Blinded Data — Picard Chooses Denial
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Picard cradles a reeling Data as the android shudders into consciousness and admits he is damaged and blind; Worf's immediate question underscores the crew's sudden loss of their primary interpreter and problem-solver.
Data reports the Iconian program is attempting a rewrite of his basic software and then lapses into analysis, while Worf warns that without Data they cannot decode the system and Picard confronts the terrifying possibility that the Enterprise may be doomed.
Picard orders the tricorder destroyed to prevent Iconian technology from being captured; Worf objects at the loss of their record, but obeys—firing his phaser and making the tricorder vanish—forcing the crew to choose secrecy over knowledge.
Data, even impaired, identifies the control room's vast power source and explains that launching the probes will create a backwash that will overload and detonate the core; Picard grasps that detonation is the only way to deny the technology to the Romulans.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Anguished and resolute: grief and fear for the crew and the future beneath a hard, pragmatic determination to prevent a greater catastrophe.
Picard physically supports the crippled Data, forces the tricorder from him, orders its destruction, rapidly decodes Data's broken directives and formulates a denial plan—volunteering to pass through the gateway to trigger an overload rather than allow the technology to be captured.
- • Prevent Iconian technology from falling into Romulan hands
- • Extract usable technical instructions from Data before his systems fail
- • Destroy or deny the control room's capabilities even at personal risk
- • Some knowledge must be destroyed if it threatens galactic security
- • Data's remaining cognition is the last path to a tactical solution
- • Personal sacrifice is justified to prevent wider war
Damaged and resigned: analytical clarity intermittently breaking through physical and cognitive assault, cooperative but aware of his failing efficacy.
Physically compromised and swaying, Data conveys fragmentary but crucial technical information: the existence of a power source, the role of probes and doors, and the precise control-key colors and positions needed to initiate launch overrides; he relinquishes his tricorder despite impaired motor control.
- • Transmit usable technical knowledge before his systems are overwritten
- • Assist crew in neutralizing the installation's threat
- • Enable others (Geordi/Enterprise) to recover whatever remains
- • The Iconian program actively rewrites and corrupts positronic pathways
- • Specific hardware sequences (probes, doors, key colors) control launch and power distribution
- • Timely human intervention guided by his analysis can still disable the system
Concerned and resolute: fearful for Picard but bound to follow orders and protect the ship and crew while executing Picard's plan without hesitation.
Worf physically supports Data, protests strategic uncertainties, obeys Picard's order to destroy the tricorder by firing his phaser, and prepares to escort the incapacitated Data back to the Enterprise through the gateway once Picard initiates the overload plan.
- • Safely extract Data to the Enterprise
- • Ensure sensitive information cannot be captured by enemies
- • Follow Picard's orders while minimizing casualties
- • Picard's decision, though dangerous, must be honored
- • Data represents irreplaceable intellectual capital for the Enterprise
- • Allowing technology to fall into Romulan hands would be catastrophic
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Data's tricorder contains the only complete record of the team's forensic discoveries; Picard demands it, then orders it destroyed to prevent capture. Worf fires his phaser at the device and it is obliterated, erasing the tangible evidence and intelligence the Enterprise had recovered.
The Iconian control-room console is the active interface through which Data guides Picard: identifying rectangular and triangular screens, key colors, and lights. Picard must physically override this console to open doors and initiate probe launches, making it the fulcrum of the denial operation.
The Iconian launch probes are identified by Data as the mechanism whose rocket backwash can be directed into the installation's main grids to cause a catastrophic overload. Picard plans to abuse the probes' launch sequence as an improvised weapon to detonate the power core and deny the gateway technology.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Iconian Control Room is the scene of the assault on Data, the repository of forbidden technology, and the operational center Picard elects to destroy. The room's active consoles, launch racks, and gateway all function as tactical instruments and moral fulcrum for Picard's denial decision.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
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Key Dialogue
"DATA: "The Iconian program is attempting a rewrite of my basic software. Physical manifestations --""
"PICARD: "Destroy this.""
"PICARD: "This room and the technology contained in it must be destroyed. It cannot be allowed to fall into Romulan hands.""