Customer Reviews

Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 54: Booby Trap [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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).

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.

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.

Geordi's long awaited date with Christi on the holodeck doesn't go as well as he planned; sadly he strikes out again with yet another woman. He laments about this to Guinan in Ten Forward who offers him comfort and reassurance before he returns to duty. Meanwhile the Enterprise is exploring an asteroid belt that is the site of an interstellar battle between two warring alien races and has been over for nearly 1,000 years. They pick up an alien S.O.S. and in tracing it to the source find a battle cruiser left over from the war and still intact. They board it to conduct research and also to determine the cause of the demise of that ship's crew. When they attempt to leave the asteroid belt it is discovered that they are now caught within a minefield that is draining the ship's power and is impossible to attempt to navigate out of. Geordi's effort to determine a means of escape leads him to recreate the Enterprise's design labs on the holodeck. When Geordi asks for some assistance from the computer on the holodeck it fabricates a replication of Dr. Leah Brahms, the starship's designer - who Geordi falls for.

'Booby Trap' is a superior second season episode that is brilliantly conceived and soundly delivered. Though the premise of finding an ancient alien warship floating in space amidst an undetected minefield is intriguing on it own, the creators concern themselves primarily with Geordi and his pursuit of a relationship. In less capable hands the story may have concentrated on the discovery of the antique hardware and the ship's eventual escape; however, the writers of 'Booby Trap' dealt with the dimension that Trek always places the highest importance on - what it is to be human.

Geordi is experiencing some painful feelings that a lot of people do, namely that life has unfairly dealt him lemons in the love life department. He also suffers from the same sense that many do in his situation, acutely aware of his loneliness, struggling to do something about it and having to continually reassure himself of his qualities when he doesn't succeed. The writers use this to their advantage having Geordi meet the proverbial "girl of his dreams" in the form of the starship he cares for beyond anything else. As Dr. Leah Brahms, Susan Gibney is both perfectly ethereal in appearance and gorged with all the same intimate knowledge of the Enterprise as is Geordi. Naturally the two begin to feel a strong attraction to one another but do realize the limitations of their relationship, which the writers emphasize in the credible and sensitive ending to the show.

Other elements worth mentioning include Picard's alluding to his childhood hobby of building ships in a bottle that gets a variety of quizzical and humorous responses from the crew; this theme would be brought back later for the aptly titled sixth season episode 'Ship In A Bottle', that dealt with the holographic Sherlock Holmes nemesis, Professor Moriarty. Dr. Leah Brahms would make a later appearance, in the flesh, in the fourth season episode 'Galaxy's Child' and inadvertently discovers Geordi's holographic representation. Also the incidental music used here is a cut above the usual, though still familiar sounding.