135 lines
6.6 KiB
Plaintext
135 lines
6.6 KiB
Plaintext
WARNING: The following post is a review of this week's TNG episode, "Booby
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Trap", and therefore contains plot elements, known colloquially as spoilers.
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So, if you're not interested, 'n' would be a good button to press.
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Last chance.
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Yes.
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YES.
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YEEESSSS!!!
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This was mighty fine work, guys. I'd consider it the best of the season, though
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probably not quite their finest work to date. Here's a synopsis before I get
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too gushing:
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MAIN PLOT: (yes, there are two plots)
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The Enterprise intercepts a distress call and goes to investigate. The call is
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a remote distress signal, sent by a Promelian battle cruiser. The Promelians
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and the Menthars destroyed themselves roughly a thousand years ago, so the
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Enterprise shows up just a tad late to save anyone. Unfortunately, the Menthar
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trap that destroyed the Promelian ship is STILL functioning, and the Enterprise
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gets neatly caught in it.
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The trap is this: there are aceton assimilators hidden among the rubble (oh...
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did I mention this was around what looks like an asteroid field? Careless of
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me.). These assimilators normally are used to siphon off energy from distant
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sources, which is bad enough. These, however, have been modified to convert
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that energy to lethal radiation and send it back to its source, so that, in
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effect, the Enterprise is being killed by its own energy. Bad, evil, naughty
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thing. It falls to Geordi to find a way to move the ship out of the trap,
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which is a neat trick, considering that for every force the ship exerts, a
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counterforce is set up, with a time delay of only .001 seconds or so.
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I'll gloss over some details here. Some are in the subplot, and some simply
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should be seen and not read. In effect, after finding that one way that MIGHT
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(repeat: MIGHT) work would be to turn control of the entire ship over to the
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computer (since the computer's the only thing fast enough to make the ~1000
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adjustments/second that would be necessary), Geordi gets another idea. He
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suggests firing the impulse engines for a microsecond or so to beat the
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inertia, and then shut EVERYTHING down except for life support and a couple
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of thrusters. Essentially, fly 'er out on manual. This Picard does. That's
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right...PICARD flies her out at Con. All is well.
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SUBPLOT:
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How does Geordi figure all this out? Well, he calls up a simulation on the
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holodeck, including a facsimile of one of the original designers of NCC 1701-D:
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one Lia Brahms. And yes, she is cute. It also ties in to the teaser, in which
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we see Geordi with Kristi (sp?), also on the holodeck, trying desperately to
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have a good date, and failing miserably. Most of this doesn't really need to
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be synopsized, though...you should see it for yourself.
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O-tay. Now, random rambling time:
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This was a joy to watch. As Troi herself points out, we see a side of Picard
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that we haven't seen all THAT often, although we have seen it. We learn that
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he built ships in bottles when he was a boy (including, probably, a Promelian
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battle cruiser), and has thought a lot about what it must've been like to fly
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"an aeroplane, with only ONE propeller to keep you moving!". This was Picard
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the historian talking for much of the story, and it was very well done.
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Picard the captain was also done well. Some have said to me that they thought
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he took too long to make decisions here--I disagree. The situation, in many
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cases, was one of "hurry up and wait". He couldn't demand that something be
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done before it was: if he'd gone with earlier suggestions, before Geordi had
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hit on the right one, the ship probably would have gone poof! and vanished in
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a puff of radiation. He took charge of bringing the ship out himself, not
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willing to cede his responsibility for 1000 or so people to anyone else.
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Well done, sir.
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Speaking of Geordi, he FINALLY has himself an episode. Most of the story
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centers on him, and we see a great deal of him come out. From his conversation
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with Guinan about women (more on that later) in 10-Forward, to his blissful
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look when he enters the holodeck and "sees" the prototype model of the
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Enterprise, to his interactions with Lia and his perserverance in getting the
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job done...whew. Excellent. I finally saw the true love he has for his ship,
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and the lengths to which he will go to save her. Very, very good.
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I also would'nt want to debate him, after seeing his argument with Lia. The
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exchanges were priceless. For example:
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"These are MY designs! I did the calculations myself."
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"I don't care if you built it with your bare hands out of a Ferengi trading
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vessel!"
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His "romance" with Lia was well handled. I'd like to see her pop up again some
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day, preferably the real one. Maybe they'll make a stopover at Earth sometime?
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Also, his conversation with Guinan was beautiful. We learn, among other things,
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that...oh, hell. Let me put the conversation down as best as I can:
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"What do you look for in a man, Guinan?"
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"You mean me personally?"
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"Yeah...as a woman. What's the first thing you look at?"
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"His head."
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"Oh, his mind. Of course."
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"No. His head. I'm attracted to bald men."
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THAT should get some discussion going. I can't wait for the next Picard-
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Guinan scene.
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Other things I found nice:
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Chief O'Brien had lines. YIPPEE! (He also built ships in bottles.)
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Someone actually did their technical homework. There has to be a time delay
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between force and counterforce, and they remembered that. They also even
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got the change in time before fatal exposure right when the radiation increased.
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(It was 30 minutes initially, then a little less than 26 when the field jumped
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up by 17%, which is exactly what I came up with, given the initial values.)
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I like that. So I'm strange. Picard also uses a slingshot effect of one of
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the big asteroids to gain the velocity they need to get out; quite nice.
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Ah, well. Time to wrap this up. The ratings envelope, please:
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Plot: 10. 'nuff said.
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Plot Handling: 10. Enough suspense to choke a small yak.
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Characterization: Can I give a 20? No? Well, call it 10, then.
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Technical: 9.8. A very minor deduction for small thruster problems at the
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end, but that's really a small quibble.
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TOTAL: 39.8/4===> 10. The first 10 of the season. Stay with it, guys.
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Next Week:
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Another Geordi story. This time, he's trapped on a 'dying planet', and the
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only other person down there is...a Romulan! Could be very interesting.
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Tim Lynch (Cornell's first Astronomy Major)
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BITNET: H52Y@CRNLVAX5
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INTERNET: H52Y@VAX5.CIT.CORNELL.EDU
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UUCP: ...!rochester!cornell!vax5.cit.cornell.edu!h52y
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"If I might remind you, Captain, the probability of successfully navigating
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such an obstacle is approximately 2,467 to 1."
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"Never tell me the odds!!"
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--No, it's NOT from "Booby Trap"
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