Picard Forces Data Back Into Duty — The Lesson of Fallibility
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
At the door, Picard delivers the core truth—one can commit no mistakes and still lose—reframing failure as life, not weakness.
Understanding lands; Data acknowledges, sheds hesitation at Picard’s final charge, kills his monitor, and follows to resume duty.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Firm and quietly compassionate; resolute in upholding duty while sensitive to Data's distress.
Enters Data's quarters on a summons, interrupts Data's attempt to abdicate, reasserts command and trust, assigns a concrete analytic task (formulate a premise for handling Riker and the Hathaway), and departs after delivering a thematic admonition about fallibility and duty.
- • Prevent the loss of a critical officer from active duty
- • Reframe Data's fear into actionable thinking
- • Ensure the Enterprise has capable command support for the upcoming tactical engagement
- • Reinforce the ethic that duty persists despite the possibility of error
- • Duty to the ship and crew supersedes an individual's fear of failure
- • Experience and moral leadership require holding subordinates to responsibility, not enabling abdication
- • Human (and android) fallibility doesn't negate the necessity to act
- • Clarity of premise yields better operational outcomes than paralysis
Apprehensive and logically unsettled at first, shifting to relieved, resolved, and duty‑focused after Picard's intervention.
Seated at his console and engaged in diagnostics, Data admits he cannot isolate the anomaly and expresses fear of making a mistake; after Picard reframes the situation and assigns a concrete analytic task, Data shuts off his monitor, accepts the instruction, and follows Picard to the bridge.
- • Avoid committing an error that could endanger the ship or crew
- • Resolve the unknown systems problem through analysis
- • Comply with superior orders while protecting crew welfare
- • Regain operational clarity by converting doubt into a formal premise
- • Errors by an officer — especially an android expected to be precise — are unacceptable and must be avoided
- • Admitting uncertainty risks dereliction unless accompanied by a plan
- • Following the chain of command is paramount
- • A formalized premise can structure action and mitigate risk
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The starcruiser Hathaway is invoked verbally by Picard as the strategic object of the upcoming engagement. It serves as the concrete target around which Picard asks Data to formulate a premise, converting abstract fear into a specific tactical problem.
A palm-sized entry chime sounds at the start of the scene, interrupting Data's private work and announcing Picard's arrival. The chime functions as a narrative trigger that collapses Data's solitude into a formal duty encounter and signals a shift from private doubt to public responsibility.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The bridge is framed as the imminent destination and the place where duty and consequence are played out publicly. Picard summons Data there to convert private analysis into operational direction, making the bridge the arena for immediate tactical application.
Data's quarters function as the intimate site of internal struggle: a compact, clinical space where diagnostic consoles and muted readouts externalize Data's methodical mind. The quarters provide privacy for self-doubt but become the stage for Picard's moral and professional intervention.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
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Part of Larger Arcs
Key Dialogue
"DATA: Captain, with all due respect, perhaps it would be better if you choose another to serve as your first --"
"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."
"PICARD: It is possible to commit no mistakes -- and still lose."