Lwaxana Declares an 'Alternate Plan'
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Lwaxana confronts Deanna about Picard being 'unavailable' and balks at ship’s business outranking her, then masks the bruise by dismissing him as too old. Deanna stays firm and unruffled.
Pivoting fast, Lwaxana launches her 'alternate plan' with Homn amid multi-colored drinks while Deanna questions her. Lwaxana claims total control and drives the pursuit forward.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Pleased and amused on the surface — using the holonovel as respite and deflection — quietly avoiding domestic accountability while masking any irritation with practiced charm.
Enters Chandlerland reception, greets the secretary with a pleased smile, removes hat and coat to assume the Dixon Hill posture, delivers the comic ritual line about paying the tailor and stalling the landlord, and retreats toward his office seeking refuge from duty when family intrudes.
- • Indulge briefly in a controlled escapist ritual (Dixon Hill persona).
- • Maintain comic rhythm and personal composure in front of the secretary.
- • Avoid immediate confrontation with family/social obligations.
- • Preserve the illusion of control in his private refuge.
- • Small rituals restore his equilibrium and are worth preserving.
- • Ship's formal business legitimately supersedes personal entreaties.
- • Maintaining decorum keeps situations from escalating.
- • He can step back into duty without long-term personal cost.
Embarrassed and apologetic, trying to reconcile filial obligation with professional responsibility; internally bemoans the public awkwardness while upholding duty.
Revealed standing across from Mrs. Troi; speaks briefly to confirm ship's business takes precedence, appearing more surprised and embarrassed than angry at her mother's intrusion while remaining professionally restrained.
- • Defend the captain's duty and the ship's schedule.
- • De-escalate her mother's public complaint and embarrassment.
- • Maintain professional decorum despite family intrusion.
- • Protect Picard from overt domestic embarrassment.
- • The mission and ship's business must come first.
- • Family entreaties are secondary to diplomatic/professional obligations.
- • Her mother's behavior, though unpredictable, must be managed delicately.
- • Public displays of familial conflict harm operational legitimacy.
Calm, deferential, and nonreactive; his physical bow speaks compliance rather than opinion or emotion.
Stands quietly sampling several tall, multi-colored drinks; when Mrs. Troi announces her 'alternate plan,' Homn responds with a deep, formal bow signaling assent and readiness to follow instructions without verbal comment.
- • Serve and support Mrs. Troi's social agenda.
- • Provide silent, ritual endorsement of her commands.
- • Anticipate and enact her instructions as needed.
- • Stabilize the social scene through ceremonial behavior.
- • Mrs. Troi's directives merit immediate, unquestioned obedience.
- • Silent ceremony (bowing) suffices to communicate alignment and respect.
- • Maintaining formal ritual calms social unpredictability.
- • His role is to materially and symbolically back Mrs. Troi.
Amused and teasing; she plays companion to Picard's ritual and amplifies its comic cadence while subtly exposing mundane pressures.
Perched behind the reception desk, she produces a small notepad, reads off two calls with a comic quip invoking Hitler, laughs to herself, picks up and hangs up the phone, and repeats the barber/landlord refrain that punctuates Picard's ritual.
- • Sustain the noir-reception rhythm and banter that comforts Picard.
- • Relay practical obligations that puncture the fantasy (calls/messages).
- • Use humor to manage tension in the room.
- • Anchor the scene's timing through small actions (notepad, phone).
- • Ritual banter is essential to the Dixon Hill illusion.
- • Mundane obligations persist even in escapist spaces.
- • A wry aside can both entertain and deflate seriousness.
- • Her role is to facilitate the protagonist's comfort and cue the audience.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The swivel chair provides the secretary mobility to pivot, pick up the phone, and punctuate timing; her swivels and gestures from the chair help set the scene's comic rhythm and reactions to both Picard and the unexpected family arrival.
Picard's 1940s detective trench coat is removed as he enters the reception, serving as a physical signifier of his Dixon Hill persona and his attempt to shed command stress; its removal marks transfer from duty into ritual performance.
The reception desk anchors the scene physically and ritually: the secretary sits behind it, uses its surface for notepad and phone, and it becomes the stage from which the Dixon Hill interplay and the intrusion of Mrs. Troi are played out.
The small notepad is produced by the Dixon Hill secretary as a timing and comic device: she checks entries that cue her punchlines, reads off calls (tailor/landlord), and uses the pad to punctuate the ritual exchange that undercuts Picard's fantasy with mundane obligations.
The period-styled telephone is lifted, used to simulate contact with the tailor and landlord, and hung up as part of the secretary's comic routine; the device turns off-stage obligations into an on-stage beat that interrupts Picard's escape.
A small tableau of tall, multi-colored drinks functions as social mise-en-scène: Homn samples them and Mrs. Troi moves toward them when she shifts into command, using them as focal props that help her stage the 'alternate plan' and claim control of the room's atmosphere.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Dixon Hill's reception room (a Chandlerland holodeck locus) functions as Picard's short-lived sanctuary where ritual and identity are performed. The space's noir tropes (desk, notepad, swivel chair, colorful drinks) frame intimacy and comic role-play until Mrs. Troi's intrusion converts it into a public stage for familial power dynamics.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
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Themes This Exemplifies
Thematic resonance and meaning
Key Dialogue
"PICARD: "Pay the tailor and stall the landlord.""
"MRS. TROI: "Ship's business takes precedence over me?""
"MRS. TROI: "Homn, let's consider my alternate plan.""