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4.0 out of 5 stars
Can Geordi find true love before the booby trap hatches?, November 5, 2000
This review is from: Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 54: Booby Trap [VHS] (VHS Tape)
In the previous episode, "The Bonding," one of the Enterprise crew was killed when a land mine from a war long ago exploded on the surface of a planet. In this appropriately titled episode, the Enterprise encounters a much more sophisticated "Booby Trap." In a debris field from the last great battle a thousand years earlier between the now extinct Promellians and Menthars, the Enterprise responds to a distress signal and finds a pristine Promellian battle cruiser. When their engines suddenly fail and the Enterprise is surrounded by a high intensity radiation field, Picard realizes they are caught in the same trap of 100,000 aceton assimilators draining power that originally caught the derelict ship and killed off its crew. The clock is ticking, or whatever it is clocks do in the 24th century, and the race in on. This episode provides a simple but effective deep space problem to be solved by the crew, but the most interesting part of this episode involves the sub-plot with Geordi La Forge, who has been having a real bad streak of luck with the ladies. While working on how to increase the ship's power to save their lives, La Forge recreates the original prototypes of the engines on the holodeck. Surprised it is an option, La Forge also has the computer create a representation of Dr. Leah Brahms, one of the key engineers on the original design team. While "Leah" helps La Forge solve their dilemma, the Chief Engineer finds himself drawn to this holographic creation. On the one hand this episode is another chapter in the interactions of the ship's crew with the wonderful creations of the holodeck (e.g., "11001001," Episode 16), but it also sets up a very interesting episode down the road when the REAL Leah Brahms the following season in "Galaxy's Child" (Episode 90).
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5.0 out of 5 stars
The opportunity for Picard and La Forge to expand their characters makes this an excellent episode, April 6, 2009
This review is from: Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 54: Booby Trap [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Geordi La Forge is a man having trouble with the ladies, he never seems to be able to say or do the right thing. The episode opens with Geordi lying on a beach with an attractive woman and his clumsiness in trying to get her into a romantic mood generates your empathy. None of it works and he retires to Ten-Forward in order to drown his sorrows in drink and some kindly advice from Guinan. Suddenly, the Enterprise receives a distress signal from an old Promellian battle cruiser that has been floating in an asteroid field for over 1000 years. The Promellians were wiped out in a fierce war and most of the records of their civilization were destroyed.
When their sensor sweep determines that there is no danger, Captain Picard assumes his persona as amateur space archeologist and leads the away team that boards the ship. They find the crew dead at their posts and they are able to extract some records of their final hours. However, when they return to the Enterprise, they discover that they are in the midst of an energy-draining field and that they are being bombarded with radiation that will be fatal within a half-hour of their shields failing. Geordi is frustrated in his search for a solution so he has the computer call up the knowledge base of one of the women designers of the Enterprise. The holographic woman and Geordi join forces and there is an immediate chemistry between them as their relationship allows each to pose possibilities that the other constructively criticizes until they reach a solution. Throughout this process, Geordi finds himself romantically attracted to the computer construct, as she is the woman of his dreams. Once the Enterprise is free of the energy-dampening field, they use their photon torpedoes to destroy the field and the Promellian relic.
Although the Enterprise is in danger of being destroyed, the strength of this episode is the delight that Captain Picard demonstrates when he is able to explore the Promellian ship. Stewart plays his role as that of the eager archeologist to understated perfection. Burton is also masterful as he falls romantically for the computer construct; he quickly begins treating her as a real woman and their relationship as they professionally argue their way through to a solution is something that engages the viewer. The Enterprise is threatened with destruction in many episodes; the best ones are when some of the main characters are able to expand out their roles in new directions. This is one of the best.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
When traveling in an old war zone...be careful of ancient, but still working, weapons, September 17, 2006
This review is from: Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 54: Booby Trap [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Plot: The Enterprise is exploring an asteroid belt and discovers a thousand year old Promellian battlecruiser. Picard is thrilled (he loves archeaology) by finding something that was only known in history books to the Federation. In fact, it really gives everyone a smile seeing the captain not being as serious as usual. The sub-plot is about Geordi, who is trying to get a date. Well, things don't go so well and our chief engineer is depressed. Guinin helps him a little before Geordi gets back to work. Things take a sudden turn for panic when the Enterprise's power drops and a deadly radiation permeates the area. Figuring out that the Promellian ship had gone through a similar experience (the ship was totally intact with all the crew dying at their stations), they try to figure out a way to get out of the same fate. It turns out that the Promellian's enemies, the Menthars, had developed aceton assimilators, which drained energy from nearby ships and produced a deadly radiation that eventually would weaken the shields and kill everyone off. Meanwhile, Geordi is on the holodeck, trying to see if there's a way to modify the engines so that the Enterprise doesn't leak out any energy that the aceton assimilators canu and escape. He makes a hologram of the designer of the Enterprise's engines, Dr. Leah Brahms, whom he begins to fall in love with.
Overall, a pretty good episode. Unfortunately, there's a higher percentage of swearing on this episode compared to most (it's so unneccessary in the first place, but this is really, really, overkill). Also, I get a little tired of people falling love with something machine-like (a slightly, over-used theme in Star Trek). But the good points are really the main plot, especially on how they escape in the end.
4 stars, though if the swearing wasn't so bad, it probably would have recieved 5.
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