A Look at Booby Trap (TNG)

[@zephyr8072]

I always loved Picard’s look when he enters the holodeck. “Oh great we’re all going to die and my chief engineer is down here playing with his waifu. I knew Will was a bad influence.”

[@Synthonym]

O'Brien says he did, and Riker looks at him like he's being a kissass. Stfu Riker, it's two nerds showing solidarity

[@BrianS1981]

That was the stinger in older versions of the video.

[@matthewterlaga3022]

The little “ven diagram” animation in the middle made me give this an instant like. Truly hilarious.

[@hariman7727]

I forgot about that gag.

[@ShamrockParticle]

🤣🤣

[@brauliob]

First thought, "How juvenile." Second thought, "I love it."

[@marshallhuffer4713]

2:48 - There's a blooper of that scene where Michael Dorn accidentally flubbed his line and says, "I did not play with boys," to the immediate hilarity of everyone on the set.

[@PMW3]

there's an entertaining channel that does "Intakes" that mixes the outtakes and bloopers and edits them back into the show.

[@Nickelodeon81]

​@@PMW3 Sure Ryan

[@davido.1233]

There's another blooper in the conference room which is focusing on Dorn as he's adjusting his uniform while sitting and forgot to get up and Stewart reminds him by saying, "That means you, Mr. Worf! Why are you sitting there?!"

[@tbeller80]

"Good Lord, didn't anyone here - subscribe?"

[@ziggystardust1973]

Giving the ship computer a face and personality is an intresting idea that I kinda wish had been explored more. It kinda reminds me of the show andromeda

[@andrewshearsby8125]

Geordi flirting with a hologram representation off the Enterprise could explain in Picard S3 on how much time he spent fixing her.

[@myriadmediamusings]

Which could be seen as a lot worse now given Geordi having his own kids.

[@Nazo-kage]

You know with the ending comment that the original draft for this episode was Picard was the one that spends a good portion of time on the hollodeck, talking to the avatar of the ship. Suddenly a lot of the lines and actions from Picard in this episode make a little more sense now. Most of his lines in this episode are talking about how when he was young, he loved building model ships. Now have the part where he goes into hollodeck and talks to the equivalent of the enterprise. And there’s even the fact that at the end of the episode, she’s the one who’s piloting the ship. So with that revelation about the original draft, it makes some of the bullet points of the episode make a little more sense for why it went that direction.

[@MrDj232]

Does beg the question though. Why would Picard be responsible for getting the ship to work? That's engineering's one job.

[@Nazo-kage]

@@MrDj232 well, it’s that old adage. That a captain knows everything about their shit more than anyone else.

[@marshallhuffer4713]

Michael Piller who co-wrote the episode recalled, "It just said to me, 'Picard should be on the bridge, not chatting with some woman.' I said to myself, 'It should be Geordi, because Geordi is in love with the ship and this is a story about a guy in love with his '57 Chevy. That played into Geordi's character, who's always been a fumbling guy around women, but if he could just marry his car, he'd live happily ever after. He gets to create the personification of the woman who created the engine he loves. It's sort of a relationship between he and his Pontiac."

[@Nazo-kage]

@@marshallhuffer4713 well, I do agree that the story makes more sense for it to be Jordi that falls in love with the ships avatar. It’s just once you take into account with the original idea was a lot of cards insistence on talking about ships and bottles and that he’s ultimately the one who saves the day makes more sense for why those pieces were there.

[@lordmontymord8701]

@@MrDj232 With his great idea of ignoring the chief engineers advice just to do something i can see this making sense - in this episode and only here. He kicks Geordi in the nuts, mumbles something about a ship in a bottle and locks himself in the holodeck until he finds the solution. Why? Because his brain was also drained thanks to the energy dampeners.

[@welker831]

I can picture a young Picard at his father’s chateau, putting the last piece on his ship in a bottle. Then his brother crashes in after a little too much wine and it all falls over.

[@lordmontymord8701]

Nah, now we know they were probably destroyed by his mother when she had one of her crazy times.

[@andleepfarooqui7874]

Geordi talking to Brahms-GPT

[@RBRSC]

If it wasn't factually known to have been scripted, it'd be amusing to think that Patrick Stewart was improvving the ship in a bottle stuff and everyone else literally that confused and/or ribbing him back and they just left it in

[@myriadmediamusings]

Considering what we'd find out later in Trek history, it makes me wonder just how many engineers would fantasize about Leah Brahms.

[@samtaholo]

I know I'm more than ten years late replying, but this is not a bottle show. Bottle shows on TNG (and subsequently) were generally written to require no new sets and as little FX work as possible, in order to balance out the budget with the more expensive episodes.

[@logiciananimal]

Together with the shuttlecraft scene in "The MInd's Eye" I wonder sometimes if the gist was that the computer has fallen for Geordi. I think there are a few others too.

