Margan's Plea and Picard's Reluctant Command
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Tasha Yar contacts the ready room with a distressed message from Ornara's leader Margan, who urgently requests to speak to her people aboard the Enterprise, escalating the stakes.
Picard grants Margan permission to speak with the Ornarans on board but restricts their access to the bridge, then removes himself to the guest quarters to handle the communication privately, underscoring the delicate balance of command.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Calm, dutiful, and focused on following orders precisely.
Lieutenant Yar is assigned to bring the Ornaran survivors aboard but strictly forbids their access to the bridge, executing Picard’s orders with professional neutrality.
- • Enforce command decisions regarding security and access.
- • Maintain order during the sensitive crisis.
- • Protect the integrity of the bridge environment.
- • Facilitate controlled contact with Ornarans.
- • Security protocols ensure ship safety.
- • Following orders is paramount.
- • Controlled access prevents potential conflict.
- • Dispassionate professionalism is necessary in crises.
Pensive and conflicted, wrestling with moral ambiguity and the weight of command responsibility.
Captain Picard leads the sober, ethically fraught discussion, weighing Starfleet's Prime Directive against urgent humanitarian need. His demeanor is pensive and conflicted as he ultimately denies intervention and restricts Ornaran access while authorizing communication with their leader, asserting control by moving to negotiate privately in the guest quarters.
- • Maintain adherence to Starfleet Prime Directive and protocol.
- • Manage diplomatic crisis without escalating conflict.
- • Control information flow and negotiation context.
- • Protect Enterprise operational integrity.
- • Non-interference is paramount despite humanitarian suffering.
- • Imposing Federation values on others is ethically wrong.
- • Longstanding symbiosis between Ornara and Brekka complicates intervention.
- • Crisis must be handled through controlled, private negotiation.
Emotionally neutral, focused on delivering accurate data.
Data provides a calm, neutral, and detailed historical and scientific account of the Ornaran plague and the origin of Felicium as a cure, setting the factual foundation for the ethical debate among the senior staff.
- • Inform command of historical and scientific facts.
- • Support ethical evaluation through evidence.
- • Maintain operational clarity.
- • Assist in resolving the crisis through knowledge.
- • Accurate data is key to ethical decision-making.
- • Historical context matters in present events.
- • Scientific facts transcend emotional bias.
- • Objective analysis aids command decisions.
Concerned and earnest, focused on providing context and assisting command decisions.
Commander Riker articulates the historical complexity of the intertwined relationship between Ornara and Brekka, relaying Data's technical exposition and framing the unfolding crisis in terms of commerce, disease, and dependency with concern and clarity.
- • Clarify history and stakes of Ornaran-Brekkian relationship.
- • Support Captain Picard's understanding and decision-making.
- • Maintain crew morale and cohesion.
- • Balance operational facts with ethical considerations.
- • Understanding historical context is essential to correct action.
- • The Felicium trade represents a complex dependency.
- • The Ornarans' survival is tied to Felicium.
- • Ethical dilemmas must be faced with pragmatism.
Passionately urgent, frustrated by rigid command protocols but devoted to alleviating suffering.
Dr. Beverly Crusher passionately challenges the prevailing non-intervention stance, revealing medical analysis that Felicium is now a harmful, addictive narcotic. She urges Picard to act humanely, emphasizing the physical and psychological enslavement of the Ornarans.
- • Convince Picard to intervene medically and ethically.
- • Present scientific evidence countering official narratives.
- • Protect the health and welfare of Ornarans.
- • Challenge underestimation of addiction's impact.
- • Addiction constitutes a medical and moral emergency.
- • Starfleet should not forsake humanitarian aid.
- • Non-interference can cause harm when suffering is evident.
- • Medical science can offer solutions without cultural imperialism.
Quietly attentive, sensing the undercurrents of tension and moral conflict.
Counselor Deanna Troi remains silently present, empathetically absorbing the tense exchange between officers and the distress signal, providing an emotional undercurrent and perspective without direct participation in dialogue.
- • Monitor emotional states of crew and visitors.
- • Provide psychological insight if called upon.
- • Maintain calm in the face of crisis.
- • Support Picard and crew through empathic presence.
- • Emotional dynamics influence outcomes.
- • Understanding psychological impact is critical.
- • Silence can be a form of support.
- • Human factors matter in command decisions.
Desperation and urgency mixed with a resolute hope to protect her people.
Margan, leader of Ornara, appears distressed in a grainy transmission pleading urgently to learn about her people aboard the Enterprise and requesting direct communication, embodying the desperation and human face of the crisis.
