Catatonic Delegates: Containment, Hunger, and a Moment of Beauty
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
The team locks protocol: WESLEY asks about revival, PICARD delays it until Pacifica, PULASKI requests time to adjust Sickbay, and O'BRIEN agrees to store the catatonic delegates.
WESLEY flags the container and lifts the lid, exposing a writhing mass of worm‑like creatures; PULASKI identifies it as the Antedians’ food and primes the crew for their voracious appetites after stasis.
PICARD orders security and WORF steps in, affirms, then calls the Antedians "handsome," puncturing the formality with a jolt of Klingon admiration.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Nervous curiosity; eager to learn and to be useful, with a visible adolescent awkwardness when confronted with the grotesque.
Wesley stands near the materialization, asks tentative questions about the delegates' condition, approaches a container and lifts the cover to reveal a writhing mass of worm-like food — his curiosity provokes the salient, visceral reveal.
- • Understand the delegates' condition and needs so he can assist appropriately.
- • Learn about alien physiology and customs through direct observation.
- • Report findings up the chain and avoid making procedural errors.
- • Knowledge and observation are the right responses to unfamiliar biology.
- • Senior officers (Picard, Pulaski) will provide guidance and will act in the delegates' best interest.
- • His duty requires both caution and initiative when confronted with unexpected phenomena.
Calm, controlled and deliberately formal — masking any private discomfort; focused on preserving protocol and the larger diplomatic mission.
Picard enters in full dress, narrates the mission (V.O.), greets the Antedian delegates, reframes the arrival as diplomatic, defers medical revival until Pacifica, and orders security to maintain decorum and safety.
- • Ensure the Antedian delegates are transported and presented to the Pacifica conference intact.
- • Maintain proper diplomatic protocol and avoid any action that might prejudice the admission process.
- • Protect crew safety and ship security by assigning containment and security roles.
- • Federation admission procedures must be respected and not derailed by personal reactions to alien bodies.
- • Delay of invasive medical intervention is justified until the political context (the conference) can be assured.
- • Clear chain-of-command and decisive orders will prevent escalation and preserve dignity.
Reserved and professional on the surface; genuinely approving and respectful privately, unaffected by the grotesque appearance.
Worf accepts Picard's order to provide security, steps forward to observe the Antedians, and — contrary to others' disgust — offers a sincere compliment about their appearance, signaling an unflappable respect for alien dignity.
- • Execute Picard's security order to keep the delegates and crew safe.
- • Maintain Starfleet decorum and the outward dignity of the mission.
- • Affirm respect for alien cultures and challenge crew prejudice through action.
- • All sentient life deserves respect regardless of appearance.
- • Obedience to the captain is paramount.
- • Physical appearance does not determine cultural or martial worth.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The hooded crimson robes conceal the Antedians’ heads and bodies during transport, amplifying their strangeness and heightening the crew’s reaction. They function as both cultural costume and practical containment, preserving the delegates' catatonic state and shaping the visual shock of their reveal.
The Enterprise transporter platform is the active locus for matter reassembly: it hums to materialize the Antedian dignitaries and their accompanying container, anchoring the scene’s clinical ritual and immediately establishing the need for containment, examination, and security.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Sickbay is referenced as the planned short-term holding facility for the delegates once adjustments are made; it stands in contrast to the transporter room’s provisional containment by offering a controlled medical environment for extended observation.
Pacifica is the scheduled conference destination; its impending arrival is the primary reason Picard defers revival and medical intervention, prioritizing political optics and the timing of appearance over immediate scientific curiosity.
Antede Three is the delegates' planet of origin and the implicit reason the Enterprise is in orbit; its cultural travel practice (self‑induced catatonia) and the delegates’ food customs create the scene's diplomatic stakes.
The transporter room functions as the operational and ceremonial threshold for this diplomatic encounter: it stages materialization, immediate medical triage, security assignment, and the first cultural contact. Its clinical machinery, crew positions, and the sudden biological reveal compress procedure and foreignness into a tight, tense moment.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Storing the catatonic Antedians sets up their later transfer status update to the bridge."
"Storing the catatonic Antedians sets up their later transfer status update to the bridge."
"The Antedians' eerie, hooded arrival foreshadows the later reveal that they are assassins concealing ultritium."
"The Antedians' eerie, hooded arrival foreshadows the later reveal that they are assassins concealing ultritium."
"Early reveal of the Antedians' vermicular food foreshadows Worf feeding the same creatures when they awaken."
"Early reveal of the Antedians' vermicular food foreshadows Worf feeding the same creatures when they awaken."
"Worf calling the Antedians handsome leads into the bridge's broader discussion about beauty and prejudice."
"Worf calling the Antedians handsome leads into the bridge's broader discussion about beauty and prejudice."
Key Dialogue
"PULASKI: "When they come out of stasis, they will be very hungry.""
"PICARD: "Provide security.""
"WORF: "What a handsome race.""