Object

Picard's Cardiac Replacement Procedure

A scheduled, high‑risk surgical operation to replace Captain Jean‑Luc Picard's failing heart, referenced in a cramped shuttlecraft briefing. The procedure implies sterile biobed setups, implantable cardiac components, surgical instruments, and a small medical team led by Doctor Pulaski and Van Doren. Picard frames the operation with clinical statistics—quoting a two‑point‑four percent mortality—while physically retreating into a book to guard his privacy; Wesley presses for details, and Picard deliberately clamps down on disclosure. The procedure exists more as an imminent factual object—dates, risks, and personnel—than as seen apparatus, but it anchors imminent medical action and emotional exposure.

2 appearances

Purpose

To surgically replace Captain Picard's defective heart in order to restore life‑sustaining cardiac function.

Significance

Acts as the immediate plot catalyst and emotional fault line: it creates urgency, foreshadows medical danger, and exposes Picard's need for control and privacy. The statistic Picard cites converts private vulnerability into command posture, shaping interpersonal dynamics (Wesley's curiosity, Pulaski's clinical role) and driving forthcoming narrative stakes.

Appearances in the Narrative

When this object appears and how it's used

2 moments

S2E17 · Samaritan Snare

Picard's Quiet Admission

Picard's Cardiac Replacement Procedure is the subject of the revelation; it functions here as the narrative hinge that transforms a routine shuttle ride into an emotional disclosure. The 'parthenogenetic implant' is described clinically, establishes medical stakes, and motivates Picard's guarded behavior.

Before: Scheduled/anticipated medical procedure known to Picard privately; not publicly acknowledged by crew.

After: Acknowledged to Wesley verbally, shifting it from a private plan to a disclosed impending operation that increases urgency in the episode's medical subplot.

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S2E17 · Samaritan Snare

Picard Guards His Secret Surgery

The cardiac replacement procedure functions as the central but abstract object of the exchange: Picard invokes its empirical mortality rate to depersonalize the risk, using the procedure rhetorically to close conversation and to conceal emotional stakes.

Before: Known to Picard and implicitly planned; an imminent, confidential medical action occupying Picard's mind but not physically present in the shuttle.

After: Referred to and rhetorically contained; remains scheduled and confidential, its personal implications silenced in the shuttle but foreshadowed for later narrative consequences.

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