Series: Star Trek:TNG
Episode: 3.06 Booby Trap (10-30-1989)
Rating: 4/5
Redshirt Status: 0/1/22.5
Notable Guest Stars:
Susan Gibney – Leah Brahms
Albert Hall – Galek Dar
Review:
This episode is an interesting episode. The Enterprise crew comes up against a force field left by an ancient war (seems the theme the last couple episodes). The booby trap pits the Enterprise against its own power, and is still working after centuries. Watching the various characters geek out about the Ancient ship is fun to watch. It also gives Geordi a chance to show off his skills as the lead in the narrative.
The concept is really interesting, and the elements focused on that make the episode good. However, Geordi’s underlying romantic problems kind of fails in that department. They start off the episode where he has a disappointing date – except it looks like she didn’t realize it was a date till he started having music playing and tried to put her arm around him. So my advice to Geordi is maybe tell the girl you like her and want to go on a date first.
On another note, after a thousand years, with oxygen in the ship, wouldn’t the skeletons and clothing degrade?
The graphics in this episode actually didn’t age too badly.
Interesting Notes:
- Written by Ron Roman, Michael Piller, and Richard Danus. Michael Wagner also helped in the original story pitch.
- Directed by Gabrielle Beaumont. I’m not entirely sure, but I think this might be the first Trek episode directed by a woman. Wiki seems to agree with me now that I followed through a few links.
- Not only is there a character with the name Brahms, they use the music of Johannes Brahms in the episode. I’m suspecting on purpose. It would be a pretty odd coincidence.
Pros:
- Geordi gets love interests. Sorta.
- This is a crew full of geeks. I love that no one on board is afraid to show their passion for subjects.. Picard we already know is an archelogy buff, and Riker’s is right behind him (I think more on the anthropology side). Worf looked like he was going to geek out on the ship though. Also Picard’s ship in the bottle moment.
Cons:
- As much as I like Geordi getting a love interest, there is a bit of a creep factor in that it’s a holocharacter based on a real life person.
Screencap via CygnusX1.net
Sokorra Lewis 