So can anyone start up anyone else's program? Brahms doesn't even give any sort of overriding password to look at Geordi's program. I shouldn't think that Geordi would have a program like that in a public database.

I don't see why they thought that decompressing the shuttlebay would do anything, the creature wasnt even totally covering it.

Instead of trying to fool around with the power wavelength, why not just turn it all off? If theres no power the creature wont stay. I think they could have survived for a couple of minutes at least, enough to do the job.

Geordi tells Leah that she can use his office. Where exactly is Geordi's office? We've seen Geordi sitting at various stations over the years, but I don't ever remember seeing him in anything that I would call an office.

These people work with this technology everyday, so why isn't it normal for them to be more specific instead of vague? Like when Geordi asks the computer for subdued lighting.

Why was the computer so picky about asking for candlepower, but when Geordi asked for a type of music, like `light jazz' and later `classical guitar', the computer played a specific piece of music despite the possibility that thousands of different songs could be described as light jazz or classical guitar?

When Junior attaches himself to the Enterprise, Picard asks for a visual. The viewscreen shows a shot of Junior on the Enterprise, but where did this shot come from? The angle is much higher than the right nacelle and it seems to be closer to center than the nacelle. Compare this shot to the shot after the next commercial which was taken at about the height of the nacelle.

Why did Leah need to ask the Ensign about more files? Isn't Leah a designer who works with computers every day?

Geordi says that Junior and its kind live and die in interstellar space. However, they discovered the mother orbiting one planet, then find more in an asteroid belt of the same system. While the creatures may live in interstellar space it would be more accurate to say interplanetary space.

Why did Worf tell Geordi that there was "an incoming message for Dr. Brahms." instead of just contacting Leah directly? Had Worf `tapped the line' and was going to let Geordi listen in?

As for the music maybe geordi had set up a random playlist or something to that effect. I can dosomething like that with Real Jukebox and my home stereo so I don't see why the Fed's computer's couldn't do that. And since Geordi can see with the visor regardless of the light level he had never messed with them other than on and off so this threw the computer into its "please clarify" mode.

Is this called Galaxy's child because the enterprise is Galaxy glass and the baby thought it was it's mother or because the creatures are "of the galaxy?"

Maybe both

And I assume you meant "Galaxy class"

Aaron Dotter: I don't see why they thought that decompressing the shuttlebay would do anything, the creature wasnt even totally covering it.

Luigi Novi: No, but it's not an unreasonable thing to think that it might've nudged Junior (though your alternate suggestion was a good one, and they should've tried that one).

Keith Alan Morgan: Geordi tells Leah that she can use his office. Where exactly is Geordi's office? We've seen Geordi sitting at various stations over the years, but I don't ever remember seeing him in anything that I would call an office.

Luigi Novi: No, but just because Ten Forward wasn't seen during the first season, or Voyager's Deck 15, for its first six, doesn't mean they don't exist.


Phil, from his NextGen Guide, vol. II; PO#5: Brahms is angry when she runs the holo program of herself that Geordi made, yet one wonders if La Forge shouldn't be angry himself. She did violate his privacy.

Excuse me, Phil, but she did not violate his privacy. Since when is a program stored in a work-related computer considered "private?" Geordi created the program in Booby Trap to address an engineering problem, not for entertainment purposes. While it’s true that the program took on a more sentimental aspect when Leah became a part of it, if Geordi considered the program private when he turned it off, he would not have stored it in an unrestricted engineering computer where any idiot in Engineering could access it. He would’ve stored it in the holodeck computer in protected memory, or downloaded it to an isolinear rod that he could keep in his quarters. He didn’t.


