Booby Trap ( episode ) While investigating a 1 , 000 - year - old alien derelict , the " Enterprise " gets caught in the same energy trap which doomed that vessel a millennium ago . Summary . Teaser . Geordi La Forge enjoys a holodeck date with Christy , but he gets rejected by her just after he calls up a holographic gypsy violin player to play Johannes Brahms - Hungarian Dance No . 5 . Christy tells La Forge that , while she thinks he is a great person , she doesn ' t like him in " that " way . Meanwhile , Data and Wesley Crusher play chess in Ten Forward . Wesley sees La Forge comes in and realizes that his date didn ' t go so well since it ended earlier than expected . The is investigating the asteroid remains at Orelious IX . They discover a Promellian battle cruiser . Data says there are no life signs aboard the ship and Picard says there shouldn ' t be : it ' s a ship which belongs in a museum . He explains that they are ' a little late ' and that the signal for help from the cruiser was probably sent over a thousand years ago . Act One . Picard and Riker argue about the risks of sending an away team to the old cruiser in a corridor . Picard likens the ship in space to a ship in a bottle . After Data informs Riker that there is an adequate amount of oxygen aboard the cruiser , Picard tells his first officer that the ship is exactly as the Promellians left it , in the bottle . This elicits confused stares from Worf and Data , prompting Picard to ask if any of his officers built ships in bottles when they were boys . " " I never played with toys " " , Worf says . " " I was never a boy " " , Data remarks . " " I did , sir " " , Chief O ' Brien informs Picard . Picard thanks the chief and has him beam the away team over . Riker gives O ' Brien a look after his comment but O ' Brien confirms that he truly did . Suddenly , the " Enterprise " experiences a power loss . O ' Brien tells Riker that the transporter ' s secondary power bus may need adjusting . Riker tells O ' Brien to keep him informed . Picard , Data and Worf materialize on the ship and discovers that the crew of the cruiser died at their posts and their bodies have been preserved . Picard comments on how simple the ship ' s design is , and yet functional and designed to be used for generations . La Forge sits in Ten Forward asking Guinan for romantic advice . He asks what does she look at in a man and she says , " his head . " La Forge mistakes this for one ' s mind but she really means someone ' s head . She tells Geordi that she was once taken care of by a bald man when she was hurting and therefore looks for that . Geordi says that ' s what he wants too , to take care of someone . Data finds a memory coil on the Promellian cruiser and plays it . Galek Sar , the Captain of the " Cleponji " , takes full responsibility for what happened to his ship and its crew . The feedback ends , and the away team returns . The " Enterprise " tries to leave , but a Menthar booby trap begins to drain the power reserves of the " Enterprise " , which is unable to move , and creates a deadly radiation . The ship loses power and while Ensign Crusher tries to reverse course and leave at warp , the ship is still stuck . La Forge says that everything is running as it should , but he suggests that the ship slow down in case they burn out the reaction chamber . Act Two . The " Enterprise " has three hours until energy reserves run out . In the observation lounge , Riker suggests sending another away team to the ship to check their records . Worf says the radiation is inhibiting the sensors . Lieutenant Commander La Forge does not yet have an explanation for the energy loss . Picard goes with the away team and leaves La Forge to research the problem . Afterwards , Dr . Crusher wants to set up emergency life support in case the ship does lose all power and is exposed to the radiation . Unfortunately , the crew will only be able to live for 30 minutes after exposure . Furthermore , cutting life support to non - operational areas would help . Data and Riker find more memory coil s on the old cruiser and bring them back to the " Enterprise " for analysis . La Forge then checks with the computer on how to get out of the literal rut they ' ve gotten themselves into . He finds Dr . Leah Brahms , the engineer who built the warp engine s of the " Enterprise " , in the database and recreates the conditions in which he can work with her in order to find more energy for the ship . He tries to come up with a solution using the help of a holodeck recreation of Drafting Room 5 at Utopia Planitia and accidentally ends up having the computer recreate a holodeck image of Dr . Brahms as well . Act Three . Dr . Brahms continues with her analysis , triggering an idea by La Forge . He happily reports a solution to the captain to get more energy to maintain the shields . Continuing on , Geordi pauses to search for Dr . Brahms ' personality profile from the collective databases and has the computer add that personality to the recreated facsimile . The result is a tough - as - nails , highly intelligent but argumentative personality which La Forge finds progressively more attractive ; she " comes to life " when he asks her to show him which chambers to use for supplementing energy to the life support and ship ' s systems . Data tries to use the information gathered from the memory coils to come up with a way to combat the problem . They discover that the asteroids have been booby - trapped with aceton assimilator s , and that it is impossible to destroy the asteroids while they absorb the energy of the fired phaser s . Commander La Forge and Dr . Brahms , now on a first - name basis , argue on how to make sure they can maintain the ship ' s life support and not lose additional power . Picard summons La Forge , who is so caught up with his discussion with Brahms that he says to her , " Don ' t go away , " before coming to his senses and has the computer save the program . Riker wants to fire on the asteroids , but La Forge says that the shields might not hold . Picard sends La Forge back to engineering and has Worf fire phasers at the asteroids anyway . As soon as that happens , the radiation increases , the energy reserves are being lost , and the programs running unnecessary energy are terminated , including the holodeck program Geordi is running , just as he is about to make progress with how to run the ship out of the trap . Act Four . Picard and the rest of the senior officers discuss in the observation lounge how they can get out of the trap and how long they have