Star Trek: The Next Generation/Awesome

"Q: "Oh, very clever, Worf. Eat any good books lately?""
 * Three words: "SHUT UP, WESLEY!"
 * My favorite Take That, Scrappy! moment against Wesley has to be from proud Klingon warrior Kurn in "Sins of the Father": "DO YOU WISH TO SPEAK, Acting Ensign Wesley Crusher?"
 * Q: "I'm mortal! What can I do to convince you people?" Worf: "Die."
 * And the retort:

"Korriss: "I don't care what you look like YOU ARE NO KLINGON!!" Worf "Perhaps not." [Zaps him with a phaser]"
 * Worf gets an awesome moment near the end of Heart of Glory where he owns the renegade Klingon Korris

"Worf "Brother, it is you who does not see. You look for battles in the wrong place. The true test of a warrior is not without. It is within! [points to his chest] Here Here is where we meet the challenge! It is the weaknesses in here a warrior must overcome!""
 * Not to mention the Patrick Stewart Speech Worf gives him before that

"Picard: You already betrayed your people, Admiral! You made your choices, sir. You're a traitor! Now if the bitter taste of that is unpalatable to you than I am truly sorry. But I will not risk my crew because you think you can dance on the edge of the Neutral Zone. You've crossed over, Admiral. You make yourself comfortable with that."
 * The full scene can be watched here
 * Captain Picard had this scene in the episode "The Defector" where he owns Romulan commander Tomalak rather magnificently.
 * For those not watching the clip, Tomalak and his two warbirds have found Picard and the Enterprise on the wrong side of the Neutral Zone. Tomalak demands that Picard surrenders. Picard orders the three Klingon birds of prey he brought with him to decloak. They could fight, but it would cost Tomalak more than he'd gain and he lets them go.
 * Not to mention the previous scene in the same episode where he just lays into Admiral Jarok after he refuses to give up official secrets:

""She will grow up believing her father was a traitor... but she will grow up.""
 * Still, you've got to give props to the admiral himself. The leader of a thousand massacres, including Khitomer, and one of the most important individuals in the Romulan empire... And he turned his back on everything he knew, betraying his own people, because he realised the life of his baby daughter was more important than winning a galactic war based on prejudice.

"Klingon Commander: Federation ship Enterprise. Surrender and prepare to be boarded. Picard: That'll be the day..."
 * Picard luring two Borg drones into a Holodeck with its safeties switched off and gunning them down with a Tommy gun in First Contact. This scene was both incredibly Badass (with a sharp white suit) and provided some very scary Foreshadowing of Picard's Ahab moment.
 * AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!
 * Also: THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!
 * Built upon in Diane Carey's Ship of the Line novel for another CMOA when Picard revisits Gul Madred.
 * The entire episode "Starship Mine." Bonus points for using the Vulcan Nerve Pinch on a crook played by Tim Russ, who'd go on to play Voyager's Tuvok.
 * The Picard from a universe where the Federation had been at war with the Klingons for the past twenty years got a good one in:

"Picard: The only benefit to the Klingon Empire would be our gratitude. B'Ijik (skeptically): That is what you want me to tell him? Picard: Yes. And, please add that, if he is unable to provide us with a ship, then I am sure there are others in the Klingon Empire who would be willing to help me. And then they would have our gratitude."
 * He then takes control of the Enterprise's weapons personally.
 * The crew of the Enterprise-C knowingly went to their deaths. They knew that returning to face three Romulan warships was certain death. They did it anyway, and their courageous sacrifice ensured peace between the Klingons and the Federation... just as it did in the original timeline.
 * You can't mention "Yesterday's Enterprise" as a CMoA and not include the speech he gives to the crew right before the battle. "Let's make sure history never Forgets. The name. Enterprise."
 * In "Unification I", Picard is trying to arrange a cloaked ship from Gowron for an undercover mission in Romulan space. Gowron is busy re-writing history to downplay the Federation's involvement in his ascension, and Picard eventually gets a hold of B'Ijik, a low-level official. B'Ijik asks Picard what the Klingons would get out of this.

