Star Trek The Next Generation
S2E15
· Pen Pals

Final Command: Erase Her Memories

From the bridge Picard coldly authorizes an irreversible medical intervention: Pulaski must surgically excise a child's memories of the Enterprise and of Data. In measured, clinical language Pulaski explains the invasive, time-sensitive work of tracking chemically encoded, age-dependent synaptic links — possibly reaching back weeks — to remove every trace of contact. Picard's terse, 'Do your best,' closes debate and converts a desperate act of compassion into a ritualized erasure, resolving the crisis while cementing profound ethical and emotional consequences for Data and the crew.

Plot Beats

The narrative micro-steps within this event

3

Picard, from a com screen, demands a medical solution to erase Sarjenka’s memories of the Enterprise and Data, forcing Pulaski to confront the invasive precision required to unravel a child’s most intimate experiences.

clinical detachment to heavy burden ["Pulaski's office"]

Pulaski outlines the surgical complexity of memory erasure—chemical tracing, neuronal targeting, temporal excavation—revealing the grotesque intimacy of what is required to preserve a civilization’s purity.

clinical precision to chilling gravity ["Pulaski's office"]

Picard’s terse command — 'Do your best' — seals Sarjenka’s fate, extinguishing hope for preservation and reducing a sentient child’s life to a diagnostic protocol.

resignation to hollow finality ["Pulaski's office"]

Who Was There

Characters present in this moment

2
Katherine Pulaski
Doctor (Chief Medical Officer)
 primary

Calmly professional with an undertone of gravity—detached clinicality masking awareness of the moral weight of the procedure.

Seated at her desk, Pulaski speaks clinically into the com, outlining the neurochemical basis of memory storage and the invasive, time-sensitive scanning and excision required — warning she may need to trace links back weeks before contact.

Goals in this moment
  • • Accurately assess how memories are encoded and specify what a safe excision would require.
  • • Preserve the patient's neurological integrity while carrying out an ordered procedure.
  • • Communicate necessary medical constraints clearly so command can make an informed decision.
Active beliefs
  • • Memories are materially encoded in chemically-modulated neural links and can be located and excised.
  • • The procedure is time-sensitive and requires precise scanning to avoid collateral cognitive damage.
  • • She is responsible to obey command decisions but also to minimize harm to the patient.
Character traits
clinical measured pragmatic precise morally restrained
Follow Katherine Pulaski's journey
Data
Second Officer
 primary

Absent physically; inferred as neutral-curious but also likely vulnerable given his emotional attachment to the alien and the impending erasure.

Mentioned by Picard as accompanying the alien and 'on their way down' — Data is not physically present but is the human/ethical focus of the discussion and the reason for the proposed intervention.

Goals in this moment
  • • Maintain contact with the alien and protect her if possible (inferred).
  • • Resolve the ethical and practical problem created by his unauthorized relationship (inferred).
Active beliefs
  • • Contact with the alien is significant and meaningful (inferred from his prior actions).
  • • Command will prioritize the Prime Directive and institutional protocol, potentially at personal cost to him (inferred).
Character traits
implicated analytical (in context) emotionally consequential (for others) inquisitive (implied)
Follow Data's journey

Objects Involved

Significant items in this scene

1
Alien Girl's Encoded Memories (chemical synaptic links)

Pulaski explicitly names the alien girl's chemically encoded memories as the target of the planned intervention: she describes how these engrams are distributed across cortical neurons, are time-dependent, and may require tracing links back weeks — establishing the memory-material as both the medical target and the episode's moral fulcrum.

Before: Intact and biologically embedded in the alien girl's …
After: Identified as slated for scanning and surgical excision …
Before: Intact and biologically embedded in the alien girl's cerebral cortex, containing traces of contact with Data and the Enterprise.
After: Identified as slated for scanning and surgical excision pending authorization; not yet altered but formally designated as the object of a forthcoming invasive procedure.

Location Details

Places and their significance in this event

1
Pulaski's Office

Pulaski's office serves as the intimate clinical theater where a medical explanation becomes an ethical verdict. Its small, antiseptic space focuses the exchange into a private, clinical confessional where command issues are received and transformed into procedural plans.

Atmosphere Clinical, quiet, and somber — a restrained tension underlies the measured conversation.
Function Meeting place for medical counsel and command authorization; the site where the theoretical becomes a …
Symbolism Represents the intersection of institutional authority and personal responsibility — where policy is enacted on …
Access Functionally restricted to senior medical staff and authorized command communications; not open to the public.
Faint antiseptic smell beneath the ship's hum A desk with a com screen that broadcasts Picard's image and voice Measured overhead light panels that sharpen facial expressions and make the room feel clinical

Narrative Connections

How this event relates to others in the story

What led here 2
Causal

"Picard’s realization that they're 'up to their necks' directly enables his later command to Pulaski to erase Sarjenka’s memories. He didn’t just violate the Directive—he committed to its ritualistic correction, knowing the cost. The erosion of moral purity leads directly to the surgical violation of innocence."

Lattice Revelation and the Prime Directive Compromise
S2E15 · Pen Pals
Causal

"Picard’s realization that they're 'up to their necks' directly enables his later command to Pulaski to erase Sarjenka’s memories. He didn’t just violate the Directive—he committed to its ritualistic correction, knowing the cost. The erosion of moral purity leads directly to the surgical violation of innocence."

Authorizing the Breach
S2E15 · Pen Pals

Part of Larger Arcs

Medical ethics and cultural protection: Pulaski's decision to excise Sarjenka's memories to prevent cultural contamination and preserve developmental integrity, set against Data's attachment and moral grief.

Key Dialogue

"PICARD'S COM VOICE: Data and the alien are on their way down. What would be involved in removing all memory of her communication with Data and her visit to this ship?"
"PULASKI: Assuming her brain structure is similar to ours the memories will be stored chemically on the neurons of the cerebral cortex. They are also time dependent. I'll have to scan for age of the chemical links, and try to find the relevant neurons. To be sure I may have to go back weeks before the initial contact with Data."
"PICARD'S COM VOICE: Well, do your best."