PATRON TIER LIST - TNG S4E16

I've heard that Geordi's actor Lavarr Burton hated this episode anecdotally, and while I enjoy them returning to this plot, I can see why. The B Plot "ship is in danger" excuse is entirely forgettable, but it's pretty fascinating to finally address the creepy factor of having real people simulated in the holodeck within a romantic context. Regrettably its a detriment to Geordi's character despite the stellar acting.

Struggles to barely make it up to a C-tier for me. Not much of consequence here.

I really like this episode, but I couldn’t give it higher than a B.. so it’s a guilty pleasure kind of episode for me.

I actually think it was mature of the writers to make Leah at fault for the way she reacted, and have her realize it later. Geordi was right: nothing unprofessional actually happened on the holodeck.

I can’t believe that the director of this episode thought to himself, I should have Jodi block the exits and trap Leah in the Hollow deck and intimidate Leah, I imagine it was more like well. The set walls are only set up in so many positions And the camera can only sit in so many places and here’s an image. Do I think that the director was spending time thinking about making Geordie a predator, no. Mostly questionable choices and presentation and week writing

While there's things to like about this episode, it really is kind of cringe. Even back then, it came across as borderline creepy behavior by Geordi and really skirts the line of some serious ethical issues regarding creating holodeck versions of real people to interact with. It also continues the "Geordi can't get a date/love life" plot thread, which to me always seemed a bit forced. Like, they had to give Geordi a character trait and just randomly picked "awkward with women/has no love life" because honestly, there's nothing else in his character that suggests such a trait. Seems kind of forced to me. A decent Geordi episode hampered by technobabble and character cringe. Enjoyable moments, but mid.

the confrontation between Geordi and Leah is cringe, it like if you found out co-worker has pervy pics of you but your at fault because he was offering friendship to you

Definite A from me

Clearly a B. Could be A-Tier if it was a little more focused and nuanced, but it could also be C if it just blatantly took sides. Also, has anyone made a Target Audience doppelganger AI yet?

I’ve been waiting for you guys to see this episode for a year Love the look on Leah’s face when geordi walks into the holo deck Not to mention the look on Jordy‘s face. Great scenes with Guinean in this episode

Shouldn't Barclay be in the corner laughing at the hubris of this all? Not one season ago Geordi was lecturing him, lol

We do get Ensign Sariel Rager, a fine post-Weasel navigator. Not enough to bring this out of D territory for me.

It was cringe then. It's even more cringe now

This is a hard one to call. Its an awesome call back, but also awkwardly hilarious, but may trigger the guys' aversion to technobabble which often tanks their enjoyment. I think it is a solid A tier episode, but the guys might go C or B. I hope they prove me wrong.

I like the actress who plays Leah a lot (in fact she almost got the part of Captain Janeway in Voyager), but the story hasn't aged well. In fairness to Geordi, in "Booby Trap" he didn't ask the holodeck to make Dr. Brahms so romantic. He just wanted someone he could talk his ideas though with. But the holodeck interpreted that as backrubs and "Wait 'til you try my fungilli". So Geordi wasn't trying to do what Leah is accusing him of in this episode; the problem is that when Hologram Leah started in with the flirty talk Geordi went along with it instead of telling the holodeck to dial it back and keep Hologram Leah strictly professional.

I really like the idea of this episode but the way the pieces come together just doesn't work well enough to elevate it to an A.

Seriously, for an engineer, Geordi needs to work on his computer skills, move your "programs" to system32 or something. At least Leah didn't accidently stumbled upon Barclay's program #9.

A fantastic first 35 minutes followed by 10 minutes of AWFUL, this was truly one of TNG's worst moments. I don't like Geordi's creepiness, but as long as it's treated well, I can enjoy an unlikable character. Instead, the episode AGREES with Geordi's predatory behavior, and Brahms ends up apologizing for not liking him. UUGGH. It's a very, VERY ugly trope of "guy gets angry and tells off a woman because he thinks he DESERVES her and she's not into it." Happens IRL as well, and it's some of the ugliest behavior.

This episode is straight ASS. I know Geordi is blind, but even a blind man should have been able to read Leah and realize she wasn't into him and just stop. Then the crew were total morons and put themselves into the situation where they had to kill the alien mother. The biggest "Idiot Plot" episode since Samaritan Snare.

