Booby Trap
- Episode aired Oct 28, 1989
- TV-PG
- 45m
The Enterprise triggers an ancient yet effective trap left by an extinct race, with a perfectly preserved derelict ship serving as cheese for Picard.The Enterprise triggers an ancient yet effective trap left by an extinct race, with a perfectly preserved derelict ship serving as cheese for Picard.The Enterprise triggers an ancient yet effective trap left by an extinct race, with a perfectly preserved derelict ship serving as cheese for Picard.
- Crewman Nelson
- (uncredited)
- Enterprise Computer
- (voice)
- (uncredited)
- Youngblood
- (uncredited)
- Enterprise-D Ops Ensign
- (uncredited)
- Bailey
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaSusan Gibney (Dr. Leah Brahms) auditioned for the roles of Counselor Deanna Troi and Lt. Tasha Yar before Marina Sirtis and Denise Crosby were cast respectively. She was later a front runner for Captain Kathryn Janeway and Seven of Nine in Star Trek: Voyager (1995) and the Borg Queen in Star Trek: First Contact (1996) but Kate Mulgrew, Jeri Ryan and Alice Krige were cast in these roles.
- GoofsGeordi says that the Enterprise's warp engines have tens of thousands of light-years on them; however, it has been established throughout TNG, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), and Star Trek: Voyager (1995) that it would take the average Federation starship from the late 24th century more than 10 years at maximum warp to travel 10,000 light years. The U.S.S. Voyager was stranded 75,000 light-years from Federation space, and it was revealed that even if it were possible to maintain maximum warp for the whole time (which it is not) it would take 75 years to return to the Federation. That averages about 10,000 light-years per decade. Intrepid-class starships like Voyager are faster than Galaxy-class starships, with Voyager's maximum sustainable speed being warp factor 9.975 and the Enterprise-D's being warp factor 9.6; so, with the Enterprise-D only being in service for three years as of this episode, there is no way it has more than 10,000 light-years of travel on it. In fact it likely has less than 3,000 light-years on it.
- Quotes
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: [of the Promellian battle cruiser] It is exactly as they left it, Number One - 'in the bottle'.
[Data and Worf, like Riker earlier, look at him rather blankly]
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: The ship in the bottle... Oh, good Lord, didn't anybody here build ships in bottles when they were boys?
Lieutenant Worf: I did not play with toys.
Lt. Commander Data: I was never a boy.
Chief Miles O'Brien: I did, sir.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: [pleased] Thank you, Mr. O'Brien.
- ConnectionsEdited into Star Trek: The Next Generation: Genesis (1994)
- SoundtracksStar Trek: The Next Generation Main Title
Composed by Jerry Goldsmith and Alexander Courage
This delicious episode is special for the way in which it delves deep into the psyche of the typical science "nerd". Geek, techy, STEM person, whatever you like to call them, scientists and engineers tend to a certain personality type that often finds it difficult to form interpersonal relationships, particularly of the romantic kind. The writers got the portrayal of this aspect of Geordi's character absolutely right; he makes a fool of himself when trying too hard but falls very badly when he meets someone with whom he can drop all pretence and just be himself.
And scientists are what Science Fiction should be all about so it's extremely refreshing to get away from the Kirk/Riker "conquest of the week" machismo. Actor LeVar Burton would later complain that he never got enough romance in TNG because "the writers were afraid to show the sexuality of a black man". He is a fine actor but clearly hasn't been around enough real engineers to know how monogamous the male of the species tends to be. Sorting out a working manual for one woman is hard enough, why go through it all over again?
Susan Gibney who played Leah Brahms (or more accurately, her hologram) made a very convincing scientist and returned to Star Trek TNG once more in this role, later appeared twice in Deep Space Nine and was even considered for the role of Captain Janeway in Voyager.
Senior Trekker makes no apology for almost overlooking the plot of this episode: basically the Enterprise triggers a thousand year old booby trap when investigating a derelict ship necessitating a race against time to come up with a fresh bucket of tech in order to save all their lives.
- celineduchain
- Jan 9, 2022
Details
- Runtime45 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1