Data's Self-Purge and the Shipwide Reboot
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Data abruptly revives—his eyes reopen and he sits up—provoking stunned reactions from Geordi and Riker as Data declares, "Ah, I have access."
Geordi grasps that Data's built-in self-correcting mechanism is activating while Data, confused and searching for Picard, begins to reorient—signaling the possibility that the android purged the Iconian code by initiating an internal shutdown and wipe.
Geordi formulates a radical ship-wide remedy—a complete shutdown, purge of the Yamato log and all subsequent corrupted memory, then reload from protected archives—Riker immediately flags the Romulan danger as shields fall but nevertheless issues the order to proceed.
Despite his confusion and recent wipe, Data offers to assist—signaling recovered agency and readiness to support Geordi's dangerous purge plan.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Confused but cooperative — bewildered by the dislocation yet eager to be of service and provide data to solve the crisis.
Reopens his eyes, sits up, reports 'I have access,' expresses confusion about his recent memory and location, and offers to assist; he provides the crucial evidence that his positronic core executed a self-correcting shutdown and wipe.
- • Clarify what he experienced and what data was removed from his memory.
- • Provide actionable diagnostic information to Geordi and Riker.
- • Assist in implementing the corrective procedure if possible.
- • His positronic brain's self-correcting mechanism intentionally removed incompatible/infectious programming.
- • He can contribute precise diagnostic information to help replicate the corrective action at scale.
- • Recovering full system function is essential to the crew's survival.
Tense and pragmatic — worried about external threat and crew safety but willing to accept a high-risk technical solution to avert a larger catastrophe.
Responds to Data's reactivation with astonishment, presses for explanation, quickly evaluates tactical implications (Romulan proximity), and ultimately gives the authorization for Geordi to execute the full shutdown and wipe: 'Make it so.'
- • Ensure the safety of the Enterprise and crew given the infection risk.
- • Weigh tactical vulnerability against the need to eliminate the Iconian program and authorize necessary actions.
- • Maintain command authority and act decisively under uncertain conditions.
- • The Iconian program poses an immediate existential threat that must be addressed.
- • Shutting down the ship will create tactical exposure but may be the only effective cure.
- • Command must accept risk when it is the lesser of two evils.
Focused urgency — confident in technical reasoning but aware of moral and tactical stakes; resolute with an undertone of anxiety.
Leans over Data, closes his eyes, and at Data's reawakening rapidly connects the technical dots: identifies a self-correcting shutdown in Data's positronic brain and proposes an identical, shipwide shutdown, wipe, and reload to purge the Iconian infection.
- • Diagnose how Data recovered and extract the mechanism that saved him.
- • Design and initiate a complete systems shutdown and wipe to purge the Iconian program.
- • Protect as many crew members and systems as possible during the procedure.
- • The self-correcting shutdown that saved Data can be scaled to the ship's systems.
- • A complete wipe and reload from protected archives is the only reliable way to remove the Iconian corruption.
- • The technical risk of shutting down is preferable to living with the corrupting program.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The Yamato log (represented in engineering records/PADDs) is identified as the infected data source that propagated the Iconian program into the Enterprise. Geordi declares it and every subsequent download must be wiped as part of the surgical recovery; the log therefore becomes a primary target of deletion to stop further corruption.
The ship's warp engines are invoked as a pointed counterargument to the shutdown risk: Geordi warns that even if Romulan phasers don't kill them, a catastrophic engine failure could. Engines are thus framed as both hazard and reason to accept the wipe — they will be powered down as part of the procedure and are rhetorically used to justify the gamble.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Iconian Homeworld is invoked by Data's disoriented report ('I was on Iconia') and by Geordi's diagnosis: Iconia is the locus from which the corrupting program originated. Though not the physical setting of the scene, Iconia functions narratively as the remote origin point of the contagion that the Enterprise must now excise.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
No narrative connections mapped yet
This event is currently isolated in the narrative graph
Part of Larger Arcs
Key Dialogue
"DATA: Ah, I have access."
"GEORDI: The self-correcting mechanism --"
"RIKER: Make it so."