I cannot wait to see what you guys say when we get the 'real' engineer onboard. the fallout from making living people in the hollow deck is awesome. its a fun episode B for sure. could have done without the space baby stuff in this episode... for me this is all about Geordi for sure.

They really couldnt figure out what to do with Geordi for character development for a while. It's a good lesson that not all character growth has to involve a love interest.

The rare situation where the threat of the week space pierogi B plot is great and poignant and the personal character moments fall flat. Geordie deserved better from the unfortunate writing. Oh, I also only got the double meaning of the title in my 20s.

I predict you guys will like this episode because it was what you asked for in your discussion of Booby Trap.

Rookie mistake Geordi. Everyone knows you gotta delete your holodeck search history every week or 2.

So much of Star Trek I tend to think about in the context of the writers and producers behind the episodes and just what they were possibly thinking. The B-plot of this episode is really fantastic and worth the watch. Everything they do to Geordie, however, is atrocious, and it really feels like they did Levar Burton dirty on multiple occasions in general. This instance is perhaps the hardest to sit through, which is why I personally give it such a lower grade.

So guys, now that you know it's on the table, what episode do you want to see them follow up on?

Really good episode over all but Geordi does come off like a creepy "nice guy" and Leah seems to shift to "oh well you having a program of me that seems intimate isn't a big deal" oddly easily. Still good episode.

I like this one a lot. Geordi has to deal with his feelings about Leah while learning she’s married and kind of a bitch to start off. I like that Leah finds the program and that Geordi defends the use of the program. After all, the computer filled in the gaps on her personality, he didn’t do that. A tier for me

Torn between a c and a d. I went with D. It was cringy and the plot did nothing for me. Funny season 4 started amazing but that is followed by a spattering of “meh” episodes. This is low level “meh”

This is a solid C for me because it has probably the widest range of moments - from A to E along the way. Some Geordi stuff is cringe but needs to be. I do think there is a generational difference in fans that watched this when it came out and the mores of younger fans today. I understand that standards change, but Kirk's womanizing as well as the Riker superfan from last episode and Geordi/Leah here are emblematic of real human relationships, which usually are messy. I wish Trek had a character like Captain Jack from Dr. Who - a future human who will have sex with just about anything. Riker comes closest.

Well well well Geordi, next time put your holodeck programs into a hidden folder in the LCARS. Starfleet HR is watching

A STRONG A+++. I know you will FLIP over this, I predict you'll go S or A. I remember cringing for poor Jordie, but he could have handled it much better. Meanwhile, maybe there should be restrictions from creating an existing person in the holodeck. I can't imagine anything more invasive or exploitative. So I guess what happens in the holodeck doesn't always stay in the holodeck... so be careful! 🤣🤣🥰

I like this episode overall just because I get where Geordi is coming from, but it’s also a little cringey at the same time. I’m glad they ultimately worked well together when it was necessary, but I can’t imagine she would want to be friends with him after what she found.

Hard to rank this episode. Ratings-wise, it has moments that put it generally all over the place. Nice continuity with Leah Brahms, but oh man, does Geordi get stung big-time. How could the computer have been so wrong in "Booby Trap" as to create a Leah Brahms that appears to have missed some key elements? The space baby part has some nice special effects but is pretty much routine Star Trek.

A thing to note about why holo-Brahms and real Brahms seem so different: in Booby Trap, Geordi asked the computer to approximate her personality based off if public speeches and logs... the problem being that the persona one adopts for public speaking and professional logs is not going to be their true day-to-day persona. It's going to be a more idealized, restrained version of the person. To fall for thst personality and thinking you know a person based off of that, that is parasocial behaviour.

I’ll be interested in how the guys react. It brings a character back from another episode, which they seem to love. I agree with the comment about Picard endangering the ship more than necessary. Worf was right. I recall this episode as one I don’t mind rewatching.

Not that it would have salvaged the whole episode, but it feels like a missed opportunity to not have Barclay show up. He and Geordi could have had a heart-to-heart about fantasy versus reality.