- • Ascertain the safety of Ornaran survivors aboard Enterprise.
- • Gain direct communication access to her people.
- • Influence Enterprise decisions regarding her population.
- • Mitigate the worsening crisis through dialogue.
- • Her people’s survival depends on Enterprise’s actions.
- • Direct communication is essential to leadership responsibility.
- • The crisis demands immediate attention and aid.
- • Interference may be justified under humanitarian grounds.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The Enterprise Bridge Main Viewscreen is utilized to display the incoming, distorted transmission from Margan, the Ornaran leader, enabling visual contact and grounding the crisis in a direct human appeal, heightening tension and urgency in the ready room.
The Enterprise Corridor Com Panel functions as the technical interface through which Captain Picard orders Lieutenant Yar to bring the Ornarans onboard but restrict their access, facilitating controlled communication and security management amidst the escalating crisis.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Captain's Ready Room serves as the intimate, strategic command center where Picard and senior officers dissect the complex interplanetary dependencies and ethical dilemmas. Its confined, private atmosphere intensifies the moral gravity of decision-making and underscores Picard’s isolated burden of command.
The Brekkian Guest Quarters is designated by Picard as the private venue for upcoming delicate negotiations with Ornaran representatives, offering a controlled environment away from the bridge’s tension and symbolizing a diplomatic sanctuary.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"The desperate plea from Ornara's leader Margan over transmission (beat_b9f1f0769fae2f70) intensifies T'Jon's emotional pressure, leading to his hostage-taking of Riker (beat_b413c2edadc475a2), escalating narrative and ethical tension."
"The desperate plea from Ornara's leader Margan over transmission (beat_b9f1f0769fae2f70) intensifies T'Jon's emotional pressure, leading to his hostage-taking of Riker (beat_b413c2edadc475a2), escalating narrative and ethical tension."
"The desperate plea from Ornara's leader Margan over transmission (beat_b9f1f0769fae2f70) intensifies T'Jon's emotional pressure, leading to his hostage-taking of Riker (beat_b413c2edadc475a2), escalating narrative and ethical tension."
"Riker's briefing on the economic and medical relationship between the two worlds (beat_0e36f51af5fc05f7) escalates to Picard's ethical dilemma about addiction and the Prime Directive (beat_9bb27552bd108bb4), deepening thematic complexity."
"The Brekkians' smug assertion of Picard's ethical limits (beat_b529fee52abad55b) parallels Picard's internal struggle with Prime Directive constraints (beat_9bb27552bd108bb4), highlighting themes of power, control, and ethical boundaries."
"The Brekkians' smug assertion of Picard's ethical limits (beat_b529fee52abad55b) parallels Picard's internal struggle with Prime Directive constraints (beat_9bb27552bd108bb4), highlighting themes of power, control, and ethical boundaries."
"The Brekkians' smug assertion of Picard's ethical limits (beat_b529fee52abad55b) parallels Picard's internal struggle with Prime Directive constraints (beat_9bb27552bd108bb4), highlighting themes of power, control, and ethical boundaries."
"Riker's briefing on the economic and medical relationship between the two worlds (beat_0e36f51af5fc05f7) escalates to Picard's ethical dilemma about addiction and the Prime Directive (beat_9bb27552bd108bb4), deepening thematic complexity."
"T'Jon takes Riker hostage (beat_b413c2edadc475a2), escalating the crisis to a life-threatening level, which Picard resolves by calmly denying violence and defusing the situation (beat_ad73a6d83d3a2bfb)."
"T'Jon takes Riker hostage (beat_b413c2edadc475a2), escalating the crisis to a life-threatening level, which Picard resolves by calmly denying violence and defusing the situation (beat_ad73a6d83d3a2bfb)."
"T'Jon takes Riker hostage (beat_b413c2edadc475a2), escalating the crisis to a life-threatening level, which Picard resolves by calmly denying violence and defusing the situation (beat_ad73a6d83d3a2bfb)."
Key Dialogue
"BEVERLY: "Felicium is definitely a powerful and addictive narcotic. What's more, despite what the Ornarans have been saying, it's not a medicine. It was a medicine, and it did cure the plague, two hundred years ago.""
"PICARD: "The Ornarans have no medical need for Felicium.""
"MARGAN: "I am Margan. Are my people on board your ship?""
"PICARD: "Some of them, yes.""
"PICARD: "Yes. [to Yar] Have the Ornarans brought in... no, wait, I don't want them to have access to the bridge. [then] I will take this in the guest quarters.""