Object

Observation Deck Conference Table

A broad, waist-high conference table anchored at the observation deck's center / meeting area: a smooth, dark composite tabletop with a low-profile rim and an oval footprint sized to seat multiple delegates facing one another. The surface normally holds papers, cups and communicators; during the Ferengi disruption a sack of gold bars is dumped onto it, scattering metal and papers while participants lean on its rim and visibly react.

4 appearances

Purpose

Provide a stable meeting and negotiation surface for delegates to sit around, place documents and personal items, and support face-to-face discussion and gestures during diplomatic exchanges.

Significance

Acts as the narrative fulcrum when DaiMon Goss transforms a solemn negotiation into a mercantile spectacle by spilling gold bars onto it; the table's desecration shatters the room's decorum, unnerves Picard, tests Riker's command, and escalates political tension, making the tabletop a visible marker of the scene's rupture.

Appearances in the Narrative

When this object appears and how it's used

4 moments

S3E8 · The Price

Neutrality as Leverage: Ral Undercuts Riker

The waist-high meeting table physically organizes delegates and negotiators, anchoring the assembly's choreography; it frames who speaks, who leans in, and who is observed, making the room's power shifts visible when attention and posture change.

Before: Occupied by delegates and negotiators; papers and personal items present as a conventional negotiation staging area.

After: Remains in place as the meeting's focal staging but now bears the tension of the interrupted presentation and shifting rhetorical control.

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S3E8 · The Price

Ral Cuts the Pitch: Neutrality Seizes the Floor

The waist‑high meeting table physically organizes participants — delegates lean on its rim and set down papers — serving as the scene's staging ground. It frames proximity between Riker, Bhavani, Ral, and the delegates, making micro‑expressions (like Bhavani's nod) legible and politically consequential.

Before: Occupied by delegates and negotiators, with documents and glasses likely placed at participants' edges.

After: Remains the central staging surface; papers and placement unchanged, but the group's attention has shifted from its contents to interpersonal dynamics.

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S3E8 · The Price

Trillium Coup — Caldonia Withdraws; Devinoni Claims the Prize

The meeting table anchors the session physically and ritually; delegates sit around it, lean on its rim, and use it as the stage for proclamations and exchanges—Leyor stands beside it to announce withdrawal and Riker addresses the assembly across it.

Before: Set in the observation lounge with documents and delegates arrayed around its edge, serving as the negotiation focal point.

After: Remains in place but now bears the evidence of a diplomatic rupture: silent witness to the transfer and the collapse of a Federation tactical offer.

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S3E8 · The Price

Troi Confronts Devinoni About His Hidden Empathic Edge

The small dining table anchors the scene as the physical meeting point; candles, fork and glasses rest on it while the dialogue shifts from intimacy to moral duel, making the table both literal and symbolic stage for the reckoning.

Before: Set for a private candlelit dinner with candles, glasses, and utensils in place.

After: Remains with objects in place but with a cleared emotional ambiance — Devinoni's place vacated, conversation unresolved.

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