Holodeck Replay — The Setup Unmasked
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Picard acknowledges the overwhelming evidence against Riker but questions the completeness of the witnesses' perspectives, hinting at a hidden truth.
Picard initiates a holographic replay of Manua's deposition, emphasizing Apgar's claim of failure with the Krieger Wave converter.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Businesslike and neutral — O'Brien's audio cue functions as impartial operational confirmation.
Not physically present; his voice on ship com provides the operational cue for the transporter ('Stand by... Engaging transport'), anchoring the holodeck effect to starship procedures and timing.
- • Execute transporter orders reliably when called.
- • Provide a procedural timestamp used by Picard and Geordi in the demonstration.
- • Transporter operations follow precise timing and voice protocol.
- • Comms annotations are admissible technical cues in reconstructing events.
Wary and guarded — Krag is defensive of his investigative case and suspicious of demonstrations that may undercut his authority.
Chief Inspector Krag listens, objecting to Picard's hypothesis as 'impossible to prove', presses for jurisdictional certainty, and watches the programmed replay with procedural skepticism.
- • Obtain admissible evidence sufficient to justify extradition or prosecution.
- • Test Picard's reconstruction for reproducibility and legal credibility before conceding custody.
- • Physical evidence should support eyewitness accounts before he withdraws charges.
- • He must protect Tanugan procedural integrity against theatrical reconstructions.
Distressed and defensive; she rejects the murder allegation while privately shaken by the implications of the replay.
Her deposition is the source material for a holodeck program; in the room she reacts defensively to Picard's suggestion that her husband was motivated by profit and might have murdered Riker.
- • Protect her husband's reputation and memory.
- • Resist implications that she or her husband were involved in malicious intent.
- • Her husband's work was legitimate and meant to provide for their life, not to murder.
- • The assembled observers may be misinterpreting the lab events and motivations.
Portrayed as worried and furtive in holographic replays — the simulation implies premeditation and professional desperation.
Appears as a holographic simulation in multiple programs: defensive in one, touchingly earnest in another, and finally shown touching a panel to activate the generator — his staged actions supply the causal linchpin for Picard's argument.
- • In the hologram, to energize the converter and conceal the true extent of his capabilities.
- • Narratively, to provide the decisive act that allows Picard to propose a motive and method.
- • He needs more time and materials to finish the converter (as he states), which could justify ordering more discosilium.
- • Turning the converter into a weapon would be lucrative, and that motive might explain his actions.
Hesitant and increasingly certain — she recognizes what she saw and the implication unsettles her.
Her deposition/holoprogram is replayed and she identifies Apgar's motion as 'activating the generator on the planet', reluctantly providing the decisive specific action that supports Picard's hypothesis.
- • Accurately report what she observed despite personal discomfort.
- • Avoid being used unfairly while still cooperating with the investigation.
- • Her testimony should be represented faithfully in the reconstruction.
- • She may have missed the larger implication of Apgar's action until it was pointed out.
Calm, determined and quietly urgent — Picard projects disciplined control while carrying a personal stake in exonerating Riker.
Orchestrates the holodeck reconstruction: issues load/play/freeze commands, narrates the hypothesis aloud, frames motive and timing, and pressures Krag by translating conflicting testimonies into a single demonstrable sequence.
- • Create reasonable doubt about Riker's culpability by producing a persuasive physical demonstration.
- • Expose the true mechanism and motive behind Apgar's death to shift the investigation from accusation to forensic inquiry.
- • Competing eyewitness accounts can be reconciled and be instructive when staged correctly.
- • Demonstrable forensic evidence will override political pressure and secure due process for his officer.
Confused and anxious; his trust in command is intact but he feels personally vulnerable as the demonstration targets the circumstances of his near‑death.
Functions as the demonstrative subject: his holographic likeness participates in the replay, he issues the line calling Enterprise, and his dematerialization becomes the focal point for the simulated deadly reflection; in-person he watches, confused and vulnerable.
