FULL DISCUSSION - Star Trek TNG S3E6 - Booby Trap

The Daystrum Institute goes back all the way to Star Trek the original series season 2. Not surprising that you would forget about it since it was only mentioned in one episode and hadn’t been referenced since the measure of a man episode. In Star Trek Lore, the Daystrum Institute would be equivalent to a company like Intel, development, and manufacturing of leading edge technology. It is one of the fascinating things that I appreciated about Star Trek, the next generation as a whole, embracing and referencing established lore from the original series.

It was an entertaining episode. You can really see the improvement over the 1st 2 seasons.

Watching through TNG everytime this episode is one of my early favourites in the series, love the ancient ship and the 1000 year old distress call, the actual trap itself, the captains log again dated 1000 years from their present day, also the music in this episode is just eerie and haunting in a way and it also changes throughout the episode to match what's happening.

For the first time, I noticed that in “Peak Peformance,” Worf is shown building a model ship, but when Picard asks if anyone built model ships, Worf doesn’t speak up.

Dilithium crystals have been around since TOS. And where a major sub plot in Star Trek 4

12:40 Data is the 2nd officer. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Second_officer If Picard and Riker are both off ship or incapacitated he is the next to take command of the ship. He is also in command of the bridge if those two are not present. Any time you see Riker and Picard in a scene together but not on the bridge (ready room), most likely Data has command of the bridge. Worf is the 3rd officer and would assume command if Picard, Riker and Data were all unavailable. By maritime tradition, the 2nd officer is also a watchkeeper, taking the 12-4 watch (noon to 4 and midnight to 4am) on the bridge. Riker being the 1st officer would take the 4-8 watch. In the TOS era ships, the 3rd officer was usually the chief navigator (Chekov), but on the Enterprise D, helm and navigation are one station and Data's bridge role is operations. In addition to being the 2nd officer Data was the Chief Operations Officer and head of the Operations Department. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Operations_division Every time you see the staff meeting in the observation lounge, you are seeing a meeting of the department heads. You have Crusher (Chief Medical Officer), Troi (Ship's Counsellor), Worf (Chief of Security), Data (Chief Operations Officer), LaForge (Chief Engineer), Riker (Executive Officer), and Picard.

fortunately, the technobabble is incidental to the stories. If they use a technological solution to a problem, its something that we can follow and that makes sense based on what we already know. In the original trek bible (writers guide for the original series which is fascinating and something all fans should really read) they point out they dont want techno solutions to conflicts because that is intteresting. There were certainly other shows that forgot this lesson to their detriment.

Generally, when they wrote scripts, they would leave blanks where they needed "tech" talk. Usually, that was Mike Okuda, Rick Sternbach, and the science advisor Andre Bormanis. When you see a lot of writing credits, that often meant that the story needed work, and a lot of people chipped in to make it better/shootable.

This was one of the ones I was waiting for you guys to get to. It's early on in S3, but it's one of my personal favorites from the whole series. Mike from RLM once referred to it as the "End all Be all Geordi LaForge episode".

Fair point, I have to say I actually never gave that much thought to what Data actually does on the bridge. He is the Second Officer, after the Riker who is the First Officer, so if neither Riker nor Picard were on the bridge but Data was, he would be in command. Other than that, in his chair, I would guess he is the Science Officer, like Spock was in TOS. Scanning, sensor data and analysis. But then, some of the scanning duty is sometimes given to Worf as well. More knowledge people may feel free to correct or expand ^-^.

