User Reviews

In "Booby Trap" the Enterprise is lured into a snare when responding to a centuries old distress signal from an extinct race. It's up to Geordi and a holodeck woman he's created from an old Enterprise designer to come up with the solution before all the ship's power is drained and the radiation kills the whole crew.

This is the first Geordi-centric episode we've really gotten and it sort of introduces his character traits of being super weird around women. Lots of people hate this about the chief engineer but I find it a bit hilarious. He becomes the second crew member so far to fall for a fake woman from the holodeck.

I like Picard in this one and is fascination with this pristine "ship in a bottle". He's really giiddy about the whole thing until they're put in danger. The plot doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me though and that's why I rate it a bit lower than most. Like why is Geordi the only one on this entire ship working on this problem? Why isn't Wes and Data helping them? Or their entire staff of engineers? It's makes no sense.

And then I don't really understand the resolution. They couldn't get out of this web before so now why does a burst of power (similar to what they've already tried) suddenly free them and allow them to coast out of here?

There's a lot of technobabble (which I'm a sucker for) but I couldn't make heads nor tails of how they got out of this predicament.

ST:TNG:54 - "Booby Trap" (Stardate: 43205.6) - this is the 6th episode of the 3rd season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

While investigating a 1000 year old ship that is left over from an ancient battle, the Enterprise begins to have problems. It's up to Geordi LaForge, with the help of a holodeck version of Dr. Leah Brahms (played by Susan Gibney - she will appear again in "Galaxy's Child") as they go into the Enterprise's past to learn about how to deal with the present. In fact, this holodeck Brahms is actually a human representation of the Enterprise computer itself!

This episode begins the "failed romances" for Geordi LaForge starting with Christi in this episode. Whoopi Goldberg also makes another appearance as Guinan - she mentions that she attracted to bald men. And Picard is seen showing his rare "happy" side when we see his love of history (in this case the form of the 1000 year old ship). Also, there's a mention of Picard building a "ship in a bottle" which will be a later TNG episode title.

Another brilliant episode which continues the strong 3rd season of The Next Generation.

A Promelian Battle Cruiser (an ancient ship of war considered destroyed during a major destructive conflict with a race called Menthars, that ended with asteroids and wreckage as a reminder of just how devastating war can be) is discovered at Orelious IX thanks to "an ancient interplanetary code" that was sending out a distress signal the Enterprise discovered while charting the war between two alien species who battled until both were extinct.

The Enterprise experiences energy loss and technical malfunctions while holding near the Promelian ship (within the asteroid scattering), soon losing all power as radiation will infiltrate their ship if an answer isn't uncovered to escape from a "booby trap" energy field siphoning off their resources.

Picard taxes Geordi LaForge on finding a way to maintain the Enterprise's shields and the chief engineer must get a little assistance from Dr. Leah Brahms, responsible for most of the design of the ship, including the Dilithium Chamber in Engineering. Through her logs, information stored in the computer banks, and even recreating her personality and image for Geordi, they will try to figure out a way to give the Enterprise enough energy to somehow make it out of the energy field caused by the Menthars' radiating asteroids. An idea of allowing the computer itself to direct the Enterprise through asteroid field is at first contemplated, but it could come down to old fashioned experience and ingenuity, using their brains, their mind instead of depending on machine to get them out of this predicament.

The is classic Trek, really, and functions as a fine vehicle for Levar Burton who would have a fabulous third season with a heaping helping of storyline dedication given to him and he delivers. It's classic Trek in that it has an inexplicably difficult problem burdened on Picard that involves keeping his ship operational as an energy field with radiated rock surrounding it gradually deprives it of what it needs to remain active and running. Geordi earns his Chief title in this one, having to look at the Enterprise back at the beginning, to get an understanding of how to increase energy levels as to prolong their life support and hold off radiation exposure before it turns fatal to the crew of the ship. We see the ship darkened, the computer reminding them of deflector shields failing, and the crew growing concerned, yet Picard's impeccable resolve and ability to stare right into death and keep his composure is a statement in regards to his character and command. This also allows us to see Geordi dealing with "woman issues" trying to figure out how to score with a young woman named Christi (Julie Warner, of Doc Hollywood fame) who doesn't seem romantically interested in him while he finds himself falling in love with a holographic image and personality cribbed from various resources by the computer. Susan Gibney, as Leah, radiates in her role and leaves quite an impression; once we get an indication of what she really seems like, you can understand why Geordi responds so warmly to her. This episode also shows Picard in a jovial, enthusiastic state after visiting the ancient ship he read about as a child, providing amusement to his crew. This also has the "ship in the bottle" comment by Picard, befuddled that Riker, Worf, and Data are baffled by this boyhood activity. Picard has a really nice moment with Riker where he dotes on the imaginary adventures he had while building model ships; that, and their conversation on flying machines and machines now flying them also resonates. Include the discovery of a ship so fitting for study and holding possible clues as to how to right the wrongs that left the dead crew to perish, Data trying to make some of the Promelian Captain logs presentable as to learn from his mistakes, and "Booby Trap" is just another example of how The Next Generation began to excel in the third season.

