Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Geordi LaForge, you friggin' moron!

Elementary, Dear Data?
Did you ever look back and wish you could not do that dumb thing you just did? Well, I have. And now, you can read all about it!

Geordi has built a model sailing ship, despite not knowing what a "stunsel" is in Generations. Using his Reading Rainbow voice, he decides that he and Data should go do a Sherlock Holmes program because of that episode in Season One where Data tried to give them all lung cancer with his Holmesian pipe. They do so, and Data, somewhat predictably, solves the puzzle in three seconds, ruining the "fun". Geordi, however, does not understand that this is inevitable and gets upset.

They end up moping in Ten Forward without anyone noticing that Data is wearing a bathrobe, and Pulaski overhears. This is when she's still in full bitch mode, prompting Geordi to bet her that Data really could solve a mystery. We know he can. She knows he can't? Who will win? Let me remind you that this is Star Trek, not Veronica Mars. The audience always wins and Pulaski inevitably comes out looking like an idiot when she's a bitch. Anyway, they all trapise back to the holodeck, because no one learned their lesson in 11001001 and they don't know that the holodeck is a very bad place to go yet. Will could have told them, but he's not invited because Pulaski doesn't want to confuse him with his dad.

Anyway, that attempt fails, but Geordi's not done pushing Data into stuff so he decides to have the computer create an opponent capable of defeating Data, which apparently the computer can do, even though it takes so much power that they notice on the Bridge. Sadly, no one knows yet that a power surge in the holodeck means that you grab a security team and run down there and shut the thing off. Too bad, that. Professor Moriarty notices Geordi doing this and learns to summon the arch. Oops. I guess a minor power surge is all you need to program a possibly sentient life-form. Cool. Should make things a little easier for Lal, not to mention Bruce Maddox. Moriarty kidnaps Pulaski, and Data and Geordi give chase. By the time they find her, Moriarty is capable of sketching the Enterprise.

Turns out it's all Geordi's fault, because he got so competitive that he forgot that Data's really smart, and we don't want a computer smarter than Data. It also hilights Geordi's lack of faith in Data's reasoning ability - why else would he question Data so much as they chase Moriarty's thugs around? Anyway, Picard goes in to reason with Moriarty, who, depsite being a criminal mastermind, is fairly reasonable. Huh. He lets them shut him off and they go on their merry way.