TNG "Booby Trap"
- Thread starter Gingerbread Demon
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I've never watched much of Voyager so didn't know that.
Actually on the assimilators why couldn't anyone EVA to them and deactivate them?
I don't care if that was a practical answer from Worf or not. That exchange of lines is pricelessThis was the episode where they talked about ships in bottles, right? The capt. and O'Brien knew about them. Worf and Geordi didn't. They had these lines.
Worf: I did not play with toys.
Data: I was never a boy.
I don't care if that was a practical answer from Worf or not. That exchange of lines is priceless
It is.. I find myself laughing a lot when that line is on during the episode.
Does anyone recall ever seeing a video on Youtube where it's an out-take of Brent Spiner messing up the line and instead of saying boy, he says toy?
I think I saw it once. I just tried to find it again on Youtube by using the search criteria "Next Generation blooper for episode booby trap". But I didn't find it. The video I remember may have been of out-takes from various episodes.
I think I saw it once. I just tried to find it again on Youtube by using the search criteria "Next Generation blooper for episode booby trap". But I didn't find it. The video I remember may have been of out-takes from various episodes.
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Heck, all bat'leths have dull edges. We've never seen a cutting edge in action - if the long forward edge hits an opponent in the chest, there's no cut in his chest armor, or in his soft clothing, or his soft naked skin. Kills are with the pointed ends; the edges seem to be only for parrying, for blocking enemy swings and catching enemy blades.
Agreed that blowing up the Promellian ship was odd to the extreme. But Picard doesn't specifically say that the ship should be blown up in order to stop her from attracting further victims. Rather, the action is for removing the entire booby trap as a threat.
Riker then proceeds to fire torps, set to explode at impact with the ship. But what this results in is the asteroid trap also blowing up! We could easily argue that Riker did intend to destroy the trap, rather than the ship - but that he realized aiming at the asteroids would achieve nothing because they ate photon torpedo energy for breakfast. Blowing up the ship would work much better because the asteroids would not be inclined to stop that from happening - and when it did happen, it would overload the asteroids.
Sure, there would be gentler ways of doing it. But going to a spacewalk would be too slow to save the lives of our heroes, by the rules of the episode; and now that they were out of danger, it would also be a risk not worth taking, since obviously the asteroids would have been designed with such feeble grasping-at-straws attempts in mind.
Timo Saloniemi
Can't say that I can intelligently comment on the desk model used in the ep except to say that IIRC it was an early test shot of the Ent-D from AMT/Ertl without the final surface engraving. Got nuthin' on the individual parts or proportions. - R
First Picard destroys that artifact he wants to put in a museum, then he tosses aisde the pricesless artifact his dead friend gave him. I think I'm detecting the beginnings of a pattern here.
I'd also like to point out that kick-ass cue Jones did for the climax of hte episode, that was dropped entirely from the episode and replaced with existing edited music. For those who don't have the Film Score Monthly box set of Jones scores, here is the cue (restored by a fan to the episode; there's a little bleedthrough of the edited score in the episode):
How about when he woudlld go from "Daytah" to "Dahtah" throughout the series? Maybe I'm imagining it, but early on, once or twice didn't he call him "Dayter"; the way he would say it it sounded like that, "Mr. Dayter".
And Worf was such a liar. 2:19 in:
I'd also like to point out that kick-ass cue Jones did for the climax of hte episode, that was dropped entirely from the episode and replaced with existing edited music. For those who don't have the Film Score Monthly box set of Jones scores, here is the cue (restored by a fan to the episode; there's a little bleedthrough of the edited score in the episode):
How about when he woudlld go from "Daytah" to "Dahtah" throughout the series? Maybe I'm imagining it, but early on, once or twice didn't he call him "Dayter"; the way he would say it it sounded like that, "Mr. Dayter".
And Worf was such a liar. 2:19 in:
The ending was weak for two reasons: Blowing up the booby trap was unnecessary and contrary to what was called for by scientific exploration and study as many have pointed out.
More importantly: the ending point of this episode is that the computer could not be trusted to handle this and they were better off leaving it to human hands... that's....really....really... silly... Certainly any spacecraft in this time would be almost completely driven/controlled by computer. Even a current-day fighter plane is mostly computer controlled. The Enterprise is being driven by its computer systems almost 100% of the time. You shouldn't be out there flying at all if you don't trust it completely. And the idea that you'd rather put your life in fallible human hands in a situation like this is crazy.
