Object
Picard's Ready Room Cup of Tea
A modest porcelain teacup resting on a small saucer, filled with dark amber tea and sending up a thin curl of steam. Sized for a single hand and showing light use, the cup sits on the Ready Room desk beside papers and seating, deliberately placed as a hospitable offering. Picard sets or offers the cup toward Admiral Haftel while Data, Lal, and Doctor Daystrom look on; the cup functions as a tactile focus in the room, occupying pause moments and shading the exchange with quiet domestic warmth amid high-stakes debate.
2 appearances
Purpose
To hold a hot beverage offered as hospitality and to facilitate face-to-face conversation during a diplomatic or interpersonal exchange.
Significance
Serves as a diplomatic prop that humanizes Picard's host role and softens the formal confrontation; the cup punctuates the moral dispute over Lal by turning a bureaucratic hearing into an intimate, personal encounter.
Appearances in the Narrative
When this object appears and how it's used