Haftel Demands Lal's Transfer — Picard Asserts Data's Custody
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Clinically concerned and firm; uses institutional language to mask the risk-averse, controlling impulse behind the request.
Speaks from the viewscreen with clinical, bureaucratic authority, pressing for the transfer to Galor Four, anticipating Picard's compromises, and ending the call with a pointed warning that invokes Starfleet policy.
- • Secure custody of Lal for supervised study at Daystrom/Galor Four facilities.
- • Protect Starfleet's research interests and minimize perceived institutional risk.
- • Specialized facilities with experts are better suited than a starship for delicate research subjects.
- • Starfleet policy and precedent must supersede ad hoc custodianship, especially with potential fleet implications.
Implied uncertainty and vulnerability — she is the subject of adult negotiation and the locus of contested authority.
Mentioned as the emergent android child at the center of the dispute; her welfare and identity are the stakes, though she does not speak in this scene.
- • Remain in a stable caregiving environment (inferred).
- • Continue development under a trusted guide rather than become a purely institutional subject (inferred).
- • Her best interests are served through consistent care (inferred from Picard's argument).
- • She is more than an experimental artifact and warrants custodial consideration (assumed by Picard).
Calm and conciliatory at first, shifting to resolute and protective as he frames the dispute in human terms to defend Lal and Data.
Commands the conversation from the Ready Room, defends Data's custodial role for Lal, offers a conciliatory compromise then closes ranks and refuses the transfer, physically present and reacting as the viewscreen cuts to the starfield.
- • Protect Lal's immediate welfare and continuity of care.
- • Maintain command prerogative and refuse an immediate involuntary transfer without terms.
- • Care continuity under a trusted guardian is crucial to Lal's development.
- • The Enterprise has a legitimate role in nurturing new life encountered in its mission.
Inferred protective determination and vulnerability — he is the subject of external scrutiny though absent from the dialog.
Not physically present in the scene but repeatedly invoked by Picard and Haftel as Lal's creator and caregiver; his parental role is defended and contested, making him the focal point of the custody dispute.
- • Remain with Lal to continue guiding her development (inferred).
- • Avoid institutional separation that would interrupt his formative role (inferred).
- • His continuity with Lal is essential to her development (as argued by Picard).
- • Institutional control risks turning Lal into an object of study rather than a person (inferred).
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The Ready Room viewscreen serves as the communicative conduit allowing Admiral Haftel's presence to intrude into Picard's private command space; it broadcasts Haftel's clinical arguments and then severs the connection, returning the room to the impersonal starfield and punctuating the moral rupture.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Galor Four (Daystrom Annex) is invoked as the superior research destination where Starfleet wishes to transfer Lal; it stands in the scene as the institutional alternative to the ship's custodial environment, embodying clinical containment and archival study.
The starfield image on the viewscreen functions as visual punctuation when Haftel ends the call; it flattens the argument into silence, creating a distancing, indifferent backdrop that heightens Picard's isolation in his decision.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
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Part of Larger Arcs
Key Dialogue
"PICARD: I assure you, Admiral, there's no better guide into this life for Lal than Data... He's doing an excellent job with her..."
"ADMIRAL HAFTEL: We all have enormous admiration for what Commander Data has achieved already. But we have superior facilities and personnel here at Galor Four. And a starship is hardly a proper setting..."
"PICARD: Admiral, to you Lal is a new android. But to Data, she is his child."