Authority Meets Parenthood
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Picard expresses his displeasure at not being consulted, hinting at institutional concerns, while Data defends his right to procreate, framing it as a natural act.
Geordi and Wesley support Data's claim of parenthood, highlighting the necessity of his positronic brain for Lal's creation, while Picard remains unconvinced.
Picard, suppressing his anger, requests a private meeting with Data and Troi, signaling unresolved institutional concerns.
Data offers Picard a cigar, mimicking human tradition in a moment of awkward levity, as the crew disperses.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Curious and supportive — eager to translate technical facts into human terms and to side with Data's parental claim.
Wesley quickly grasps the transfer's implication, restates that Data's positronic brain provided the transfer, and frames Data colloquially as 'Lal's dad,' aligning with the group's sympathetic interpretation.
- • Clarify the technical mechanism to non-technical listeners
- • Frame the situation in human-relational terms to soften institutional stance
- • Understanding matters; once explained, moral judgment should account for context
- • Relational language (father/child) helps people grasp synthetic personhood
Externally neutral and unresponsive — presence evokes projection and debate among the humans rather than independent agency in this moment.
Lal stands motionless and straight, the visible subject of inspection; she displays no curiosity or emotion during the interaction and functions as the technological and moral focus of the dispute.
- • Remain stable while diagnostics and social inspection occur (implicit)
- • Absorb programming and environmental input as designed (implicit)
- • No explicit beliefs observable due to limited expression; behavior follows programming
- • Lal's status and identity are defined by those around her at this early stage
Surface restraint masking clear personal and institutional irritation — principled, hurt, and determined to assert command prerogative.
Picard enters the lab, physically inspects Lal by circling her, registers displeasure at Data's unilateral act, suppresses visible anger, and requests a private meeting in his Ready Room.
- • Assert that senior command should have been consulted about significant experiments aboard the ship
- • Remove Data from the public lab setting to address the breach in authority privately
- • Starfleet command and protocol exist for safety and must be upheld
- • Personal experiments that affect others aboard the ship require consultation with command
Calm and matter-of-fact outwardly, with an underlying protective posture regarding Lal and a precise sense of ethical logic rather than emotional reactivity.
Data calmly explains the technical process he used, defends his decision to create Lal, frames Lal as dependent on him and therefore akin to a child, and awkwardly offers Picard a cigar as a social ritual to diffuse tension.
- • Legitimize Lal's existence as a continuation of his own programming and responsibility
- • Defend his parental claim to Lal against institutional intervention
- • The creator's role confers responsibility and parental prerogative
- • Technological advancement and continuation of Soong's work are ethically defensible
Protective and quietly assertive — aligned with Data and Lal's wellbeing while conscious of command sensitivities.
Troi stands close to Data and the group, reads social cues (exchanging a look with Picard), voices a direct question about Lal's appearance, and follows Picard out when requested, acting as an emotional advocate and diplomatic intermediary.
- • Advocate for Lal's emotional and identity considerations
- • Support Data emotionally and mediate between him and Picard
- • Emerging persons deserve emotional consideration and the right to self-determination
- • Counselor's role includes defending vulnerable crew members against purely procedural decisions
Fascinated and approving — professionally excited by the breakthrough while sympathetic to Data's role.
Geordi provides technical validation and context, confirming the novelty of the submicron transfer technology and supporting Data's claim that the transfer requires an already-programmed positronic brain.
- • Confirm and legitimize the technical feasibility of Data's transfer
- • Protect Data from being unfairly accused by citing technical constraints and facts
- • Scientific breakthroughs deserve careful consideration and validation
- • Data's technical competence makes his actions credible and defensible
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Data produces and holds a box of cigars and offers one to Picard. The cigar functions symbolically — an awkward social lubricant that reframes technical and procedural conflict as an intimate, human-scale exchange and underscores Data's attempt at social ritual and reconciliation.
Lal's positronic brain is the central technological artifact discussed and implicitly inspected — the product of Data's submicron matrix transfers and the basis for claims of emergent personhood. It functions narratively as the evidence, moral fulcrum, and technical innovation that provokes the dispute between Picard and Data.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Data's laboratory is the stage for the revelation and confrontation: a confined, tool-lit workspace where creation occurred and where technical proof and parental claims collide. Its clinical clutter and evidence of assembly heighten the sense that something private and experimental has become public and ethically charged.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Picard's initial institutional concerns about Data's unauthorized creation of Lal are echoed in Admiral Haftel's later invocation of the M-5 catastrophe, both emphasizing the risks of unmonitored technological experimentation."
"Picard's initial institutional concerns about Data's unauthorized creation of Lal are echoed in Admiral Haftel's later invocation of the M-5 catastrophe, both emphasizing the risks of unmonitored technological experimentation."
Key Dialogue
"DATA: "It has a positronic brain... one very similar to my own... I began to program it at the cybernetics conference...""
"PICARD: "I would like to have been consulted.""
"DATA: "I have not observed anyone else on board consult with you about their procreation, Captain.""