Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3 Episode 6

This is a fun Geordi/holodeck episode that nicely advances Geordi's character and avoids the "broken holodeck" cliché (although I guess you can say the ship itself is broken). Susan Gibney is great as Dr. Brahms (she would later be considered for the roles of Captain Janeway and Seven of Nine for Voyager) and works well with LeVar Burton. The story moves along nicely and having Trek's first female director might be why this episode deals with romance better than most other installments. Unfortunately, the danger to the ship is treated as sort of a secondary story, but then it's not the most interesting or special "ship in danger" idea anyway – it's just a way of facilitating the Geordi story.

This is an episode that in seasons 1 or 2 would have probably been regarded as quite good, but is below average for TNG's key stretch.





The plot with Geordi was OK - while there's nothing flatly bad about it, it involves a lot of talking and not a lot of happening. There's too much of the technobabble that TNG tended to overuse.





The related of the Enterprise's growing difficulties at extricating itself from the trap is more interesting, though again nothing particularly special.





What is special is an musing sequence featuring Picard, Riker, Worf, Data and O'Brien. After Picard shows exasperation at the fact that no one shared his childhood hobby, Worf and Data deliver a pair of hilarious lines. Then O'Brien says he in fact did share Picard's hobby - and then is forced to defend himself against Riker's "you brown-noser!" look.

Here we go - This tale has been told in other episodes. They get trapped and the harder they try to get out, the more they ensnare themselves. This time, they don't have to be so clever, they just need to turn control over to the computer (in the form of a back massaging Leah Brahms) to get them out.





Yes, Geordi is a loser with women. Maybe this is a stereotype of the prototypical nerd, but whatever it is, it's just plain awkward. Worf is still his Klingon self. Data is still robotic and Picard is just starting to break through the two dimensional portrait he was originally cast as. The series is just about to hit its stride, but at this point, is still in its formative years. There's some humor, but everyone is still playing to their pre-conceived archetype, thus the classification as "character development".

There are so many things I like about this episode. The situation of a battleship from 1,000 years before, when our own planet was barely in the Renaissance intrigues me, much as it does Picard. The problem it presents to the ship with its still working trap is an interesting dilemma, the tried and true "ancient trap". It presents a nice message of caution in our exploration and provided for a fun story.





The most interesting part of the episode, however, may be the story's character driven plot involving LaForge and a holgram of Dr. Leah Brahms working together to save the ship. This storyline gives another opportunity to expand on Geordi, this time dealing with his lack of romantic prowess, but showing that maybe all he needs is a like minded person with whom he actually has something in common. Of course, being our first (but not the last) character falling for a holodeck individual plot he gets a highly idealized version, a fact we're reminded of at the end of the episode. It is here, though, that we get to know the Enterprise-D's chief engineer a little better and get the opportunity to see the often uptight Geordi relax a little bit. As a LaForge fan, I might be biased, but it is still a high quality episode, and made even better by its "sequel" a year later.

Imagine finding a ancient ship in space amongst space rocks. A away team beams aboard the ancient ship only to find the crew has been dead for over 1,000 years. It seems they all died at thier posts. Now something is going wrong with the "Enterprise". It seems that ship's power is being drained and is being turned into harmful radiation. Is it the same fate as the crew of the ancient ship? Geordi intiates a program on the holodeck. A simulated Dr. Leah Brahms gives Geordi advice. This is my favorite episode I give it a perfect 10.0

Episode like this are why the third season was the best season. Combining history and was science fiction was a brilliant idea. The script was original and the dialogue was sharp.


This may sound silly but the background music was really good in this episode. It was a dramatic departure from the canned Star Trek the motion picture anthem from earlier seasons. It was softer and more poignant. This is my all time favorite episode.