"Picard: Your Honor, Starfleet was founded to seek out new life; well, THERE IT SITS!"
 * Ah, heck, Spock just turning up at the end of "Unification I" is a Crowning Moment of Awesome in itself.
 * In "Unification II", there is a Crowning Moment of Awesome for Picard, Spock and Data but an equivalent Crowning Moment of Stupidity for Commander Sela, when after threatening the three of them with death if they don't do what she wants, she * LEAVES THEM ALONE IN THE ROOM* while she wanders off to attend to her plans. What kind of loon leaves one of cleverest and most resourceful Captain in the Federation, a Vulcan of decades of experience, and an android with vast knowledge and incredible physical capabilities, alone in an office filled with electronics and other goodies, without watching them? Come on, tie them to the chairs, gag them, and then assign 3 armed guards apiece with orders to kill them instantly if they make a wrong move, and then you have merely reduced the odds to slightly less than certainty that they will still defeat you!!! But watching the three of them in action practically defines Crowning Moment of Awesome.
 * There also Picard's moments when he kicks butt in the legal and diplomatic spheres:
 * In "The Measure of a Man" when Picard is on the defense hearing to determine whether Data is considered property and goes on the counterattack. He asserts that this hearing would determine whether the Federation is capable of making a leap of a moral imagination to realize Data is a sentient being by most meaningful criteria and to rule him property is to sanction slavery. The fact he wins the argument by opening the eyes of the Judge to this innovative expansion of moral principle is a crowning moment where Picard shows why the United Federation of Planets is worth fighting for.

"Riker: Data is a physical representation of a dream, an idea conceived of by the mind of a man. His purpose? To serve human needs and interests. He is a collection of neural nets and heuristic algorithms. His responses are dictated by an elaborate software program written by a man. The hardware was built by a man. And this man... Flips Data's off switch Riker: ...has turned him off. Pinocchio is broken. His strings have been cut."
 * On the other hand, he was going up against Riker's Crowning Moment of Awesome. Forced into the role of prosecutor by the overseeing JAG officer (who would have ruled summarily against Data if he hadn't accepted), Riker does a damn good job in that role, much to his own dismay. Picard later confided to Guinan that "he almost convinced me."

"Picard: Order a man to hand his child over to the state? Not while I am his captain."
 * The end of the ep has Data's Crowning Moment of Heartwarming. Riker is feeling despondent about betraying a friend, when Data comes to get him. Riker is ashamed at his part in the trial. But Data, showing one of humanity's more positive traits, understanding, invites him to the victory party anyway, stating that Riker did what he had to do. Thus showing that Data is in fact deeply grateful for the sacrifice Riker made.
 * Sadly, this was a military hearing and thus did not set legal precedent in either the status of civilians or civil court cases, as Lal and the Doctor discover.
 * And speaking of Lal, he also had one in "The Offspring," refusing to back down to an admiral who was ordering Data to release her to Starfleet.

"Riker: You enjoyed that. Picard: You're damned right."
 * In "Ensigns of Command," he opposes the arrogant and oppressively legalistic Sheliak who flog the treaty between them and the Federation to refuse to compromise on the matter of an unexpected colony on a planet Sheliak want, but cannot be moved for weeks. By searching the treaty, Picard finds a way to outmaneuver them and makes them sweat.
 * Then, when he knows he's got the Sheliak on the ropes, he terminates communications and waits for them to call back. Once they start hailing, he stands around letting the hailing tone sound, then casually walks across the bridge, inspects the Enterprise commissioning plaque on the wall and dusts it off, and finally wanders back to the center of the bridge before putting them onscreen. The closest Picard has ever gotten to "You know what? Fuck you." in the entire series.

"Data: (After zapping the guards) "That was the stun setting. This is not.""
 * Also in that episode, Data convincing the colonists (who would rather fight) to leave by practically destroying their colony with a single phaser. He then brilliantly describes that the Sheliak are far more powerful than he is and that the colonists would have no chance whatsoever.

"Picard: There are some words I've known since I was a schoolboy. "With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied chains us all irrevocably." Those words were uttered by Judge Aaron Satie, as wisdom, and warning."
 * In "The Drumhead," Picard puts a particularly nasty admiral in her place and exposes her as the paranoid witch hunter she is after being put on trial by her by quoting her father on the subject of curtailing life's liberties for the sake of the "greater good" just to piss her off and goad her into a rant.

