Data as Diplomatic Diversion — Picard's Tactical Topic Shift
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Data caps an eager, overlong anecdote while Mrs. Troi slumps into visible boredom; even Mister Homn yawns, the room’s energy collapsing under the weight of technobabble.
Picard steers the conversation into brown dwarf stars to weaponize Data’s monologue; Mrs. Troi tries to shut it down, but Data lights up and turns the firehose back on her.
Data drills into element abundances and anomalies, piling on details as Mrs. Troi’s flat sarcasm curdles into deeper exasperation, locking her in the conversational trap.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Uneasy and politely strained — outwardly calm but inwardly seeking an escape route that respects protocol and relationships.
Picard intervenes conversationally, prompting Data to discuss astronomy as a deliberate diversion from Lwaxana’s forwardness; he speaks guardedly, attempting to preserve decorum while easing the immediate pressure.
- • Protect his personal space and boundary from Lwaxana's advances
- • Defuse the social tension without humiliating anyone present
- • Preserve mission decorum and the evening's diplomatic purpose
- • A public, gentle redirection is the least destructive tactic
- • Crew members like Data can be relied upon to follow conversational cues
- • Maintaining protocol matters more than airing private discomfort
Pleased and engaged — genuinely satisfied to be sharing knowledge, unaware of the social exhaustion he creates.
Data sits eagerly at the small table and launches into enthusiastic, technical exposition about interstellar distances and elemental abundances, supplying dense scientific detail to dominate the conversation.
- • Be helpful and informative to senior officers and guests
- • Maintain polite conversational participation and please Picard
- • Provide a subject that distracts from the romantic tension in the room
- • Sharing accurate technical information is socially valuable
- • Factual precision and enthusiasm will be appreciated by listeners
- • Obliging a captain's cue is an appropriate social response
Indifferent amusement — physically expressive (yawn) but otherwise stoic and obedient to Lwaxana's lead.
Homn stands in the background as silent attendant, punctuating the scene with a visible, slow yawn that registers amusement or weary complicity while maintaining his duty of presence.
- • Support Lwaxana’s social presentation through quiet presence
- • Signal social cues nonverbally to influence atmosphere
- • Maintain decorum appropriate to his role even while reacting
- • Physical gestures communicate as effectively as words in this household
- • Remaining neutral and obedient is the correct posture for a valet
- • Subtle, nonverbal responses can influence a social situation
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The small candlelit dinner table concentrates the intimacy of the scene; characters crowd around its narrow top so Data's monologue, Picard's redirection, and Homn's yawn all occur within its small physical and social radius, emphasizing awkward proximity.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Mrs. Troi's private quarters function as the intimate theatrical stage for the exchange: candlelight and close quarters make Lwaxana's advances invasive, force Picard to use conversational tactics, and render Data's scientific diversion more conspicuous and oddly comic.
Brown dwarf stars are invoked as the scientific subject Picard suggests Data discuss; they become the specific, technical refuge that distracts Lwaxana and anchors Data's subsequent enumeration of elemental abundances.
The Crab Nebula is named in Data's calculation to provide concreteness to his distance claim; its inclusion frames the anecdote in celestial terms, further diverting attention from the social awkwardness.
The Omicron Galaxy is invoked verbally by Data as a distant coordinate to lend empirical weight to his anecdote; it functions as an abstract anchor that flattens social heat into technical distance.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Picard summons Data as conversational cover; Data arrives and drones through technical anecdotes."
"Picard summons Data as conversational cover; Data arrives and drones through technical anecdotes."
Key Dialogue
"DATA: -- So by using the square root of pi and then multiplying it by nine to the third power, I was able to accurately calculate the distance between the Omicron galaxy and the Crab Nebula."
"PICARD: Fascinating, Data. I'm sure Mrs. Troi would love to hear the one about the, uh, anomalous chemical composition of... say... brown dwarf stars."
"DATA: For most stars, the rare-Earth element Europium is enriched relative to samarium and gadolinium..."