I adore this episode alot! Probably more than you which is strange as you did seem to look "hooked". Brilliant script (Depsite the no. of writers) Love the score, (You didn't mention this in your reaction!) As a geeky teen seeing this on 1st air, I loved seeing Utopia Planitia, how the Galaxy Class starships were built, and yeah Leah Brahms, and all the "technobabble". I presume Picard did not acknowledge AI Leah because they were all about to die. (running out of time) I cant praise this episode enough and sets the path for even more character building and "technobabble! .. so prepare yourselves! LOL Somebody send over the ST TNG Technical Manual.. You will both love it ! LOL ;)

well they already switched of the distress signal when they boarded the ship, so it wouldn't lure anymore ships, if they left a buoy with a warning message, they could have contacted starfleet they could have sent specialists, not only to retrieve the battleship, but discover how the trap worked, it tech over 1000 years old but still almost took out a galaxy class starship, the top of the range federation ship, worth having to just find to add to starfeet arsenal

They specifically said she helped designed the Galaxy class

back then they were apparently very wary of fans due to the perception trek fans were weird and some bad experiences with fans they had hired. There was an example of a fan who was stealing stuff for memorabilia from the studio. That attitude has changed not just on trek but across the board.

Data is the second officer (in command after riker) and Operations officer. Its a bit like science officer but broader. You have the helm control on he bridge, the weapons stations, and his station runs other ships functions like scanners, analysis, etc.

whos the booby trap for? It was left over from an ancient war, not unlike land mines today which are sill dangers decades after the war they were from ended.

by the way, the "attractive casting" thing is funny because on of the things you notive about fan production is the people arent as good looking, i.e. look more "normal" Its funny how we forget how good looking everyone on tv has to be.

I imsgine people in the future would be attractive with all the health and cosmetic options available. Interestingly, as measured by symmetry, women are evolving to become more atttractive over time whereas men are not, indicating that a women's attractiveness leads to more offspring (and or better options for sucess for he offspring) whereas it is not a significant enough factor for men to show up (men are no more or less symmetrical then they were 50 years ago)

When he said "handsome people" my mind immediately went to the fish assasins from the Lwaxanna Troi episode.

The reason women reject geordi- because he lacks confidence. In the holodeck scene, hes clearly trying way too hard for a first date. Its not there's anything wrong with him, its a self perpetuating cylce. "I don't do well with women, I feel insecure about which women pick up on, i try to overcompensate, and it backfires. The scene in the holodeck is the equivalent of the Nerdy guy reading love poetry to a girl on a first date. Too much, too fast, it reeks of desperation, and its a turnoff. Geordi just needs some confidence and to "be himself" around women. This is probably something a section of the audience related to. Remember, this was a time when "nerds" and "nerd culture" were NOT socially accepted,

Dilithium Crystals date back to the Original Series. Used in many episodes. Such as the boring and bad "The Alternative Factor" and the episode where Kirk smacked around a princess "Elaan of Troyius" who had a necklace made of dilithium. So it'll probably remain part of the engine system at least until the modern era, of which I don't pay attention too.

They did say enterprise, but I believe Leah Brahms helped design the engines for the galaxy class starship.

Data is the “Second Officer” a.k.a. third in command. He also is typically stationed at the operations station when the bridge is fully staffed. Wesley or any other Ensign in the command career path will typically man the “con”. The “con” is basically just a steering wheel for the ship. Unreal navy ships. There is typically a lower ranked person who is stationed at the wheel.

Nope, Technobabble is almost entirely meaningless. It is inserted to get around thorny plot issues, when the writers need to save time, or need to pull a rabbitt out of a hat.

Shout out to Gabrielle Beaumont! Besides this series she also directed episodes of DS9 and Voyager. And for what it's worth, she later directed my personal favorite episode of TNG.

Script: "We need a giant blow-up warp core set that Geordi can walk into and figure out the solution from the inside out" Production: "Best I can offer is a schematic on sliding glass"

No, Leah Brahms worked on the Enterprise D, not the original. You can tell because the under-construction Enterprise D in the spacedock in the background. of the holodeck set.

Finally a teaser that was only a slight spoil.

I have a totally cogent psychological observation to make regarding the behavior of two of our beloved TNG characters but it won't make any sense until a third character shows up later this season. You will just have to await my cleverness until then lol.

The end was also massively questionable. The ship was obviously a big find, and they knew about the energy syphons. There was no reason to destroy the ship, another crew could have recovered the vessel.

There are generally 3 types of episode scripts in Star Trek. 1. A writer writes a coherent script that gets used for an episode example The Bonding. 2. A writer submits a script that doesn’t work but has good ideas so the writing staff takes it and runs with it: this episode. That’s where you get a story by credit you don’t recognize but a few other names you do. 3. They have an idea they want to do and each writer on staff contributes a little bit to the story/script.