"Picard:The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth, whether it's scientific truth, or historical truth, or personal truth! It is the guiding principle on which Starfleet is based. If you can't find it within yourself to stand up and tell the truth about what happened, you don't deserve to wear that uniform."
 * That speech, pretty much on its own, makes this episode my second favourite Star Trek episode. (It was my favourite until I watched "In the Pale Moonlight", which is the best episode of any show ever. Or, to be fair, any show I've ever watched.)
 * Picard really has too many to list. In "The First Duty", Picard finally gets his own back on Wesley Crusher when he suspects him of covering up the death of a cadet in a training accident. He beats him down in true Picard style:

"Picard: "Maxwell was right. Those ships weren't carrying scientific equipment, were they? A 'research' station within arm's reach of three Federation sectors? Cargo ships running with high energy subspace fields that jam sensors?" Gul Macet: "If you believed the transport ship carried weapons, why didn't you board it as Maxwell requested?" Picard: "I was here to protect the peace, a peace I firmly believe is in the interests of both our peoples. But if I had attempted to board that ship... I am quite certain that you and I would not be sitting here now. And that ships on both sides would be arming for war. ... Take a message to your leaders, Gul Macet. We know. We'll be watching. We'll be ready.""
 * "The Enemy": The Enterprise is facing down a Romulan warbird which has every reason to blow them out of the sky, and with the shields up Picard's losing his chance to rescue his officer and the second Romulan whose presence would stop the imminent battle. He opens a channel to the enemy ship, says basically "We've both got powerful ships and well trained crews ready to die for this, but the only way we're going to avoid starting a war is by trusting each other" and drops the shields. In front of a fully armed Romulan warbird. His engineer is rescued, the return of the Romulan officer avoids a battle, and two enemies move one small step towards peace. All it took was one quick speech and balls the size of a planet.
 * "The Wounded": Fellow Federation Captain, Benjamin Maxwell, is convinced the Cardassians are up to no good, and nearly starts a war by attacking a Cardassian convoy with his own starship. Picard is ready and willing to fire on Maxwell's ship to keep him from attacking again, and only because O'Brien can talk him down from destroying the Cardassian ship does the situation end peacefully. Then, right when the Cardassian representatives turned to leave, Picard delivers this bomb:

"Q: "Oh, please.""
 * "The Best of Both Worlds" had (at least) one for both Picard and Riker that would define the season-ending Cliff Hanger for the next two decades, when Picard, assimilated into being Locutus of Borg, issues his threat to Riker "Your resistance is hopeless...Number One." While the typical viewer breathes "Never!" at this, Riker gives the only response it deserves, "Mr. Worf... fire!"
 * It would have been more awesome had the supposed superweapon not epically failed to work.
 * As TV Tropes points out, even a Curb Stomp Battle CAN be awesome. The looks on the crew's faces (and the viewer's at home) when the Borg completely Won't Work On Me their alleged superweapon was priceless.
 * Also, keep in mind that everyone watching it at the time was left hanging with that last awesome exchange for an entire summer. It may lose the impact when the cliffhanger's resolved on the next DVD you popped in, but at the time that was pretty much the greatest season finale ever put to screen that didn't involve JR getting shot.
 * Even if the superweapon had worked, it really would have been a Crowning Moment for Geordi or Commander Shelby. Riker's Crowning Moment comes from simply leading one starship into battle against a foe that had destroyed forty starships at once right before that and coming up with a daring plan that works.
 * Which brings us to Data, who Awesome beyond all measure.
 * Although the character is a subject of much debate, Captain Jellico gets one when he owns the (supposedly secret) Cardassian attack fleet preventing a war before it can start, and gets Picard back in the bargain.
 * Simply getting Troi to actually wear a freaking uniform would also count - even the spectacular cleavage was getting rather old by that point.
 * Especially for those of us who find her better looking in the uniform.
 * Data has his day in "Redemption" when he is put in command of a ship with a really insubordinate First Officer. At the critical moment of executing his plan to find a cloaked Romulan convoy, the officer is being difficult and suddenly Data is roaring at him to obey his order or else! It's a moment that took everyone, both character and viewer, off guard to see the android get that tough.
 * Earlier on, the XO comes to Data requesting a transfer. When grilled on why, he admits that he doesn't feel Data would make a good captain because he is an android. Data's response? "I understand your concerns. * Beat* Request denied." The look on the guy's face is priceless.
 * What's even cooler is when Data flat out disobeys Picard on a hunch, and turns out to be right! The very same XO who showed him no respect addresses him as "Captain," showing that Data has earned his respect in full. CMoA for sure.
 * Further building on that, Data comes to Picard, willingly submits himself for disciplinary action for disobeying orders, and gets off with an enthusiastic "Nicely done!" from his CO. And of course, one must remember that Picard was initially reluctant to give Data command of a ship, so Data guilt-tripped him into it.
 * Gowron's comes at the end of "Redemption" with him triumphant as the new undisputed leader of the Klingon Empire confronting the captured child who dared to claim his position for the traitorous House of Duras. When the child futilely yells, "The Duras family will one day rule the Empire!", Gowron responds "Perhaps," then flashes a wicked grin with those bulging eyes, "but not today!"
 * Three words: "Resistance is futile".
 * In "Q Who," Q attempts to join the Enterprise's crew, saying they would need his help against the dangers of the galaxy. Picard snidely refuses, saying they are more than ready for any threat, and so Q hurls them across the galaxy to face the Borg. After failing to heed Q's warnings and losing eighteen members of his crew to the Borg, Riker tries to accuse Q of being responsible for their deaths instead of Picard. Q's only response?

