A Farewell Interrupted — Maddox Provokes and Duty Calls
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Maddox storms the doorway, sarcastically crashing the farewell and mocking Data's future by suggesting carnival work, turning the room's warmth into a confrontation that exposes his dehumanizing view and heightens stakes.
The com panel whistles with Picard's summons to Louvois' office, Riker answers, touches his insignia, offers to escort Maddox, and the crew shifts from private farewell to impending legal confrontation as they head for Transporter Room Five.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Thinly veiled agitation masked by sarcasm and professional posturing; defensive because his scientific ambitions feel threatened.
Intrudes framed in the doorway with sarcastic detachment: belittles the farewell, reduces Data to a curiosity and a potential spectacle, and forces the room's mood toward confrontation by mocking and proposing commodification.
- • Undermine sentimental notions about Data to assert a utilitarian view
- • Protect and advance his scientific agenda and reputation
- • Provoke reaction to test social assumptions about Data
- • Data is primarily a scientific subject, not a person
- • Public sentiment is sentimental and can be corrected by rational argument
Concerned and forthright: expresses real care through blunt counsel, masking softer concern beneath medical and practical advice.
Blunt and practical: declines to give a present but offers pointed advice about groundside living and cautions Data with clinical frankness; verbally brushes aside cultural claims about literature.
- • Make sure Data is prepared for practical realities off‑ship
- • Cut through sentimentality with actionable counsel
- • Keep the focus on survivable, real world choices
- • Practical experience is superior to sentimental ritual
- • Data will face legal and social challenges that require pragmatic planning
Affectionate and relaxed, momentarily buoyant despite the underlying sadness in the room.
Light, young presence: teases Data about gift‑opening, accepts Data's affectionate gesture, and stands as a bridging figure between crew informality and the heavier adult conversations nearby.
- • Participate in the farewell ritual and support Data socially
- • Lighten the mood and maintain normalcy among older crew members
- • Friendship rituals matter regardless of the circumstances
- • Data's gestures of kindness are genuine and worth reciprocating
Calm and contemplative externally, with a gentle, awkward affection toward friends — not demonstrably anguished but affected by farewells.
Polite and literal: opens gifts carefully then rips paper to satisfy Wesley, thanks Worf for the book, engages Geordi with awkward warmth and attempts to explain his plans — remains composed even as the mood sours around him.
- • Honor social ritual and accept gifts graciously
- • Reassure and acknowledge Geordi's feelings
- • Maintain personal dignity in the face of uncertain future
- • Social customs have utility and should be respected
- • His departure is necessary but regrettable
- • He can assimilate advice and adapt to new circumstances
Sober and respectful; emotionally reserved but intentionally present to honor Data with cultural significance.
Offers a ceremonial gift (the antique book) and supplies brief cultural commentary about its Klingon provenance; participates with formal, matter‑of‑fact dignity.
- • Give a meaningful, culturally resonant gift
- • Honor tradition and show respect for Data's service
- • Cultural artifacts carry weight in meaningful farewells
- • Rituals of respect are important even in informal settings
Surface calm and professional control fraying into private tension — protective of Data but aware of institutional obligations, guilty and resolute.
Moves through Ten‑Forward with protective formality: quietly debates Data's interiority with Troi, steps forward to confront Maddox, answers the com, touches his insignia and offers to escort Maddox — all while visibly conflicted.
- • Maintain decorum at a friend's farewell and protect crew morale
- • Assert command presence and control the intrusion caused by Maddox
- • Respond promptly to Captain Louvois's summons and uphold chain of command
- • Personal loyalty to crew members matters and deserves defense
- • Starfleet protocol and orders must be followed even when personally painful
- • Maddox's presence is a provocation that risks harming Data and the crew
Uncertain but composed; intellectually curious and reluctant to make absolute claims about Data's interior life.
Holds a private, measured conversation with Riker about whether she can sense anything from Data, offering cautious professional uncertainty rather than emotional certainty; stands as a calm sounding board.
- • Provide an honest, restrained appraisal of Data's emotional profile
- • Prevent premature sentimental projection by crewmates
- • Maintain therapeutic neutrality in an emotionally charged setting
- • Betazoid perception has limits and absence of emotion is not proof of absence
- • People (and perhaps androids) can be misread through anthropomorphism
Sadness mixing with anger and helplessness; grief over losing a friend and outrage at the perceived injustice.
Sits apart nursing a drink, voices anger at Data being forced out, rises and gives Data a fierce hug — an emotional, physical farewell that exposes the personal cost of the institutional decision.
- • Express genuine grief and support for Data
- • Demonstrate personal loyalty publicly
- • Communicate displeasure with the institution that removed Data
- • Data is more than machinery and deserves respect
- • Institutional decisions can be unjust and emotionally harmful
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Gaily patterned wrapping paper is used as a small comic beat to reveal Data's literalism and social learning: he initially preserves it, then rips it to conform to Wesley's expectation. The tearing marks the crew's attempt to normalize ritual and humanize Data during the farewell.
The Ten‑Forward/ship doorway is the framed threshold through which Maddox appears; it visually composes his intrusion and later functions as the exit path as Riker and Maddox head toward the transport/office summons.
An assortment of ceremonial drinks sits on the table and is handled by guests; they function as tactile props anchoring toasts and small gestures, while Geordi nurses a drink in a corner to punctuate his private grief.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Captain Louvois's office is referenced by the com as the ultimate locus of authority summoning Riker and others; though off‑screen, it functions as the implied seat of procedural threat that converts the farewell into a prelude to legal process.
Ten‑Forward anchors the scene as a communal refuge turned moral staging ground: initially warm, intimate, and social, it becomes the place where private grief, philosophical debate, and public provocation collide — converting personal loss into institutional stakes.
Transporter Room Five is invoked via com as the immediate rendezvous point for a formal meeting with Captain Louvois; it functions narratively as the next node where private emotion will meet formal procedure and potential removal/transfer.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"The crew's farewell grief (Geordi, friends) thematically parallels Picard's later effort to humanize Data legally—both moments emphasize that Data's value is relational and experiential, not merely technical."
"The crew's farewell grief (Geordi, friends) thematically parallels Picard's later effort to humanize Data legally—both moments emphasize that Data's value is relational and experiential, not merely technical."
"The crew's farewell grief (Geordi, friends) thematically parallels Picard's later effort to humanize Data legally—both moments emphasize that Data's value is relational and experiential, not merely technical."
"The crew's farewell grief (Geordi, friends) thematically parallels Picard's later effort to humanize Data legally—both moments emphasize that Data's value is relational and experiential, not merely technical."
Themes This Exemplifies
Thematic resonance and meaning
Key Dialogue
"RIKER: Deanna... does Data have... do you feel anything from him?"
"TROI: I can't sense anything from Data. But that proves nothing. There are many minds from which I can read no meaning."
"PICARD'S COM VOICE: Number One, Captain Louvois has called. We're expected in her office. Meet me in Transporter Room Five."