Quality Geordi LaForge episode.

I enjoyed the journey of LaForge working through his 'no game' issues and finding love with a holographic character who (is programmed) defines herself as a engineering like Geordi. You could look at this as being creepy but beyond Brauns being a bit too receptive to Geordi I bought into the bonding of these two characters through the process of solving problems.

A relationship/date is destined for disaster when you project yourself in a manner that you believe they want --- instead of just going into it being your 'flaws and all' self.

A nice tie-in to Picard's love of ancient modes of transportation with the Enterprise essentially 'sailing' it's way to safety.

The heart of the episode is Geordi figuring out who he is. He's a engineer --- a problem solver, not a Casanova. The theme of human intuition verses technology is one of the major themes peppered throughout this episode and the ultimate solution comes from good old human intuition that is informed by technology.

It doesn't get any better than this. The Enterprise rolls up on a long dead battle cruiser. Captain Picard insists on going over to check it out, finding it's crew still at their posts, and even a data module of the captains last log entry, taking responsibility for the ships demise and praising his crew. Soon the crew realize that they are trapped in the same situation that killed the Prometheans'.

Anyway, Geordi finds a way to get the Enterprise out of the same energy draining trap that killed the Promethian's ship. By using a simple stick and rudder setup, with Picard at the controls, they get through the field.

After ward, they destroy the old ship so that no one else has reason to investigate and get trapped as well.

I know this is a common theme in Sci-Fi, perhaps one of the oldest and most basic, but for me, it never gets old. I always imagine that I am the one the gets to go over and take a look, and I would have the same reaction as Captain Picard when he got back. "Thrilling, Just thrilling!"

I really enjoyed the whole beginning and overall theme of this particular episode... going from a failed La Forge date to the bar scene was great. I also really enjoyed the ship in the bottle jokes later on with Picard, Riker, Worf, Data & O'Brien all in the transporter room.

All the episodes that connect with the history or future in some way I feel really add to the overall Star Trek universe. As someone that has seen mostly Deep Space Nine, Voyager, & Discovery prior to seeing The Next Generation it's great to see all the connections that each series has tried to make to The Next Generation. Overall I am really enjoying the 3rd season and this is another episode on the favorite list.

A thousand years ago, a war between the Menthars and Promelians devastated each other, leaving a vast swatch of the galaxy a massive debris field. However, the Enterprise seemingly receives a distress signal from the long lost Promelian Battle Cruiser Cleponji. This affords Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) a cherished opportunity to relive one of his childhood memories of building spaceships in a bottle. Beaming aboard the Cleponji, Picard is fascinated by its museum quality preservation, and has Lt. Commander Geordi LaForge retrieve a recording of the Promelian Captain describing the trap that destroyed the ship. Apparently, lethal radiation poisoned the atmosphere in the ship, killing its crew before they could save themselves, with Captain Galek Sar (Albert Hall) assuming full responsibility for that failure.

Initially, it looked like Captain Picard might have to turn over the operation of the Enterprise to the ship's computer to figure out a lifesaving course of action. It wouldn't have been necessary if Geordi had removed the Lang cycle fusion engines from the stranded Cleponji, and used a force-counterforce response to trigger the aceton assimilators on the Enterprise to make better use of its subspace processors. Had that been done, the crew might have avoided the fatal exposure countdown from the lethal radiation, but there's only so much you can think of during a forty-five-minute program.

Instead, Geordi had to rely on a holodeck simulation that recreated the image of Dr. Leah Brahms (Susan Gibney), one of the original team that created the computer system aboard the Enterprise. With her expertise, and Geordi's own hands-on knowledge of the ship, and a bit of Captain Picard's coolness under pressure, the Enterprise was saved from a disastrous fate. Geordi's love life took a one-two punch in the kidneys in this one, having been spurned by crew member Christi (Julie Warner) in the show's cold opening, and realizing that he couldn't make it very far with a holographic image once the crisis was over. You had to feel bad for the guy, seeing as how saving the Enterprise from deadly radiation just wasn't enough.

SEE the STAR TREK : TNG episode GALAXY'S CHILD for CREEPY GEORDI part 2

HOLY CRAP GEORDI is such a creeper

Despite Commander Riker being a complete Alpha when it comes to driving the space car enterprise we have the wise old Captain taking manual control of the ship and using his experience to use the gravity of an asteroid to boost the enterprise out of harms way.

Burton has this charismatic quality about him that makes every scene he is in engaging, so this episode works for me on a performance level. I am also giving LaForge a free pass about becoming attached to a holodeck creation ---- If Holodecks existed in our current time, I would quit my job and be doing some very personal things in my own holodeck until the day I dropped dead.

It's a well executed episode about Geordi saving the enterprise via abandoning a reliance on technology but most importantly he learned the value of just being yourself with your imaginary space girlfriend.

What can i say? I like seeing LaForge happy.