Summary
- Geordi La Forge's romance mishap in "Booby Trap" is cringe-worthy but Geordi is redeemed in "The Enemy".
- "The Enemy" showcases Geordi's resilience and leadership while Picard and Worf make tough decisions.
- Star Trek: TNG delves into complex interpersonal dynamics with self-contained episodes and overarching plots.
Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) has one particularly embarrassing storyline on Star Trek: The Next Generation, but this great episode redeems him. As the Chief Engineer on the USS Enterprise-D, Geordi knows his way around a warp core, but he sometimes has trouble with interpersonal relationships. It's a bit telling that Geordi's best friend is the android Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner), who isn't exactly known for his social skills. Although La Forge plays a major role in many TNG episodes, only a handful of episodes give him center stage and reveal more about Geordi as a person.
Geordi La Forge's cringe-worthy "romance" with a holodeck version of Dr. Leah Brahms (Susan Gibney) in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 3, episode 6, "Booby Trap" is a low point for the character. In "Booby Trap," the Enterprise gets stuck in a centuries-old snare, and La Forge recruits Holo-Brahms to help find a way to break the ship free. On its own, this would have been a fine storyline, but Geordi proceeds to develop feelings for the recreation of Brahms, which brings the entire episode down. The following episode, however, gives Geordi a chance to shine, as he must work with an enemy to survive a dangerous planet.
Star Trek: TNG's "The Enemy" Is Great For Geordi
"Welcome to Galorndon Core, where no good deed goes unpunished."
In Star Trek: The Next Generation season 3, episode 7, "The Enemy," Geordi La Forge finds himself trapped on a stormy planet alongside a Romulan soldier. Because of interference from the electromagnetic storms, Geordi cannot contact the Enterprise and the ship must wait for a break in the storm to beam him back up. The Enterprise sends down a beacon for Geordi to follow, but as he heads toward it, he is attacked by a Romulan soldier named Centurion Bochra (John Snyder). The electromagnetic radiation soon begins causing neurological damage, rendering Geordi unable to see and Bochra struggling to walk.
It's difficult to reconcile the Geordi La Forge of "The Enemy" with the one of the previous episode, "Booby Trap".
The Federation and the Romulan Empire are the bitterest of enemies, but La Forge and Bochra manage to work together long enough to make it back to the Enterprise. It's difficult to reconcile the Geordi La Forge of "The Enemy" with the one of the previous episode, "Booby Trap". La Forge is, at turns, funny, charming, sarcastic, clever, and compassionate. After falling into a cavern, he creates picks for himself to climb up a rock face to escape. He then remains calm when Bochra takes him prisoner, eventually convincing the Romulan to work with him. Not only does Geordi prove why he's the Chief Engineer, but he also gets some truly great lines.
La Forge also talks Bochra through the process of combining his tricorder with his VISOR to create a way to navigate to the beacon.
TNG's "The Enemy" Is Also A Great Episode For Picard & Worf
"We have good reason to mistrust one another, but we have better reasons to set our differences aside."
Geordi La Forge's story is not the only part of "The Enemy" that works, as Captain Picard and Lt. Worf (Michael Dorn) both get plenty to do as well. While Geordi and Bochra fight to survive on the planet, Picard must deal with Patahk (Steve Rankin), the injured Romulan soldier the away team rescued, while also stalling Romulan Commander Tomalak (Andreas Katsulas), who has come in search of his men. As Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) works to save Patahk, she determines that only Worf's blood will work for a transfusion. Worf, however, refuses to save the life of a Romulan, as it was Romulans who killed his parents at the Khitomer Massacre.
Worf's refusal to save Patahk's life makes sense for Worf as a character, and "The Enemy" surprisingly goes through with the Romulan's death, with no last-minute Star Trek solution.
Even when Picard basically begs Worf to agree to the transfusion, pointing out that Patahk's death could lead to a war, Worf remains firm in his choice. When Tomalak learns of Patahk's death, he prepares to fire on the Enterprise. Thankfully, Geordi and Bochra are rescued just in time for Picard to provide Tomalak with another choice. Picard gets to deliver a powerful speech about preventing a war and he takes a gamble by lowering the Enterprise's shields. In the end, Picard's gamble pays off, the Enterprise lives to see another day, and another great episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation comes to a close.