- • Be cleared of suspicion and vindicated by the evidence.
- • Support Picard's process and cooperate with the demonstration.
- • He did not murder Apgar and the truth will exonerate him.
- • Starfleet procedure and Picard's leadership will protect his rights and reputation.
Composed and quietly sympathetic — she is emotionally available to Riker without being swayed by spectacle.
Present in the gallery, emotionally steady; Troi has already understood Picard's explanation and acts as an empathic anchor for Riker and others during the tense forensic display.
- • Stabilize the emotional tenor of the room and provide comfort to Riker.
- • Corroborate the subjective truth of Manua's testimony while remaining open to objective evidence.
- • Emotional truth has value but must be paired with forensic investigation.
- • Keeping Riker calm will help him survive the legal and political pressures following the demonstration.
Confident and focused; professional certainty that the evidence can be reproduced persuades him to run a risky demonstration.
Programs and times the holodeck scenarios, explains the technical identification of Krieger Waves, and triggers the La Forge sequence that processes the incoming planetary discharge and reproduces the reflective effect that leads to the simulated explosion.
- • Prove the Krieger Wave converter functions as a weaponizing relay.
- • Demonstrate the precise timing relationship between the planetary discharge, transporter beam, and reactor explosion.
- • The ship's telemetry and Apgar's records contain enough data to reconstruct the converter's behavior.
- • A controlled replay will expose a causal mechanism that testimonies alone cannot.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The transporter console (represented by O'Brien's voice and Riker's call) functions as the momentary target the converter's beam would strike; in the holodeck replay the transport effect is the reflecting surface that sends focused energy back to the reactor, producing the simulated explosion.
A recreated Krieger Wave converter is central to the demonstration: Geordi activates its simulated mirror coils so that incoming harmless planetary discharges are focused into Krieger Waves which then strike the holodeck transport effect, illustrating how the device could weaponize ambient energy and trigger the reactor explosion.
The discosilium/dicosilium material is invoked as forensic support: Geordi references Apgar's orders for extra material, linking increased quantities to larger reflective coils and strengthening the argument that Apgar was building a weaponized converter.
The station reactor core is the simulated casualty: Geordi's replay shows the reflected beam striking past Apgar into the reactor, which then explodes in the reconstruction — converting an intended targeted kill into a larger catastrophic failure used to mask intent.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Holodeck Observation Gallery frames the event: witnesses — Picard, Krag, Troi, Manua, Tayna, and Riker — watch from a protected vantage as the reconstruction plays out, giving the demonstration public weight and immediate adjudicative force.
The Holodeck's Space Station Living Room and Laboratory facsimiles are the stage for the demonstration: multiple programs swap set pieces and frozen figures so Picard can juxtapose Manua's, Tayna's and Riker's accounts, then run the La Forge sequence that recreates the final, lethal interaction.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Krag's damning holographic evidence of Riker firing a phaser is later revealed to be a misinterpretation of Apgar's backfired weapon."
"Krag's damning holographic evidence of Riker firing a phaser is later revealed to be a misinterpretation of Apgar's backfired weapon."
"Krag's damning holographic evidence of Riker firing a phaser is later revealed to be a misinterpretation of Apgar's backfired weapon."
"Picard's explanation of Apgar's desperate ambition contrasts with Riker's return to normal duty, showing how the ordeal has affected both men differently."
Themes This Exemplifies
Thematic resonance and meaning
Key Dialogue
"PICARD: But isn't it remarkable that with all the witnesses, all the different points of view of the events aboard the space station... that we've never seen what really happened at all?"
"GEORDI: Including the Krieger Wave converter that Doctor Apgar claimed didn't work... except it does work."
"GEORDI: The next discharge from the field generator is scheduled to occur in a few moments. We have aligned the Holodeck program to recreate the final events as Commander Riker described them... only this time our facsimile will automatically process the energy charge from the planet and reflect it just as the original convertor did before the explosion."