Star Trek The Next Generation
Object

Iconian Control Console

A waist-high, pentagon-shaped central control console of burnished silver alloy crowned by a low translucent blue dome. Five angled faces host recessed glyph panels, angular touch pads and low-profile flat display screens; filigreed conduits converge on the dome and link the unit to adjacent interface banks. The five flat display panels recessed into the console's angles display encoded symbols, geometric keys and faint circuitry; their silent cold glow supplies Data with comparative linguistic material. The dome radiates a cool, pulsing light and the surfaces bear engraved alien script and scorch/blast damage. The console ensemble is the away team's primary technological and linguistic clue to the Iconian gateway system.
4 appearances

Purpose

To function as the primary control and interface for Iconian gateway technology, providing diagnostic readouts and input surfaces through which users access, monitor, and manipulate the surrounding portal network.

Significance

Acts as the narrative fulcrum that reframes the away team's mission: decoding it exposes the Iconians' fate, reveals technological risks linked to the gateways, and anchors the investigation into whether the portals are defensive, contagious, or weaponized.

Appearances in the Narrative

When this object appears and how it's used

4 moments
S2E11 · Contagion (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Blinded Data — Picard Chooses Denial

The Iconian control-room console is the active interface through which Data guides Picard: identifying rectangular and triangular screens, key colors, and lights. Picard must physically override this console to open doors and initiate probe launches, making it the fulcrum of the denial operation.

Before: Active and convulsing under Iconian program control, projecting lights and glyphs while resisting interference and rewriting connected systems.
After: Used by Picard (with Data's guidance) as the instrument for initiating an override/launch sequence intended to destroy the installation; left in a compromised state and set on course for denial.
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S2E11 · Contagion (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Picard's Last Override

The Iconian control room console is the central interface Data and Picard use to identify the launch keys and to initiate the probe launch sequence. It functions as both the mechanism to complete the denial plan and as the locus of the Iconian Program's control—being directly interacted with and overridden under stress.

Before: Active and convulsing under Iconian Program control; responsive but dangerous and incompletely understood.
After: Keyed into the launch sequence; beginning the probe launch override that will cause a power backwash and overload (console remains active and unstable as the sequence proceeds).
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S2E11 · Contagion (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Manual Override Against the Iconian Command

The central Iconian control console is the locus of Picard's override attempt: its rings, glyph-pads and platen are being manipulated physically as the interface fights back, transmitting forces and signals that convulse the room and drive the narrative danger.

Before: Operational and engaged in an ongoing activation sequence, projecting gateway imagery and running sequential processes.
After: Under physical strain and convulsing; still active and resisting human interference as Picard struggles at its surface.
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S2E11 · Contagion (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Leap Through the Flickering Gate

The central control console emits sparks and is violently overloaded, its failures signaling system-wide collapse and creating immediate physical hazard that drives characters to act and prevents safe, deliberative solutions.

Before: Operating but critically overloaded; panels sparking and systems failing under strain.
After: Severely damaged and still sparking; functionally compromised and contributing to the chamber's instability.
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