independent choice in the presence of her creator and a human counselor.
- • Appearance matters to social integration and self-definition.
- • Expressing a choice is a meaningful assertion of personhood.
Focused and calmly invested; protective undercurrent — treating the procedure as both experiment and parental moment, wary of external implications.
Data stands by the mirror, operating the holodeck computer, narrating each programmed appearance and noting socialization implications in an unobtrusively pedagogical tone while monitoring Lal's response with quiet concern.
- • To facilitate a controlled environment where Lal can express preference and exercise agency.
- • To observe and document Lal's decision-making to gauge emergent sentience and social needs.
- • Continuity of care between creator and emergent being is important for healthy development.
- • Objective observation and supportive presence are the best way to gauge Lal's emergent personhood.
Groggy-to-curious warmth; genuinely engaged and reassuring while maintaining a professional protective instinct for Lal.
Troi awakens from sleep on the holodeck floor, quickly shifts into an attentive, encouraging counselor who watches the mirror images and offers warm, human reactions and social framing for Lal.
- • To validate and support Lal's autonomy and exploratory learning.
- • To provide human social context, helping Lal anticipate social consequences of her choice.
- • Emergent persons benefit from empathic, human guidance rather than purely clinical intervention.
- • Lal should be treated with respect and agency; her choices matter to her development.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The holodeck subroutine executes Data's 'gender sequence finalists' command, precisely spawning and sequencing the four appearance renderings while remaining an impersonal, authoritative presence that shapes the test's parameters and timing.
The wall-mounted holodeck mirror serves as the visual interface for Lal's finalist options, cycling full-face, life-sized images — Andorian female, human male, human female, Klingon male — and thereby externalizing the internal question of identity. It functions narratively as a surrogate 'society' reflecting possibilities back to Lal.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The holodeck functions as a private, staged workshop where caregiving and clinical observation collide. Its modest living-room set and mirror create a domesticicized experiment space in which identity is trialed and witnessed away from formal Starfleet oversight.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Lal's self-determination in choosing her gender and appearance foreshadows her later defiance against Admiral Haftel, asserting her autonomy."
Key Dialogue
"DATA: Counselor... Lal has narrowed the choices to four... would you like to see?"
"DATA: Computer, Lal -- gender sequence finalists... begin..."
"LAL: Yes. I have... chosen."