Location

Starbase 173

Starbase 173 perches in orbit as a procedural harbor: docking rings yaw like waiting mouths, transfer berths glint under flood lamps, and maintenance corridors carry the faint tang of ionized metal and recycled air. Hailing tones crack with clipped authority while manifests and transport orders circulate through secure channels. The station answers an ancient Ficus beacon and issues the initial alert that sets the Enterprise investigating; it surfaces a disputed parts delivery that triggers Data’s logistics report; and it operates as the practicable refuge, triage point, and drop-off option considered for displaced colonists and vulnerable crew. Clinically outfitted bays, cargo holds, and administrative decks make the base an institutional crucible where logistics, medical triage, and thorny ethical decisions collide beneath harsh, efficient lighting.

2 events

2 rich involvements

Detailed Involvements

Events with rich location context

S2E18 · Up the Long Ladder

The Ficus Beacon — Echo of a Lost Colony

Starbase 173 functions offstage as the detecting authority that first logged the distress beacon. Its sensors forwarded the discovery to the Enterprise, making it the informational origin and procedural staging point for the ship's decision to investigate.

Atmosphere

Implied efficient, procedural, and clinical — a bureaucratic node that surfaces anomalies for higher command review.

Functional Role

Information source and logistical staging area; the starbase's detection triggers the Enterprise's investigative response.

Symbolic Significance

Embodies institutional surveillance and archival reach — where old signals are still recoverable by modern systems.

Access Restrictions

Operationally open to Starfleet vessels and personnel; functions under Starfleet protocols and secure communications.

Detection and relaying of long‑dormant signals Formal hailing and transfer of sensor data Clinical administrative bays implied in the script

S2E18 · Up the Long Ladder

Brenna Claims Granger — Sealing the Alliance

Starbase 173 is referenced as the viable off-ramp Picard offers Brenna — a procedural, institutional refuge contrasted with the cargo-bay's intimacy. It functions as a hypothetical alternative to accepting the integration plan and thus shapes Brenna's evaluation of personal sacrifice versus communal duty.

Atmosphere

Implied as clinical, orderly, and administratively competent — an institutional counterpoint to the messy hold.

Functional Role

Potential refuge or transfer point; represents an exit strategy and the institutional option for those unwilling to accept leadership or integration.

Symbolic Significance

Represents institutional neutrality and bureaucratic sanctuary, contrasting with the messy, moral choices on the ship.

Access Restrictions

Transfers would be regulated and mediated by Starfleet protocols; not freely accessible without formal arrangements.

Administrative docks and docking rings (implied) Clinical lighting and efficient procedural atmosphere (contrasts with hold) Paperwork/manifest and formal transfer channels (implied by Picard's offer)

Events at This Location

Everything that happens here

S2E18 · Up the Long Ladder

The Ficus Beacon — Echo of a Lost Colony

While docked at a starbase, Picard and Riker answer a raspy, centuries‑old SOS whose tone and databanks identify it as an obsolete European Hegemony distress beacon. Computer scans show the …

S2E18 · Up the Long Ladder

Brenna Claims Granger — Sealing the Alliance

Brenna confronts Picard in the crowded cargo bay, accusing the men of making grand plans that leave women to shoulder the practical and moral burden. Picard reframes the controversial breeding …