I think this episode and Geordi's behaviour in it backwashed onto "Booby Trap," affecting viewers opinion of that earlier episode. Though for a long time as a young teen, I didn't see the problem, it was just awkward guy being awkward around women. Now though, after there was public discourse I can see it: Geordi, blocking the only exit, shouting over Brahms, ingnoring her totally justified creeped out feelings, him trying to manipulate a situation without being up front about it at all, it's just not great looking in hindsight. I don't think the writers or director even realized at the time, so it's not like it was intentional. However, this episode DID end up being a great look at parasocial relationships. It just kinda threw Geordi under the bus.

Geordie proved that your expectations for someone you know about but haven't met yet. Will go crashing down when you do meet them. Geordie having a crush on Brahms made this even worse.

It’s hard to say this about my favorite television series ever…but I hate this episode. Like, really hate it. If every good episode had a skin of evil like Armus that it scraped off to form a giant pool of shit, that pool would be “Galaxy’s Child”! Live short and die in agony, episode. 🖖

Voted E. I really don't like this episode, Geordi acted like a creep from the start. He felt entitled to Brahms friendship (and obviously hoped for more) and acted offended when she wasn't interested seemingly not understanding that she doesn't owe him anything. "I offered you my friendship!" ... so what? You offered, she rejected. Grow up, Geordi

With all his research into Leah Brahms, how is it that Geordi neglected her marital status?

My problem with this episode is not that Geordi comes off as a creep for the way he created a holo-simulation of Brahams, and assumed that she would behave the way her holo-simulation, it's that he didn't come off as being in the wrong for creating a simulation of a real person. He violated her in one of the worst way you can, and we're supposed to be sympathetic with him about it, and everything's fine by the end of the episode. But Patrick Stewart's performance is the best part of this episode, and his rising above the material is what pushes this up into the D-tier for me. If it had just been Geordi and Brahams, it probably would have been E-tier, but Picard saves it from the garbage heap of the season.

This whole “ Geordi is cringe” thing always got to me ! He seems like a guy I always want to have a beer with , but he’s the “ nerd that can’t talk to girls “ trope to the max! Treat my boy right ! Last time he actually was smooth is when Worf coached him ! And If that’s not enough, they make him a creep?! Also, fuck the B plot HARD!

I don't love this one, but I don't hate it. I do believe that too few people really stop to consider all of these happenings from Geordi's perspective. Poor guy.

It was good to see the continuation of the Geordi/Brahms story, and this did so in an interesting way. It was a bit uncomfortable, but it brought up some of the ethical considerations of usages of the holodeck. The B story was Eh, but not horrible

I, for one, still look forward to trying her fungilli.

I hate how they made Geordi come off as such a creep in this one. She had every reason to be upset and to assume the worst. Then he has the nerve to have a tantrum when she is justifiably upset. Really terrible writing all around. I think the overall episode is watchable. It's just one that you will forget about.

The episode where Picard makes one bad decision after another. Aside from his questionable command decisions, he openly and repeatedly ignores Worf’s precautions. I’m sure it was all Worf could do not to leap up and down and scream “I told ya so!”, pack up his bat-leth, hop in a shuttle, and head for a ship where he’s appreciated. Creeper Geordi returns! The much needed followup to “Boobytrap” makes Geordi a victim of cold-hearted Dr Brahms. Eh. Leah really should hire an attorney. Kudos to the special effects crew for making a CGI apple turnover somewhat convincing. But glad these guys still stuck mostly with models.

I revised my initial vote to D-tier, since it's not the worst of the worst. The space baby B-plot is generic sci-fi -- not good, not bad, just kind of there. The Geordi-Leah A-plot is just plain bad. It was bad upon release and gets worse as time goes on. This COULD have been great in many ways -- addressing holo-addiction, privacy in an age when holodecks can literally recreate people, appropriate boundaries for holodeck use, even morality in the 24th century. But it was written in a different time and ends up trying to make the audience hate Leah, feel bad for Geordi, and excuse his gaslighting after he -- AT BEST -- allowed the creation of an ASMR avatar of a real person to talk nerdy to him and rub his shoulders while he worked. It's never revealed but heavily implied in "Booby Trap" that there was more that happened with that holodeck creation than a couple of brainstorming sessions and a little shoulder rub. "[Y]ou accused, tried and convicted me without even bothering to hear my side of it. So, I'm guilty, okay? But not of what you think! Of something much worse. I'm guilty of ... reaching out to you. Of hoping we could connect. I'm guilty of a terrible crime, Doctor. I offered you friendship." Yuck.

