Cut the Power, Trust the Captain
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Geordi proposes a radical plan to shut down all systems except minimal life support and two thrusters, denying the booby trap power altogether.
Picard, after weighing Geordi's proposal and the computer's grim countdown, decides to trust human intuition over computational logic and approves the plan.
Picard takes command of the helm personally, relieving Wesley and preparing for the high-stakes manual navigation.
The Enterprise executes Geordi's plan with a microsecond impulse burst, then plunges into darkness, relying solely on human-guided thrusters.
Picard manually navigates the Enterprise through the debris field, using precise thruster bursts and gravitational pulls, culminating in a slingshot maneuver around a massive asteroid.
The Enterprise escapes the debris field, and Picard orders the destruction of the Promellian battle cruiser to eliminate the booby trap permanently.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Awed and respectful; nervous excitement at seeing an experienced captain perform a high-risk maneuver.
Mans the helm initially, yields the conn respectfully when Picard relieves him, watches intently and learns during the manual thruster firings, then resumes his station after Picard returns the conn.
- • Support bridge operations to the best of his ability
- • Learn from senior officers' decision-making
- • Follow orders precisely when required
- • Direct observation of command decisions is a key part of his training
- • Respecting rank and procedure is essential during crises
- • He should be ready to step back in when commanded
Impassive and resolute outwardly; internally confident in judgment and willing to bear personal responsibility for risk to save the crew.
As commanding officer he overrides automated control, relieves Wesley at the conn, personally times and fires the manual thruster bursts, deliberately allows the ship to ride a massive asteroid's gravity well, and then orders systems restarted and follow-up actions.
- • Get the Enterprise out of the radiation/lethal-trap field
- • Take direct responsibility for an action that the computer cannot improvise
- • Preserve the crew while minimizing mechanical reliance
- • A captain must assume personal responsibility in novel crises
- • Human intuition and experience can outperform automated optimization in edge cases
- • Chain of command and moral authority are necessary for decisive action
Composed and neutral; focused on accurate reporting and system status without subjective judgment.
Supplies continuous sensor readings, velocity and trajectory data, announces engine and thruster firings and the effects of gravitational attraction, and reports calculations that the ship's momentum might be insufficient—information Picard acknowledges but chooses to override.
- • Provide reliable, real-time data to inform command decisions
- • Predict motion and warn of physical consequences
- • Maintain sensor and computational support throughout the maneuver
- • Objective calculations are essential for situational awareness
- • Data must be presented without bias
- • Commanders will weigh numerical analysis alongside other inputs
Vigilant and pragmatic—he remains stoic, focused on threat assessment and readiness.
Monitors tactical sensors, reports inbound objects and the absence of reaction from an assimilator, warns when an object appears to port, and readies weapons when ordered to prepare photon torpedoes.
- • Identify and communicate immediate threats to navigation
- • Ensure the ship is defended against hazards or weapons
- • Execute orders to ready and fire torpedoes when commanded
- • Security and threat identification are primary responsibilities
- • Order and discipline reduce the chance of catastrophe
- • Weapons readiness is essential in proximity to hostile anomalies
Controlled urgency—he is cautious but trusts command decisions and prioritizes crew preparedness.
Coordinates the bridge crew, issues the all-hands announcement about the impulse burst and manual inertial dampers, discontinues the computer's radiation warnings at Picard's cue, and later declares the ship free and executes orders to ready photon torpedoes.
- • Maintain order and crew readiness during dangerous maneuvers
- • Ensure protocols are followed to reduce injury and chaos
- • Implement Picard's orders quickly and clearly
- • Chain-of-command adherence preserves life and efficiency
- • Clear communication prevents avoidable casualties
- • Protocol should be adapted when commanded but not abandoned recklessly
Determined and tense, quietly hopeful—he displays professional calm but with the personal stake of proving his engineering intuition.
Proposes the radical 'turn everything off' plan, explains the microsecond impulse, runs and references simulations, orders engineering shutdowns, and, after Picard's maneuver succeeds, initiates a full systems restart from Engineering.
- • Prevent crew death by finding a viable escape from the trap
- • Validate a non-algorithmic solution that trusts human intuition
- • Execute the shutdown/restart sequence cleanly so systems can be brought back online
- • Computers cannot replicate human intuition in this unique failure mode
- • Calculated risk is preferable to ceding control to a system that enforces the trap's assumptions
- • Engineering creativity can override brute-force approaches
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Holodeck doors play a small but symbolic role after the main crisis; they open to allow Geordi's Leah program to exit the holodeck when he saves the program, marking a return from technical triumph to private human connection.
Photon torpedoes are readied on Riker's orders and subsequently fired in a spread at the ancient Promellian cruiser; their detonation obliterates the derelict ship and the surrounding asteroid/debris field, eliminating the source of the trap and clearing the hazard.
The Enterprise impulse engines deliver the single microsecond 'blast' ordered by Picard to overcome the trap's inertia. They flare to life, provide the crucial shove, and are deliberately shut down immediately afterward so the ship can drift and be guided by manual thrusters and gravity.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Holodeck Drafting Room Five functions as the intimate aftermath location where Geordi decompresses and shares a humanizing moment with the Leah hologram; though the slingshot maneuver occurs on the bridge, this location links the technical victory to Geordi's emotional growth and the human cost of relying on technology.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"The failure of the computer-controlled escape simulation leads Geordi to propose the radical plan of shutting down all systems."
"The failure of the computer-controlled escape simulation leads Geordi to propose the radical plan of shutting down all systems."
"Geordi's frustration with mastering starship systems but failing at human connection is resolved by his meaningful, though simulated, connection with Leah Brahms."
"Picard's initial excitement and confidence in boarding the ancient ship is mirrored in his decisive action to take the helm during the escape."
"Picard's initial excitement and confidence in boarding the ancient ship is mirrored in his decisive action to take the helm during the escape."
"Picard's nostalgia for simpler times with model ships contrasts with his ultimate reliance on human intuition to manually navigate the Enterprise to safety."
"Picard's nostalgia for simpler times with model ships contrasts with his ultimate reliance on human intuition to manually navigate the Enterprise to safety."
Themes This Exemplifies
Thematic resonance and meaning
Part of Larger Arcs
Key Dialogue
"GEORDI: One blast of everything we've got left for a microsecond to beat the inertia and then we shut it all down except minimal life support and two thrusters. No impulse engines. No computer."
"GEORDI: The numbers say it's even money. No better than handing it over to the computer. No worse either. But I say forget the numbers. There's no way for a computer to compensate for the human factor... the intuition, the experience..."
"PICARD: No, Mister La Forge. You've done your job. Now I must do mine."