Fabula
Location
Location
Courtroom Counsel Table

Courtroom Counsel Table

A long, utilitarian counsel table anchors the courtroom, its smooth surface lined with datapads, legal briefs, and small microphones. Picard and Data occupy the center place at the table while opposing counsel — including Riker and Maddox — arrange themselves to the right, making the table the theater for argument and demonstration. Overhead lights sharpen faces and glint off metal surfaces; whispered asides and legal cadence ricochet across the room. The table functions as both evidentiary platform and emotional fulcrum: clinical procedure hardens into personal betrayal when Data’s power switch clicks and silence floods the space, leaving the table littered with the wreckage of a friendship and the raw stakes of a trial.
2 events
2 rich involvements

Detailed Involvements

Events with rich location context

S2E9 · The Measure of a Man
The Machine Demonstration — Riker Turns Data Off

The counsel table groups Picard and Data at the center and the prosecution to the right; it becomes the theater for argument, for the placement of exhibits (hand, records) and ultimately the surface next to which Data is left motionless.

Atmosphere

Tense, ordered, and charged — the table's surface becomes littered with the wreckage of argument and evidence after the power-down.

Functional Role

Evidentiary and rhetorical platform where counsel present exhibits, whisper asides, and stage demonstrations.

Symbolic Significance

Represents the intersection between duty and friendship; a workspace turned crime scene of personal betrayal.

Access Restrictions

Restricted to counsel and witnesses; microphones and datapads indicate official usage.

Smooth surface with datapads, legal briefs, and small microphones. Overhead lights spotlighting documents and metallic exhibits.
S2E9 · The Measure of a Man
The Switch: Riker Powers Data Down

The courtroom counsel table positions Picard and Data before the bench and is the locus where the hand is laid beside Data after the shutdown, turning legal argument into a tableau of broken intimacy.

Atmosphere

Clinical and formal; becomes a tableau of wreckage after the collapse.

Functional Role

Working surface for counsel, displays exhibits and houses the emotional fallout.

Symbolic Significance

Represents the institutional arena where friendship and duty collide.

Access Restrictions

Reserved for counsel and parties to the hearing; microphones and data surfaces are integrated.

Smooth surface cluttered with datapads and exhibits; overhead lights emphasize faces and metal. The detached hand and Data's inert body lie in immediate proximity on and near the table.

Events at This Location

Everything that happens here

2
S2E9 · The Measure of a Man
The Machine Demonstration — Riker Turns Data Off

In open court Riker methodically reduces Data to machinery: he elicits that Data was built by Dr. Noonien Soong, has massive storage and processing capacity, then stages a public demonstration …

S2E9 · The Measure of a Man
The Switch: Riker Powers Data Down

In open court Riker stages a clinical, devastating demonstration to prove Data is property: after extracting technical testimony and bending a plasteel bar, he removes Data's hand for inspection and, …