Object

Captain's Dining Room Buffet Table

A long, central buffet-style dining table with a smooth, polished composite surface arranged down the middle of the captain's dining room. Replicated serving platters, trays and place settings sit along its length; glasses and utensils catch the room's soft lighting. Characters lean on its edge, move around it to confront or isolate others, and use its exposed surface as a stage for social pressure.

2 appearances

Purpose

Serves as the primary serving and dining surface for a formal captain's meal, holding replicated food, platters, place settings and enabling guests to serve themselves or gather for conversation.

Significance

Functions as the social pivot of a formal captain's dinner, where hospitality becomes a test: barbed remarks and cultural contempt concentrate around the table, Worf finds himself isolated at its edge, and the table transforms into a physical stage for tension and a foreshadowing of public challenge to honor.

Appearances in the Narrative

When this object appears and how it's used

2 moments

S3E17 · Sins of the Father

Dinner of Dishonor: Cultural Rift at the Captain's Table

The long buffet table functions as the physical spine of the scene: Picard carves at its head, it presents replicated turkey and other dishes, and it gathers officers into the ritual of a shared meal where cultural friction plays out.

Before: Set and fully laden with replicated dishes, centerpiece and place settings at the head of the captain's dining room.

After: Partially served; food on plates and items displaced as officers have filled plates and begun to sit — remains the communal focal point.

View full event

S3E17 · Sins of the Father

Dinner Provocation — Kurn Tests Worf and Starfleet Tolerance

The long buffet table functions as the physical axis of the scene: Picard carves and plates replicated foods along it, characters queue and gather around it, and it becomes the stage where Kurn samples, mocks, and theatrically piles flowers on his plate to signify cultural disregard.

Before: Set with replicated dishes, a flower centerpiece, plates and utensils, and Picard standing at the carving end.

After: Partially cleared as plates are filled; centerpiece has been disturbed (flowers removed by Kurn); the table now holds the emotional residue of the provocation.

View full event