Star Trek The Next Generation
Object

Observation Lounge Wall Viewer

A sleek wall-mounted display panel within the Enterprise's Observation Lounge that becomes a window into biological impossibility. Its crystalline surface pulses with holographic clarity, projecting the silver-grey ultrasound imagery of Deanna Troi's impossible child - a six-week fetus that matured overnight. Doctor Pulaski commands the viewer with precise gestures, transforming raw medical scans into a life-sized display that dominates the room's emotional gravity. The viewer's luminous screen casts ethereal light across the faces of senior staff - Riker's haunted eyes, Worf's harsh judgment, Data's analytical wonder, Picard's commanding concern - while Troi stands transfixed as her wriggling future dances within the display's liquid clarity.
3 appearances

Purpose

Medical display device projecting real-time fetal scans and diagnostic imagery for crew consultation during critical medical decisions

Significance

Transforms from clinical tool into crucible of moral reckoning - the glowing image forces confrontation between Starfleet protocols, scientific wonder, and Troi's immutable maternal claim. The displayed fetus becomes evidence, miracle, and hostage in simultaneous assessment, reducing hardened explorers to awed silence as they witness human evolution transcending known biological law

Appearances in the Narrative

When this object appears and how it's used

3 moments
S2E1 · Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Child
Impossible Pregnancy Exposed

Activated by Pulaski, the wall viewer fills half the lounge with a silver hologram of a weeks-old fetus kicking inside Troi—the only witness that never judges, only shows. Its clarity reduces a room of seasoned officers to utter silence.

Before: Dark and unused
After: Dormant images still glowing on screen, testimony now indelible in crew memory
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S2E1 · Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Child
The Unfathered Pregnancy Revealed

Pulaski invokes the wall viewer to broadcast a siege of light: silver-grey 3-D ultrasound of Troi’s unborn son, revealing impossible twelve-fold accelerated growth for every diagnostic cycle, the child seeming to turn, listen, respire.

Before: Obsidian wall feature, potentially idle or running ambient ship status loops
After: Continues to display vital fetal animation as silent arbiter in the ensuing decision
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S2E1 · Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Child
Maternal Sovereignty Declared

Hung center-stage on the lounge bulkhead, its gleaming surface sequentially projects the six-week, then accelerated, sonogram of Troi’s rapidly maturing fetus—serving as both evidentiary exhibit and moral battleground.

Before: Dormant wall console awaiting activation
After: Frozen on the image of an unborn infant conceived eleven hours prior, imprinted in the minds of everyone present
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