Sonny Samples the Future
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
SONNY reacts to ship life by hunting for familiar comforts—bars and restaurants—forcing RIKER to translate twenty‑first‑century expectations into Federation terms: food stations and a computer interface.
SONNY approaches the computer, DATA prompts him to speak, and the ship instantly materializes a perfect martini and the ordered meal—SONNY's delighted surprise underlines rapid cultural assimilation and Data's role as connector.
SONNY searches for 'teevee' and soaps; DATA corrects terminology and delivers a terse historical note that television and soap operas are gone—this exchange sharpens the time‑gap and frames SONNY's nostalgia against futuristic perspective.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Focused, purposeful; operating with the weight of responsibility that compels immediate attention and redeployment of personnel.
Picard's presence is heard over the comm; his brief, formal summons shifts the room's tempo, asserting command and refocusing Riker and Data toward bridge responsibilities.
- • Reassemble senior officers on the bridge to manage larger tactical or diplomatic concerns.
- • Maintain command oversight of ship operations and emergent crises.
- • Critical decisions must be centralized and made with full information on the bridge.
- • The captain's summons takes priority over social or informal matters in the lounge.
Clinical curiosity mixed with attempts at social facilitation; mildly perplexed but eager to be useful.
Data prompts Sonny to 'talk' to the computer, processes the order that produces the martini, corrects Sonny's colloquial 'teevee' to 'television', and informs Sonny, bluntly, that soaps did not survive beyond 2040 before preparing to report to the bridge.
- • Facilitate communication between survivors and ship systems to provide comfort.
- • Accurately convey factual context about the survivors' cultural references.
- • Precise information helps survivors calibrate expectations and reduces confusion.
- • Mechanical provision of comforts is a suitable substitute for lost cultural institutions.
Cordial and mildly amused; professionally focused, balancing hospitality with chain-of-command obligations.
Riker patiently orients the civilians to ship norms, points out the food computer, answers the captain's com call, and prepares to report to the bridge while diplomatically containing Sonny's boisterous requests.
- • Stabilize the civilians and explain 24th‑century procedures clearly.
- • Maintain order and ensure a prompt response to the captain's summons.
- • Procedural clarity (explaining food stations) reduces confusion and potential disruption.
- • Chain of command must be observed even during humanitarian tasks.
Anxious and mournful; underlying grief surfaces as urgent questions about belonging and next steps.
Clare asks pointedly about the survivors' future—whether they will stay aboard or return to Earth—expressing need for guidance and emotional orientation amid shock.
- • Obtain clarity and reassurance about the survivors' living arrangements and future.
- • Find an authoritative answer or sympathy from Starfleet officers to reduce existential uncertainty.
- • A formal decision by the captain or Starfleet will define their fate and provide stability.
- • Social ties (home, family on Earth) remain central despite temporal displacement.
Agitated and opportunistic; panic about lost assets surfaces as self-preserving urgency rather than communal concern.
Ralph notices Riker's interaction, immediately seeks audience with the captain, vocalizes urgency about calling Geneva, and treats the situation transactionally, urging fast connection to financial concerns.
- • Secure immediate contact with authorities (or the captain) to protect financial interests.
- • Reassert pre-suspension status and privileges by invoking institutional channels (banks, law).
- • Monetary assets and immediate financial action will restore his position and control.
- • Institutional systems (banks, Geneva) can and should be mobilized to solve personal crises.
Brightening optimism layered with melancholy — momentarily comforted and playfully inquisitive while still carrying displaced grief.
Sonny rises, stretches, claims the desire for a drink, approaches the guest-lounge computer, orders food then a martini, tastes it with visible delight and jokes about television and soaps.
- • Reclaim a tactile, twentieth-century pleasure to regain dignity and pleasure.
- • Gauge familiarity and safety in this alien environment through domestic rituals (food, drink, entertainment).
- • Familiar comforts (drinks, teevee, sports) will help him feel human and anchored.
- • Material pleasures are portable and can be reproduced even in this future setting.
Not applicable (automated voice) — procedural neutrality that normalizes advanced technology as service.
The Enterprise computer responds to vocal commands, synthesizes and provides Sonny's martini on demand, and receives Riker's uplink to summon the captain—acting as a neutral, procedural interface between humans and ship resources.
- • Fulfill user provisioning requests accurately and reliably.
- • Relay and facilitate internal ship communications on command.
- • Systems should respond to authorized voice commands without interpretation of emotional content.
- • Provisioning and communication protocols are sufficient to meet immediate needs.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The lounge com panel carries Picard's voice into the room, functioning as the connective tissue of ship command: it interrupts the social scene and summons senior officers back to operational duties.
Ralph references his cell phone as the means he intends to use to contact Geneva, signaling his reliance on pre-Transport-era institutions; the phone is a psychological tether more than an active prop in the scene.
The Enterprise food stations (the ship's automated provisioning system) are invoked by Riker and used by Sonny to request food and drink; they represent 24th‑century convenience and displace the idea of a staffed bar or restaurant.
The computer-produced martini functions as the tactile core of the beat: it is ordered by Sonny, materializes instantly, and provides a sensory anchor that momentarily restores dignity and pleasure, highlighting what survivors have lost and what technology can replicate.
The Kansas City steak is verbally ordered by Sonny as part of a fantasy of full restorative comfort; though not actually materialized, its mention signals deep sensory longing and contrasts with the simpler martini he ultimately accepts.
The guest lounge television is the cultural touchstone Sonny seeks to find the Braves and soaps; its presence (and the inability to simply 'turn on' historical programming) dramatizes the survivors' longing for familiar media anchors.
The guest-lounge food stations are referenced by Riker as the ship's method of providing meals, framing the Enterprise's pragmatic replacement for restaurants and bars and serving narratively as a symbol of institutional domesticity.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Geneva is invoked by Ralph as the locus of his financial concerns; it functions narratively as a remaining tether to pre‑Transport-era institutions that fuel his anxiety and demands.
The bridge is an offstage but operative presence: Picard summons officers from the lounge to the bridge, its unseen gravity collapsing the lounge's private moment into command duty and foreshadowing broader operational concerns beyond the survivors' immediate needs.
Earth is referenced as the civilians' home and the implied destination they worry about; Clare's question about returning to Earth anchors the group's emotional stakes and future uncertainty.
The Guest Lounge is the social setting where displaced twenty‑first‑century civilians first encounter 24th‑century hospitality. It serves as an orientation space, staging domestic comforts and light banter as crew and rescued civilians negotiate culture, food, and anxiety.
The guest lounge functions as refuge and processing space where survivors' cultural dislocation is made visible; it's the domestic stage for Sonny's small victory, Ralph's panic, Clare's questions, and Riker's courteous control, concentrating private grief and institutional response in one room.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Sonny’s quick embrace of 24th-century tech and rapport with Data culminate in recruiting Data as his sideman."
"Sonny’s quick embrace of 24th-century tech and rapport with Data culminate in recruiting Data as his sideman."
"Sonny’s quick embrace of 24th-century tech and rapport with Data culminate in recruiting Data as his sideman."
Key Dialogue
"SONNY: I don't know about you all... but me -- I'm going to find the bar. After all of this -- I need me a drink."
"RIKER: There is nothing of that nature on board the Enterprise."
"DATA: That particular form of entertainment did not last much beyond the year Two Thousand Forty."