Expert: Justin Case - 11/2/2009

Question
When it was determined that the only way to save Picard and Geordi was to destroy the exocomps, Data shut down the transporters.

Riker yelled and screamed, but Data refused to fix the transporters.

Why couldn't Riker, being superior to Data, simply say, "Computer, fix transporters, reverse whatever Data did (in more technical language, of course), order by Commander Riker, pi epsilon 7?

It doesn't make sense to me how someone subordinate to Riker can
"lock" Riker out.

It made sense in "Brothers," because Data copied Picard's voice. But there's no evidence Data did that in this episode, for someone surely would have noticed.

It makes sense that Data can affect ship's systems, for if everything ultimately had to go through Picard then ship's business would be very slow.

I guess the only possible explanation is that this ability to
"lock out" superior officers would be useful in the event one of them is taken over by an evil influence.

Answer
Hi John -

The lock out commands were put into place after the actions of Commodore Matt Decker and and Captain Ronald Tracey to prevent 'mad' captains from doing damage.  If Data activated certain protocols within the system he could lock Riker out of the system, however the flaw in all this is that the system requires at least two command level officers to be in agreement before the Captain or another of the officer's superiors can be isolated.

You're 100% right in that we didn't see Data imitate the voice of, say, Geordi or Dr. Crusher so the question as to how the third in command could lock out the First Officer of the Federation's flagship is a good one to ask.

Good catch!

Deran