Compelling Data to Testify
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Picard rises, paces, and fumbles through the travelcase, then forces the conversation inward—demanding to know how Data thinks, what he wants, and what drives him.
Data questions the purpose of 'drives' and 'motivation' as concepts; Picard states the legal aim—prove Data a sentient life-form—while Data insists on the obvious: he is a machine, triggering a brittle philosophical clash between law and literal fact.
Picard snaps—ordering Data to stop 'babbling'—and explains that law often treats non-flesh entities as persons, a tactical 'legal fiction' they must invoke; Data responds with ironic Shakespeare, and Picard reseats himself, visibly weary and braced for a long, difficult campaign.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
N/A for a referenced historical figure; the invocation carries ironic and darkly humorous resonance in the room.
Not present physically but invoked verbally by Data's quip to point out irony in legal systems; functions as a rhetorical device that compresses bitterness about lawyers and law.
- • Serve as a cultural shorthand to critique legal institutions (as expressed by Data).
- • Provide linguistic irony that underscores the moral complexity of Picard's tactic.
- • Legal institutions can be both protector and obstacle to justice (as implied by the quote).
- • Rhetorical flourishes can expose institutional absurdities.
Determined and exhausted; his professional composure masks emotional strain and urgency to find a defensible legal strategy for Data.
Seated then pacing in Data's quarters, Picard presses Data for subjective material, takes notes mentally with his PADD posture, plays with items in the travelcase, and frames answers as legal strategy rather than personal consolation.
- • Elicit testimony from Data that can be used to construct a legal argument for personhood.
- • Transform raw data into persuasive, human-centered evidence that counters the claim Data is 'only' a machine.
- • The law can be instrumentally shaped (a 'legal fiction') to protect what is morally right.
- • Data's interior life, once articulated, will provide leverage against reductive scientific claims.
Calm and puzzled; outwardly composed and factual, while internally confused about why his factual identity must be reframed as personhood.
Sits and answers Picard's probing questions with precise biographical and technical information, demonstrates puzzlement at the line of questioning, and insists—clinically—that he is a machine while offering useful facts for evidence.
- • Provide accurate information in response to Picard's requests.
- • Understand the purpose and rationale behind Picard's questioning.
- • Truth is the presentation of factual data (his activation, Academy history, postings).
- • If he is a machine, argument cannot change that factual status.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Captain Picard's Desk and the open travelcase on it act as staging props: Picard paces to the desk, manipulates objects in the travelcase unconsciously, and uses the desk's presence to convert private items into potential exhibits—it becomes a silent witness to the conversion of personal history into legal material.
Picard's Interview PADD is physically present as the note-taking instrument and symbolic evidentiary device: its presence signals that this conversation is being recorded, structured, and converted into admissible testimony rather than casual conferral.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Omicron Theta is referenced as Data's origin and activation site; though absent physically, it functions as background evidence invoked to establish provenance and the narrative stakes of creation and identity.
Data's quarters function as a private, deceptively domestic space turned interrogatory arena: intimacy and personal artifacts are present, enabling Picard to press for interior testimony while also making the intrusion feel morally fraught.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
No narrative connections mapped yet
This event is currently isolated in the narrative graph
Key Dialogue
"PICARD: "I need to know how you think, what you want, how you feel. What drives you, motivates you.""
"DATA: "But I am not. I am a machine.""
"PICARD: "We're searching for an argument which will legally deny that obvious fact.""