Next on The World’s Most Dangerous Police Chases: See police use a gigantic alien creature strapped to the top of their squad car to TOTALLY IMOBILIZE a dangerous speeder, tomorrow on the FOX Network!
When the energy readings of the mother creature change in Act 1, Picard orders the ensign at the helm to back them away from the creature at 300 kph. The creature then fires an energy-dampening field toward the Enterprise. But in the shot of the Enterprise, in the field, it isn’t moving, and it shouldn’t matter if the field dampens the engines, because 1. The ensign should already have initiated the move backward, and inertia should’ve continued to carry it back, even if the dampening field cut off its engines, and 2. The ship was still able to fire phasers at the creatures, so obviously not all the ship’s energy was down.
Personally, I think it’s awfully convenient that no one tried to arrest the Enterprise for indecency, for nursing its young out in public
The newborn creature suckles energy from the Enterprise, and when the crew change the energy frequency, the creature is repelled away from the ship. Isn’t it a CONVENIENT coincidence that the frequency of the Enterprise’s energy when the creature first attacked it was the EXACT frequency that the creature liked?

Personally, I think it’s awfully convenient that no one tried to arrest the Enterprise for indecency, for nursing its young out in public

I know that this is a joke heading, but the Federation obviously uses California law in this case...

How does Crusher now that a phaseroutput of 3 % would be enough to make the caesarian. Has she been slicing and dicing the dead body for testruns?

Isn't it somewhat strange that Georgi takes the warpcore offline without noticing the bridge? What if a emergency-situation was developing at that very moment?

Data: "Shields are down to 8 % captain, we can't survive another hit."
Picard: "Ensign take us out of here, warp 5."
Ensign redshirt: "I can't sir, the warpcore is offline."
Picard: "What?"
Ensign redshirt: "Commander LaForge took it offline, apparently he is trying to impress this hot engineerbabe."
Data: "Oh, ••••"

People seem to enjoy using Data's curse from Generations.... Not that I'm complaining, it was a great scene.

Isn't it somewhat strange that Georgi takes the warpcore offline without noticing the bridge?
Geordi: Whoa... What's the Bridge doing down here in Engineering?

So...in other words, the answer to his question is, NO!

KAM: Isn't it somewhat strange that Georgi takes the warpcore offline without noticing the bridge?
Geordi: Whoa... What's the Bridge doing down here in Engineering?

Maybe he was still using his old VISOR.

Another question: Even if he didn't see it, shouldn't he have notified the bridge about taking the warpcore offline? (•••• dictionary)

Yes he should have.

So this Leah Brahms was in charge of the new Enterprise engines, huh? Well, this episode takes place in the middle of the fourth season, which means the ship launched 3 and a half years ago. It also took (if you can believe the non-canon TNG Tech Manual) almost 20 years to build! That would make Leah, oooh, about 7 years old when she was IN CHARGE of their development.
I guess she's not human, because even if the Enterprise took, say, 2 years to build, she still looks awfully young to be in charge of the new design, let alone work on them.
I also don't think people should give her too much credit, since she's just building on the work that was built on the work of others which was built on the work of others, which was built...etc. etc.
She also doesn't seem to be part of Starfleet; if she's a civilian, what's she doing building Starfleet warp engines for a living?
Now, about Picard;
Picard orders the phasers locked on; Picard orders them fired. The phasers kill the mother, and then feeling bad about that he says, "Look at what we have done." WE, Jean-Luc??? It was YOUR order, alone, that killed the mother! Not even Worf suggested an attack. Riker's look says it all; 'You idiot! What were you thinking?!'

She still looks awfully young to be in charge of the new design, let alone work on them.

The Enterprise took 20 years to build, not necessarily the engines. We don't know exactly when they were installed, but given the various computer hookups it could have been fairly late in the overall project.
It's also possible - probable, even - that Dr. Brahms wasn't in complete charge of every last detail of the engines. She could have come in and made the important performance modifications when the basic construction was already well along.

(PS-I thought the NextGen Tech Manual was canon?)

I also don't think people should give her too much credit, since she's just building on the work that was built on the work of others which was built on the work of others, which was built...etc. etc.

