Duty Over Doubt — Picard Reinstates Data
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Picard strides in and orders Data to the bridge; Data balks and tries to remove himself from duty, asking Picard to choose someone else.
Picard cuts him off and locks the chain of command, insisting Data remains first officer and that potential mistakes do not erase his duty.
Picard drills him into action: formulate a premise to counter Riker and the Hathaway, and deliver the answer on the bridge.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Firm concern: controlled and paternal in tone, prioritizing ship and crew over comforting Data's immediate doubt.
Enters Data's quarters with focused purpose, interrupts diplomatically, asserts Data's role as first officer, issues an urgent cognitive challenge to formulate a premise, and delivers the decisive moral line before exiting to the bridge.
- • Restore Data to operational effectiveness and clarity
- • Ensure the Enterprise has a coherent tactical plan before Riker's engagement
- • Duty supersedes individual hesitation
- • Clear premises and decisive thought are essential in unpredictable human command
Anxious restraint: clinical on the surface but internally unsettled and self-doubting, receptive to corrective authority.
Seated and absorbed at his console, Data voices technical uncertainty and offers to step aside; he listens attentively to Picard's directive, shuts off his monitor, rises, and follows Picard out to the bridge.
- • Avoid making a critical diagnostic error that could cost lives
- • Fulfill his duty without compromising the ship's safety
- • Errors in his analysis could have catastrophic consequences
- • Stepping aside might be the responsible choice if he cannot guarantee correctness
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The Hathaway is referenced as the tactical objective Picard asks Data to consider; though physically absent, the ship functions as the imagined target around which Picard forces a premise and strategic anticipation.
A sharp two-note chime announces Picard's arrival, collapsing Data's private focus into immediate presence. The sound functions as the inciting sensory beat that shifts the scene from introspective work to authoritative confrontation.
Representing the class of on‑board consoles, the monitoring hardware at Data's station is the physical locus of his analysis and doubt; Data explicitly shuts off his display, a symbolic break between private anxiety and public duty.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The bridge functions as the imminent destination and operational stage Picard invokes to refocus Data on duty. It exists offscreen as a place of public command where the ideas tested privately must be applied under pressure.
Data's quarters serve as an intimate, insulated workspace that exposes the android's vulnerability. The private setting allows Picard to confront Data away from the bridge spectacle, turning the room into a crucible for moral recalibration and quiet command pedagogy.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
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Key Dialogue
"PICARD: Data, you are my first officer."
"PICARD: Do you know how to formulate a premise? ... Then formulate one now: How do I handle Riker and the Hathaway? I'll await your answer on the bridge. (strong beat) It is possible to commit no mistakes -- and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life."
"DATA: Thank you, Captain, I believe I understand."