"Picard: You wanted to frighten us. We're frightened. You wanted to show us that we were inadequate. For the moment... I grant that. You wanted me to say I need you? I! NEED YOU!"
 * The way that line is delivered is absolutely chilling. With two words, Q proves he's just as dark, dangerous, sinister, and powerful as he is foppish and amusing.
 * There's also a Crowning Moment of Awesome for the Borg, near the end of the episode. Picard has wisely decided to get the hell away from the damaged Borg ship, which starts regenerating itself and tears after the Enterprise in hot pursuit. During the chase, there's this incredible moment where Picard and Riker are watching the Borg ship repair itself after taking a half-dozen torpedoes to the face, and we see this Necro Cam style closeup of the Borg ship knitting itself back together circuit by circuit. The perfect Oh Crap moment.
 * Picard also gets one near the end of the episode when he swallows his pride and delivers one of the greatest Ain't Too Proud to Beg speeches ever:

"Q: If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires, both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid."
 * And Q smirks, snaps his fingers, and sends them all back to Federation space.
 * Point to Picard: The way he delivers it sounds less like being scared into humility than, "This is ridiculous. You want me to beg? Fine. You've thrown us against an unbeatable enemy and eighteen of my crew are dead. I'm begging."
 * Then there's Q and Picard's final exchange in that episode, where Q rightly chides him for the smug sense of superiority that permeated most of the first two seasons.

"Q: There are creatures in the universe who would consider you the ultimate achievement, android. No feelings, no emotions, no pain... And yet you covet those qualities of humanity. Believe me, you're missing nothing. But if it means anything to you... you're a better human than I."
 * This troper reckons Q's moment comes in "Déjà Q" after being turned human by the Continuum and dumped stark naked on the deck of the Enterprise. No, that's not the awesome bit (though the DVD commentary reveals it was one for John De Lancie). The awesome bit comes later. After a while of getting used to the fact that the crew (especially Guinan) really, really hates him, he can't do anything without his powers, and at least one of the species he's tormented in the past has come back for vengeance, Q is bewildered when Data nearly gets himself killed trying to protect Q from the Callamarain. After a while of trying to absorb this fact, and an "I'm not your father confessor" speech from Picard. Q heads for sickbay and gives a (for once) quiet Data the following speech:

"Lwaxana: "You're so disdainful of Humanity. Of mortals. You keep saying you're above our emotions, and hold them in such disdain. You know what I think? I think you're not worthy of them. You're not good enough to feel love.""
 * And then he goes off to commit suicide in order to protect a crew that doesn't like him. He totally earned that mariachi band.
 * Q seems to get the Butt Monkey treatment by other members of the Q Continuum a fair bit, which leads to a pair of Crowning Moments near the end of the novel Q-in-Law. The first is for Deanna Troi's mother Lwaxana, who goes absolutely nuts when  When Q tries to take back the   he'd given her, it fails. An eight-page beating commences, with Lwaxana punching Q into the warp nacelle, using him for a racquetball, and finally turning Q into a tree and nearly chopping him to pieces (starting below the belt) before Deanna and Picard get her calmed down. Her rant after Q's apology only serves to top the whole thing off:

"Newton: Blast! I fold. Data: I fold as well. Einstein: Ze Uncertainty Principle vill not help you, Stephen. All ze quantum fluctuations in ze universe vill not change ze cards in your hand. I call. You are bluffing, and you vill lose. Hawking: Wrong again, Albert. (Shows his Four of a Kind)"
 * Shortly after that, Q2 shows up, and claims an entire second Crowning Moment of Awesome when he explains that
 * Mention needs to be made of the opening scene of "Descent Part 1", where Stephen Hawking plays a hologram of himself, and beats Data, Issac Newton and Albert Einstein at poker:

""This is a little souvenir I picked up from Magus III. That was setting number one. Anyone wanna see setting number two?""
 * Which lead to a CMOF in one of the DVD extras where Brent Spiner recounts how some time later he happened to run into Hawking, and the first words out of his, err...computer...were "Where's my money?"
 * Doctor Crusher gets one in "Descent, part II", when she hides the Enterprise inside a friggin' star to evade a monstrously powerful vessel flown by Ax Crazy Borg, and then triggers a solar flare to utterly annihilate said Borg ship shortly thereafter.
 * Not only did she take down a Borg Ship...she did so on a less than skeleton crew of people who weren't even Junior Officers. And she did so whilst orchestrating the rescue of the crew who were trapped on the other side of said Borg Ship. Commander Beverly Crusher is a Badass.
 * "Face of the Enemy" is one long Crowning Moment of Awesome for Counselor Troi. There's a reason the alternate name for A Day in the Limelight is "Good Troi Episode". Deanna Troi wakes up on a Romulan warbird cosmetically altered to look like a Romulan major, a member of the Tal Shiar, the secret police of the Romulan Empire, all in the name of getting a handful of dissidents across the Neutral Zone, and she manages to pull off the deception until the Romulans realize that the dissidents have been beamed off the ship. Moments later, the Enterprise pulls her out.
 * Guinan had a Crowning Moment of Awesome in The Best of Both Worlds, Part II with her "beyond friends, beyond family" speech to Riker.
 * And another in Night Terrors, when she breaks up a fight in Ten Forward by blowing a hole in the ceiling with a BFG:

"Picard: You say you are true evil? Shall I tell you what true evil is? It is to submit to you. It is when we surrender our freedom, our dignity, instead of defying you. Armus: I will kill you and those in there. Picard: But you will still be in this place. Forever, alone, immortal. [Armus begins growling]) That's your real fear, never to die. Never again to be united with those who left you here. [Armus begins screaming] I'm not taking you anywhere."
 * Good thing the ceiling was only an interior bulkhead, and not part of the Enterprise's hull....
 * In "Skin of Evil", the Enterprise crew encounters Armus, an alien being who murders Tasha Yar, and attacks Riker, then sadistically gloats about it to Counselor Troi, trapped in a downed shuttlecraft. Throughout the episode, the Enterprise crew tries to reason with Armus, but Picard decides to have one last word with him:


 * So in Armus's rage, Picard gets Counselor Troi and her shuttlecraft mates beamed onboard, along with himself. He then destroys the crashed shuttle and has Armus' planet declared off-limits, to ensure nobody ever faces Armus again.
 * Credit has to go to Troi herself, who figured out that getting Armus angry weakens him and passing the information to Picard who made good use of it.
 * Best of all, an episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks shows that thirty years later he's still languishing there, completely unrepentant, a pathetic shell of the dreaded fiend he once was, a fate well-deserved.

"Kurak: Be careful, Doctor. Insulting the honor of a Klingon can be extremely dangerous. Beverly: Did Reyga make that mistake? [a beat, then Kurak throws Beverly across the room and against a wall.] Kurak: I have heard enough accusations. Now I will have your silence! Beverly: [gets up, stares at Kurak with equal intensity] Well, you're gonna have to throw me a lot harder than that if you're gonna get it."
 * The Big Damn Heroes moment by Admiral Riker and the refitted Enterprise in All Good Things. Beverly Picard's medical ship, the Pasteur, is under attack by two Klingon Birds of Prey, their shields are completely gone, and one more hit would spell doom for our heroes. Then the sensors pick up a Federation ship decloaking. The next thirty seconds are possibly some of the best CG in the entire series, and the coolest aversion of 2-D Space ever.
 * Not to mention the BFG strapped onto Riker's refitted Enterprise. It looks like a phaser cannon, but it blasts a hole clean through an entire Klingon battlecruiser (and its shields).
 * In "Suspicions", Dr. Crusher's investigation of a Ferengi scientist's murder against orders and at risk of losing her medical license. It ultimately involves her flying the scientist's shuttle into a star to prove that his new shield works, and vaporizing the culprit.
 * And how about when she asked Kurak if the lies that Reyga had said to her really were lies?