until fatal exposure , which Dr . Crusher estimates to be about 26 minutes from the time the shields fail . La Forge has Picard reinstate the holodeck energy so he can run simulations in order to find the solution . He gives him one hour to run the program . An hour later , Picard comes to the holodeck and finds Brahms and La Forge , to which he is confused . Geordi explains that in order to understand the ship ' s power , he needed to understand what the ship was made for when it was built . Picard asks for a solution and La Forge states that control would need to be turned over to the ship itself since the key to get moving lies in the time - differential between action and reaction . Human beings , and even androids such as Data , would be no match for making the calculations needed to navigate the asteroids . Picard discusses with Riker in his ready room the suggestion that La Forge has given . Riker says it ' s not a good idea because computer can take orders , but not create them . La Forge continues to run simulations of the computer taking control through the mine field of radiation . He gets one successful run but the rest of the runs are failures shows that the ship is unable to successfully escape the radiation field . At that moment , the deflector shields fail and counts down from 26 minutes until fatal exposure . Act Five . Brahms still says that they must give control over to the ship and La Forge pleads for two more minutes with the captain to figure out a solution . It turns out the Human brain will provide a solution . Instead of trying to overpower the trap , a minimal energy boost from the impulse engine s and minimal thruster s can be used to drift the ship clear from the booby - trapped field , while shutting down all non - essential systems . La Forge offers to take the conn since he ' s been the one running through the simulations , but the captain declines . In order to eliminate the time - differential between order and action , Captain Picard instead relieves Wesley of the conn to manuever the ship himself , while Riker warns the crew to brace themselves for the impulse burst , as the inertial dampener s are on manual . Riker also disables the radiation exposure warning from the computer as it will only be a distraction . Picard and Data work together , with information provided to Picard as necessary from the bridge crew , and begin to steer the " Enterprise " clear of the field . However after getting around a large asteroid , Data finds that the variable gravity from the asteroids has sapped the " Enterprise " s inertia by eight percent ; he calculates that they no longer have the momentum to escape the trap . Picard , unflappable , thanks him and plots a new course to take the " Enterprise " directly towards a large asteroid – the gravitational pull increases the ship ' s momentum , allowing Picard , at the right moment , to slingshot the " Enterprise " around the mass and move the ship clear of the field , much to Data ' s amazement . Picard then orders Worf to destroy the " Cleponji " and the aceton assimilators to prevent it from luring any more victims . Back in the holodeck , Geordi says to Leah that he thinks technology improves people ' s lives , including his , and even his eyesight , lets species travel through the galaxy but sometimes , technology needs to be turned off . As he says his goodbyes to Leah , she reminds him that the ship is her and that she would never be far from him . They kiss , and Geordi ends the holodeck program . Memorable quotes . " " Uh oh . . . " " " " I beg your pardon Wesley . " " " " Geordi had that big date with Christy tonight . He spent days putting together the perfect program . Looked like it ended kind of early . " " " Uh oh . . . " " " Tell me something , Guinan . You ' re a woman , right ? " " " " Yes , I can tell you I ' m a woman . " " " " That ship belongs in a museum . I ' m afraid we ' re a little late ; that call for help was probably initiated over a thousand years ago . " " " " Oh , knock it off ! " " " " It is exactly as they left it Number One , in the bottle . " " " " The ship in the bot – Oh , good Lord . Didn ' t anybody here build ships in bottles when they were boys ? ! " " " " I did not play with toys . " " " " I was never a boy . " " " " I did , sir . " " " " ( brief pause ) Thank you , Mister O ' Brien . Proceed . " " " " I did . I really did . Ships in bottles , great fun . " " " " Admirable . They died at their posts . " " " " There " were " ghosts on board that old ship . One of them actually spoke to us . " " " " A friendly one , I hope . " " " " I ' m attracted to bald men . " " " " Is it possible . . . that we ' ve fallen into the same snare that killed them ? A thousand year old booby - trap ? " " " " I ' m not used to people questioning my judgment . " " " " And I ' m not used to dying ! " " " " If we resist , we die . If we don ' t resist , we die . " " " " You have used the asteroid ' s gravitational pull as a slingshot . Excellent ! " " " " I ' m with you every day , Geordi . Every time you look at this engine , you ' re looking at me . Every time you touch it , it ' s me . " " Links and references . References . 14th century ; 2305 ; 2307 ; 2336 ; aceton assimilator s ; asteroid ; Astral V Annex ; away team ; baldness ; battle cruiser ; ; blanket ; ; booby trap ; Chaya VII ; chief engineer ; " Cleponji " ; Coco - no - no ; crossbow ; date ; Daystrom Institute ; debris ; Design Team 7 ; dilithium crystal chamber ; Drafting Room 5 ; Earth ; facet ; Federation ; Ferengi ; Ferengi cargo ship ; fungilli ; fusion reactor ; ; Galaxy Class Starship Development Project ; ghost ; gypsy ; holodeck ; " Hungarian Dances " ; hyronalin ; image processor ; impulse power ; inertial dampener ; intermix ratio ; isolinear chip ; Kavis Teke elusive maneuver ; kiss ; Lang cycle fusion engine s ; Mars Station ; Mars ; mechanical clock ; memory coil ; Menthar s ; meter ; Milky Way Galaxy ; " Moonlight on the Beach " ; Number one ; Orelious IX ; outpost ; Passive Lure stratagem ; personality profile ; personal log ; power pack ; power transfer tunnel ; Promellian s ; Promellian battle cruiser ; radiation ; radiation poisoning ; Outpost Seran T - 1 ; ship in a bottle ; starbase ; subspace field ; subspace field processor ; Theoretical Propulsion Group ; Theoretical Propulsion log ; three - dimensional chess ; toy ; tricorder ; tritium ; Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards ; violin ; warp field generator ; yellow alert Unused production references . positron duct ; Smithsonian Institution