Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 90 (Galaxy's Child)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

It’s always amazed me how one ship could get into so much trouble practically every week for seven seasons.  It seemed like the Enterprise was getting the snot kicked out of it by some alien race or the crew was trying to get out of some bizarre trap.  In the third season, the crew found itself ensnared in an ancient alien booby trap.  Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge managed to get out of it by recreating the woman who designed the ship, Leah Brahms.  It was a pretty ingenious move, even if it should have taken a lot of energy.

In Galaxy’s Child, the real Leah Brahms comes on board to inspect the ship.  Geordi is asked if he’d like to greet her, which he eagerly accepts, expecting her to be like his holographic recreation.  Right off the bat, she’s rude and dismissive.  Two things should be evident:  Geordi is going to fail miserably at getting her to like him and, at some point after his accepting and acknowledging said failure, she’ll find the holodeck program and it won‘t look good.

Geordi comes off kind of like a stalker.  Because of the holodeck program, he knows things, like her favorite dish and design upgrades for the next class of ship.  After a series of awkward scenes of the two of them interacting, Brahms lets Geordi in on a little secret.  She’s married.  She has no idea how he missed it, but there it is.  Talk about embarrassing.  How could he have missed that?

Before Geordi can go off and sulk, the ship gets into some trouble.  The Enterprise encountered a space-dwelling life form that attacked the ship.  (Not a life form in a ship -- a life form that is as big as a ship.)  The Enterprise managed to kill the creature with minimum phasers, but discovered that the creature was pregnant.  Just as quickly as the crew can dub it Junior, the baby creature attaches itself to the ships hull and starts draining energy.

Captain Picard isn’t too keen on playing wet nurse, but he doesn’t have much of a choice.  He was willing to abandon the creature and only now realizes how defenseless it is.  It’s up to Geordi and Leah to come together, find a solution and maybe bond a little.  When all is said and done, they both have a laugh about it and Leah is on her way.

Several things occurred to me while watching this episode.  The first of which was how unlikely it is that an alien would live in space like this.  How could something evolve in the vacuum of space?  Is there really that much material between the planets?  Also consider how long it takes us to go between planets.  It takes us several days to get to the moon.  How long would it take an alien to move between orbits?  What if one of those things got too close to the gravity well of a planet?  Most importantly, how does a species overcome all these issues, only to be killed by the lowest setting of phasers, especially when it has a similar capacity?

I also noticed how quickly Picard got over the death of the alien mother.  When I say briefly, we’re talking a moment before and a moment after what was the commercial break.  Granted, it would have seemed much longer when aired on TV, but it is a very short time.  I know we don’t want to see the crew moping around, but they do at least try to redeem themselves by saving the baby.  Speaking of which, they were pretty quick to leave.  I realize that there aren’t really any space hospitals where they can just leave Junior on the doorstep, but still…

On a similar note, I find it odd that Junior was able to feed off the ship at all.  Wouldn’t it seem more likely that it would electrocute itself?  How embarrassing would that have been?  Instead, it drains power and basically cries out when the crew tries to dislodge it.  That’s when we get an angry mob of space-dwelling aliens, minus the torches and pitchforks.  (How do those things move in the vacuum of space, anyway?)

My biggest issue with the episode is that it’s one long, slow train wreck for Geordi.  Every interaction with Leah is her berating him and asking what kind of idiot would make these kinds of modifications.  He’s trying to be Mr. Happy and she’s beating him over the head with every little detail she finds.  And yes, she does find the holodeck program and watches the whole thing.  (Why the heck did Geordi save a recording of it?  I think she had a right to be upset about that one, personally.)

I’d say don’t buy this episode on VHS.  Put your money towards the season set.  There’s limited replay value and it’s not particularly good.  I hate episodes where it’s one bad break for a character after another.  Then again, that’s just me. 

IMDb page

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 54 (Booby Trap)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

I was always amazed how much trouble The Enterprise got into over seven years of Star Trek:  The Next Generation.  I’m sure they had plenty of routine missions where no one got hurt or killed.  I’m sure a few even went as they were supposed to with no Ferengi trying to horn in on some deal or half the ship breaking down.  You’d think that finding a derelict Promellian ship that had been floating around for 1,000 years would be uneventful.  Captain Picard even beams over just to show how comfortable the crew is letting their commanding officer off the ship.

I suppose if it was that simple, we wouldn’t have much of an episode.  Just as the Enterprise is about to leave, these strange power drains show up.  It wouldn’t be a problem except that the ship won’t move.  Everything’s running fine, but the ship just won’t go anywhere.  Funny thing is that the same thing that trapped the Promellian ship is now acting on the Enterprise.  (Apparently, no one stopped to ask what happened to the old ship in the first place.)  The Enterprise is now stuck just as the Promellian ship is.  As if that wasn’t bad enough, the devices that are sucking energy are converting it into deadly radiation.

The away team is able to bring back some Promellian logs and find out from their captain that the crew acted bravely.  Not much help there.  Geordi La Forge, the chief engineer, gets the idea to not ask any of his engineering staff for help and, instead, waste power on the holodeck recreating the station where the Enterprise was built so he can work with a recreation of the woman that designed the Enterprise.  (I think if I had worked hard enough to get to the Federation’s flagship, I’d be pretty depressed if my boss didn’t even ask for my help in an emergency.)

Part of the problem with having a series set on a ship is that you can’t really get rid of the ship that easily.  This episode was pretty early in the third season, so we know that someone’s going to save the day.  I mean, the actors all have contracts.  Right?  I doubt that they’re going to end the show this early in the season.  Yes, Geordi La Forge and the simulated Leah Brahms save the day.  The Enterprise makes it out, but the decision is made to destroy the Promellian ship.

There have been a few things I’ve wondered about over the years.  First, why doesn’t Geordi ask the engineering crew for help.  Isn’t that why they have an engineering crew?  I know I’m not the first to ask about this and I won’t be the last.  I can’t even think of a good reason other than  to let Geordi get along with an attractive woman in the holodeck.  (The episode starts out with Geordi failing miserably on a date, so he gets a chance at a rebound of sorts.)  It would also set up a later episode where the real Leah Brahms shows up.

Another thing that I was wondering was how the distress call was working after 1,000 years.  I’d imagine that the distress call wouldn’t be affected by the energy drain, as it would be a good way to trap a few more ships.  However, even without the power drain, the ship should have stopped working centuries ago.  The same goes for the bridge.  When the away team goes over, they can turn the lights on and get a console working.   What are the odds that the ship still has both power and working equipment?

I also felt bad that they couldn’t save the ship.  I understand having to blow it up.  It would have been irresponsible to leave it there so that someone else could get trapped.  You’d think they’d at least get some more logs or take some souvenirs.  Maybe take some pictures for posterity.  I’ve always hated when some historical artifact was wasted like that.  You’d think they’d make an attempt to tractor it out or something.

It’s one of those episodes that holds up, but not so well on second viewings.  This is why I didn’t give away how the day was saved, exactly.  A good part of the episode relies on the suspense.  Once you know how it goes down, you many not want to watch it again.  For this reason, don’t buy it on VHS.  (Honestly, though, who has a working VCR anyway?)

On a side note, I was looking at IMDb to make sure I had the names spelled right.  I came across Susan Gibney, who played Leah Brahms in this episode.  (I also wanted to make sure she’d be the one returning in the later episode.)  The only listing I found for that name was for someone born in 1968,  I didn’t think that could be her, as it seemed a little too old.  Leah Brahms is a young woman.  When the episode came out, she was in her early 20s.  Then I realized that the episode came out over 20 years ago.  I’ll leave you with that thought. 

IMDb page