By that reasoning, every great architect (and/or car designer) since the cavepeople is just an untalented copycat . If you can take a design that's brilliant in and of itself and make it even easier to use, or more efficient, or just plain more functional, I'm thinking that's deserving of a lot of credit.

She also doesn't seem to be part of Starfleet; if she's a civilian, what's she doing building Starfleet warp engines for a living?

Why not? Not every great scientific/computer/engineering mind in the Federation is automatically gonna be in Starfleet. Aren't most military aircraft today built at least in part by civilian companies (McDonnell-Douglas comes to mind)?

She also doesn't seem to be part of Starfleet; if she's a civilian, what's she doing building Starfleet warp engines for a living?

Why not? Not every great scientific/computer/engineering mind in the Federation is automatically gonna be in Starfleet. Aren't most military aircraft today built at least in part by civilian companies (McDonnell-Douglas comes to mind)?

Basically all military hardware is built by independent companies under contract to the defense department McDonnell-Douglas, Lockheed-Martin, Grumman, ect.

Okay, I can accept both your arguements, but I just think it's pretty strange to take 20 years to build a single ship, and then not even use the engines that were on the drawing board. There's no sense in designing a ship down to the last detail, except for the engines. For that matter, computer and weapons technology would have progressed, too, which would mean that many design elements on the drawing board were rewritten and rewritten and rewritten. 20 years just seems to long for me, considering how big and talented Starfleet is, so 5 years would make more sense to me for a ship to be built in drydock. At that rate, Enterprise-E would have been on the drawing boards around the same time as Year 10, and under construction during the TNG series run, so why bother with the Galaxy-class, when the Sovereign-class is obviously better?

Okay, I can accept both your arguements, but I just think it's pretty strange to take 20 years to build a single ship, and then not even use the engines that were on the drawing board.

Actually, after twenty years it would be strange if they were still using the original engine design. As you say, many other design elements would have evolved over that period of time, so why not the engines?

I'm guessing that the 20-year figure refers altogether more to the design process than the actual manufacturing. That way, Dr. Brahms could make some last-minute tweaks and still end up as the 'person in charge' of the final version of the Enterprise-D's engines

Hey isnt the f14 from the sixties and the new f22 a design out of the eighties? 20 years from bright idea to working craft may include the appropriations, approval and concept phases while actual construction might only take about 2-3 years. as McCoy said once the beaurecratic mind is the only constant in the universe.

They probably redesigned the whole sickbay, too! I know engineers; they LOVE to change things!

JUST A THOUGHT: Q should have showed up in this episode and said, "Way to go, Picard...you just killed a lifeform."

GREAT SCENE: Brahms vs. LaForge in the Holodeck. It's priceless.

I can't help but wonder if "Junior" and the others of his kind are related to "Tin Man" in some fashion.

WHY didn't SOMEONE use the TRACTOR BEAM and set it for REPEL against the alien entity before firing weapons?

I don't remember if this was brought up before the Big Kerplooey NC went thru a couple years back or so but I just finished watching this on DVD and noticed that in the scene where Geordi's playing 3D chess with Guinan the number of pieces keeps changing, depending on the camera angles. That is, the angle shot over Guinan's shoulder and facing Geordi keeps switching back and forth from showing 2 and 3 pieces, as well as when the angle's from over Geordi's left shoulder facing Guinan and then the number switches between 3 and 4 pieces, and then when Guinan moves a piece or two around they're never in the same place everytime the angle returns to it was when she moved them!

They were playing by fizzbin rules.

WHY didn't SOMEONE use the TRACTOR BEAM and set it for REPEL against the alien entity before firing weapons?

Sssshhh, John A...the creators would very much prefer we didn't remember that very elegant, humane and creative option during this crisis. It'd cause Short Show Syndrome.

