Picard Rebukes Danilo's Matchmaking
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Picard tries to end the interaction by assigning Mister Worf to give the tour, accepting Danilo’s florid thanks with desert-dry courtesy as he pushes toward the turbolift. His pace telegraphs impatience while Danilo cheerfully keeps up.
Danilo prods about wealth and ownership; Picard corrects him with crisp authority—he commands the Enterprise, he doesn’t own it.
Danilo pivots into Picard’s personal life, asking if he’s married and dangling mention of his daughter; Picard parries with a dry felicitation that refuses the bait.
Danilo bluntly proposes Picard consider his daughter; Picard detonates a firm “No!”, but Danilo wedges into the turbolift to press the question once more, earning an even sharper refusal before he backs out.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Warmly presumptuous and hopeful; his forwardness masks a desire to secure social advantage and gratitude for rescue, untroubled by formal boundaries.
Danilo engages Picard in gregarious, intrusive conversation: thanking him for the rescue, speculating about Picard's wealth, asking if Picard is married, offering his daughter as a match, then physically squeezing into the turbolift before backing out when rebuffed.
- • Express gratitude and form a social/advantageous connection with Picard
- • Find a desirable marriage match for his daughter using perceived status
- • Test whether Picard is receptive to informal cultural exchange
- • Wealth and ship-ownership (or command) indicate suitability as a match-maker target
- • Offering a daughter is an appropriate and plausible social exchange
- • Directness and good humor will be taken as friendly rather than offensive
Curt annoyance layered over a professional calm — surface politeness cracking into sharp impatience when personal space or role is misconstrued.
Picard walks hunched and purposeful toward the turbolift, assigns Worf to continue the tour, responds with dry politeness, then explosively rejects Danilo's matchmaking offer to reassert command and personal boundary.
- • Remove himself from public interaction and regain private command space
- • Ensure visitors are attended to by a subordinate (Worf) so duty continues
- • Preserve institutional distance between captain and civilians
- • The Enterprise is an institution to be commanded, not personally owned
- • Personal entanglements with visitors would undermine command posture
- • Quick, decisive refusals preserve order and prevent awkwardness from escalating
Neutral, professionally present — focused on duty and carrying out the captain's directive without visible personal reaction to social awkwardness.
Worf is designated by Picard to show the visitors the ship and is present as the intended escort; he accompanies the group down the corridor but does not speak, functioning as a steady, authoritative presence.
- • Execute the captain's order to show the visitors the ship
- • Maintain decorum and safety during the escort
- • Act as an institutional buffer between civilians and command
- • Chain of command should be followed precisely
- • Visitors must be guided and protected while aboard
- • The captain's orders are to be enacted without discussion
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The turbolift doors function as a physical and dramatic threshold: Picard uses the lift's aperture to punctuate his exit, the doors begin to close as he refuses Danilo's proposal, then reopen briefly as Danilo squeezes in and finally close again when he withdraws. They translate a social rebuke into private space and mark the restoration of command distance.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The narrow Enterprise corridor compresses the interaction: post-rescue bustle forces public intimacy, making a hurried exit both practical and symbolic. The corridor's close quarters turn a private rejection into a public moment, amplifying cultural friction between Picard's formality and Danilo's blunt friendliness.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
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Key Dialogue
"PICARD: "I don't own the Enterprise, I command her.""
"DANILO: "Would you be interested?""
"PICARD: "No!""