Desperate Measures
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
PICARD convenes an emergency meeting, assembling the senior officers and Kareen to confront an immediate, ship-wide threat; the room's composition telegraphs urgency and all-hands focus.
PULASKI frames the crisis as medical and psychological—Graves' Varnay's disease plus the strain of inhabiting a new body make him dangerously unstable—establishing the pathology behind his behavior.
WORF underscores the immediate danger—Graves controls the ship—GEORDI reveals Graves spoke of a 'new world,' and RIKER presses KAREEN for clarification, but she shakes her head, exposing a critical gap in the crew's knowledge of Graves' objective.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Distraught resistance to ethical compromise
Vehemently refuses to psychologically betray Graves—her conflicted devotion exposing the human cost of Picard's strategy.
- • Protect Graves from perceived betrayal
- • Maintain personal integrity under crew pressure
- • Graves deserves compassion despite his actions
- • Psychological manipulation is fundamentally wrong
Professional concern laced with dread
Forensically analyzes Graves' deteriorating psyche, warning Picard against direct confrontation—her medical authority clashing with command urgency as she predicts lethal consequences.
- • Prevent further escalation of Graves' instability
- • Dissuade Picard from life-threatening action
- • Graves' Varnay's disease makes him unpredictably dangerous
- • Medical ethics demand non-confrontational de-escalation
Alert apprehension with underlying resolve
Silently absorbs the high-stakes debate—his youthful presence underscoring what's at stake for the next generation.
- • Learn from senior officers' crisis management
- • Prepare for possible emergency actions
- • Starfleet officers must face impossible choices
- • Moral complexity accompanies command responsibility
Grim resolve masking tactical desperation
Commands the crisis meeting with controlled fury, rising to confront Graves personally after exhausting diplomatic options—his final gambit exposing raw determination beneath Starfleet protocol.
- • Regain control of the Enterprise from Graves
- • Protect the crew by any means necessary
- • Data's consciousness may still be reachable within Graves' control
- • Direct confrontation is the only remaining option
Stoic frustration at security impotence
Stoically confirms Graves' absolute ship control with tactical bluntness—his warrior instincts straining against their current defenselessness.
- • Assess immediate tactical threats
- • Support Picard's command decisions
- • Graves' control puts everyone in lethal danger
- • Starfleet protocol must adapt to extreme circumstances
Restrained alarm at Picard's risk-taking
Firmly questions Kareen while backing Picard's authority—his loyalty tested when ordered not to follow his captain into danger.
- • Extract actionable intelligence from Kareen
- • Ensure contingency plans if Picard fails
- • Command hierarchy must be preserved even in crisis
- • Kareen holds key psychological insights into Graves
Urgent compassion blended with strategy
Empathically navigates Kareen's conflicted loyalties—her psychological acumen identifying emotional leverage points against Graves.
- • Access Kareen's emotional influence over Graves
- • Support Picard's psychological warfare strategy
- • Graves' attachment to Kareen is his vulnerability
- • Emotional truth can disrupt even a distorted mind
Focused concern with underlying dread
Analytically puzzles over Graves' cryptic "new world" remarks—his technical mind seeking patterns even as crisis escalates.
- • Decipher Graves' technical objectives
- • Support Picard's leadership under duress
- • Graves' actions follow some logical plan
- • Engineering solutions may still be possible
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Picard highlights Graves' control over life-support systems as existential leverage—the ship's basic survival mechanisms transformed into weapons of coercion.
Pulaski cites Varnay's disease as a key factor in Graves' unstable mental state—the condition becoming both medical fact and tactical consideration in their psychological approach.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Observation Lounge becomes a pressure cooker for command decisions—its panoramic starfield backdrop contrasting with the claustrophobic tactical nightmare unfolding within.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Guinan's warning about the dangerous egos of 'great men' foreshadows the story's central tactic—Picard's later plan to publicly deflate Graves' ego—linking early thematic caution to the climactic psychological strategy."
"Guinan's warning about the dangerous egos of 'great men' foreshadows the story's central tactic—Picard's later plan to publicly deflate Graves' ego—linking early thematic caution to the climactic psychological strategy."
"Guinan's warning about the dangerous egos of 'great men' foreshadows the story's central tactic—Picard's later plan to publicly deflate Graves' ego—linking early thematic caution to the climactic psychological strategy."
Themes This Exemplifies
Thematic resonance and meaning
Key Dialogue
"Pulaski: "We must remember that we're dealing with an unhealthy mind, ravaged by Varnay's disease as well as the strain of assimilating into a new body.""
"Picard: "He's taken over my ship! And I want her back! Are you going to help me?""
"Picard: "There's still some of Data inside. I know there is. If I can reach him, maybe we've still got a chance.""