With a bit of a stretch over various logic holes, though...isn't it indicated in The Naked Now that this 'repel beam' business is a Very Big Deal, that only Wesley knows how to do it, when he was drunk yet? Maybe he'd forgotten all about it by the time he sobered up - or maybe nobody bothered to debrief him anyhow...<clunk!> Ow! Ruddy logic holes anyway...

Also Wesley's whole repelling beam was jury rigged and worked for about 2 seconds before appearing to burn out.

Sulu had no problem rigging a repel beam in "Who Mourns for Adonais?" La Forge should be able to do the same. Case closed.

Not necessarily. Technology can be lost...or maybe Sulu, like Wesley, just had the knack...or, most plausibly, the 'repel' retrofit is just no longer compatible with the current Enterprise's systems.

Maybe not...Sulu used it again in "The Paradise Syndrome" So the technology wasn't lost. Ya' know what I think? It was a cheap way of making Wesley into "Super Brat" for the episode and make him the "hero of the day" (despite the obvious embarrassment of the entire engineering staff)

Well, sure, but remember, we're nitpickers. We don't deal in reality.

Besides, what I meant was lost somewhere in the gap between TOS and NextGen, not during the original mission.

Nothing closed yet, Lang.

Sometimes newer products don't incorporate features that older ones had because the designs though it to be unnecessary. Some sound engineers prefer analogue recorders because they can do stuff that newer digital machines can't. During Gulf War I soldiers were filing part of the firing pin off of their M-16s because they only had the option of single shot or 5 round burst, not full automatic; even though Vietnam era M-16s did have full-auto.

If I remember correctly, the deflector dish is supposed to "push aside" incoming objects (ie asteroids, space debris, etc) How does it work? It must use some kind of energy beam....namely a repel beam. Therefore, the technology wasn't lost nor considered outdated & deemed unnecessary. The whole scenario in "The Naked Now" was just plain flat out poor writing to make Wesley the hero.

Therefore, they could have (and should have) used a repel beam on the huge alien creature in "Galaxy's Child".

Now....If the deflector dish doesn't use a repel beam to push aside space debris and such...then what kind of beam does it use? AND why not use that beam in "The Naked Now" and "Galaxy's Child"?

Well, seeing as how there's no gravity or other pulling force in space, the deflector dish doesn't have to actively 'push' anything away - just knock it out of the Enterprise's path. So that's not a valid comparison.

Also, say the dish did feature some sort of repel function. How do you know it's using the same technology as Sulu was? Or Wesley was, for that matter?
Remember, everyone is shocked and amazed that he was able to create that repel beam in 'Naked Now'...pretty bloody $tupid of them, and of the writers, if he was simply utilizing technology that's been a part of the Trekverse since practically TOS, Day One.

John, nobody's debating that in RL Wesley's magic repel beam was awkward scripting designed to flatter the character. But again, we as nitpickers are not dealing in reality here. We're dealing in Trek reality. And there, it's possible that the repel beam is a lost art by the NextGen era.

Maybe the Federation signed that away too in the Treaty of Algeron

Lanai Chapman makes the first of several appearances as Rager. She was on "Space: Above and Beyond" as Lieutenant Damphouse and was on the same "Seinfeld" episode as other Trek guest star Bill Irwin (she was his housekeeper). You may also remember her as Whoopi Goldberg's daughter in "Rat Race."

And then there's Jana Marie Hupp, who was the ill-fated Lt. Monroe in "Disaster," and George's Latvian Orthodox girlfriend in the "Conversion" episode of Seinfeld.

Kerriem; 'the deflector dish doesn't have to actively 'push' anything away - just knock it out of the Enterprise's path'.
Sounds like a courtroom scene in the making!
LAWLER; Mr.Smith, did you push Mr.Jones away?
SMITH; No, sir, I knocked him out of my path.
LAWYER; Oh, well, that's different!
JUDGE: Cased dismissed!
I gotta say that I think both descriptions cover the function of the dish.
That said, I think it would have been a far bigger shock to the crew, and the viewers if they'd used the dish to push/knock away/nudge/ deflect/shove/move the alien, and the energy from the beam kills it by accident. Ships phasers, no matter how low a setting, sound too powerful to do anything but destroy.