There's quite a few plot points that you guys talk over. Just saying... for instance, when Wesley said "uh oh" you missed it. That's why Data said it once he understood. I think this episode hit it out of the park.

The part about Picard coming into the Holodeck and having the strange reaction to Geordi's introduction to Leah Brahms I actually didn't find weird at all. I interpreted that as him being annoyed (as I would have been if I were in his shoes). Remember, Picard questioned Geordi in the briefing about why he wanted to turn the Holodeck back on when they're in a crisis, and Geordi says something vague like he needs to run some simulations or something. So consider this from the point of view of a retired Air Force guy (me, lol). We're on a tight deadline, lives are at stake, I clearly gave the Chief Engineer a direct order to figure out a course of action within two hours, I try to get a progress report and find him in the Holodeck trying to introduce me to a simulated woman! From Picard's perspective, he really has no idea what Geordi has been up to all of this time, only the audience does. So for me it's like, bro - we're all gonna die in less than an hour! WTF are you doing in the holodeck? That was my interpretation of his facial expression in that moment.

Also, I never got the sense that Leah Brahms was dead from watching this either. I thought she was just some random scientist who worked at Utopia Planitia who Geordi had never met. If it had been "Scotty" that Geordi asked for a simulation of instead, then I'd have assumed that he was dead because he would have been extremely old by that time. But the Enterprise-D was still a relatively new Starship, so the designers would all most likely still be alive.

Probably been answered already but Data has multiple duties on the ship. His official job as "Operations Officer" is to monitor all of the ship's non-engine related systems, and if necessary do things like manually override functions or reroute power to different areas. All of these functions can also be done from main engineering, however having a dedicated Operations Officer frees up the Chief Engineer to focus on maintaining engine functionality or coming up with more "power". Data also monitors the ship's active sensors, does detailed scans on systems, planet, ships, etc, and advises the captain on the best course of action based on all of the data he acquires. In this role, he is essentially dual hatting as a "Science Officer". Finally, as the highest ranking Lieutenant Commander, Data is also the ship's "Second Officer" (which is actually the third in command). He is expected to take command of the Enterprise when Captain Picard and Commander Riker are off the ship, relieved of duty, or otherwise incapacitated. Data also has many unofficial duties on the ship as well. Given that he's an android, his physical and analytical abilities are abused endlessly by the crew. He is often chosen for away missions due to his ability to survive in a hostile environment, interface with an alien computer, or do some other thing that only Data can do. I refer to these as unofficial duties because a human Operations Officer would most likely not be called upon to do these things, but Data is unique.

If you think back to 1101001, Data ordered the evacuation of the Enterprise when Picard and Riker could not be located. A small hint to his position on the ship. =)

Also Leah was the head engineer of the Enterprise D not the name Enterprise

Funny you mention the free script writing TNG had an open script policy where u could mail them a story and if they like it they’d use it.

27:14 But when Picard and company were on the cruiser, Worf turned off the distress beacon. So that's a moot point. Additionally, the distress beacon didn't seem to be getting very far, because there were not any other ships that had responded and become trapped there.

23:40 As in the contemporary military, the chain of command is "HR". A better question might be "Does Star Fleet have a military police?"

22:40 No. Dr. Brahms worked on the Enterprise D specifically. Her involvement in other projects, and the status of being dead or alive, are not discussed in the episode. I would assume she's NOT dead, since she is pretty young and the Enterprise D was not built that long ago.

Leah Brahms did not work on the original Enterprise. She worked on/created the engines for the Enterprise D which was stated by the computer during Geordi's initial inquiry. Also in the background of the simulator you can see, multiple times, the Enterprise D being built right outside the window at the shipyard.

There is no HR Department on the Enterprise.

4:01 The moment you see something that doesn't look like the Enterprise, you can assume it's the holodeck.

