Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Geordi La Forge
Time to geek out gladly over the marvels of maintenance and engineering.
During his posting to the Enterprise-D, Geordi La Forge had quite the rapid career progression. He went from conn officer to chief engineer within the space of about a year, and then from lieutenant to lieutenant commander a year later. As all the great engineers have, he saved the ship from certain destruction on many occasions, before even he couldn't save it that one last time.
In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Geordi also had, it is true, decidedly problematic relationships with women, and that much to the chagrin of the actor behind the role, LeVar Burton. Nonetheless, Geordi still managed to endear himself to fans, most notably through his heart-warming friendship with Data, extended similes, and epically energetic way of leaving engineering when things started to explode.
By Star Trek: Picard's third season, Geordi was a proud family man with two grown-up daughters. He'd also risen to the rank of commodore and been placed in charge of the Fleet Museum, keeping quite the surprise inside for his former crew. For the character, then, whose last name evokes both creation and the process of moving forward, it is he who has undergone, no doubt, some of the most significant change of all those who began The Next Gen.
Let's hope we get to see this process continue on screen. For now, we can look back at some little known facts about Zefram Cochrane High School's best student.
10. Away Teams And Jealous Pupils
After 20 years, or thereabouts, Star Trek was returning to (live-action) television. What Gene Roddenberry had defined in a 16-page pitch in the 1960s was now a 48-page treatment for the show that had to follow. The Star Trek: The Next Generation Writer/Director's Guide, aka the Series Bible, sets out, then, as much what this new Trek was as what it was not — what had and what had not changed from the Original. A similar process of transformation occurred to the character of Geordi, from those first jots of ink to the screen.
Down in writing as "LT. (J.G.) GEORDI LA FORGE," there is much that is the same about the character in his initial, biblical sketch. With all the sensitivity the late '80s could(n't) muster, Geordi is described as "birth-defect blind," but with "prosthetic super-high tech artificial 'eyes'." He was already best friends with Data; however, in this, Geordi was assigned the role of "away mission regular," with no mention of the conn (or engineering).
Perhaps the oddest point of difference in the Lieutenant's extended bio, which thankfully didn't make it to air, is that his "speciality [was] the starship school for children." (Odd way to say 'teacher,' but okay.) Geordi would have equally had to "deal with" a gaggle of pupils jealous of his "vision abilities so marvellously beyond their own." Another reason, in retrospect, that they shouldn't have allowed kids aboard a bloody starship!