The first shot of this episode was the first shot of "Encounter at Farpoint" (TNG).

LaForge tells Scotty about the events of this episode in "Relics" (TNG).


AND just because we've never seen La Forges office before or after this episode doesn't mean he doesn't have one. We've also never seen any toilets on the Enterprise D either, but you have to figure they have them.

Will, the ships phasers on Kirks Enterprise could be set to stun, as they were towards the end of "A Piece of the Action" (TOS).

How does the words "ships phasers" SOUND TOO POWERFUL to do anything but distroy?

Doesn't sound anymore powerful to me than "hand phasers" and we KNOW those can be set to stun.

Well, in modern times a ship's guns are more powerful than a hand gun. They're also designed to work against other ships, which hand guns aren't.

That being said IIRC the ability to use a ship's phasers to stun was used in the classic ep A Piece Of The Action.

So while it may be an unusual use for ship's phasers, it is possible.

Isn't LaForge's office that unseen alcove/room beyond that room with the window looking at the warp core, to the side of the 'pool table'?

"Isn't LaForge's office that unseen alcove/room beyond that room with the window looking at the warp core, to the side of the 'pool table'?"

thats the bathroom! unless geordi is like the fonz....hey, that might work.

She (Leah Brahms) still looks awfully young to be in charge of the new design, let alone work on them.

So was Larry Marvick, from TOS episode "Is There In Truth No Beauty." At least, I felt he was. But, he was still older than Brahms was.

And, in the Star Wars saga, it was implied that it took maybe 18 or so years to build the Death Star. NANJAO.

shouldn't he have notified the bridge about taking the warpcore offline?

Maybe he told them before he was in Engineering with Brahms that he was going to take the warp core offline to show it to her. They knew she was going to be there.

Wouldn't Leah Brahms' marital status be in her service record? If Dr. Crusher's service record has a mention of her winning a dancing competition(Data's Day) I should think it would mention marital status. Wouldn't the computer have incorporated that into the program(when Geordi created it)?

As to whether Leah Brahms is in Starfleet or not, she could work for Starfleet even if she is not a Starfleet officer. Today's military has many civilian employees.

Isn't possible that Leah got married after Geordi built his holodeck program? She also could have been divorced form another husband and the computer wouldn't know if she had remarried if her service record hadn't been updated.

That is possible- Geordi did say he never asked the computer about it. I would think though Leah would have said "I got married not long after you made the program" but perhaps it did not occur to her.

Perhaps she really wasn't married and she just told him she was so he would lose interest in her.

The computer says they are receiving a dose of 300 millirads per minute and everyone acts like this is a big deal, and the computer says they will have a lethal dose in 1 minute. This isn't quite right. Just to get the beginnings of radiation poisoning would require a total dose of about 50 rads. To hit 50% fatality (the standard "lethal exposure") would require about 16 hours. SO there's really no need to panic and do something rash like shoot the creature, if that's all the radiation it's giving.

I liked seeing Geordi working with and trying to impress his crush, Leah Brahms, and it was too bad that she was cold and standoffish towards him when they first meet. But I thought it was odd that she automatically assumed that Geordi had used her holodeck re-creation as some sort of sexual plaything, like he must be that way for some reason.

Her holo-self was saying things like "when you look at these engines you're looking at me" and "everytime you touch it it's me". I'm a bit confused here. Geordi did not *intentionally* program the Holo-Leah to say those things, did he? In "Booby Trap", he asked the Computer to give the hologram Leah's personality engrams that were on file. And yes, he did kiss "her", but the Geordi we all know and love would never be inappropriate to a woman.

I just wondered why Leah immediately assumed the worst about Geordi, that's all!