Turning Grief Into a Search
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Troi moves to a computer and pivots from consolation to action, requesting a personal-history search for Clare's children; the ship's computer asks for full names and birth details, turning private grief into a concrete investigative procedure. The beat converts despair into a procedural hope anchored by shipboard resources.
Clare supplies names, ages, and birthplace—Tommy and Eddie from Secaucus—while questioning whether the computer can really find them; Troi reassures her that records likely exist and Clare begins providing birth dates. The exchange propels the scene from lament to active reconstruction of Clare's lost family ties.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Composed and purposeful — genuinely compassionate but aiming to stabilize Clare by producing an actionable path forward.
Troi enters Clare's quarters, identifies herself as the ship's counselor, states an empathic observation, and then deliberately converts consolation into action by moving to the computer and initiating a personal-history query.
- • Calm and emotionally stabilize Clare by acknowledging her grief.
- • Translate Clare's anguish into concrete facts the ship can search for (names, dates, birthplace).
- • Use ship resources to locate possible records about Clare's children.
- • Provide Clare with hope and a sense of agency through investigation.
- • Naming and validating emotion helps a person regain composure.
- • Concrete information (names, dates, places) can be used to access records and provide answers.
- • The ship's database resources are capable of retrieving twentieth/ twenty-first-century personal history.
- • Turning grief into a problem to solve will help both the patient and the crew.
Overwhelmed and bereft on the surface; beneath that, desperate hope and a frantic need for reconnection and information.
Clare is distraught and tearful, speaks candidly about her husband's decision to freeze her, and supplies the names, ages and birthplace of her two sons to Troi and the ship's computer, grasping for any tether to her vanished family.
- • Find out what happened to her sons — whether they lived and where they are buried or living.
- • Receive validation and active help from the ship's staff.
- • Convert her diffuse grief into a tangible lead the crew can pursue.
- • Hold someone accountable or at least understand Donald's choice and its consequences.
- • Her children once existed in a traceable civic record (birth certificates, municipal registries).
- • Donald arranged the freezing out of inability to cope, not malice.
- • If someone searches the right place with the right identifiers, answers can be found.
- • Being heard and helped will reduce the intensity of her panic.
Impassive and mechanical; no affect but enabling human action through precise information gathering.
The ship's computer responds in a neutral procedural tone to Troi's request, prompts for full names, dates, and place of birth, and stands ready to execute the search once supplied — functioning as the instrument that transforms personal data into retrievable records.
- • Obtain the necessary identifiers to perform a personal-history search.
- • Execute shipboard protocols for information retrieval accurately.
- • Clarify ambiguous input (names, dates, places) to ensure useful results.
- • Support the counselor's request within procedural constraints.
- • Accurate queries require full names, dates, and places of birth.
- • Ship databases can and should be queried when authorized by crew or officer personnel.
- • Neutral, structured interaction optimizes retrieval of archival data.
- • Providing clear prompts reduces error in record searches.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Clare's Quarters serves as the intimate setting where private grief is aired and then converted into institutional action. The room contains a data terminal Troi uses, a table with personal papers, and the quiet necessary for a counselor to elicit specific identifiers from a distraught patient.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Clare's disclosure of her husband and the reason for freezing provokes Troi to run a genealogical search; discovering ten generations of progeny is the direct procedural payoff to emotional confession."
"Troi initiating a records search for Clare's family pays off with the discovery of a living descendant."
"Troi initiating a records search for Clare's family pays off with the discovery of a living descendant."
"Troi initiating a records search for Clare's family pays off with the discovery of a living descendant."
"Troi initiating a records search for Clare's family pays off with the discovery of a living descendant."
"Troi’s initiated records search leads to the scene where she presents Clare’s descendant."
"Troi’s initiated records search leads to the scene where she presents Clare’s descendant."
"Troi’s initiated records search leads to the scene where she presents Clare’s descendant."
"Troi’s initiated records search leads to the scene where she presents Clare’s descendant."
Key Dialogue
"TROI: You are feeling profoundly sad."
"TROI: Let's see if we can find out."
"CLARE: They were born in Secaucus - that's in Jersey. Can this really work? Can this tell me what happened to them?"