[@MrSaywutnow]

I like to point to this episode as proof that Barclay and Wesley weren't the only weirdos on the Enterprise-D

[@briang9581]

The idea of captains having a Data-like assistant would be explored in Andromenda. It went so far as to have a ship's AI, a hologram and an android that could all act independently of each other. They regularly had differences of opinion. It was quite interesting to watch and gave actress, Lexa Doig, the opportunity to make each iteration unique. While each was strongly motivated to serve their Captain and the Commonwealth, they each had great freedom in how they carried out their objectives, They were capable of disobeying orders and even expressing affection.

[@CircusOfFive]

clicked on this cause i thought it said "A Look at Booty Trap" which made sense based on Geordi's Holodeck "date" Also have to add that in my head canon everything Hologram Leia said had a double mean cause she was actually the Enterprise Computer talking thru the program Geordi created, the Enterprise is totally into Geordi. The only being on board that really talks to her like an actual person. Makes it a bit less creepy.

[@bthsr7113]

I'm just imagining Picard trying to find someone who can relate from shared experience being the last thing he did if they didn't escape this trap. "How about you, ensign, surely you built ships in bottles?" "Captain, if you don't let me shed my skin down to the muscle in peace, I will cut you."

[@mikegates8993]

You know, that joke about Data still being alive when everyone else is dead from the radiation makes me want to see a comic or something that shows an alternate universe of basically that. I'd be curious to see what effect that would have on him, especially early Data.

[@hariman7727]

Sadly, it's entirely possible that Data's systems would get ruined by the trap too.

[@hardstarboardradio]

How did Guinan never open up a competing bar on Deep Space Nine if she had the hots for bald men? It's not like Quark was ever allowed to establish a Promenade monopoly.

[@SageofStars]

Ah yes...still love that Lower Decks dealt with BOTH of the implications of this episode. The biggest one, creating replicas of the crew via personal data that you can't access, is the most interesting. Again, no one the Holodeck creates is ALIVE persay, they're normally just simulations, so nothing is really harmed by doing this, and a few of the novels have had the sims refuse to answer questions they normally wouldn't, since they are sims of those people. Mind, the second implication, of people using the holodeck to back that venn diagram shake what its artist gave it, is also addressed...in a joke to be fair, but still, an acknowledgement that people in the Federation are still human(for lack of a better term), and will use the perfect sim environments for that sort of fun is neat, and makes them feel more real than the puffed up shirt people they were presented as during most of TNGs run with the tech.

[@fredrikcarlstedt393]

Poor, poor Geordi. He is one sexual harassment lawsuit just waiting to happen .

[@davido.1233]

IMO, this episode would have been ranked higher if Geordi had implemented a password lock on his program so that the real Leah Brahms couldn't see her likeness expressing that last minute creepiness of this video. We also wouldn't have Galaxy's child, so there's an extra bonus.

[@bradwolf07]

I honestly liked this episode. A trap so effective and deadly that a 1K years later it could still catch the unwary. Though I honestly never cared about Geordi's love life. If I wanted to think about p*ss poor relationship skills, I would turn on reality TV

[@bthsr7113]

Edit: made redundant because I posted before waiting for Chuck to finish the review. Given his negative experience with AI like the M-5 and resentment at the idea of leaving more work and action to computers, I'm guessing Admiral Kirk put rules in to obstruct AI before he got poofed. And considering the number of other times that AI keeps going up in flames or smoke for the Federation, I imagine that even getting the EMH system installed was an uphill battle, and this trend only gets worse with later systems like the Texas class.

[@Blueskybuffalo]

In one of the season 2 Geordi says some crazy high % of the ships functions are handled automatically. Seems they’re already more than willing to trust AI.

[@hariman7727]

Nah, it's more like the computer systems in a car nowadays: Automatic adjustments and stuff, but not anything intelligent: Just an "if/and/or/etc" prompt tree. ...It doesn't help that modern AI is basically that though. Stupid confusing popular use of specific terms.

[@stevena488]

My brother gave Geordi the nickname "Reverse Lionel Ritchie" due to us watching the music video for "Hello" where Ritchies stalking a blind girl and him noticing that Geordi is something of a sexual predator in the making. Not a great episode, but not the absolute pits either. Though it gets REAL problematic when we find out that Geordi doesn't end that relationship there.....

[@TheMicro4]

If this was Voyager Janeway’s secret virus lab would have caused the rage virus to escape during this event and there would have been a ticking clock plus a rebellion. Well an actual rebellion… burning chairs, people fighting etc

[@mikegates8993]

The real question is, would that have been an accident, or an excuse for Janeway to use her new popcorn maker?

[@michaeldexter2544]

This episode always really bothered me. So, let me get this straight, we can let the computer guide the ship -- a computer that can perform millions of calculations per second and is specifically designed to keep track of spatial debris -- or we can let a 60-year-old guy who hasn't piloted a ship in decades do it. You know what? I'm going to go with the computer! [It's annoying because we actually have vessels *today* that are controlled by computers, not humans -- because humans are not capable of doing it. Many modern fighter aircraft, for example, are technically computer-controlled; the onboard computer can make adjustments to the control surfaces far faster and more precisely than any human can. So the pilot is basically telling the plane what he wants it to do, and the computer handles the details.]