Georgi is all of us in High School (minus the genius level intellect). I feel for him. If only we all had Riker's swag.

Wow. Some of you are being really down on Geordi. If you really take the part 1 of this, he simply fell for a holo-character. It didn't go past what we saw... a kiss? Seemed innocent enough. I mean, I have videos of myself posted online as a young man. If I discovered someone was using those for some quick thrill, I would probably be a little embarrassed, a little flattered, and maybe pity the person who felt ok with doing it with something that wasn't real. If I were her, I'd check the history of use and drop it. But back to the people looking down on Geordi, I didn't see anything in this or the previous episode to deserve such criticism. What if a REAL Minuet showed up, and Riker realized that her character on the holodeck was taken from a real person's bio? Would he be judged similarly? Or should he apologize to the real Min?

Yeah that guy that gave Geordi confidence? Must have been short lived. lol Also CLEAR YOUR BROWSER HISTORY GEORDI !!!!!

When I first saw this episode many years ago, I was cackling like a kookaburra when Brahms told Geordi she was married.

B tier. TNG once again predicts the future. Geordi learns a hard lesson about not remembering to turn on incognito mode when using the holodeck.

Oh my I do not really like this episode at all. The space baby stuff is alright. But hardly a strong plot. But it’s harmless Trek fun. But I really dislike the Geordi and Leah stuff. I kinda like the fact that it’s addressed following Booby Trap but I’ve never really liked Geordi’s attitude in this one. It all just feels a bit cringey and even creepy. Probably my least fave of the season D tier maybe.

Love Geordie. But great Odin's raven this episode is cringier than a windowless van with free candy written on the side. D for dead from embarrassment.

I like this episode, both for the plot and what they tried to do on the interpersonal side (call Geordi out for being a creep). They didn't have enough courage to really hold the line (cringe conclusion to that subplot), but it really puts Booby Trap into another light. I DO wish they had been more willing to explore both her backstory and give Geordi more healthy attachments. LeVar Burton was right to be offended that they kept doing his character dirty on the romance side of things.

One I usually skip.

Geordi’s creepy dating habits come home to roost!

I am a fan of continuity. I have little else to say

This is one of the handful of episodes that I will skip over on any re-watches, boring plot, cringe character writing, nothing worth coming back to imo.

SO VERY AWKWARD. After we thought Geordi had some progress with his character, the writers revert back to this embarrassing display. And you get that weird feeling that we're supposed to be on Geordi's side because Brahms isn't nice at first, and then when Geordi gets mad because SHE gets mad over her simulation. Only the story with the space creature saves this one for me.

Good follow-up to the prior episode with Leah Brahms and also Hollow Pursuits, with Geordi it’s implied going further than Barclay did. Rated it a B as it’s good but not a personal favourite.

I give it an A grade, the space baby angle was interesting. But altogether this was a Geordi episode. The scene when Geordi walks in the holodeck and sees Leah Brahms's reaction was solid gold 😁

😬 Geordi... Not your finest hour, bro.

Pretty sure Geordi is on some kind of holodeck misuse register after this episode.

Tough episode for Geordi. Kinda neat bit with the baby space critter.

Ah, the REAL Leah Brahms! I like the space baby (I think the first totally CGI character in Star Trek?) My fan theory is that her marriage is kind of on the rocks and that's why she's so pissy at first, and that by the end she sees Geordi as a harmless weirdo who is actually charming in his own way. I understand Levar Burton hates this episode because of how creepy and off-putting it makes Geordi seem.

This one was just...kinda there for me. Amazing how I liked the Leah Brahms character in the earlier episode and they turned her into a total unlikeable woman in this episode. Even after everything came out at the end, she was still completely unlikeable. The holodeck scene was hilarious, though. She had more personality as the holodeck version.

Blah

Real Leah Brahms, meet Holodeck Leah Brahms! Uh, oh. Plus a C-Section in space. I would rank it higher if both Leah and Geordi didn't act somewhat questionably, but I do rank it as “Enjoyable”.

Gaslighter Geordi