Object

Dixon Hill Reception Desk

A period-styled, waist-high reception counter that anchors the Dixon Hill holonovel lobby: worn wood veneer, a narrow service ledge and a shallow workspace where the sardonic secretary perches. It carries small clerical props—a ledger and a scattering of papers—and invites tactile gestures: characters lean on its edge, jab conversational barbs across its surface, and Picard performs his comic ritual of ‘pay the tailor, stall the landlord’ while the desk frames the shifting social dynamics.

2 appearances

Purpose

Serve as the staffed reception surface for greeting visitors, staging banter, and supporting a secretary’s clerical tasks within the Dixon Hill holonovel setting.

Significance

Functions as Picard’s deliberate tactile anchor and escapist locus: the desk lets him sink into the fantasy through ritualized banter, frames the secretary’s sardonic control, and becomes the threshold through which Lwaxana’s arrival violently redirects the scene’s power and tone.

Appearances in the Narrative

When this object appears and how it's used

2 moments

S2E19 · Manhunt

Noir Respite — Pay the Tailor, Stall the Landlord

The reception desk anchors the beat-to-beat interaction: the secretary's theatrical swivel, the notepad and telephone, Picard's approach and exchange; it frames the small power plays and the rhythm of the comic ritual.

Before: In place as the central set piece of the reception room, holding clerical props.

After: Remains in position, having facilitated the exchange and hosted the props used during the event.

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S2E19 · Manhunt

Lwaxana Declares an 'Alternate Plan'

The reception desk anchors the scene physically and ritually: the secretary sits behind it, uses its surface for notepad and phone, and it becomes the stage from which the Dixon Hill interplay and the intrusion of Mrs. Troi are played out.

Before: Set in place as the functional focal point of Dixon Hill's reception, with props arranged atop it.

After: Still in place, serving as the fixed center of interaction between Picard, the secretary, and the arriving Troi family members.

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