[@comentedonakeyboard]

I've just realised that there are less then 50 comments so far, so i just had to add my opinion on whatever this is about.

[@tonyjackson4078]

That would be an interesting idea, a photonic crew member. I dont mean like the Doctor, i mean one that is 100% autonomous. He/She would have a duty schedule, off time, and no messing with their program beyond needing possible repairs. The Doctor had many restrictions on him, be a fun path having a photonic with complete anonymity.

[@mikegates8993]

That feels like something that could be in a "modern" Trek show that was set a century or so after the end of Voyager, like the change from TOS to TNG, as a natural evolution of the Doctor's evolution.

[@luminaire4946]

Picard: "Haven't you ever wanted to craw inside the bottle." Riker: "We have a holodeck sir."

[@yahnump]

So during the episode, they tried phasers on the assimilaters, didn't work. At the end, they fired a single photon torpedo at each and those blew up the assimilaters. Why wasn't that tried after the phasers failed?

[@lordmontymord8701]

I guess you can make the point that the torpedoes need to be launched - and they didn't have enough energy left to do it. Yes, doesn't make much sense, but i remember similar events where the launchers were simply inoperable thanks to low energy. But it shouldn't take as much energy as the phasers - the ENERGY weapons ...

[@Nickelodeon81]

The intro is actually a continuation of "Transfigurations" where Geordie finally plucks up the courage to ask her out. Worf taught him all he knows.

[@MrDeathpilot]

I'm not happy that Picard blew up a ship that should be in a museum. He could have just put up a couple of warning signs and let Starflleet figure out how to retrieve it.

[@DProductions0]

Want there a joke in there about obrien being lonely in the transporter room? The "ships made awesome" line was good though

[@marshallhuffer4713]

Originally, Leah Brahms was intended to be a descendant of Richard Daystrom from the TOS episode "The Ultimate Computer" and be named "Navid Daystrom". However, the casting department didn't realize that they would require a black actress until after Susan Gibney had been cast for the role. So, on the suggestion of script coordinator Eric Stillwell, the character was renamed, but they kept the Daystrom tie-in by adding a line that Brahms graduated from the Daystrom Institute

[@Charon.1]

So this episode is the origin of the Daystrom Institute? And it was created because of a casting miscommunication? They namedrop it so often, I never thought about where it was first introduced.

[@misterlau5246]

When Picard saw why Geordi needed holodeck running 😅 back at the day I thought about the Holographic Leah Brahms it would have interesting if it was 🥰😈🍌🍩. And the way she spoke 🍩🍌😈🎶🎵😈

[@badman3000]

Now they give the Holodeck it's own power supply separate from the ship.

[@eskreskao]

Ha ha! "Booby".

[@lordmontymord8701]

So we can at least be glad they didn't follow the original idea and made Picard simp for the hologram. That would have meant the great follow-up Galaxy's Child also had Picard clashing with Leah. And i can't even imagine that stupidity. Another episode where the A-plot is actually pretty good - and it has a solution that's not just techno-babble, but makes sense. But then there's the B-plot ... But of course there's also the fact Picard simply destroyed the priceless artifact (the ship) without even thinking about it. Doesn't look like many other ships were caught in the trap in a thousand years or we would have seen them. So the chance of someone getting trapped in there is not very high. You could deploy some beacons warning everyone of the danger. And then let Starfleet find a way to deactivate the system and get the ship out. I guess this stupid version of Picard was just so angry that his great idea of simply blasting their way out didn't work, he simply couldn't resist to do it again just to shake his fist at the energy dampeners.

[@danij5055]

As long as Geordi doesn't start humping the dilithium chamber, I don't mind so much him falling for the Enterprise. He works very intimately with it. Although they do say captains are married with their ships. Maybe the Enterprise wants a tryst 😉

[@Robizoid]

I wondered if there was more than one reason this episode "Booby Trap". If only Tasha Tar hadn't died...

[@grandoldpodcast]

Didn't Seaquest have a holographic Captain's helper that chuck is asking for here?

[@BrianS1981]

I miss the stinger.

[@tehdii]

Can someone make a torrent with al SFD videos chronologically sorted? :) Star Trek episodes are becoming more and more like the facts that will happen in our (2023) near future. On the next great re-re-upload in 2033 I will be near 50 and the same will be the ratio of the bots interlude to the original video :(

[@TheWWDproductions]

5/10! What!?

[@hariman7727]

It's a decent episode, with some cringe. The 5/10 score is also a commentary on the quality of the rest of TNG. This IS a good episode, with lots of tension, and some character work too. But everything else is better. ;)

[@Mysticist]

First!