"Riker: I wasn't a hero, and neither were you! What you did was wrong. And I was wrong to support you, but I was too young and too stupid to realize it! You were the captain, I was the ensign. I was Just Following Orders."
 * Guinan mocking the now-human Q in "Deja Q."
 * In "Allegiance", Picard shows a pair of Sufficiently Advanced Aliens why performing experiments on himself and his crew is a bad idea by trapping them with a forcefield, which causes them to panic, as apparently, they're terrified of confinement. He lets them out, lectures them, and tells them to get off his ship. They do so, utterly cowed.
 * In "Brothers", Data hijacks the Enterprise, outsmarting the rest of the crew every step of the way having already predicted and blocked their attempts to regain control of the ship before they even try them. Then he calmly walks to the transporter room while multiple security teams can only stand and watch as he cuts them off with forcefields he'd already laid out in advance.
 * Riker takes a fair bit of flack, but he scored some points with this troper in "The Pegasus", as a result of his speech to the amoral captain he once obeyed without question, as well as his acceptance of whatever consequences were coming to him:

"Data: I assume your hand print will open the door whether you are conscious or not."
 * Okay, so, Your Mileage May Vary, but Wesley teaching all the kids in "When the Bough Breaks" about Passive Resistance, ie, starving themselves so their "adopted" parents would concede and give them back to their actual parents.
 * In "A Matter of Time", Berlinghoff Rasmussen, a time-traveler from the 22nd century (but using a 26th-century timepod) has spent the entire episode stealing technological devices from the Enterprise with the intention of returning to his time and "inventing" one a year. His ultimate prize is Data, whom he cons into getting into the timepod with him. However, when he tries to stun him with a phaser, he finds that the Enterprise crew has deactivated it.

"Riker: What's the Zakdornian word for "mismatch"? Kolrami: Challenge! We do not whine about the inequities of life."
 * In "Peak Performance", the Zakdorn strategist Kolrami gets a good line in against Riker, who's captaining the extremely-stripped-down USS Hathaway:

"Data: I busted him up."
 * Data winds up playing Kolrami (an insufferable Jerkass) at his favorite game and loses. Data is initially perturbed (in his own way) and wonders if he is defective. When he's convinced he's not, he has a re-match with Kolrami. Data can't win, so tries to go for a draw instead and matches his every move - forcing Kolrami to leave in frustration.

"Worf: It is a good day to die, Duras. And the day is not yet over."
 * In "Reunion," Duras kills K'Ehleyr for looking into why Worf accepted discommendation in the previous season. Worf ultimately responds by invoking the Rite of Vengeance (a fight to the death), soon driving his bat'leth into Duras' chest.
 * Worf's statement to Duras in "Sins of the Father."

"Duras: You have no say in this, cha'DIch! Picard: I speak now as the captain of the USS Enterprise and Lieutenant Worf's commanding officer! You will not execute a member of my crew, nor will I turn his brother over to you! K'mpec: This is not the Federation, Picard. If you defy an order of the High Council, the alliance with the Federation could fall to dust. Picard: The alliance with the Federation is not based on lies, K'mpec. Protect your secrets if you must, but you will not sacrifice these men."
 * Then later, he proves himself a better Klingon than the Klingons by accepting discommendation, the stripping of his family's honors, lands, and titles, rather than let the Empire tear itself apart into civil war.
 * Picard stood with Worf as his cha'DIch and did whatever he could to help him - even fending off some of Duras' goons while securing a vital witness. When it becomes apparent that the entire trial was a sham and the Empire intends to execute two innocent men, Picard won't back down.

"Data: Doctor, it's been a very educationsl conversation. Pulaski: Why, thank you, Data. I certainly hope you'll be able to store it away somewhere. Data: And I hope you will as well, Doctor. Pulaski: Well, Data, not being a machine, I wouldn't know where. Data: I think, Doctor, you know where you can store it."
 * In the sadly non-canon novel Strike Zone, we get another example of Pulaski mistreating Data, which ends with a doozy: