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Time to geek out gladly over the marvels of maintenance and engineering.
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00:00The man, the legend, the engineer extraordinaire, it is the article about Geordie. What has this
00:07man done for Star Trek? What has Star Trek done for this man? Let's find out as we dive in.
00:12I'm
00:12Sean Ferrick for Trek Culture and here are 10 things you didn't know about Geordie LaForge.
00:17Number 10. Away teams and jealous pupils. After 20 years or thereabouts, Star Trek was returning
00:22to live action television. What Gene Roddenry had defined in a 16-page pitch in the 1960s was now a
00:2848-page treatment for the show that had to follow. The Star Trek The Next Generation writer's
00:32director's guide, aka the series Bible, sets out then as much as this new Trek was as what it was
00:38not, what had and had not been changed from the original. A similar process of transformation
00:42occurred to the character of Geordie from those first jots of ink to the screen. Down in writing
00:46as Lieutenant J.G. Geordie LaForge, there is much that is the same about the character in his initial
00:52biblical sketch. With all the sensitivity of the late 80s, lol, Geordie is described as birth defect
00:59blind but with prosthetic super high-tech artificial eyes. He was already best friends with data, however
01:04in this Geordie was assigned the role of away mission regular with no mention of the con or
01:09engineering. Perhaps the oddest point of difference in the Lieutenant's extended bio, which thankfully
01:14didn't make it to air, is that his speciality was the Starship School for Children. Odd way to say
01:19teacher, but okay. Geordie would have equally to deal with a gaggle of pupils jealous of his vision
01:25abilities so marvelously beyond their own. Another reason in retrospect that they shouldn't have
01:30allowed kids on board a bloody Starship. Number nine, George LaForge. During the very beginnings of
01:35the creation process for Star Trek The Next Generation, Gene Roddenberry had expressed his desire to have a
01:40disabled crew member on board the Enterprise D, as stated in the 50-year mission The Next 25 Years.
01:45It was story editor, creative consultant David Gerald who had written for Star Trek The
01:49Original series and started the Animated series, who then prepared a memo listing various disabilities
01:54from which Roddenberry focused on blind. The first casting call for a Lieutenant Geordie LaForge,
01:59as given in Star Trek The Next Generation, The Companion, further indicated that, with the help of
02:05a special prosthetic device, Geordie's vision far surpasses anything the human eyes can see. The story
02:10behind the creation of Geordie's visor will be discussed now in a few minutes. In choosing a name for
02:14the character, David Gerald looked to honour the memory of one fan of the original series in
02:18particular, George T. LaForge Jr., who had suffered from muscular dystrophy and sadly passed away in
02:241975, aged only 19. Gerald suggested the name to Roddenberry, who thought it was a terrific idea.
02:29Our honoured fan also has his namesake in Beta Canon. In Gerald's 1980 Star Trek novel The Galactic
02:35Whirlpool, there is an Admiral George LaForge, and in the 2016 Star Trek Enterprise novel Live by the Code
02:41by Christopher L. Bennett, Captain George LaForge features as one of Geordie's ancestors.
02:46Number 8. Baseball, Vampires, and a Vulcan? The Star Trek The Next Generation Companion gives LeVar
02:51Burton as the most recognisable name among the band of space newbies at the time of casting for
02:56The Next Generation. Well, there was that unknown Shakespearean actor. Burton had already been lauded
03:01for his role in the hugely successful series Roots and for Reading Rainbow. Before Burton got the part,
03:05however, there were a few other recognisable faces in the running for the role of Geordie LaForge. In a memo
03:10dated
03:1013th of April 1987 that was never meant to be seen outside of Paramount, but that found its way onto
03:15the internet via Slice of Sci-Fi in 2006 and then to Trek Movie in 2010, can be seen a
03:21list of actors
03:21in consideration for roles in The Next Generation. Under Geordie, amongst others, is Baseball Hall of
03:26Famer and actor Reggie Jackson given as the favourite for the part, as well as future vampire hunter
03:31Wesley Snipes, who told Collider in 2021 that he had been disappointed when he found out he hadn't got
03:36the Geordie role. There's a final name that immediately stands out in the memo, Tim Russ.
03:40He very nearly got to play Geordie too, it seems. In the 1995 documentary Star Trek Voyager Inside the
03:46New Adventure, Rick Berman stated, a good point of trivia for fans of Star Trek, Tim Russ was the
03:51first runner-up for the role of Geordie eight years ago. Now it's sweet revenge for Russ. Still,
03:55that didn't stop the writers trying to get a joke into the Voyager scripts about this Geordie fact.
03:59Number seven, shoot at will and Riker too. LeVar Burton currently holds joint first place for the
04:05most Star Trek episodes directed by a Star Trek cast member, nine of Enterprise, eight of Voyager,
04:10ten of Deep Space Nine and two of The Next Generation. That's 29 for who's counting. Only
04:15Jonathan Frakes is up there on the podium alongside him with 28 episodes already directed plus one upcoming
04:20confirmed for season five of Star Trek Discovery. Of course, Frakes was behind and in front of the camera
04:25in both Star Trek First Contact and Star Trek Insurrection, so that does make two more in the
04:30directorial one-upmanship Frakes already directed Star Trek Klingon the video game. In his first ever
04:35turn as director on Second Chances, Burton would have to shoot two versions of Riker Frakes through
04:40complex blue screen and stunt work, calling it trial by fire in the season six TNG DVD extra Bold New
04:45Directions. In that, Burton also largely credits the fine example of Jonathan Frakes for inspiring him to
04:50take on the directorial role in the first place. He would direct Frakes again in another Riker
04:54heavy episode, The Pegasus. By his absence, Geordi took a more literal shot at Will Riker in the
05:00Star Trek Voyager's Death Wish. In the episode, we find out that the Q, Quinn, rescued Will Riker's
05:07wounded ancestor Thaddeus Riker from the front lines of the American Civil War. In the first draft of the
05:12script, however, it was Geordi's great-great-grandfather that was saved by Quinn. In that version, if Quinn
05:17hadn't intervened and in a knowing wink to the real-life audition process, Geordi would never have been
05:22born and Tuvok would have become chief engineer of the Enterprise D. Number six, save that one for
05:28Harry Kim. During the run of Star Trek The Next Generation, a storyline was pitched for Geordi
05:32the Forge that would have dramatically changed the character forever. As Jerry Taylor described it in
05:36the 50-year mission, The Next 25 Years, we wanted to make Geordi an alien. He was going to discover
05:41that
05:41his father was not who he thought he was and that his mother had an almost Rosemary's Baby kind of
05:46thing
05:46and had been impregnated by an alien. As a result, Geordi was actually half-alien and now, at his
05:51present age, his people were coming back to get him. Of course, that plan never made it to screen,
05:55but if it sounds familiar, then it's because it's pretty much half of the premise for Identity Crisis,
05:59wherein a parasite from Tarkanon 3 transforms Geordi, non-permanently, into an alien. The idea is
06:04even more similar to what happened to Harry Kim in Favourite Son. In that episode, Kim's metamorphosis was a
06:11Theresian retroviral trick. Had they followed the initial script for Favourite Son, however, Kim would have
06:16discovered that he had, like the plans for Geordi, really been an alien all along and would continue
06:21to be so. Number five, he's a rainbow. Those who grew up in the United States, and undoubtedly a
06:26good number of those who didn't, will already be eminently familiar with LeVar Burton's iconic
06:30work as host of the children's educational TV series Reading Rainbow, which ran on the PBS network
06:35from 1983 until 2006. The show then became a veritable American institution, both it and Burton garnering
06:41a multitude of awards. The worlds of Reading Rainbow and Geordi LaForge have intersected on several
06:46occasions. As part of the first episode of Reading Rainbow's sixth season, aired in 1988 and entitled
06:52The Bionic Bunny Show, a name also fit for one of Data's poetry recitals, Burton gives viewers quite
06:56a detailed behind-the-scenes look at making Star Trek The Next Generation, then filming its first season.
07:02In the episode, audiences were also treated to the first ever Next Generation bloopers, including one where
07:07part of a clapperboard falls on a startled Geordi slash Burton at the helm. In 2014, Burton launched
07:12a Kickstarter campaign to vastly expand the reach of his Reading Rainbow app to bring Reading Rainbow
07:18back for every child everywhere. His fellow Star Trek actors turned out and forced to help. Burton
07:23hosted a series of Reading Rainbow Live fundraising events with his Next Generation co-stars and Kate
07:28Mulgrew, Jerry Ryan and William Shatner as special guests. Star Trek Enterprise alum Seth McFarlane
07:33also pledged to match $1 million of the whopping $5,408,916 ultimately raised by the Kickstarter.
07:43Number 4. Variations on a theme of Brahms
07:46How is Lea? Picard asked Geordi in the alternate future vineyard of all good things.
07:50Just wonderful, busy as ever, the former Enterprise D engineer, now 25-ish years older replies.
07:56Whilst no surname is given in the exchange, it's certainly more than implied that this particular
08:00Lea is Lea Brahms, the prodigious Warpfield theorist we first met in Booby Trap. The novelisation of All
08:06Good Things does in fact confirm this as such. After Geordi's highly inappropriate behaviour in Booby
08:12Trap and then again in Galaxy's Child, one might have expected him to be dragged to the 24th century
08:17version of the HR department, at least not down the aisle. Nonetheless, and this despite the fact that
08:22Dr. Brahms already had a husband in Galaxy's Child, the theme of Geordi and Lea seemingly,
08:27inevitably going to get married is one of that recurs in beta canon. For example,
08:33Brahms has given us Geordi's first wife in Star Trek Online and in the Star Trek Countdown from 2009
08:39comics, the pair are said to be married. Geordi's behaviour toward Dr. Brahms clearly made LeVar
08:44Burton uncomfortable too. As he told the Shuttlepod show in 2023, as part of Geordi's canon he had
08:49stalked this woman who designed the Enterprise engines, Dr. Lea Brahms. He had created a hologram and
08:54then she came on the ship and he met her. And it was like, wow, what a creepy fricking thing
09:00to do.