2:55 Where did you get the impression it's "any person who's ever been alive?" It's not. There are records, logs, notes, and pre-programmed interactive programs made during and to assist in the construction of the Enterprise. Dr. Brahms was a significant contributor to designing the ship's warp engines, so it's natural she would leave a large paper (and audio) trail in the wake of that.

This is a pretty good episode.....but there is one in this season that's coming up that is considered to be in the top 5 episodes of the entire series...some say the best.

For the sake of clarification, the Utopia Planitia Shipyards on Mars (where Geordi's holo-program takes place) are Starfleet's primary ship design/construction facilities in the 24th century. Dr. Leah Brahms was indeed involved in the design of the engines for the Enterprise 1701-D. As to whether she's alive or not, or how accurate the simulation was, that's for us to know and you to find out.

Data is the Operations Officer. On TNG, it's an amalgamation of the Science Officer and Internal Systems Officer from TOS.

They did have a Trek fan on staff to check for canon continuity. Richard Arnold had the title of Research Consultant on the show.

I always took O'Brien as bullshitting about ships in bottles, not to be a brown noser, but to just not leave Picard hanging. The smirk to Riker and dismissive "ships in bottles? great fun!" made the whole thing seem tongue in cheek.

Don't assume Leah or anyone else mentioned in any episode is dead unless they say so, and sometimes not even then.

I love that you guys are calling this technobabble. Let me tell you somethin' about technobabble. Season 3 doesn't have technobabble. It has tech speak. Most of it is actually fairly coherent. Technobabble comes later. When they started the nasty habit of literally writing into the script shit like this: DATA Tech. And then another writer would come in and write tech. THAT is technobabble, my friends. And there are some DOOZIES to come, let me tell you... Hoo. Like when they talk about reorienting the crystals/lattice. Yeah, okay, turn the crystals so the energy passes through them at a different angle. I get that. And at this stage in TNG they are still keeping the tech in line with the drama. What do we need to do? We need to get more power to keep the shields up to protect us from the radiation. Got it. Problem 2, we need to make fast enough changes in our power output so that we can beat the devices draining the power. Got it. ... But, can we actually do it? Well, the only way we can do that is to let the computer do it.... But the computer may not be able to robustly respond to dynamic changes in the situation. A human can. Generally among Star Trek fans, at least in the modern world, people think this whole thing is creepy. I don't recall that being the case years ago, I think that's more of a modern reexamination of the episode. I am shocked that it didn't come off that way to you guys, but once again that's the great thing about these reactions is getting that "virgin eyes" perspective on the show after years of hard lined dogma from the community. There is a nuanced piece of context that i'm not going to correct that makes the usage of the Brahms image more troubling.

A good episode as it focuses on Geordi, but honestly a blueprint for a lot of TNG going forward..a character arc framed by a (sometimes barely related) sci-fi premise.

I think the insinuation was that Leah Brahms designed the engines for the Enterprise-D because the computer used Stardates in the 40,000's which would put it in the 24th century and the Enterprise-D is not that old (maiden voyage in Encounter at Farpoint). I find that a little cringe for the fact she is a real person. What happens if the real Leah finds out this stranger has created an AI-Viagra program of her? HR, indeed. The whole using-AI-to-fulfill-intimate-fantasies thing just creeps me.

Data is Chief of Operations (Ops). He is basically in charge of monitoring all operations of the ship and crew, and third in command. It's multifaceted overall.

Geordi's "computer!" line reminds me of Luke Skywalker in New Hope: ‘But I was going to Tosche Station to pick up some power converters.’ It's more in the delivery than the line.

Pretty sure Starfleet looked at Spock & Chekhov, decided that could be one guy's job, and merged their positions into Data's Ops console. "Sorry, Chekhov, but what exactly do you DO here..."

Data's official title is Chief Operations Officer and 2nd officer of the Enterprise (behind Riker who is first officer). What the Chief Ops Officer's job on the ship actually is ... well, you'll just have to wait and see if that is explained.

The technobabble in these early seasons is soooooo tame. You poor saps have no idea....

In Ten-Forward, a "Geordi on the Beach" is a virgin Sex on the Beach.