And, of course, we have another example of completely-life-like-human-created-by-holodeck once again. It's only more ironic in this episode because they then turn around and say they can't trust the computer.
Oh - and super-awkward opening with Geordi trying to make the moves on a woman. He acts with all the subtlely and nuance of a 15 year old. I can't be the only one who though this was the *real* "booby trap".
I enjoyed much of the episode, but there are so many times in TNG when you wish you could have been in the writing room to have offered a little constructive criticism...
More importantly: the ending point of this episode is that the computer could not be trusted to handle this and they were better off leaving it to human hands... that's....really....really... silly... Certainly any spacecraft in this time would be almost completely driven/controlled by computer. Even a current-day fighter plane is mostly computer controlled. The Enterprise is being driven by its computer systems almost 100% of the time. You shouldn't be out there flying at all if you don't trust it completely. And the idea that you'd rather put your life in fallible human hands in a situation like this is crazy.
And, of course, we have another example of completely-life-like-human-created-by-holodeck once again. It's only more ironic in this episode because they then turn around and say they can't trust the computer.
Oh - and super-awkward opening with Geordi trying to make the moves on a woman. He acts with all the subtlely and nuance of a 15 year old. I can't be the only one who though this was the *real* "booby trap".
I enjoyed much of the episode, but there are so many times in TNG when you wish you could have been in the writing room to have offered a little constructive criticism...
The Promelian captain speaking and mouthing in English. I know Trek does this all the time. It was just that this time the Promelian ship was well set up as this alien, mysterious graveyard from year zero with a cool score to boot and there's the captain yappin' in bog standard English. It kind of deflated that sensibility that was otherwise well teed up.
But that's a minor thing.
I wasn't that concerned with them blowing the ship up. It's just a symbolic way of saying that they are focused on moving forward rather than back, that while the past maybe a fun indulgence now and again, what really matters is the future.
But that's a minor thing.
I wasn't that concerned with them blowing the ship up. It's just a symbolic way of saying that they are focused on moving forward rather than back, that while the past maybe a fun indulgence now and again, what really matters is the future.
The one thing that bugged me about this episode, were the "assimilators". When an asteroid is hit with a phaser blast, it gets stronger, what? That kind of assimilator tech would be nice to have covering any ship, enemy fires at you and you say: "Thank you for the extra power. We stored that energy and now we'll use it to destroy you."
True. I accepted that such a thing could exist because I equated it with something like the piezoelectric effect. But you bring up a good point.
I always hated it that Picard ordered the ship destroyed. I understand why he did it but there were other options. Warning buoys, for example. Once Starfleet was notified, that information could have bee sent to every known alpha quadrant planet. To blow up the ship really irritates the archaeology buff in me. Completely wasteful
Oh hell if the D had one of those awesome grapplers like the NX01 they could have launched a long cable and towed it out from a safe distance
It's been a while since I watched this episode, but didn't they just use phasers on the assimilators?
I wonder what a volley of photon torpedoes might have done, increased the radiation to a level that would've cooked the entire crew in seconds?
I wonder what a volley of photon torpedoes might have done, increased the radiation to a level that would've cooked the entire crew in seconds?
And by "tosses aside" you mean gently places it on the carpeted floor next to him?
Alien technology already activated, there's no way anyone could get at it to be able to reverse engineer it. And, until now, nobody figured out a way to make a similar device.
That and how long before the devices' reflectors or other bits that amplify the energy burn out? Every action/reaction...
To me, Booty Trap was one of the better episodes in general and a highlight of season 3. For reasons already said, there is some ingenuity. And then there's the old chestnut of how engineering types have trouble picking up the women. Geordi strikes out, again, and 90% of the general audience can relate. Geordi's solution, with the computer being his double act instead of Data, was pretty good as well. Of course, Data never gave a backrub... not even to Tasha, but he gave her pretty much everything else... (hiyoooo!)
If anything, the Promelians seemed to speak English - how did universal translators pick up so quickly their language?
If anything else, one music cue was replaced - and having heard the original, the replacement choice did fit the suspense of escape far, far better. I still adore Ron Jones and his style. But that one cue just did not work.
And if anything anything else, in TNG-ville everyone can get near-lethal radiation exposure up until the last second and everyone is still A-OK and feeling nothing bad ever happen, not even interaction with radiation from later episodes.
I still think Federation ships should have grapplers as a stand by.
Picard could have then towed the ship out from a safe distance.
Picard could have then towed the ship out from a safe distance.
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