09:01I didn't dig it at all. Thankfully, Geordi was about to get some much needed character development
09:05in the form of Star Trek Picard's third season. Number three, Shards of Night Night. When asked by
09:11a journalist from Gizmodo's io9 why he felt the time was right to return to Star Trek, LeVar Burton replied,
09:17Terry Metallus, twice. Burton then went on to praise Metallus for his openness to input from the
09:22actors on their character's development prior to Star Trek Picard's third season. In the Shuttlepod
09:26show, Burton stated that the only character request he'd made of Metallus for Star Trek Picard was to
09:31move away, as he put it, from the hackneyed trope of the engineer is awkward around women. Burton
09:36wanted Geordi to have a healthy relationship and a family. Metallus and the writers certainly
09:40provided him with that in the best possible way. In an interview for Entertainment Weekly,
09:44Metallus revealed that he and Burton even shared a tearful moment over Zoom when they first discussed
09:49Geordi's arc for the season. Art then followed life as Burton's daughter, Mika Burton, was cast
09:53to play Elandre LaForge. In March 2023, father and daughter appeared together on The View, hosted
09:59in part by none other than Whoopi Goldberg. Thirty-some years ago, Goldberg had given a baby
10:04Mika an embroidered cashmere blanket that came to be called Night Night. Symbolic, perhaps, of both the
10:10permeance and change that was balanced so brilliantly for all of the TNG characters in Picard's third season,
10:15Mika still holds on lovingly to what is now the shards of Night Night. Number two, Geordi's visor.
10:22The Star Trek The Next Generation writer-director's guide goes into some detail about what was at that
10:27point referred to as Geordi's unusual prosthetic device, which allowed him to perform some of the
10:32functions of a tricorder by extending his vision well beyond the visible spectrum into the ultraviolet
10:37and the infrared. The guide Bible also mentions that there were even plans for Geordi to get a
10:42replacement set of human eyes in one episode, which would end up being a huge disappointment for
10:47him. According to The Next Generation Companion, to create Geordi's visor, visual instrument,
10:52and sensory organ replacement as we know it today, the art department worked for about three months on
10:58different designs and prototypes without much success. Michael Okuda then brought in a plastic
11:02hair barrette, which, repurposed to fit, did the job surprisingly well for a lot less money.
11:07In The Next Generation Season 1 DVD extra, The Making of a Legend, LeVar Burton also gives the
11:11visor acronym as Visual Input Sensory Optical Reflector, which is perhaps a little better
11:16than its actual name. Geordi's visor has also directly inspired real-world technology aimed to
11:21assist those with visual impairments, most notably Enhanced Vision's NASA Research Geordi Joint Optical
11:28Reflective Display. The device, still on sale, is a wearable digital magnifier that uses an HD camera for
11:34distance, intermediate, and near viewing for people with low vision, and has an HDMI input for people
11:39watching TV. Number 1, The Day Mars Stood Still. The character we met at the beginnings of the 25th
11:45century was markedly changed, yet still the same Geordi, now a Commodore, so outranking Riker. He was
11:51also a family man, more cautious, understandably less willing to charge headlong into the fray. Plus,
11:56he'd spent the last 20 years on one hell of a side project. For LeVar Burton, Bounty, from Star Trek
12:01regard's third season, was the first time he had played LaForge since Star Trek Nemesis, although
12:05he did lend his voice to Star Trek Online in 2017 for the featured episode Beyond the Nexus, and then
12:11again in the game's season 14. Geordi was also a main player in the beta canon, canon-ish works in
12:17the run-up to one major galactic event for two universes, the Romulan Hobus Supernova. All the way
12:23back in 2009, Geordi appeared in Star Trek Countdown, the four-part comic book prequel series set to J.J.
12:28Abrams' Star Trek, set in 2387. In it, Geordi has resigned from Starfleet and taken to Starship
12:34design, most notably of the jellyfish of later Spock and Red Matter fame. In case you didn't
12:39get the teching clock of impending doom hint the first time, another pre-nova prequel comic
12:44series entitled Countdown was released in 2019 and 2020, this time prefaced by Star Trek Picard.
12:50In this series, Geordi has the Herculean task of heading up construction of the Romulan evacuation
12:55fleet at Utopia Planitia shipyards. This fact is then picked up in Una McCormick's 2020 novel,
13:01Star Trek Picard, The Last Best Hope, whereupon Mars is set aflame by the rogue since.
13:06That's everything for our list, folks. Was there anything that blew your mind or anything that
13:10you were like, nah, I already knew that? Let us know in the comments below. Thank you so much to
13:13the wonderful Jack Coydie for writing the article upon which this is based. You can catch that over
13:17on whatculture.com. I have been Sean Farrick. You can catch me on the various socials just by typing in
13:21my name. And don't forget to follow Trek Culture on the various socials as well. Folks, we are so close
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13:39who has already done that. And thank you so much who is doing that now. Yous are all bleeding awesome.
13:44Look after yourselves until I'm talking to you again. Remember, you are wonderful. You are amazing.
13:48There is only one of you, so treat it well. Thanks very much, folks.
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