Lwaxana's Vindication and Parting Rebuke
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Claiming credit with a weary flourish, Lwaxana hugs Deanna and steps onto the pad with Homn; Picard offers thanks as she readies to beam out.
Mid-dematerialization, Lwaxana snaps a telepathic rebuke at Picard for his private thought and vanishes, leaving him stranded in the crew’s stunned gaze.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Relieved at the threat's neutralization but privately stung and slightly embarrassed by Lwaxana's scolding and the implication she read his thoughts.
Picard stands on the transporter platform, receives Lwaxana's accusation and Data's confirmation, authoritatively orders the Antedians taken to Level Five, signals the transporter chief, and accepts Lwaxana's departure and final rebuke.
- • Protect the conference and crew by neutralizing the threat
- • Preserve diplomatic protocol while averting crisis
- • Command requires decisive, procedural action in face of danger
- • Personal feelings (embarrassment) must be subordinated to duty
Surprised by the discovery but mechanically assured; his output provides crucial evidence without melodrama.
Data aims his tricorder at the Antedians' robes, verbally confirms Lwaxana's telepathic claim by reporting significant ultritium readings, and supplies the empirical verification that flips suspicion into action.
- • Provide accurate sensor data to support command decisions
- • Clarify the nature of the threat through objective measurement
- • Empirical data should guide security responses
- • His instruments and observations are reliable evidence in diplomatic crises
Alert, duty-bound, and quietly angry at the Antedians' hostility toward Mrs. Troi and the danger they posed.
Worf immediately draws his phaser on confirmation of the threat and physically leads the outraged Antedians away to disarm and be taken for questioning, demonstrating controlled force and duty-forward conduct.
- • Secure and disarm the suspects to prevent the assassination
- • Protect crew and diplomatic guests from immediate harm
- • Security must act swiftly to remove threats
- • Physical containment is required before detailed interrogation
Calm and professional, mildly embarrassed on behalf of the captain but focused on operational steps.
Riker explains the rationale for beaming parties together earlier, listens to Mrs. Troi's declaration, and stands by as Picard and others respond to the threat; he remains accommodating and procedural in the moment.
- • Facilitate safe transport arrangements
- • Support the captain and de-escalate diplomatic fallout
- • Protocol and crew safety are paramount
- • Diplomatic incidents should be defused quickly to avoid escalation
Relieved and comforted by her mother's decisive action, but still privately mortified by the social awkwardness it caused aboard the ship.
Deanna receives a hug from Mrs. Troi after the reveal, stands mortified earlier at her mother's intrusion but relieved and personally comforted by the gesture as events resolve.
- • Maintain professional composure while managing personal embarrassment
- • Support ship operations and her mother's safe departure
- • Ship protocol must be preserved despite personal complications
- • Family interventions can complicate diplomatic duties but may also be helpful
Neutral and unwavering; Homn's calm presence contrasts with surrounding upheaval and underlines Lwaxana's authority.
Homn dutifully follows Mrs. Troi onto the transporter pad, carries out his role silently, and dematerializes with her without expression, providing the ceremonial and practical support she requires.
- • Support and accompany Mrs. Troi during departure
- • Maintain decorum and ritual as an attendant
- • Duty to Mrs. Troi is absolute
- • Silence and presence are the appropriate form of service
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The ultritium-lined robes are the lethal MacGuffin: Lwaxana names the internal ultritium lining; Data's tricorder detects it, making the robes the decisive evidence that converts suspicion into a security operation and averts mass casualties at the conference.
The transporter pad functions as the physical stage for the reveal and the immediate exit: the Antedians stand upon it when confronted, Worf escorts them off it to be detained, and later Lwaxana and Homn step on and begin dematerialization, allowing her final telepathic barb mid‑beam.
Worf's handheld security phaser is drawn as an immediate, visible enforcement tool; it serves to control the Antedians, signal seriousness, and facilitate their escort off the platform rather than to be fired.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Level Five Holding is referenced as the secure destination where Picard orders the Antedians to be taken for disarmament and questioning; it functions narratively as the procedural, institutional follow-through that contains the threat after the transport-room reveal.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Picard reasserts the mission and escorts Lwaxana, leading directly to her confrontation with the Antedians in the transporter room."
"Lwaxana's accusation that the Antedians are assassins prompts Data's tricorder confirmation of ultritium."
"Picard reasserts the mission and escorts Lwaxana, leading directly to her confrontation with the Antedians in the transporter room."
"The Antedians' eerie, hooded arrival foreshadows the later reveal that they are assassins concealing ultritium."
"Lwaxana's early telepathic boundary crossing foreshadows her decisive telepathic exposure of the Antedians' plot."
"The Antedians' eerie, hooded arrival foreshadows the later reveal that they are assassins concealing ultritium."
"Lwaxana's early telepathic boundary crossing foreshadows her decisive telepathic exposure of the Antedians' plot."
"With the assassins secured, Lwaxana claims credit and prepares to beam down."
"Picard's adoption of a fictional persona parallels the Antedians' false diplomatic mask, which is finally stripped by Data's scan."
"Lwaxana's appraisal of Worf's primal nature finds a payoff when Worf decisively acts to secure the assassins."
"Lwaxana's appraisal of Worf's primal nature finds a payoff when Worf decisively acts to secure the assassins."
"Lwaxana's accusation that the Antedians are assassins prompts Data's tricorder confirmation of ultritium."
"With the assassins secured, Lwaxana claims credit and prepares to beam down."
Themes This Exemplifies
Thematic resonance and meaning
Key Dialogue
"MRS. TROI: "They're not delegates. Those two are assassins.""
"DATA: "She is correct, sir. I am detecting large amounts of ultritium.""
"MRS. TROI: "Jean-Luc! Shame on you for thinking such a thing!""