Ultimatum on the Holodeck: Picard Prioritizes Evidence Over Loyalty
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Picard pauses, then firmly declares his extradition decision will be based solely on the evidence from the Holodeck recreations, isolating Riker.
Riker, stunned, requests a private word with Picard, who firmly refuses under the circumstances, then exits, leaving Riker in disbelief.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Coldly resolute on the surface, with an implied private conflict; committed to duty even at the cost of personal loyalty.
Enters from the Ready Room, issues formal orders to recreate the Tanuga Four station on the Holodeck, assigns technical and testimonial duties, delivers the extradition proviso and declines Riker's request for a private conversation; then exits, leaving procedural wheels in motion.
- • Ensure that extradition decisions rest on objective, reconstructable evidence.
- • Protect the integrity of the command process and the Enterprise's legal responsibilities.
- • Avoid impropriety or appearance of favoritism by refusing private counsel with Riker.
- • Documented, reproducible evidence is the proper basis for legal decisions.
- • Command requires impartiality even when it harms personal relationships.
- • Holodeck reconstructions and recorded depositions can deliver reliable adjudication.
Clinically focused and receptive; curious but entirely duty-bound to apply objective methods to the reconstruction task.
Identified by Picard as a technical partner for the Holodeck preparations; implicitly tasked with ensuring simulation fidelity and accepting responsibility for integrating sensor data and recording formal depositions.
- • Construct an accurate, testable holodeck recreation of the Tanuga Four station.
- • Capture and catalog depositions and relevant sensor data without bias.
- • Translate technical evidence into demonstrable simulations for adjudication.
- • Objective systems and data can clarify human ambiguity.
- • Technical rigor will yield the truth more reliably than memory alone.
- • His role is to provide impartial, verifiable simulations for command.
Stunned and tense externally; privately unsettled and apprehensive about career, reputation, and the loss of confidential counsel with his captain.
Sitting in command, visibly anxious, attempts to obtain a private word with Picard and is rebuffed; is told he will participate in recorded depositions with La Forge and to cooperate with the holodeck reconstruction process.
- • Seek a private reassurance or explanation from Picard.
- • Protect his innocence and prepare to give a detailed deposition.
- • Preserve his relationship with Picard and his standing aboard the Enterprise.
- • Picard will be fair if given context or a private conversation.
- • A thorough, honest deposition can clear misunderstandings.
- • Public, procedural handling increases personal risk but is unavoidable.
Concerned and composed, oriented toward stabilizing Riker and helping the process retain humane balance.
Present on the bridge and formally assigned by Picard to assist during the inquiry; positioned as the empathic intermediary between command procedure and the crewman's emotional needs.
- • Provide psychological support to Riker during the impending depositions.
- • Assist Picard in conducting the inquiry with sensitivity.
- • Ensure testimony is elicited without causing undue trauma.
- • Emotional context matters for reliable testimony.
- • Counselor presence will prevent escalation and help clarity.
- • Fair process should include compassion as well as rigor.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Picard orders the Tanugan research station to be recreated on the Holodeck as an evidentiary object; the projected reconstruction becomes the central artifact through which depositions will be tested and extradition decisions adjudicated.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Main Bridge is the forum where Picard publicly issues orders, assigns investigative roles, and transforms an operational space into the site where institutional judgment is declared; it stages the confrontation between command responsibility and personal appeal.
The Holodeck simulation of the Tanugan station is invoked as the planned evidentiary theater — a controlled, forensic set where reconstructed sensory detail and recorded depositions will be played back and tested as primary evidence.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
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Key Dialogue
"PICARD: Mister La Forge, Ensign Crusher, we are going to recreate the research station on the Holodeck. I want you to work with Mister Data on the preparations. In addition, Mister La Forge, you and Commander Riker will give the computer detailed depositions on everything you heard and saw while aboard. Counselor, you will assist me during this inquiry."
"PICARD: My decision on extradition will be based upon the evidence presented in these re-creations."
"RIKER: Captain, may I have a word with you? PICARD: Under these circumstances, I believe it would be inappropriate, Number One."