Plane of Frozen Methane

A vast field of glassy, frozen methane stretches under a low, alien sky, its surface hard and merciless to sensor and skin. The plain registers as an inhospitable expanse—biting cold, hydrocarbon frost, and shimmering mirages of strain on external scanners. At its center an unmistakably artificial building sits on the frozen crust, ringed by an improbable band of breathable air; the fragile, localized atmosphere reads like a human oasis carved from poison. The plain functions as a hostile, isolating stage that converts scientific curiosity into tactical peril, forcing minimal, highly cautious incursions and heightening the moral stakes of any descent.

2 events

2 rich involvements

Detailed Involvements

Events with rich location context

S2E12 · The Royale

The Impossible Oasis

The plane of frozen methane is the hostile physical substrate on which the artificial building rests; it serves as the remote, alien tableau that makes the building's presence both baffling and perilous, framing the ethical and operational dilemma of sending humans down into a toxic environment.

Atmosphere

Cold, alien, and forbidding—evokes scientific awe mixed with practical dread.

Functional Role

Hazardous environment that raises the risk calculus for any landing or away team operation.

Symbolic Significance

Represents the narrative gulf between familiar human environments and incomprehensible alien contexts (the impossible human oasis amid a lethal landscape).

Access Restrictions

Physically hostile and effectively restricted by environmental hazards without protective measures and deliberate descent procedures.

Glassy frozen surface under alien sky Biting cold and hydrocarbon frost Sensor returns that blur and complicate remote assessment

S2E12 · The Royale

Picard's Order — Descend to Find the Architects

The frozen methane plain is the physical stage where the structure rests; described by Data it emphasizes remoteness and inhospitability, raising the tactical cost of any descent and framing the structure as an impossible human artifact in a hostile world.

Atmosphere

Alien, forbidding, and starkly silent — a cold tableau that amplifies the anomaly's incongruity.

Functional Role

Primary target environment for the away team's reconnaissance and the source of environmental risk to personnel and ship.

Symbolic Significance

Represents extreme otherness and isolation; the plain underscores how out of place the structure is and heightens the moral urgency of exploring its origin.

Access Restrictions

Effectively restricted by environmental hazard; only a trained away team can safely attempt landing and exploration under risk mitigation.

Glassy, frozen surface of methane and hydrocarbon frost. Low temperature and sensor‑challenging substrate that complicates approach.

Events at This Location

Everything that happens here

S2E12 · The Royale

The Impossible Oasis

On the bridge Wesley's readout crystallizes into the episode's central impossibility: a constructed building floating on a frozen methane plain, ringed by breathable air. Data, clinical and unflinching, declares the …

S2E12 · The Royale

Picard's Order — Descend to Find the Architects

On the bridge the sterile mystery becomes a command. Data confirms the structure is undeniably artificial and surrounded by breathable air; Riker, eager and quietly confident, proposes they go down …