Graves' Immortality Gambit
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Graves motions Data over and unveils his invention: a method for transferring human consciousness into a computer, announcing his plan to cheat death by conveying his intelligence into the machine.
Data pursues a literal-philosophical line—joking about the 'Grim Reaper' and pointing out he has an 'off button' that would render him 'dead'—forcing the scene to confront the boundary between death and machine.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Outwardly cavalier about death while inwardly desperate for survival, masking predatory focus beneath grandfatherly affection
Graves puppeteers the conversation from boastful remembrances to revelatory confession, using dark humor and physical frailty to mask his predatory calculations about Data's anatomy
- • Test philosophical justification for consciousness transfer
- • Gather intelligence about Data's vulnerabilities
- • His genius entitles him to circumvent death
- • Artificial beings lack true understanding of mortality
Intellectually engaged but increasingly disturbed by Graves' amorality
Data transitions from naive admiration to philosophical resistance, physically distancing himself from Graves to study equations while unknowingly revealing critical vulnerability about his off-switch
- • Understand human attitudes toward mortality
- • Seek ethical clarification of Graves' plans
- • Human mortality deserves solemn respect
- • Technological advancement should serve ethical purposes
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Graves' laboratory transforms from a workspace into a confessional and hunting ground—its sterile surfaces and flickering equipment bearing silent witness to both a megalomaniacal revelation and the first maneuvers in an existential struggle for bodily autonomy.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Graves explicitly unveils his consciousness-transfer invention (setup); shortly after, Data reports Graves' death—the technological setup directly enables the later claim/evidence that Graves' mind could move into a machine."
"Graves explicitly unveils his consciousness-transfer invention (setup); shortly after, Data reports Graves' death—the technological setup directly enables the later claim/evidence that Graves' mind could move into a machine."
"Graves explicitly unveils his consciousness-transfer invention (setup); shortly after, Data reports Graves' death—the technological setup directly enables the later claim/evidence that Graves' mind could move into a machine."
"Graves gives Data a searching look that Data misses (a subtle, filmic seed); later Data announces that 'Ira Graves lives inside me'—the missed glance foreshadows the transfer having been initiated without Data's full awareness."
"Graves gives Data a searching look that Data misses (a subtle, filmic seed); later Data announces that 'Ira Graves lives inside me'—the missed glance foreshadows the transfer having been initiated without Data's full awareness."
"Graves gives Data a searching look that Data misses (a subtle, filmic seed); later Data announces that 'Ira Graves lives inside me'—the missed glance foreshadows the transfer having been initiated without Data's full awareness."
"Graves gives Data a searching look that Data misses (a subtle, filmic seed); later Data announces that 'Ira Graves lives inside me'—the missed glance foreshadows the transfer having been initiated without Data's full awareness."
"Graves gives Data a searching look that Data misses (a subtle, filmic seed); later Data announces that 'Ira Graves lives inside me'—the missed glance foreshadows the transfer having been initiated without Data's full awareness."
Key Dialogue
"GRAVES: "I'll die, but I won't really be dead. You see? I've invented a way of transferring consciousness into a computer... thus cheating the Grim Reaper of his greatest prize.""
"DATA: "It is not something I enjoy contemplating.""
"GRAVES: "Just where would Soong position such a device? Don't tell me, let me guess.""