Fractured Mind Showdown
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Data aims at a departing crewman, silence stretching as he squeezes the trigger, then pivots emotionally and demands Kareen be brought to the viewscreen—shifting from imminent murder to calculated coercion.
Kareen appears; Data flips between somber paranoia and grandiosity as he confesses everyone wants to kill him and promises a new world for them, then abruptly kills the viewscreen feed—cutting communication and isolating his claim to power.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Horrified recognition of Graves' deterioration
Summoned as emotional leverage, she confronts Graves' disturbing dual nature—her uncertainty mirroring the crew's crisis about whether to engage the man or the monster.
- • Prevent further violence
- • Assess if Ira's core self remains
- • Her presence can modulate Graves' behavior
- • The real Ira would never threaten indiscriminate killing
Professionally detached but viscerally concerned
Treats incapacitated security guards with medical urgency while monitoring the escalating crisis, embodying the Hippocratic imperative amid chaos.
- • Stabilize injured security personnel
- • Assess threat level of Graves-in-Data
- • Graves poses an immediate lethal threat
- • Medical ethics override hierarchy during crises
Dazed from violent confrontation
Incapacitated by Graves-in-Data's earlier assault, they receive emergency treatment—their neutralized state underscoring the android's enhanced threat level.
- • Regain operational capacity
- • Secure the Observation Lounge perimeter
- • Standard security protocols are ineffective against Graves-in-Data
- • Medical intervention takes priority over redeployment
Controlled urgency masking profound alarm
Navigates the hostage crisis with calibrated diplomacy, pivoting from reasoned appeals to Data's humanity to tactical concessions when Graves dominates.
- • De-escalate the immediate threat to Geordi
- • Buy time to strategize bridge retaking
- • Data's consciousness can still be reached
- • Graves responds to emotional leverage
Volatile oscillation between godlike fury and pathological need
Physically dominates the bridge while psychologically fracturing—phasing between Graves' violent grandiosity and Data's flickering awareness, the phaser serving as both weapon and identity battleground.
- • Secure total control of the Enterprise
- • Eliminate perceived threats to his new existence
- • Violence validates his authority
- • Kareen represents his last tether to humanity
Suppressed dread manifesting as focused action
Provides critical phaser analysis and attempts technical countermeasures against Graves' communications blackout, embodying the First Officer's dual tactical-operational role.
- • Assess weapon threat level
- • Regain visual contact with the bridge
- • Graves will follow through on lethal threats
- • Technological solutions may create openings
Raw fear tempered by profound betrayal
Endures intimate terror as his best friend's body threatens execution, responding with pained recognition when Data's voice briefly surfaces.
- • Survive the immediate threat
- • Reach Data's submerged consciousness
- • Data is still present within their shared body
- • Provoking Graves will get him killed
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The phaser becomes both literal weapon and metaphorical lever—its kill setting raised by Riker, then pressed to Geordi's head in a physical manifestation of Graves' willingness to destroy Data's closest relationship.
Serves as the fragile visual tether between bridge and lounge—transmitting the crisis in real-time until Graves severs it, symbolizing his total communication control.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The lounge transforms from meeting space to crisis command center—its circular layout focusing all sightlines on the viewscreen's horror while containing medical and tactical responses.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Troi's clinical diagnosis that two personalities inhabit Data and that the alien persona is violent directly predicts/causes the subsequent hostage situation in which Data (dominated by Graves) holds Geordi at phaser-point on the viewscreen."
"Troi's clinical diagnosis that two personalities inhabit Data and that the alien persona is violent directly predicts/causes the subsequent hostage situation in which Data (dominated by Graves) holds Geordi at phaser-point on the viewscreen."
"Troi's clinical diagnosis that two personalities inhabit Data and that the alien persona is violent directly predicts/causes the subsequent hostage situation in which Data (dominated by Graves) holds Geordi at phaser-point on the viewscreen."
Part of Larger Arcs
Key Dialogue
"DATA: He's no friend of mine! I should kill him on the spot -- put him out of his blind misery."
"PICARD: Kareen is with us! You want to talk to Kareen."
"DATA: They're all against me, Kareen. They want to drive me out of this body. To kill me!"