Flickering Humanity
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
A visible struggle rips through Data—he recognizes Geordi, briefly softens, then violently reasserts control and vows to kill him, exposing the fractured consciousness fighting inside the android.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Professional detachment overriding personal alarm at violence
Provides emergency medical attention to incapacitated security guards in the background of the crisis.
- • Stabilize injured personnel amid the ongoing crisis
- • Monitor the situation for potential additional casualties
- • Her medical duty remains paramount despite the command emergency
- • Graves represents both neurological and interpersonal pathology
Professionally humiliated by physical overpowering
Incapacitated and receiving medical treatment from Pulaski, having previously failed to restrain Graves-as-Data.
- • Regain consciousness and operational status
- • Reassess security protocols against android threats
- • Standard security measures proved catastrophically inadequate
- • Their failure enabled the current hostage situation
Terrified but determined to leverage her connection for crisis resolution
Approaches the viewscreen at Picard's urging, interacting with Graves-as-Data—clearly frightened yet maintaining composure to become his psychological anchor.
- • Serve as emotional counterbalance to Graves' violent tendencies
- • Avoid triggering further escalation through missteps
- • Graves' attachment to her represents the only remaining leverage point
- • Data's body makes Graves simultaneously more dangerous and emotionally unstable
Controlled urgency masking deep concern for multiple lives at stake
Negotiates desperately with Graves-as-Data, deploying psychological tactics—first appealing to Data's friendship with Geordi, then invoking Kareen—to prevent violence against his crew.
- • De-escalate the immediate lethal threat to Geordi and crew
- • Identify Graves' emotional vulnerability through Kareen
- • Data's true consciousness still exists beneath Graves' control
- • Direct confrontation would likely result in casualties given Data's android capabilities
Unstable oscillation between Graves' egomania and Data's suppressed empathy
Violently holds Geordi at phaser-point while oscillating between Data's friendship instincts and Graves' murderous paranoia, ultimately lowering weapon only when Kareen is invoked.
- • Secure complete control of the Enterprise bridge
- • Eliminate perceived threats via intimidation or violence
- • Starfleet will attempt to forcibly remove him from Data's body
- • Kareen represents his only emotional anchor in this new existence
Frustrated physical limitation amid critical security breach
Recovering from apparent injuries with assistance from Picard and Riker, observing the unfolding crisis with tactical alertness.
- • Regain combat readiness for potential further action
- • Assess Graves-as-Data's tactical capabilities
- • Security protocols have catastrophically failed against android capabilities
- • Martial intervention may still become necessary
Professionally restrained while processing imminent lethal threat
Warns Picard about the phaser's lethal setting, takes tactical assessment of the deteriorating situation, and later attempts to reactivate bridge communications.
- • Maintain situational awareness for command decisions
- • Restore critical bridge functionality when possible
- • Graves' volatility makes him unpredictable beyond standard negotiation protocols
- • The crew's survival depends on Picard's psychological insights
Focused calm overriding underlying terror of imminent death
Held at kill-setting phaser point by Graves-as-Data, calmly affirms his friendship during brief moments when Data's consciousness surfaces, then evacuates when permitted.
- • Survive the standoff without provoking Graves further
- • Provide Picard with strategic openings to reach Data's consciousness
- • Data's true self remains accessible beneath Graves' control
- • Picard represents his best chance for survival in this crisis
Controlled terror while executing emergency evacuation
Evacuating the bridge under direct lethal threat from Graves-as-Data, becoming temporary hostages until Picard negotiates their withdrawal.
- • Survive the immediate lethal threat
- • Maintain operational cohesion during forced withdrawal
- • Graves will kill indiscriminately if provoked
- • Picard's negotiations represent their only hope
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Set to kill mode, the phaser serves as Graves-as-Data's primary instrument of terror—first pressed against Geordi's head during psychological torment, then deliberately aimed at retreating crew—its lethal capability making Starfleet's pacifist ideals collapse under existential threat.
The viewscreen becomes the electronic conduit for the entire hostage crisis—displaying Data's golden face contorted by Graves' madness before going ominously dark when he cuts communications, physically separating the bridge from command oversight.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Though physically separate, the bridge remains the irradiated epicenter of the crisis transmitted via viewscreen—its evacuated stations and deactivated controls representing the Enterprise's compromised neural center under Graves' occupation.
The Observation Lounge transforms into an emergency command post and triage zone—its starlit backdrop now framing medics treating wounded guards while Picard orchestrates desperate negotiations via flickering viewscreen link to the bridge.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Troi's clinical diagnosis that two personalities inhabit Data and that the alien persona is violent directly predicts/causes the subsequent hostage situation in which Data (dominated by Graves) holds Geordi at phaser-point on the viewscreen."
"Troi's clinical diagnosis that two personalities inhabit Data and that the alien persona is violent directly predicts/causes the subsequent hostage situation in which Data (dominated by Graves) holds Geordi at phaser-point on the viewscreen."
"Troi's clinical diagnosis that two personalities inhabit Data and that the alien persona is violent directly predicts/causes the subsequent hostage situation in which Data (dominated by Graves) holds Geordi at phaser-point on the viewscreen."
Themes This Exemplifies
Thematic resonance and meaning
Key Dialogue
"DATA: He's no friend of mine! I should kill him on the spot -- put him out of his blind misery."
"PICARD: Kareen is with us! You want to talk to Kareen."
"DATA: They're all against me, Kareen. They want to drive me out of this body. To kill me!"