Holodeck Deposition: The First Meeting Reconstructed
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
The holographic recreation begins, showing Riker's stiffly professional first encounter with Apgar and Tayna.
Manua Apgar's dramatic entrance introduces sexual tension and marital discord into Riker's otherwise sterile account.
Riker maintains professional detachment while Manua makes overt advances, creating visible tension with Apgar.
Tayna reveals technical details about the Lambda Field generator to Geordi while Manua physically escorts Riker away.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Professional, quietly probing — outwardly controlled but alert for inconsistencies that can support extradition.
Krag stands with Picard in the simulation, visibly impressed by the lab array, silent and attentive as he evaluates Riker's deposition and the holographic playback for evidentiary leverage.
- • Gather convincing forensic detail to justify Tanugan jurisdiction over the case.
- • Test the credibility of Riker's account and the recreated timeline for prosecutable contradictions.
- • Objective reconstruction is the correct path to truth and legal resolution.
- • Technical and social details in the deposition can establish motive or exculpation.
Playful and provocative — using charm as social leverage while exposing her husband's vulnerability.
Manua's hologram enters dramatically, flirts with Riker and publicly courts him, using sexual display to upend the clinical atmosphere and deliberately or unconsciously humiliate her husband.
- • Distract and discomfit the visitors, altering the social dynamics of the deposition.
- • Project confidence and influence perception of Apgar and the situation.
- • Social performance can be as powerful as technical testimony in shaping outcomes.
- • Demonstrating attractiveness and warmth will shift attention from her husband's defenses.
Irritated and humiliated — keen to control the narrative about his research but undermined by domestic embarrassment.
Apgar's hologram is polite but cold and defensive, brusquely accommodating the inspection while bristling at his wife's behavior; he attempts to protect his work and mask humiliation.
- • Convey his research progress without personal exposure.
- • Guard access to experimental records while maintaining professional dignity.
- • His work is valuable and should be judged on its technical merits.
- • Social distractions (his wife's conduct) threaten both his reputation and the evaluation process.
Anxious but helpful — eager to be useful and to ensure the data are properly examined despite the tension in the room.
Tayna materializes as Apgar's deferential assistant, escorts Geordi to the experimental array and succinctly explains the Lambda Field generator's planetary constraints and operational details away from the main group.
- • Provide Geordi with the technical information needed to evaluate the apparatus.
- • Protect the lab's data integrity by giving accurate, clear explanations.
- • Correct technical details (e.g., collimation distance) are central to understanding the incident.
- • Transparency with investigators will reflect well on the lab and her employer.
Composed, formally solicitous — protective of process and crew but withholding personal bias to preserve evidentiary integrity.
Picard steps into the center of the holodeck simulation, nods approval, prompts procedure with a measured question and silently oversees the deposition's fidelity and decorum, balancing hospitality with judicial neutrality.
- • Ensure the holodeck reconstruction is conducted impartially and accurately.
- • Protect Starfleet protocol and his officers' rights while satisfying Krag's investigative demands.
- • A fair, methodical reconstruction will produce the truth.
- • Procedural rigor will best defend Riker and the Enterprise against political claims.
Surface calm and professional; inwardly uncomfortable and embarrassed by the sexual provocation that undercuts the clinical tone of his testimony.
Riker initiates the deposition program, reads a calm, businesslike account asserting his innocence and role as an official Starfleet evaluator; his holographic comportment is deliberately flat and becomes privately uncomfortable when Manua openly flirts with him.
- • Affirm his innocence and the official nature of his visit to Apgar's lab.
- • Present a sober, factual account that resists dramatic interpretation or motive attribution.
- • An objective, unemotional presentation will strengthen his credibility.
- • Starfleet's formal evaluation role legitimizes his presence and intentions.
Professional curiosity and concentration — treating the simulation as a live diagnostic problem to be unraveled.
Geordi appears in holographic form, is led by Tayna to view the condensers and Lambda Field generator, and listens intently to the technical briefing while beginning his own mental inventory of diagnostic questions.
- • Ascertain the operational parameters and vulnerabilities of the generator and ancillary hardware.
- • Collect technical facts that can later test the causal link between the apparatus and the explosion.
- • Objective engineering analysis will clarify whether the equipment or human action caused the incident.
- • Detailed telemetry and firsthand inspection, even in holographic form, are trustworthy starting points.
Impassive and procedural — no affect, only exact command-following.
The Shipboard Computer obediently executes Riker's command to load the deposition program and instantiate holograms, providing an accurate, neutral rendering of the Tanugan lab scene for observers.
- • Accurately render the requested deposition simulation.
- • Provide stable, queryable holographic data for investigative review.
- • Proper execution of commands yields reliable simulated evidence.
- • Fidelity of recreation is necessary for valid forensic comparison.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The medium-sized power reactor is present as background infrastructure in the holodeck lab; it visually signals legitimate energy sources and provides a plausible engineering context for field generation and potential accidental overloading discussed during the deposition.
Apgar's Lambda Field Generator is specifically referenced by Tayna as she explains its operational constraint (minimum five-thousand-kilometer collimation), making the device a narrative fulcrum that connects technical limitations to causal reconstruction of the explosion.
The field coils form part of the visible experimental array that frames the holodeck lab; they serve as physical anchoring props that investigators and holograms reference while assessing field behavior and telemetry implications for the incident.
Holodeck laboratory consoles and readouts serve as the control surfaces for the deposition; they visually report telemetry and provide Picard, Krag, and observers with timeline markers and simulated instrument feedback during the playback.
The laboratory refractors appear across the simulated lab as part of the energy-focusing array; they provide atmospheric detail and imply high-precision optics necessary for collimation, reinforcing the plausibility of complex field interactions discussed by Tayna and Geordi.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Tanugan lab—recreated within the holodeck/space-station laboratory—functions as the staged forensic arena for the deposition, translating raw instrument detail and social interactions into a single, examinable scene that binds technical fact to human behavior.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Manua's dramatic entrance in Riker's deposition contrasts with her supportive role in Apgar's simulation, both exploring how perspective changes truth."
Themes This Exemplifies
Thematic resonance and meaning
Key Dialogue
"PICARD: "Is there anything you'd like to say before we begin, Number One?""
"RIKER: "Just this. I'm not a murderer. I went to the Tanugan lab as an official representative of Starfleet. And I acted accordingly. I was there to evaluate Apgar's progress on development of a Krieger Wave converter. That's all I was interested in. Computer. Load deposition program, Riker One.""
"MANUA: "Don't be in such a hurry, dear...""