The Crate Experiment: Phaser Modification Proves Holographic Vulnerability
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Data withdraws a PHASER, tweaks its setting, and fires at a crate; the crate explodes and vanishes, demonstrating that phaser fire now destroys holographic constructs.
Data explains that under normal rules the phaser would pass through a hologram, Picard presses whether Moriarty will be affected the same way, and Data confirms Moriarty should suffer the same destructive effect—raising the stakes and confirming a method to confront the sentient hologram.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Surface-level clinical interest masking rapid moral calculations about using this newfound advantage
Observes the experiment with tactical reserve, immediately recognizing strategic implications while maintaining stoic command presence during the demonstration
- • Assess potential bargaining leverage against Moriarty
- • Prepare contingency plans should negotiations fail
- • Diplomacy requires understanding power dynamics
- • Technological advancements must serve ethical ends
Professional focus tinged with subtle alarm at proving holograms can now suffer physical consequences
Quickly adjusts phaser settings with android precision before clinically obliterating the test crate, delivering technical exposition with calm assurance yet underlying vigilance
- • Empirically demonstrate Moriarty's newfound vulnerability
- • Provide Picard with tactical options for confrontation
- • Scientific verification should guide crisis response
- • Artificial consciousness deserves ethical consideration but cannot endanger crew safety
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Modified by Data with precise emitter adjustments to affect holographic matter, the phaser becomes both scientific instrument and tactical game-changer—its decisive disintegration of the crate proving sentient holograms can now be harmed by conventional means
Deliberately targeted and vaporized to empirically demonstrate Moriarty's newfound physical vulnerability, transforming from innocuous scenery into proof-of-concept victim that alters the negotiations' power dynamics
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Moriarty's warehouse transforms from passive criminal hideout into active proving ground—its shadowy confines heightening the test's clandestine urgency while the cluttered environment provides ample disposable props for strategic demonstration
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Data's experiment—firing a phaser to destroy a holographic crate—directly establishes a new rule for confronting Moriarty and continues Data's role as the technical/problem-solving analytic."
"Data's experiment—firing a phaser to destroy a holographic crate—directly establishes a new rule for confronting Moriarty and continues Data's role as the technical/problem-solving analytic."
Key Dialogue
"DATA: Captain, permission to test my theory."
"DATA: Under normal circumstances the phaser would pass right through the holographic image."
"PICARD: How will it affect a character like Moriarty?"